PS Mommy Thread-Newborn to 12 months!

[Hudson_Hawk]

Also, try giving him smaller more frequent meals. The liquid soothes their throat, but too much in the belly will give them heartburn.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Also, try giving him smaller more frequent meals. The liquid soothes their throat, but too much in the belly will give them heartburn.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

HH, sorry I spelled Aidan wrong in my last post. Blame it on the mommy brain!

I mostly came to whine…I *think* I broke my finger. Last night I was walking the dog and the treat pouch came loose from my pants. So, I wrapped the leash around my hand and went to adjust the pouch. Well, some bunnies decide to play tag like two feet from the dog. So…Hollis decides to join and gives the leash a good yank. By instinct, I resisted. This caused the leash to quickly tighten around my hand and basically smoosh my fingers. My pinky immediately swelled and turned black and blue. It looks a smidge crooked and I can’t bend it at the middle knuckle. He’s usually such a good boy on the leash but sometimes bunnies get the best of him especially if he sees them before I do. To top it off, I was going to visit an urgent care center near work and decided to treat myself to a coffee on the way. I spilled the coffee all over myself and had to get a new outfit at Target! …and the pants are too tight! I ditched the urgent care center, came back to work and called the hand surgeon who did DH’s hand surgery two years ago. They can see me today – I guess that’s a sign my day is looking up! I REALLY hope it’s just dislocated.

No worries, people are constantly spelling it wrong. It's a battle I can't win.

Ouch! I hope your finger isn't broken and feels better soon!

 

[random_thought]

HH- thank you so much for all of the information! I've noticed that I burp him more often than DH (he tends to get frustrated if it takes too long) and he spits up less when I feed him so that is definitely a good idea. When they put Aidan on zantac, how did they have you give it to him? I'm assuming it's a liquid form that you give via a syringe?

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Yes, it's a liquid that you give with a little syringe.

Burping can be hit or miss. Are you bottle feeding or breast feeding? If you bottle feed, put a dose of mylicon (simethicone gas drops) in each bottle (our doc told us to do this). It will help consolidate the air bubbles so LO can burp them up. The only downside to mylicon is that it only works for tummy gas. If you give it and then don't burp well then LO can have painful gas (farts) because it's a big bubble traveling through, vs smaller ones. But it definitely helps with the burps in my experience. We did a combo of sitting him on our lap and patting his back, putting him on our shoulder, and holding him on our forearm (hand behind the head) while tipping him forward and side to side (let me know if this doesn't make sense).

 

[Lanie]

rt -- Anderson had it bad. He had silent reflux, which means he doesn't spit up, but rather smallows it back down and cries and cries and cries. Lovely. We had him on Zantac, and oh my God it was awful. I actually taste everything that goes in my baby's mouth, and it's really bad. We had to give him Zantac 30 minutes before every bottle and then hold him upright 20 minutes after every bottle. So feeding was an over an hour-long process. Middle of the night feedings were the worst. Pray he doesn't have it bc he will have it until at least 4 months of age, if not longer, and it always surfaces around 6 weeks of age. (I know all of this bc of all the research I did and what our pedi, who specializes in gastro stuff, told us) Here's the question my pedi asked me. If you were to describe how much he's spitting up, is it enough to spread out on a sheet of paper? Half a sheet of paper? Sometimes we think they are spitting up a lot, but they aren't, so if you think of it in terms of the paper, that helps.

pupp -- hope your finger is okay. I can't imagine seeing bunnies in my neighborhood! That sounds so sweet! No wonder your doggie wants to play with them.

 

[Loves Vintage]

When you tried rice cereal for the first time, how did it go?

We just did, and S was quite unhappy with it! I'm so surprised.

So far she's had banana (loves), avocado (does not like) and sweet potato (did not like, so I mixed with banana, then ok), so this is not her first time trying solids. I have the Earth's Best cereal. I noticed they had a banana one. Should I get that one??? I wasn't sure if that was for older babies. It didn't seem to be, but I figured I'd start with regular. Should I mix some banana in?

Kunzite: do you use liners on your CDs now? What about for daycare?

