Fantastic Finger Foods!

I am learning that Lily will eat almost anything that isn't on a baby spoon! She has recently been starting to reject more and more of the "baby food". I'm not sure if it is the texture or watered down flavors, or just that she wants the independence of feed herself, but she will not eat pureed peas from a spoon, but give her some as finger food and she goes to town!

Her meals today included finger food blueberries, Lima beans, strawberries, pea, zucchini, cheerios, and whole wheat bread. Over the weekend she had so many different things I'm not sure I even know about them all. I know she had re-fried beans, rice, guacamole, salsa, peach frozen yogurt, key lime pie, baked beans, and who knows what else my friends and family didn't tell me about. She chowed down on it all.

I have to admit that I was afraid it would make her tummy upset. I told Josh (after he was feeding her from his plate at a Mexican restaurant) that he was in charge of diapers for the next forty-eight hours. In reality, though, it didn't seem to impact her digestive system at all. It appears our little one has a tummy of steal!

All of this is good news. I would love to be able to just feed her what we are eating from the table! I realize, of course, that I do need to be careful about how much fat, salt, and sugar she is getting, but I should probably watch how much of that I'm eating as well! Anyone out there have good finger food suggestions?

Sneaking in the Greens!

Lily is starting to be a bit of a picky eater. She has, for example, figured out that peaches are more delicious than spinach. At first, she would eat anything I fed her. I'm not sure if that was because I was feeding her from jars and all of that food is more bland (she still eats anything from a jar), or if she was just not yet discriminating in her tastes.

Now that I'm making her food, she has shown a distinct preference for the sweet! She will gobble down the fruit, and tolerates carrots and sweet potatoes. The greens, however, she will not eat alone. I've tried zucchini, broccoli, peas, and spinach. She gags with them all. If, however, I make a blend, say blueberries and broccoli (I know...weird), she will eat it.

I'm not sure if this is a good move or not. Part of me wants her to enjoy the vegetables on their own, for their savory flavors. I've tried mixing them with cereal or yogurt and adding some savory spices (cinnamon, cumin, or paprika), but she still won't eat but a few bites. The foodie in me knows that salt will make them taste better, but they (whoever they are) say not to give salt to babies.

Then there is the part of me that just wants her to get the good nutrients and doesn't care if she has them mixed with sweets or not. This morning she gobbled down her favorite breakfast of applesauce with yogurt and cinnamon without even noticing the spoon full of spinach I added!

Any of you baby food making mom's out there have any thoughts?

Making Baby Food

When I started this parenting thing, I swore that I would make all my own baby food. That hasn't happened. After two early failed attempts (mixing sweet potatoes with spoiled breast milk, and making a banana puree that quickly turned brown and which Lily wouldn't eat), I stuck with the jars for a while.

It wasn't really the failure thank kept me from making my own. It was more the ease of pre-made baby food. Everyone says that making your own food isn't hard. They say "just puree up whatever you are making for the family". Well, during the day I work, and I needed something easy to leave for the nanny to feed her. I didn't want her to have to worry with preparing meals for Lily. In the evenings, I hate to admit it, but what "the family" eats isn't really that baby friendly. We tend to eat out a lot or get take out. Not exactly what I want Lily to be eating.

I think the Super Baby Food book was also a problem for me. I got so frustrated with that book and all the contradictory recommendations, that I think I was somewhat afraid of making my own food. It is much easier to just grab a jar from the pantry to feed her, especially if we were going out. Plus, I buy the organic Earth's Best baby food, so I know it doesn't have anything strange in it.

This summer, however, I really want to do better. I have time, which I think has been my main deterrent. I have also fed Lily many new things and discovered that they haven't hurt her in any way, so my fears of that are no longer a factor. I've also found a great website, wholesomebabyfood.com, that has lots of good information and recipes. Unlike Super Baby Food, it is well organized and realistic, not alarmist!

So, this morning I started the day pureeing frozen peas and mango for today's meals. After church, I was off to the farmers market to stock up on wholesome, fresh, local fruits and veggies. Tomorrow my baby food making blitz begins! My plan is to make a bunch of food cubes to freeze. Wish me luck!

The Pinch

Apparently developing a strong pincher grasp is a developmental milestone. Lily has certainly mastered it! It's really fun to watch her pick up her puffs and put them in her mouth. She also tries to pick up almost anything including carpet and buttons of shirts with her little fingers, super cute!

The only problem is that with this new grasp, she has also learned how to pinch skin! She has started this annoying little habit of pinching me in my arm pit when I'm nursing her. It really hurts. Her little fingers are super sharp and it really hurts. It's worse if I'm just wearing a nursing tank and she can get bare skin (which is usually the case first thing in the morning), but she also pinches through a shirt!

