Questions 8/4

[bcv513]

1. C is a thumb sucker. It's not too often, mostly just when she's about to fall asleep. I like it because she self soothes at night with it, but I'm worried about breaking the habit down the road. And having her teeth come in crooked because of it. Am I stressing too much or should I try to redirect her now?

2. When your kids first started solids, did you make your own food or buy prepackaged? I was looking at the Baby Bullet system, but I'm honestly not sure how much I would be able to do. I don't even make food for me and H most days, lol

[nessness]

2. The first few weeks I used jarred food, because I couldn't make homemade food quite as smooth. After that I switched to a mix of jarred and homemade food. I made the foods that were easy to prepare, like apples and sweet potatoes, and bought the ones that seemed more difficult, like peaches. You don't need a baby bullet; a regular blender works fine, and you can freeze the food in ice cube trays.

[dcn]

1. I wouldn't worry about thumb sucking. Would be great to have a built in soother!

2. Ds1 I made purees from organic produce. Then he hated them and wouldn't eat them lol. Ds2 I bought a few gerber containers and again he hated them.

[Deleted]

1. DS, 7 months, sucks his thumb before naps. I'm also concerned about it but will let him continue for now.

2. I buy purees. At first I tried making them but found it stressful and time-consuming. Then I bought some and feel much better about it. Yes it costs more, but there is no waste. So far we've been using Earth's Best organic purees.

[pooh8402]

2. I bought. I didn't have the time/energy to cook and puree food. It was probably cheaper than buying a bunch of vegetables that I don't normally eat, cooking some of them for the baby, then tossing the rest when it inevitable goes bad because we didn't eat it. I only bought purees that didn't have 5 million ingredients (generally the food on the label + water + maybe vit C as a preservative).

[Susie]

Aug 4, 2016 8:55:23 GMT -5 bcv513 said:

2. When your kids first started solids, did you make your own food or buy prepackaged? I was looking at the Baby Bullet system, but I'm honestly not sure how much I would be able to do. I don't even make food for me and H most days, lol

I buy them.  Not even organic (!), she gets the Gerber fruit and veggie tubs both at home and at daycare.  

We both work FT, I'm a partner in my firm, and I have a bunch of other demands on me (family, board of an organization, etc.).  I don't have time to do everything the best/hard way.  So I pick and choose the things that are my "HTDO" in terms of effort.  Breast milk is one of them for me, so I devote a lot of time and effort to pumping at work and BFing at home so she can have BM to drink exclusively.  Homemade purees and cloth diapering both fall into the category of "I can see the appeal but they don't make the cut" for me.  

Purees are kind of a short term thing.  She started them around 6 mo and at 8.5 mo is still eating them, but also is starting to have finger foods.  It just wasn't where I wanted to put my effort.  YMMV.

[raangoli]

How many ounces was your 6-ish month old drinking? BB is about 27 ounces a day. The doctor yesterday made it seem like that was on the high end (she said she shouldn't be more than 28 oz) but according to the AAP website, she's fine.

[mskitkat]

Does DD STTN affect my milk supply? My supply tanking is corresponding to her sleeping 12 hrs straight (thank you daycare). Should I be getting up at night to pump? I really, really don't want to do that. I like sleep.

[Deleted]

raangoli DS took about 25-30 at 6 months old. Some bottles he refused to finish. 27 doesn't strike me as high.

[pooh8402]

Aug 4, 2016 9:21:46 GMT -5 raangoli said:

How many ounces was your 6-ish month old drinking? BB is about 27 ounces a day. The doctor yesterday made it seem like that was on the high end (she said she shouldn't be more than 28 oz) but according to the AAP website, she's fine.

6 months was E's maximum intake. He got up to 30 oz/day. There is a growth spurt then anyway, and we were just starting solids so he hadn't mastered them at that point and wasn't getting many calories that way. It only lasted a couple weeks though, then he went back down to 16-20oz/day.

[kath16]

Aug 4, 2016 9:22:37 GMT -5 mskitkat said:

Does DD STTN affect my milk supply? My supply tanking is corresponding to her sleeping 12 hrs straight (thank you daycare). Should I be getting up at night to pump? I really, really don't want to do that. I like sleep.

I tried to not do it because I valued sleep, but I never had supply issues. If it's important to you to keep up your supply, it would probably help to get up MOTN or at least very early to pump (sorry)

[noodleoo]

bcv513, DD is a finger sucker (2 middle ones on her left hand, it is so cute!). I tried in the beginning to pull her hand out of her mouth but she just laughed and stuck it back in. The more I did it, the funnier it was to her. I don't think you can really stop them from doing it. The good thing is she is a great sleeper and we never had to worry about her losing a paci or anything. She started around 3 months and is still sucking at 14 months. I was also a thumb sucker and needed braces, I'm just assuming DD will too.

