Random week of Nov. 27

[knx9211]

Nov 28, 2017 14:18:24 GMT -5 @daylily said:

We started at 4 months. Our doctor was fine with it because he showed the signs of readiness. DS was about 16 pounds by then, sitting up, teething, and was VERY interested in watching us eat. Lol. We didn't reduce BM/formula. Other than allergens, we offered more complex foods not by specific age but just as a progression, gradually adding on new foods and then later textures as he seemed ready. It was probably by 6-7 months that I was just pureeing our dinner for him to eat, and 8 months he was doing puffs and easy finger foods but again it was more just that he was ready for that by then. Lots of babies aren't ready until later and that's normal too.

Did you do anything special when prepping dinner? My only worry with giving him what we eat is salt. Did you not salt/salt less and then salt to taste after you prepped some for him?

[shauni27]

knx9211, I LOVE HIM. You inspired me to start solids too. King26, upon pedi's recommendation, we started solids at 4 months. S is over 16 pounds and sits up. She said he is drinking formula at such high quantities that he is really ready for solids. So far we have done baby oatmeal and avocado. She suggested we continue with the oatmeal for a week and then do oatmeal at one meal and a pureed fruit or veggie at another. I think we will do sweet potato. We are having so much fun with it.

pandora89 I cannot believe you are at 18 weeks! Going SO fast!

loira, I have a lot of friends who put up a baby gate around their tree. Is that an option?

[janegold]

Nov 28, 2017 15:14:28 GMT -5 loira said:

knx9211, you are the most adorable family!

Toddler mamas, what's your strategy with the tree? We always get a real one so won't have it for another couple of weeks, and I'm nervous about A wanting to pull off the decorations (and pull the tree over). She's usually pretty good about staying away from things I tell her are dangerous, but I also want her to like the tree. We sent her Santa letter in already... LOVE Canada Post for that service.

We just did a tabletop tree this year. I knew B would not leave a regular tree alone. Plus we are gone most of December anyway. I was bummed but it is actually pretty cute and still feels festive.

[thoseareradishes]

We haven't started solids with E yet. She's almost 9 months/5 months adjusted. We're getting conflicting advice from her 11 billion doctors, so I just haven't done it yet. We'll do either oatmeal or avocado to start. I also feel like it's just one more thing I have to add to my plate of things to do. I'm just so exhausted from getting up several times a night to give her back her pacifier and only taking 30 minute naps which I have a 50/50 chance of extending.

[knx9211]

Oh one more thing that I thought of on solids. I was always giving P bananas in the morning with oatmeal . In the afternoon, he'd just eat a vegetable or fruit, nothing mixed in (unless I needed to put in breastmilk to thin it). I noticed after a couple days that, to use a scientific term, he was shitting his brains out. Ok, that's extreme, but he was going a lot. My mother asked "Well what would your stomach do if you ate nothing but straight fruits and veggies?" So now even in the afternoon I put a little of either oatmeal or rice cereal with his veggies. It's helped a lot.

thoseareradishes, I'm sorry could she be teething or going through a spurt? P will randomly do that sometimes. He doesn't even truly wake up in the middle of the night, he just starts crying! I think it's because his mouth hurts

[G22]

Nov 28, 2017 15:14:28 GMT -5 loira said:

knx9211, you are the most adorable family!

Toddler mamas, what's your strategy with the tree? We always get a real one so won't have it for another couple of weeks, and I'm nervous about A wanting to pull off the decorations (and pull the tree over). She's usually pretty good about staying away from things I tell her are dangerous, but I also want her to like the tree. We sent her Santa letter in already... LOVE Canada Post for that service.

Z had been pretty good about leaving our tree alone this year. I put all the potentially breakable ornaments out of his reach. And put "safer" ones at the bottom. For the first week, I was finding ornaments in weird places, like under the tv stand or in the bookcase. Lol he clearly thought they needed rearranging. But the newness has worn off and he doesn't bother it much now.

My dogs run into it and beat it up more than the toddler most days.

[loira]

Nov 28, 2017 16:26:08 GMT -5 G22 said:

Nov 28, 2017 15:14:28 GMT -5 loira said:

knx9211 , you are the most adorable family!