 

[Lanie]

LV -- when he first tried rice cereal, he loved it, but I think he liked the novelty of a spoon, bc soon he didn't like it so much. Have you tasted it? It's nasty cardboard, so no wonder. We then switched to oatmeal, and he's so so with that. We now give him a rice cereal and banana mix (probably close to the one you have, but ours is Gerber) and he LOVES it. I would think that banana with anything is super delish!

 

[Puppmom]

Finger is broken. It felt okay until N kicked it while I was trying to change his diaper! This splint should look nice in our family photos next weekend.

LV, rice cereal is yucky. I don't think the one with the bananas is for older babies. As long as S has had bananas then the flavored one should be fine. We just mixed ours with fruit.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Thanks, Lanie. I tried mixing a little banana in, but it seems the night is ruined for solids!

Hey, is everyone else's kid (on the east coast at least) sleeping now?

Lanie - Oh, another question for you. Do you do just one meal of solids per day? At what time usually? We've been doing one meal at around 6:30, with the vague hope that she might STTN or at least for a longer stretch, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I may need to address that at some point, haha.

ETA: Puppmom -- Oh no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have to go back and read your earlier post! Did you work all day today with a broken finger and you didn't know it? How long do you need the splint for? I'm sure you can just angle around it for the photos, right? Feel better soon!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

LV rice gave Aidan serious poop problems so we skipped the cereal stage and went right to basic purees. He was FF so he got his iron from that. The cereal is really only needed if the baby is BF.

 

[somethingshiny]

Oh, pupp! Hope your finger is able to be hidden in the pics!!

RE: cereal. Lily hated cereal until just recently. I tried mixing it with formula, juice, and fruits. She wanted nothing to do with it. I tried rice, oat, barley, and a mixed grain. Just recently (she's almost 1) she started taking a liking to it. Just keep trying it without forcing the issue.

 

[random_thought]

I just want to say thank you thank you thank you to whomever suggested the dr. brown's bottles! I am fairly certain it was HH but correct me if I'm wrong! He ate his food without crying, gagging, puking, spitting up, etc. and then we burped him and he conked out!! Oh I'm just the happiness mom in the world tonight!

 

[Lanie]

LV -- our pedi said to start doing twice a day some time between 4 and 6 months if he was cool with it, so starting at 5 (haha) we fed him once in the day and then again at his last feeding. It's much easier that I'm not working now, but I would have had daycare do it. But he only eats about 2 Tbsp each time. Maaaaaybe 3. He drinks 5 bottles a day at 6 ounces each one, but since we've started solids, he isn't finishing his bottles. I need to figure out whether to eliminate one altogether or reduce ounces in each. As you can see in the photos, he's nowhere near malnourished.

 

[Kunzite]

Pup - Oh no!!! So sorry to hear about your finger, that sounds awful

LV - We don't use diaper liners. If I'm being honest, my DC can't even get his diaper on properly (the first day he came home snapped all the way out with the rise unsnapped!!) let alone asking them to do a liner. As a result nearly every diaper is slightly stained now (carrots!!) so I'm just waiting for the sun to finally come out so I can lay them out.

Oliver loves his rice cereal so I'm not much help. In fact, he has loved everything he's tried so far (though I think peas gave him gas!). We started doing two meals a day when he started eating the one meal really fast. We'll probably try to move to three here in a few weeks. His last bottle at DC is really close to bedtime so we need to change his eating schedule somehow.

His schedule looks about like this:

3am - 3.5 ounces
6:30 - 4 ounces
9:00 - 4 ounces
11:30 - 2 tbs cereal mixed w/ 1.5 ounces
1:00 - 4 ounces
3:30 - 2 ounces solids
5:00 - (whatever he'll drink, lol, mood dependant!)
6:00 - 4 ounces

I've thought about trying to consolidate bottles but 4 ounces seems to be the most he's willing to take

 

[noelwr]

Allie - you're right! C & S do have a similar gummy open mouth show a lot of tongue smile.

LV - our problem with spoon-feeding rice cereal was that we mix it with formula and because Skye thought it was her usual bottle (I assume this because the rice cereal we have here doesn't taste like anything), she'd get mad because it wasn't going down her throat fast enough. so we changed to giving rice cereal via the bottle, first with the last bottle and then also with the first bottle. when starting spoon-feeding, do it between bottles and not during a regular feeding time, so that S isn't too hungry. when she is eating well, you can replace a bottle feed during the day for it so that you have one fruit feed, one veggie feed and 4 bottles (one of which may be with rice cereal). by the way, try other veggies because some babies prefer mild veggie tastes rather than sweet fruit. carrot seems to be a big winner.

puppmom - yeow! I'm sure the photographer can manage to somehow hide your splint.