I made purees, but I was home so I had the time. It is pretty easy, I just steamed fruits and veggies and then buzzed them in the pot with an immersion blender that I already had. The immersion blender is great because it is so easy to clean. I've recently been buying the Happy Baby pouches and DD loves them. If I didn't have the time, I would definitely do store bought and not even think twice about it.

[preppy]

When do kids figure out eating out of pouches on their own without squeezing it all out and all over themselves?

[raangoli]

Aug 4, 2016 9:30:27 GMT -5 pooh8402 said:

Aug 4, 2016 9:21:46 GMT -5 raangoli said:

How many ounces was your 6-ish month old drinking? BB is about 27 ounces a day. The doctor yesterday made it seem like that was on the high end (she said she shouldn't be more than 28 oz) but according to the AAP website, she's fine.

6 months was E's maximum intake. He got up to 30 oz/day. There is a growth spurt then anyway, and we were just starting solids so he hadn't mastered them at that point and wasn't getting many calories that way. It only lasted a couple weeks though, then he went back down to 16-20oz/day.

She's been at this level for a few weeks now - some days she takes less, some days more. This is probably why she's "chubby"  

We haven't started solids and probably won't for a while since shes around 4 months adjusted. She's doing just fine on formula alone (and it's the higher calorie preemie formula) and she just doesn't seem ready. 

[Susie]

raangoli, Hobbes has been at 16-20 oz/day at daycare + 2 nursing sessions since around 6 mo. So 27 all day doesn't seem out of line to me at all.

mskitkat, STTN hasn't caused me a supply problem, but obviously YMMV. With STTN, I was pumping at my bedtime and in the morning before work (after she nursed her fill) for quite a while to minimize the impact STTN had on my supply. Sleep was too valuable to me to give up for pumping as soon as she was regularly STTN.

[noodleoo]

Aug 4, 2016 9:33:19 GMT -5 preppy said:

When do kids figure out eating out of pouches on their own without squeezing it all out and all over themselves?

Haha!  Have you seen the little caps that they have to bite and then suck?  My friend swears by them!  I'll see if I can find a link.

I started giving P pouches at 12 months and she hasn't figured out how to squeeze them out yet.  Lucky so far!

Here it is:

www.amazon.com/ChooMee-Toppers-Prevent-Promoting-independence/dp/B00ERZ4AUA/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1470321768&sr=8-2&keywords=reusable+pouches+cap

[genet313]

When did you start introducing the potty?   DD is 18 months, and she tells us after she's pooped pretty much every time now.  She's starting to discuss pee as well, but it's much less reliable.  I don't think she's anywhere near ready to train, but is it too early to introduce these concepts?  I got DD a potty and an Elmo potty book, but her idea of sitting on the potty is to put both her feet in the bowl and stand/crouch there...so no.  I put it away for now but I don't know how long is too long to keep it away.  

[magpie]

Grunting in their sleep? Is it normal for a newborn to grunt all night? For the past two nights, DS has been really grunty. It's not his breathing, he's vocalizing grunts and he does kind of squirm a little while he does them. It went on like all night long, off and on. He sleeps/doesn't wake up or cry when he's doing this, but he's so loud. Gas? Reflux? Normal baby behavior? DD was super colicky and spent all night crying, so I have no idea what non-colic babies do.

[Deleted]

P is a thumb sucker. It's the best. I'll worry about it later.

[magpie]

Aug 4, 2016 8:55:23 GMT -5 bcv513 said:

2. When your kids first started solids, did you make your own food or buy prepackaged? I was looking at the Baby Bullet system, but I'm honestly not sure how much I would be able to do. I don't even make food for me and H most days, lol

We did both.  I used a mason jar and my stick blender to make some purees (just boiled some veggies, blended them and popped them into an ice cube tray, so I had easy, microwavable single serves).  I also bought.  The puree stage lasted about a minute with DD though, so I wouldn't invest much in a whole system. 

[winemaker06]

genet313 - we started right at 18 months because DS had older kids in his daycare class and was acting interested. So certainly start. Just be prepared that it could be a long time before you get anywhere. 2.5 and still working on it here...

magpie - both of mine are insane with the grunting. Horse noises too. It only stops when they're in the deepest part of the sleep cycle, but baby sleep cycles are very short. Totally normal!