Toddler mamas, what's your strategy with the tree? We always get a real one so won't have it for another couple of weeks, and I'm nervous about A wanting to pull off the decorations (and pull the tree over). She's usually pretty good about staying away from things I tell her are dangerous, but I also want her to like the tree. We sent her Santa letter in already... LOVE Canada Post for that service.

Z had been pretty good about leaving our tree alone this year. I put all the potentially breakable ornaments out of his reach. And put "safer" ones at the bottom. For the first week, I was finding ornaments in weird places, like under the tv stand or in the bookcase. Lol he clearly thought they needed rearranging. But the newness has worn off and he doesn't bother it much now.

My dogs run into it and beat it up more than the toddler most days.

Lol, our dog's first Christmas (our first male dog), Mum saw him eyeing the tree. She grabbed him and said "this is NOT indoor plumbing!" Lol

shauni27, we do have a puppy pen. I guess we could try that.

[knx9211]

Nov 28, 2017 16:25:09 GMT -5 @daylily said:

Nov 28, 2017 15:32:37 GMT -5 knx9211 said:

Did you do anything special when prepping dinner? My only worry with giving him what we eat is salt. Did you not salt/salt less and then salt to taste after you prepped some for him?

I had asked about that too, but my doctor said that the amount of salt we were likely using to cook wasn't worrisome for his body to process. If we were eating more prepared foods it would have been a concern, but I mostly cook from scratch. 

Thank you! I cook everything from scratch but I LOVE SALT.  I'll just have to be sure to be careful.

I'm a mean mom. I am so grossed out by the idea of pureeing meat, so I'm waiting until he can eat little chunks before giving him any.

[scm1011]

knx9211, I felt the same way about pureeing meat! C actually moved on from purees super quick (like 3-4 weeks) and his first solid was pulled pork lol. He was much more into finger foods, and the first thing he grabbed was some pulled pork off my plate when he was not even 7 months. He didn't have any teeth until a month or so later, but we gave him small tender pieces of meat from then on and he never had a problem.

loira, we put a gate in front of the tree. We could probably take it down though, because he seems to have zero interest in the tree shockingly.

[pooh8402]

Nov 28, 2017 15:14:28 GMT -5 loira said:

knx9211, you are the most adorable family!

Toddler mamas, what's your strategy with the tree? We always get a real one so won't have it for another couple of weeks, and I'm nervous about A wanting to pull off the decorations (and pull the tree over). She's usually pretty good about staying away from things I tell her are dangerous, but I also want her to like the tree. We sent her Santa letter in already... LOVE Canada Post for that service.

Nonbreakable ornaments on the bottom half, and fewer ornaments in general. Surprisingly, E has been mostly uninterested in the tree the last 2 Christmases. We'll see for this year (waiting for DH to get the box out since it's too big for me to carry).

[oneslybookworm]

thoseareradishes, we haven't started solids yet either. G will be 5 months on the 5th, but we'll likely wait until around 6 months to get them started. Thinking "christmas dinner" will be his first go with solids.

shauni27, we have an appointment with a specialist for G's head in a week and a half as well, but it looks like it's really filled out over the past few weeks. It was flat on one side and the family doc was concerned about torticollis causing the flat spot, but as his head has grown with the 4th leap, it seems to have filled out. We also have an assessment for OT/PT tomorrow, to see if G needs either of those things. I'm thinking it'll come back as a "he's fine", but his doctor was looking at OT for the torticollis (if that's what is going on). The cool thing is they'll do an assessment for EVERYTHING (motor skills, verbal skills, etc) so if they clear him then I no longer have to worry if he's "on track". I'm hoping things go well and he's ok, but if not, I know he'll get the help he needs and that's all that matters.

Not a ton going on here. Thanksgiving went really well, and hen we put up the tree last Friday. He's been completely in love with watching the lights, so I can't wait to drive him around to see the neighborhood lights for Christmas. We got our matching family pajamas in the mail yesterday (yes, we're THAT family), so I'm SUPER excited about that! We've got 17 days left of this leap, though i've been told Leap 5 is crap too, but so far this leap hasn't been too bad. G's been fussy, but I think it's mainly teething (that damn tooth needs to poke through!), so I'm hoping that's over soon.

