The Most Important Meal of the Day

I tend to get into breakfast ruts. For most of my grade school days, I started the morning off with a strawberry Nutrigrain bar, hastily grabbed as I ran out the door. In college, I ate the exact same dining hall breakfast every morning from my first day of orientation through my final year: scrambled eggs, grits, and a biscuit/wheat toast. From the beginning of my pregnancy through the first year + of Ethan's life, I ate a Bruegger's rosemary olive oil bagel almost every morning. Then when I discovered the overnight slow cooker method, I switched to steel-cut oatmeal to help boost my milk supply. As an added bonus, Ethan loves it, too, so every morning for the past several months, he and I have split a big bowl of oatmeal. Until the past few weeks.

Maybe it's the warmer weather, maybe it's just not the sort of breakfast you can have for months on end, but I began to get positively sick of steel-cut oatmeal. I had seen a few interesting breakfast oatmeal recipes on Pinterest (for those of you who aren't "in the know," it's like a virtual corkboard/pinboard), so I decided to take advantage of my breakfast boredom to try them out. And I'm so very glad I did.

I began with overnight refrigerator oatmeal since I thought something cold might break my breakfast rut. Oh man was I right! This stuff is fantastic!!! I've tried almost all the flavors she writes about (the only exception is the banana-cocoa since I didn't have any cocoa; I also did a variation of the raspberry-vanilla using strawberries instead since that's what I had on hand). While I've loved them all, my favorite by far is the mango-almond, followed by the raspberry-vanilla or maple-blueberry. The apple and the banana-peanut-butter are both good, but the cinnamon and peanut butter, respectively, are a bit overpowering, and I prefer the lightness of the fruit-centric varieties. In this morning's, I decided to add some coconut to the mango-almond, and it was absolutely divine!

 I think I could happily eat this every morning for quite some time. Plus, it's really healthy with the protein from the greek yogurt, the fiber from the oatmeal, and the Omega-3s from the chia seeds. Unfortunately, Ethan is not remotely impressed. I don't think he likes lumps in his yogurt because he spits it out every time.

So now I needed to find a breakfast for him since I'm not making the steel-cut oatmeal anymore. Enter Pinterest, again. I saw this recipe for individual baked oatmeal, and since Ethan loves muffins so much, I decided to give it a try. I took all these pictures of the process, but then Ethan did something to my iPod, and I had to reset it, thereby losing 3 weeks worth of pictures. Very sad. So you'll have to settle for a picture of him scarfing one down for breakfast this morning, even though it doesn't show all the varieties we made:

He absolutely loves them and would (and has) eaten one for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I love that it's a balanced breakfast in one little muffin cup, plus it's so easy to pull one out of the freezer and just heat it up for him. They're pretty tasty, though I don't know that just one would satisfy me for breakfast. They do make good snacks, though.

Now my only issue became not having the steel-cut oatmeal to boost my supply. In looking back at the baked oatmeal recipe, I realized she had derived her recipe from another blog. When I went to the original source, I saw that she had just the day before posted a recipe for individual baked oatmeal with steel-cut oats! So this morning, we did some more baking, and this time I stuck with plain (Ethan didn't care for any of the toppings on the others) and coconut (my favorite of the toppings we did):

I think these are just as good, if not better, than the originals. They are definitely a bit crunchy, which could be off-putting to some, and they have the nutty, hearty flavor of steel-cut oats. But they are also slightly sweeter (there's much more honey in these than there is maple syrup in the others, and even though I didn't use all the honey the recipe called for, I still could have backed it down a touch and had it taste fine). Ethan didn't seem to notice much of a difference, and I am happy to have a handy, healthy snack to help with milk production.

One of the best things about all of these recipes is that none of them require any real work in the morning, which has been really great lately since I'm flying solo most mornings due to busy season. If you try any of them, be sure to let me know what you think!

At least he's cute...

We've known for months that Ethan understands basically everything, but his behavior from last night just proves it (with adorable results). As soon as I put him in his crib last night, he pointed to the ground and said "Mama?" I told him, "Why don't you try to go to sleep on your own first, and if you can't do it, I will come in and lie down with you, OK?" He sort of begrudgingly nodded but didn't try to fuss or throw Puppy or anything. I watched him on Baby TV, and he stood in the corner of his crib for a while whispering "Mama? Maaamaaaa..." but he never cried or whined. After a few minutes, he threw Puppy onto the crib mattress, laid down on top of him, and went to sleep!