[patches31709]

Aug 4, 2016 9:58:58 GMT -5 magpie said:

Grunting in their sleep? Is it normal for a newborn to grunt all night? For the past two nights, DS has been really grunty. It's not his breathing, he's vocalizing grunts and he does kind of squirm a little while he does them. It went on like all night long, off and on. He sleeps/doesn't wake up or cry when he's doing this, but he's so loud. Gas? Reflux? Normal baby behavior? DD was super colicky and spent all night crying, so I have no idea what non-colic babies do.

DD grunted a lot in her sleep as a newborn. She was so noisy we had to move her to her own room.

[ebeth]

bcv513, I made most of her purees. I didn't find it to be too difficult or time consuming. I'd just make (or have H make) extra of whatever veg we were having for dinner and puree it in a blender. I'd make a bigger batch of some kind of fruit puree or yellow veg over the weekend to freeze. she started eating table food pretty early and didn't eat purees for very long so it was fine for me. I would have stopped had it gotten to be too much and just bought the stuff if it had been too much. I think it's fine either way.

mskitkat, I had a dip in supply when she started STTN. I was never really able to recover but luckily she started eating more solids and drinking less milk around that point too. my freezer stash and some well timed vacations/long weekends bridged the gap. I would not get up in the middle of the night to pump. Could you do one pump right before you go to bed? would that get enough to get you through?

preppy,my kid figured it out right away. but she's a food motivated chunk and was drinking out of a straw cup by then. does S use straw cups? that might reinforce the sucking 'skill'.

[estrellita]

bcv513 for 2- both. The easiest way I found to make food was buy a steam bag of veggies, make them, put them in the Magic Bullet to puree them, freeze them in ice cube trays, then put the cubes into a Ziploc bag. I'd pull one or two out and microwave them for 30 sec when it was time to eat them. I didn't do it much but that was the best way! I bought them more often or mushed up banana or avocado or something similar.

preppy E has just recently gotten better with pouches (he's 17 months). He still gets messy sometimes but not as badly!

genet313 DC started putting him on the potty when he got into the toddler room around 16 months. He still hasn't gone and we don't do it at home yet (soon though I think) but might as well get him used to it!

[nessness]

Aug 4, 2016 9:33:19 GMT -5 preppy said:

When do kids figure out eating out of pouches on their own without squeezing it all out and all over themselves?

Maybe 11-12 months? She's 21 months now and still hasn't quite figured out the squeezing part though. So she'll suck out most of it, ask for help, and I'll squeeze the rest up to the top for her.

[hockeywife]

Aug 4, 2016 8:55:23 GMT -5 bcv513 said:

1. C is a thumb sucker. It's not too often, mostly just when she's about to fall asleep. I like it because she self soothes at night with it, but I'm worried about breaking the habit down the road. And having her teeth come in crooked because of it. Am I stressing too much or should I try to redirect her now?

2. When your kids first started solids, did you make your own food or buy prepackaged? I was looking at the Baby Bullet system, but I'm honestly not sure how much I would be able to do. I don't even make food for me and H most days, lol

1. DD is a sometimes thumb sucker, too. I have no answers, but am eager to hear the replies

2. I made purees for DS. I found it much easier than anticipated, and cheaper than buying, too. I don't know if I'll do the same exclusively for DD or not. 

[Koala]

Aug 4, 2016 9:33:19 GMT -5 preppy said:

When do kids figure out eating out of pouches on their own without squeezing it all out and all over themselves?

DD just started doing this around 10 months.  But, I still watch her like a hawk.  DS still prefers that we squeeze it into his mouth.  

[raangoli]

magpie, I think the grunting is normal. For us it did seem to coincide with silent reflux though she eventually outgrew both. I sort of miss the grunts, but not the waking up to make sure she's ok part.

[boiler717]

bcv513
1. I'd let it be
2. We do mostly jarred foods but I make my own beef puree to add to veggies. I want to get the extra calories and iron in him.

[starburst604]

2) I made most of our purees. It's really simple and you don't need special equipment, just a food processor/blender if you have them already. I mostly did apples, squash, sweet potato, carrot and sometimes green beans. I would boil or steam a large batch, cool, puree and pour into silicone ice cube trays. Once frozen I moved them all to plastic ziplocs in the freezer and used as needed. I'd usually do a big batch every couple of weeks so it wasn't much work.

preppy , I'll let you know when my 15 month old figures it out. She's very aggressive with her pouches lol. They do make a hard plastic container that encloses the pouch so they can't squeeze, only suck. It fits most pouches, except for the brand of applesauce I buy. Of course.