I've tried telling her no and holding her hand, but she gets frustrated. I've tried giving her a toy to hold instead of pinching, but she usually drops it and resumes the pinching. When she isn't pinching my under arm, she reaches for my face. I'm just not sure what to do about it. Any suggestions?

I was telling a friend about it and she says that her son slaps her belly with his free hand while he's nursing. Hilarious! Do any of you have any funny stories of what your babies do while nursing?

To Pump or Not To Pump, That is the Question

Well, it's not really a question anymore. I made a decision. I can no longer pump twice a day at work. There just isn't time. When I had a student teacher, it was much easier. Now that I'm in charge of all classroom responsibilities, and especially with the oncoming testing, there is just no way for me to do it twice a day.

I've been struggling with it for a few weeks. Then, on Saturday, I hung out with a friend who is also nursing a little one. She has decided to start weening her five month old daughter exclusively to bottles. She has a two year old as well and just can't find time for all those feedings during the day when her baby nurses forty-five minutes, but takes a bottle in ten! Her candid discussion of her struggle helped me realize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with changing "the plan" if it's what is best for you and baby.

My plan was to give her breast milk exclusively for a whole year. I've already had to let go of that a bit by giving her formula supplements when she was tiny and from time to time when we are out and it was most convenient. At seven months old, giving her one bottle of formula a day is no big deal. I still plan to nurse her before work, give her one pumped bottle during the day, and nurse her when I'm home in the evening. We will still have that special time before I put her to bed. She will still get way more breast milk than formula.

When I think about how much simpler it makes my work day, I have no idea why I didn't make this decision earlier. I am a bit sad, but overall I am relieved. My only hope is that when I'm home in the summer, my milk will come back so that I don't have to give her formula then. I guess that remains to be seen.

**By the way, check out this pewter breast pump from the 1830's! How grateful am I for my dual battery powered one!

Nursing Babydoll

How do you feel about a baby doll that simulates nursing? A young girl dons a halter top with little flower nipples in order to "feed" this doll who actually makes sucking and swallowing sounds, cries, and burps. This ABC News segment does a good job of showing both sides of this controversial toy. I have may own opinion, but before I weigh in, I'm curious what you think. Please vote in the poll to the right and/or leave your comments below.

Poop Problems!

*Warning: This post contains graphic poop related details. :)

Lily has gotten to the point that she usually only has a poopy diaper every three or four days. I have no idea why, but my pediatrician assures me that if it's not overly firm (which certainly isn't the case) or she doesn't seem to be straining, it's not a problem. In fact, you would think it's nice to have so few to change.

The bigger problem, however, lies in the shear volume of those poops when they finally arrive. Today we happened to be having dinner at a friend's house who also has a baby. I took Lily into her changing table to change her only to discover that she was covered from her belly button to her knees in poop! I ended up stripping her down and getting her in their bathtub! What a mess!

While many of her bi-weekly poops result in a bath, this one was particularly messy. This might be due to the fact that in an effort to help her be more regular (since she does get gassy and uncomfortable after a few days) I've been giving her some baby food prunes. I'm not sure if I'll keep that up!

Hilariously, another friend was at my house earlier today hanging out with Annie and Lily when her four month old son had a diaper blow out that resulted in me needing to wash my changing pad cover and bouncy seat!

On a side note - I found enjoyed this cartoon because I don't like the diaper genie. We have one and use it, but I feel like it gets full really fast and is no better at containing diaper smells than my regular trash can. I'm just saying...

Super Baby Food - Super Annoying

Ok...I know some of you loved this book, but I am really struggling to read it. Don't get me wrong. It has some really good ideas and I agree with the basic premise (That store bought baby food is unnecessary and it's easy to make nutritious food for your baby at home), but I'm only five chapters in, and I have some two big issues with this book.

The first is the way it is organized, or I should say, the way it is disorganized. I don't know who the editor was for this book, but they did not do their job. On almost every page of the book, there are references to other pages. For example, on page 13 alone it says " see page 142", "see page 207", "see page 69", and "see page 427". As a reader, I have no idea if I need to go to those pages now to understand or if I should just keep reading until I get there. I also feels like the author repeats things a lot and even contradicts herself.

At one point she mentions letting a baby teeth on a carrot while on another page it is listed as a choking hazard, on another as something that shouldn't be a first food because of nitrites, and on another as not recommended because of pesticides. I actually laughed out loud when, at the end of a section on meat in the food safety section, which doesn't even mention safe meat handling, the note says not to eat rhubarb leaves. I just feel like this author needed to put in more time refining her ideas and organizing those ideas into logical sections.