[knx9211]

Nov 28, 2017 17:17:04 GMT -5 @daylily said:

Nov 28, 2017 17:10:17 GMT -5 knx9211 said:

Thank you! I cook everything from scratch but I LOVE SALT.  I'll just have to be sure to be careful.

I'm a mean mom. I am so grossed out by the idea of pureeing meat, so I'm waiting until he can eat little chunks before giving him any.

Lol I remember when I was still introducing the single foods, one at a time, doing chicken and being like whoa this is nasty. There is no way to make pureed meat look appetizing. Its much better combined in veggies!

You're nursing right? Are you giving him iron drops? That would be my only concern about waiting for meat, is that it can be a good source of iron if he isn't getting it elsewhere.

There's Iron in his oatmeal but no drops. How do you cook the meat? I feel like if I roasted chicken plain it'd get so dry.

[shoeless]

Nov 28, 2017 15:14:28 GMT -5 loira said:

knx9211, you are the most adorable family!

Toddler mamas, what's your strategy with the tree? We always get a real one so won't have it for another couple of weeks, and I'm nervous about A wanting to pull off the decorations (and pull the tree over). She's usually pretty good about staying away from things I tell her are dangerous, but I also want her to like the tree. We sent her Santa letter in already... LOVE Canada Post for that service.

We put up our tree after thanksgiving. K loved helping put the ornaments on the tree but *knock on wood* hasn't touched it since. That being said we have very few breakable ornaments so the damage she can do is limited.

[Chrysanthemum]

Such great pictures knx9211 , I especially love the one with daddy! Also, I used this website for starting solids and it helped me get new ideas of things I could puree and when.

link

[shauni27]

knx9211, twinning with all of your posts, lol. I don't want to puree meat. I also love salt in an unhealthy way. And S will cry out and thrash in his sleep without fully waking up; I too think he is teething

[knx9211]

Nov 29, 2017 8:43:30 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

knx9211, twinning with all of your posts, lol. I don't want to puree meat. I also love salt in an unhealthy way. And S will cry out and thrash in his sleep without fully waking up; I too think he is teething

Ugh it's the worrrrst. Both because it wakes me up and because it makes me sad for him.

Also we tried mango this morning! He GAGGED. Absolutely HATED it. But I decided to follow the idea of introducing some spices and when I remade his oatmea with just banana, I added a tiny bit of cinnamon! He loved it!

I think I might just have to bite the bullet and start some meat. Yuuuuck. But we'll see.

Anyone give their kids beets? How young?

[thoseareradishes]

Nov 28, 2017 15:58:16 GMT -5 knx9211 said:

thoseareradishes , I'm sorry could she be teething or going through a spurt? P will randomly do that sometimes. He doesn't even truly wake up in the middle of the night, he just starts crying! I think it's because his mouth hurts

She has two teeth on the bottom that seemed to pop up without much issue.  I think maybe she was waking so much from her stuffy nose?  She did SO much better last night - H said he helped her at 10:30 (I slept through that one, thankfully), and I went in at 2:30 for pacifier replacement, then she got up at 4:30 for a bottle.  Slept until 7. 

We practice with her pacifiers every day, and she's getting a lot better about replacing them herself, but they are the soothie kind and she tends to pick them up by the nipple.  She has a wubanub that helps, but sometimes he gets thrown too far away.  

[pooh8402]

Nov 29, 2017 9:18:01 GMT -5 knx9211 said:

Nov 29, 2017 8:43:30 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

knx9211, twinning with all of your posts, lol. I don't want to puree meat. I also love salt in an unhealthy way. And S will cry out and thrash in his sleep without fully waking up; I too think he is teething

Ugh it's the worrrrst. Both because it wakes me up and because it makes me sad for him.

Also we tried mango this morning! He GAGGED. Absolutely HATED it. But I decided to follow the idea of introducing some spices and when I remade his oatmea with just banana, I added a tiny bit of cinnamon! He loved it!

I think I might just have to bite the bullet and start some meat. Yuuuuck. But we'll see.