Lanie - oh, ok. sounds exactly like when I try to change Skye. "No, Skye, let Mommy put on the diaper." "No, Skye, don't eat your clothes." "No, Skye, Mommy can't change you when you keep rolling over onto your tummy." she also hates having her nose cleaned, though I'm not obsessive of picking every booger out.

 

[AllieLuv83]

We tried cereal but it bound him up. We waited until about 6-7 months then did a bit of oatmeal cereal but really it wasn't a huge hit so we just skipped it. He was never a big fan of fruit purees so we tried mixing with cereal and he didn't really like it either. Just recently we started doing just plain old brown rice, and kasha, I cook it a little extra so it is very soft. When I grew up in Russia we would do some sort of hot cereal almost every morning, we did barley, buckwheat (kasha), farina, oatmeal, my mom would mix it with warm milk, when I was older she would sprinkle sugar onto it. I mixed the buckwheat with some BM and some pieces of apple and he ate it just fine.

I have heard of some people dusting their cubes of fruit or veggies with baby cereal to make them easier to pick up?

 

[noelwr]

by the way, anything that doesn't stick to the spoon, like oatmeal, I give through the bottle because it is just way too messy and ends up on the face more than in the mouth. fresh blended fruit is often very watery so Skye sucks it through the nipple (also goes much faster). bread I just feed her with my fingers.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I just want to say thank you thank you thank you to whomever suggested the dr. brown's bottles! I am fairly certain it was HH but correct me if I'm wrong! He ate his food without crying, gagging, puking, spitting up, etc. and then we burped him and he conked out!! Oh I'm just the happiness mom in the world tonight!

Glad they worked for you! They make a Y cut nipple if you end up having to do the rice cereal mix in the formula. You can order them online through Amazon and BRU might also carry them.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Thaks everyone for your responses on the rice cereal. Every baby is different, so we'll keep trying til we figure out what works for her. She's just turned 5 mos, so it's still early yet.

Catching up a bit:

Noel, Thanks for the info on those Ikea sleep sacks. I'm going to try to get to Ikea soon to see if they have them here and also for some more hooded towels. They look great!

Kunzite, You don't seem thrilled with your daycare. Were you able to get the napping situation worked out? They were either putting him down too early or too late, I forget which. As for the diapers, I was thinking of adding liners to make the poo situation easier for them. Maybe liners makes the process more difficult. They have been really good with the cloth diapers (well, except one that got thrown out last week, but I don't even mind because it was an old FB that she is outgrowing anyway.) Do you bring your diapers stuffed with the rise snapped up? If you do, and they then unsnap the rise, that's really crazy! I hope they get it worked out soon. It sounds frustrating! Oh, dumb question -- when you say 2 oz of solids, how are you measuring that? A scale or by volume?

Allie, I didn't know you're from Russia! When did you move to the US? Glad to hear the kasha is going well, even though the rice didn't. I have the baby food book - Super Baby Food (I think is the title) - and the author advocates this brown rice cereal (which you make by grinding the grains first) starting at 6 months (if I recall correctly), so I plan to try that, eventually.

Lanie, I smiled at your comment about A not looking malnourished. He is just adorable!!

 

[Mara]

re: cereal, depending on age, but you can skip it entirely, and either just move to oatmeal (aka instant ground up no sugar, plain) or quinoa or brown rice etc etc. if you want to do quinoa or brown rice but the grains are too big for them (depending on age), you can take your coffee grinder (clean it out first) and then toss the stuff in there, and pulse it a few times. it'll shred it really finely then you can pretty much just put boiling water into it and it'll puff up/cook quickly. this is also what you can do with regular oatmeal to make it 'instant'.

we mixed in fruit/veggie purees with J's rice then oatmeal cereal. we also did fruits/veggies with quinoa, rice etc.

some of his favorite combos:
banana and pumpkin
pear and peas
apple and butternut squash

usually a sweeter fruit with a veggie works really well for him.

sometimes even when he was older if he was not eating much or had a tooth coming in we'd 'regress' to oatmeal mixed with yogurt and a puree, he would usually eat it. good luck!