The second thing that really bothers me about this book is the alarmist perspective that this author takes. Almost every page has two to three WARNING sections (yes, she uses bold all caps!). Often these contradict what she has just written. For example she does mention banana as a good first food she also says "some experts caution that the sweet taste of bananas may give your baby a "sweet tooth" and "some experts recommend against feeding a young baby bananas because of fungicides...banana skins are porous, allowing fungicides to be absorbed into the flesh."

Many of the WARNINGS are just plain common sense ("don't lean with your back on the range top or reach over the stove if you have long hair"). Others don't seem to make sense ("feeding your baby one food for too long a time may produce a sensitivity in him to that food"). There is also Chapter 5, which is an entire chapter on kitchen Safety. In this chapter she suggests that if you break a glass, after you vacuum, you should walk around bare foot to make sure you get all of the shards!

I'm not saying that all of her ideas are bad. It's just that the language she uses makes it hard for me to take her seriously. The final straw for me was this quote from the safety section:
"Do NOT keep poisonous household cleaning products in your home, grandma's home, the baby sitter's house, or any other place your child may be...see the recipes for non-toxic...cleaning products in the chapter Children are More Important than the Carpet beginning on page 474."
Seriously, I'm supposed to go to my mother-in-laws and make her get rid of her Pine Sol and Scrubbing Bubbles? It's just too extreme for me, I'm putting it down and walking away. I may come back later for some of the recipes in the back for toddler food.

First "Solid" Food

Today is Lily's five month birthday!

Over the weekend, we decided to give her some "solid" food. She was showing all the signs of being ready. She was grabbing for our plates and spoons, watching us eat with great interest, not seeming full after her afternoon feeding, and waking regularly at 4am after previously sleeping through the night.

I have been reading the book Super Baby Food, which recommends that if you decide to start with rice cereal, you should use Earth's Best Organic Rice Cereal because they use whole grain, not white, rice, and rather than refining all of the nutrients out and then fortifying them back in, they leave them there to begin with. We have really liked the Earth's Best formula (which is what we use when she gets formula), so we decided to go with that. I put "solid" in quotes because we mixed it four to one with breast milk which made it more liquid than really solid.

She actually did pretty well. She understands how to open her mouth for the spoon and even how to keep most of the food in. Not that we didn't have quite a mess on her bib and shirt (my mom would say it serves me right the way she put her hands in her mouth after every bite, since I apparently did that), but it wasn't as bad as I expected for her first spoon feeding. I'm not sure, however, that her little tummy was quite as ready as the rest of her. She was a rather prolific spit upper (spitter upper?) the rest of the day. This could be because we were playing a lot with her including bouncing and letting her roll over again and again, but I'm not sure. We'll give it a day or two and try again to see what happens.

Washing Bottles*

This might sound strange, but I actually enjoy washing Lily's bottles. We have made it a bit of a ritual when I come home. After I nurse her, I sit her in her bouncy seat in the kitchen while I wash all of the day's bottles. Josh asked me one day why our nanny doesn't just wash them after she uses them, and I'm sure she would if I asked her to, but I don't really want her to.

It's not that I don't think she'll do it right or anything like that. It's just that I like doing it. I think it just seems like a normal "mommy" task to me. Plus, I think washing, along with fixing her bottles, sort of connects me to her feedings even though I'm not there for them. It's just one little way that I can take care of her even when I'm not taking care of her!

*An interesting note about bottles: We've tried several different kinds, and my nanny definitely prefers the Playtex Ventaire advanced. She says she takes it better and isn't as gassy. We have moved up to medium flow nipples because it was taking her too long to eat. When I'm giving her a bottle though, she does not like the Ventaire. She struggles against it and spits it out. With me, and Josh, she likes the plain Madela one with the slow flow nipple. It may make her more gassy, but she takes it easier. I have no idea why.

Starting Solids

Hey moms...when did you start your baby on solids? Please vote in the poll to the right or comment below!

This past week at Lily's pediatrician appointment, I asked her doctor when we should start thinking about giving her solid food. She said really any time between now and six months. She said I would just know...which, honestly, wasn't that helpful.

Last week, when she wasn't sleeping through the night, I considered giving her some cereal mixed in with her bottle to help her sleep. When I read about it and asked some friends, however, evidence pointed to the fact that it probably wouldn't work, and I just wasn't ready to start yet

Josh is really wanting to feed her everything. Perhaps this is because he doesn't get to feed her much. Just last weekend I had to convince him to not give her part of his breakfast. I, on the other hand, waiver about it. At times I think it would be fun to give her a little cereal and see how she likes it. Other times, I dread her starting solids because it feels like it would mean less nursing, which I love.

I almost bought a box of rice cereal yesterday at the grocery store, but at the last minute I put it back! I'm just curious what other mom's did and how it worked?