Anyone give their kids beets? How young?

Try just giving some soft meat, like pulled chicken or pulled pork. Something that is really tender. No need to puree the meat. Babies can gum soft meat.

[shauni27]

Nov 29, 2017 9:18:01 GMT -5 knx9211 said:

Nov 29, 2017 8:43:30 GMT -5 shauni27 said:

knx9211 , twinning with all of your posts, lol. I don't want to puree meat. I also love salt in an unhealthy way. And S will cry out and thrash in his sleep without fully waking up; I too think he is teething

Ugh it's the worrrrst. Both because it wakes me up and because it makes me sad for him.

Also we tried mango this morning! He GAGGED. Absolutely HATED it. But I decided to follow the idea of introducing some spices and when I remade his oatmea with just banana, I added a tiny bit of cinnamon! He loved it!

I think I might just have to bite the bullet and start some meat. Yuuuuck. But we'll see.

Anyone give their kids beets? How young?

I really think we will wait on the meat and give him an actual chunk of meat for baby led weaning. But we have a ways to go with that still, so we will see.

Man, I love mango, lol.

[mpc]

I did ground meat - turkey, beef, whatever. It's already kind of crumbled when you cook it, so it wasn't too much weirder to throw it in the food processor after. And I never served it straight, always mixed with some kind of veggie.

[pandora89]

Ground meat sounds really unappetizing lol.

I think I am starting to feel some more consistent movement. I have started having what feels like eye twitches but in my upper pelvic area. No real pattern to it but sometimes I can feel it for a couple seconds at a time. Google says its probably movement so I am telling myself it is lol

[loira]

A never liked pureed meat and still won't eat most types of meat. She'll eat sausage and bacon, and occasionally ham, but that's it. She hates chicken. Refuses to touch it even in nugget form.

[kellikans]

Anatomy scan was this morning. Everything looks good except that he's measuring small. Still within range, and they didn't seemed concerned about it. I have another appointment with my OB next week to talk about things. I still have placenta previa. The MFM doctor doesn't think there's a good chance of it moving based on where it is and where the cord is going into the placenta. He said maybe a 50-60% chance of it moving. But he told us no sex. Poor DH.

[cactuscookie]

Nov 29, 2017 14:03:46 GMT -5 loira said:

A never liked pureed meat and still won't eat most types of meat. She'll eat sausage and bacon, and occasionally ham, but that's it. She hates chicken. Refuses to touch it even in nugget form.

H doesn't eat meat either, except for cured pork - ham fairly dependably (she likes prosciutto, because she is smart), sometimes bacon and sausage. I just figure it's a toddler thing. I don't remember if she ate it pureed though.

[starryfish]

Hey all. Sorry I have been mia. We traveled to see my sick nephew for thanksgiving but ended up getting sick from S. We all got it, nasty stomach bug.

Now I'm planning her 1st birthday party. And then Christmas. I can't believe she's almost 1!!!!

I had my RE follow up apt and my HSG test found something in my left ovary. She is recommending surgery for next month. After that we plan to do three IUIs. After that we will be done. Right now my DH and I are sort of on the fence whether we want another child or not. We had always said we wanted 2...but now we are not sure....sigh...I go back and forth...

[boiler717]

Nov 28, 2017 15:14:28 GMT -5 loira said:

knx9211, you are the most adorable family!

Toddler mamas, what's your strategy with the tree? We always get a real one so won't have it for another couple of weeks, and I'm nervous about A wanting to pull off the decorations (and pull the tree over). She's usually pretty good about staying away from things I tell her are dangerous, but I also want her to like the tree. We sent her Santa letter in already... LOVE Canada Post for that service.

We tell him he can touch with “one finger only” — he will go up from time to time and say “one finger only! Beautiful tree!!” He hasn’t gotten into trouble with it. We have like 10 trees too so he has plenty of opportunity.