 

[Loves Vintage]

Thanks, Mara! Sounds like the brown rice cereal I mentioned. I think we were typing at the same time!

I have to say, I'm amazed at how many PS mamas are making their own baby food!

Oh, Mara, if you have time, can you check the Pumpers Unite thread. DCGator was asking about the Ameda pump, and I have a vague recollection that you had one and liked it, right?

 

[Puppmom]

Ditto on the quinoa. N loves it!

 

[somethingshiny]

What table foods are the older babes eating?

Lily loves pasta, fruit, breads, potatoes and green beans. She's a big fan of the crusts off JT's pb&j. She eats cheerios by the bucket! She wants to eat chicken but with only 2 teeth, she usually just chipmunks it in her cheeks. I don't give her the meat in spaghetti yet or any other meats. I'm drawing a blank on what else to try.

 

[Puppmom]

SS, N doesn't eat much in the way of table food. He still prefers purees but he likes tofu. We crush puffs or cereal and then *bread* cubes of tofu with it.

 

[CatLuver]

Lanie – thanks for posting A’s sleep schedule several pages back. That’s an awesome long midday nap he gets. C can only stay awake for 2 hours MAX, more like 1.5 ideally, and only naps for 30-40 min., so he has to take many many naps a day. Those pics with the mirror is too cute and I LOVE A’s thighs!!!

Kunzite – so sorry to hear about your kitty! Hope she is ok!! Did you find out why she licked the hole? Thanks for the pumping bra info in the other thread.

Skippy, I would keep M in the bed with you at night if it helps you sleep! You need to sleep! But I would also try to have him sleep alone during the day so he doesn’t downright refuse to sleep alone, which happened to my little guy after a weekend trip at 9 weeks when he slept in the bed at night and was held for naps (by grandparents); then he had to CIO pretty much all night before he would sleep alone again

Noel – congrats on the deswaddling! A huge hurdle to get past that we all dread! S is such a sweet happy little girl!

HH, what a cute little walker!!! A was an early stander too, right?

LV – C is not interested in the winkle either! He is only lukewarm about Sophie, and I don’t know if mine is from a bad batch because her ears were peeling right out of the box (others on Amazon said the same thing). So even though it’s supposedly food grade I’m afraid to let him chew it. I worry about Chinese made toys too, everything is made in China now! Re cereal, C has only taken a 1-to-1 ratio once (1 tbsp each of brown rice cereal and milk), and it didn’t cause constipation, just more thick paste-like poop. He’s had it 4 times and isn’t thrilled with it – I don’t blame him, it’s not very tasty – but will tolerate it. Haven’t started anything else yet.

geri, dee, hou - hope you're doing well!

---

C’s night sleeping is thankfully MUCH better than it used to be (naps are another story), now we just have to deswaddle. He’s really too big for the miracle blanket even without using the foot pouch and it gets loose some nights, but he still wakes himself up too much w/o the swaddle. Tried the Halo sleep sack swaddle last night which was a huge fail, his arms came out after his first waking and he woke up crying at 4 (instead of 6am). Can’t decide whether to keep deswaddling cold turkey or keep swaddling until it’s downright impossible with the MB. No 4mo wakeful yet. The one arm out doesn’t seem to make a difference. I have to go back to work in 1.5 weeks so maybe I should do it now, but maybe he will be more "ready" when he's a little older?

So I FINALLY got C to take a bottle – sort of – I bought the First Years Breastflow bottle which is more breast-like, and he sucked down 1 oz right away after he woke up this morning, which was amazing because he has not sucked a bottle for about 11 weeks. But after I put more in there, he refused to suck any more (I only used 1 oz initially because I wasn’t sure if he would take it). The refill was formula, so maybe that’s why, or maybe because he wasn’t starving anymore. So not a complete success, but it’s progress.

Since he wouldn’t take a bottle, I started feeding rice cereal at 4 mo so he could get some calories while I’m gone at work. He takes it ok but nowhere near as much as he would if he would just drink milk from the bottle.