[boiler717]

Also I don’t know if this is helpful or not, but I friend emailed me today asking a bunch of questions about solids. This is what I replied:
Even as a parent of a kid with serious food allergies and a family history of food allergies, I think in general people are way too cautious about starting food. At 6m she can have anything but honey (until 1 year) and choking hazards (whole grapes, hot dogs, popcorn, etc). I am allergic to strawberries so all I did was make sure I would only introduce one high allergen food at a time (peanuts, tree nuts, milk, wheat, fish, shellfish, eggs, wheat) plus strawberries. I kept those to the only one of that group at a time for 3-4 days. Other than that he ate all fruits, veggies, meats, grains, etc. I did not worry about time of day.

We were working on weight gain but I think it’s good practice to include high fat foods whenever you give solids because fat is so important for brain development. So cereals made with breast milk, avocado, nut butters, eggs, meats, olive oil, full fat dairy at every meal. So many of the fruit and veggie purées are just straight sugar. So we would mix in a little fat in the form of those things with everything we gave.

I’m trying to remember in order but T’s first foods were avocado, oatmeal made with breastmilk, bananas, sweet potatoes. He ate a lot of scrambled eggs and yogurt (I’d buy plain Greek yogurt and add fruit purées to flavor).

I store bought all purées except a beef purée which I made twice. Breast milk doesn’t have a lot of iron and by 6 months BF babies have run out of iron stores. I would make this, freeze as ice cubes, and then add one to store bought veggies. Here’s the recipe: www.babyfoode.com/blog/2015/4/19/basic-beef-baby-puree

We fed purées first then would put a soft but solid version on his tray or some of whatever we were eating — so we’d feed mashed avocado mixed with some fruit purée then give him some slices of avocado to play with while we ate, or just things from our plate. After maybe 6w when he was good at eating the finger foods we switched to letting him eat finger foods first then fill up on purées after. By 7.5m he was all on finger foods. Exposing them to a variety of flavors and textures is most important — other than salt they can have all kinds of herbs and spices. I remember taking Teddy to an Indian buffet at 8m and he ate more than I did, even spicy food. I’m not a huge fan of the term “baby led weaning” but if you look into it, it will have suggestions on how to give finger food.

T still has plenty of time to be a picky eater but right now he still eats everything we give him. I think exposing him to different flavors and textures early was key, but we also followed the Ellyn Satter division of responsibility in feeding from the beginning. I remembered a dietician friend recommended it to a fellow friend who was having an issue with toddler pickiness, so we just decided to start with it. Basically you don’t make food a battle — the kid gets to decide how much and whether or not to eat, you decide when, where, and what to offer. You don’t worry about what the kid eats or doesn’t eat. No praise or encouraging to eat. Her website has a ton of info: www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/how-to-feed/the-division-of-responsibility-in-feeding/

Remember P foods help poop — prunes, peaches, and pears. ABCD foods constipate — apples, bananas, cereal, and dairy. Babies can get super constipated when starting solids so give lots of P foods in the beginning.

[cactuscookie]

Nov 29, 2017 19:38:13 GMT -5 spearmintleaf said:

We did baby led weaning and it went really well. Puréed meat sounds so gross!

We didn't do this, but if we have another kid, I think I will. Mostly because it sounds easier. Fortunately, H's daycare taught her how to eat with her hands early on, so she wasn't in the puree stage very long.

[icedcoffee]

Like others, I was originally against pureed meat, but DS really loved solids and seemed hungry. I made almost all of his purees, but just couldn't stomach the idea of making pureed meat so I bought pureed Chicken and Apples. My kid seriously loved it. I am so glad I went for it because he would laugh and clap when I gave it to him.

Anyway--the puree stage was SUPER short for us. We probably fed them from 5 months until 8 months. By 9 months DS was solidly eating whatever we were eating just cut up small.

He still really loves meat. His favorites are meats from the slow cooker. Daycare told me when I sent beef stew he was screaming with joy after each bite. LOL

[icedcoffee]

@daylily Baby led weaning wasn't for us either. I think a lot of people who think they did BLW are also mistaken. BLW is super strict in that you can't intermix purees AT ALL and other crazy rules. I followed a few BLW FB pages for a while and some of them are a little intense. We also are in the boat of trying to introduce as many flavors and textures as possible.

I also loved introducing food. Friends thought I was crazy, but I just love seeing DS stuff his face. It brings me great joy. LOL