I am SO dreading going back to work! I've been lucky to get a nice long leave of 19 weeks total but I'm going to be so sad not to be with my baby every day and see everything he does for the first time. I'm way too attached to him - I have to admit I get jealous when other people hold him (except DH). I love spending all day with him and being the center of his world (even though it can get boring at times) and am going to cry when I have to be away from him during the day. I'm going to try working only 4 days a week but that still seems like so much time away from him

I'm shy about internet pics, so C will have to stay anonymous

 

[somethingshiny]

pupp~ I've never had tofu. LOL Good idea to "bread" the cubes though.

Baby T is finally feeling better! This is the first day that we haven't had any vomiting with him! Poor guy was sick for a solid week. It looks like he's dropped some weight too. His little belly is nearly flat now. But, his appetite is increasing so hopefully he'll pick it back up quickly.

Lily was so funny with Baby T today. She hasn't played on this mat for probably 2 months but today when T was on it, it was a HUGE deal. lol She wasn't trying to hurt him but she was trying to turn his face to her when she was "yelling" at him.

 

[Loves Vintage]

Catluver - Nice to "see" you here!

I wonder if C took the bottle this morning because he was still tired! For babies who won't latch, they suggest trying when baby is tired, so maybe the same concept will apply with the bottle. I'd keep trying it first thing in the morning and have more breast milk in the bottle to keep him going longer, and hopefully he'll continue to get used to it. S definitely knows the difference between breast milk and formula, so I bet it was the combination of bottle plus formula that turned him away the second time you tried.

S now likes (but does not love) Winkle. With time, I bet C will take to it more too. Ohhh, I would send that Sophie right back for a new one! Have you returned to Amazon before. It is so super easy. Go into your account, print off a label, stick on your box and then in your mailbox. You don't have to go to post office and amazon pays returns (at least for amazon prime, which you have if you're an Amazon mom. )

 

[Lanie]

Catluver -- that's amazing you had such a long mat leave!!!! I hope you find that it's not that bad to be away. I remember dreading it. Absolutely dreading it. The first day was bad, the next wasn't so bad, and then it got easier every day. It is hard though. But think of the socialization that he will get. And the break you'll get! And it's funny that right after I posted about that long nap that Anderson has, he started catnapping again. Oh well. I've decided to just go by what he does rather than what the books say he should be doing. I think you said it somewhere, that as long as the nighttime sleeping is good, then you really can't complain! Good luck going back. Have you revealed C's name? I can't remember.

SS -- hahahaha! That's a great picture! I wouldn't show it to Baby T's mommy unless she has a good sense of humor though!

 

[AllieLuv83]

I came in 1992 from Kiev, Ukraine to NYC first and then we moved to Miami, I went to college at Umass and now DH and I are in DE.

In terms of finger foods Charlie eats veggies such as squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and avocado if I cut it into small cubes. He eats chunks of dark meat chicken, he has no teeth all the way through but he mashes it with his gums. He eats apples and pears in small cubes as well, he will also eat watermelon and bananas.

So far he has tried the following veggies, fruits and meats:

Apples, pears, peaches, mango, pineapples, banana, watermelon, white potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots, peas, green beans, squash (acorn and butternut), cauliflower, chicken, turkey, avocado. He also eats crunchies, and super puffs, mum mum crackers and teething biscuits. He also eats buckwheat, and brown rice. I am going to try oatmeal (rolled oats) make them really mushy.

He much prefers chunky foods and cubes to puree. So I make foods for the week. I bake a sweet potato, cook up cauliflower, carrots, peas, and green beans or spinach. Cook a grain, and usually 4-5 chicken thighs for the meat. For breakfast I cook up apples and pears. I offer it to him both on the tray for him to pick up and a bit mashed in the bowl.

He has really enjoyed the following recipes:

Chicken, apple and sweet potato
Sautee 4 oz of chicken breast or boneless skinless thighs with 2 pads of butter until they are opaque
Add some water (or homemade broth) and cook sweet potatoes along with apples. When it is all cooked puree with either the magic bullet or a blender. Freeze in cubes.

He also likes acorn squash, and apples with some butter and dash of cinnamon.

Would you ladies care to share some of your favorite recipes?