Around 4:30 this morning, I awoke to "Augh!!! Auuuugggghhhh!!!! MAMA!!! MAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!" Since he only sees two boobs if I go in in the middle of the night, Daddy went in to check on him. After a new diaper, he put Ethan back in his crib and laid down next to him. Ethan immediately laid down. The first time he tried to get up, Ethan sprang up and wailed. He told Ethan to lay back down, and Ethan whined "NOOOOOooooOOOO!!!" I laughed in spite of myself listening to it on the monitor. They both laid back down. The next time he got up, Ethan started to protest, but he told Ethan "Daddy needs to go potty." Immediately, Ethan laid back down as if to say "Oh, OK. I understand." And that was that! He went back to sleep and slept until after 7!!!

Since we had a more restful night, we went out for breakfast this morning and then headed to the farmer's market. Ethan had so much fun running around and trying samples. He eagerly took bites of a strawberry (only to spit it all out when he got too much), took a try of some cinnamon roll, and went nuts over some raw carrots. I know they're a choking hazard, but he just took little nibbles off of mine. Well, until he tried to reach into the container of samples and take two huge circles for himself! I'm glad there's at least one vegetable he'll eat!

Now he's having playtime with Daddy while I try to get these papers written. At least I got some sleep last night!

Food Confessions

Since I'm apparently in confessional mode here on the blog, I figured I should come clean about my recent slacking. When we first started Ethan on solids, I was so careful about what went in his body. I made everything he ate, choosing organic and local foods where possible (the only non-organic was bananas because those are clean enough). I scolded when Ethan got bites of Cool Whip or Jello from his daddy (not scolding Ethan, obviously, but his enabler). I made sure that Ethan got the best nutritional start I could give him.

Then he started finger foods. At first, I kept up with all organics. Cheese, veggies, yogurt, cereal, etc. Then he started refusing different textures, and I had to find a way to get him to still eat fruits and veggies other than just giving him purees. Enter the freeze-dried fruits. Now, in my defense, they are at least all natural, containing nothing but the fruit, but they aren't organic. That was probably the beginning of the end. Next came the cereals since Ethan started getting into his daddy's Honey Nut Cheerios, and, let's be honest, non-organic cereals are so much cheaper. Then Ethan started refusing to eat his yogurt, but he would still take bites of mine. So in an effort to get more protein into him, I began just giving him my yogurt instead, which, while not organic, at least doesn't have any artificial sugars in it.

Eventually, it just became a matter of finding things he would eat. Chicken fingers and french fries when we're eating out? Sure. At least he's eating meat. Pancakes covered in syrup? Look at how happy he is! Then Daddy began sharing his Christmas candy loot so Ethan got his first tastes of chocolate and began a new obsession: gummies. He will now point to the cabinet and exclaim, "Bear!" when he wants them. He knows I will never give them to him, but if Daddy is around, he can usually charm his way to sharing a small handful. It still drives me nuts because I really don't want him eating things like that, but at the same time, I guess there's something to be said for moderation.

So there you have it, the mom who was so picky about what her child ate when he was an infant is now letting him have refined sugars and even the occasional fast food french fry. I still try to give him nutritionally balanced meals, and at least we eat at home most days, but about the only organic he gets now is his milk. I'm hopeful that once he starts doing better with textures I will be able to give him more variety, but for now I'm just taking small victories whenever I can get them (like the fact that he ate a good bit of the pork tenderloin I made on Friday and didn't even spit any out! Or that I can get some spinach in him when he takes sips of my daily green smoothie!). Maybe the first several months of careful attention will help balance out this inbetween time?

My Definition of Productivity

I'm not sure that this definition of "productivity" would fly for a non-SAHM-to-a-toddler-while-also-in-grad-school, but this week cannot be described as anything other than productive, in my opinion. First a brief catch-up from the past couple of weeks:

Just after getting over the stomach virus, Ethan caught my cold. It wasn't TOO bad, and it was over after a few days. On the 20th, I was leading worship at church, so Ethan was going to sit with his daddy the whole time. As I kissed him goodbye, I noticed that his nose was running, but I figured it must be allergies or something random like that because SURELY my kid wasn't getting another cold, less than two days after I packed up the humidifier from the last one. By that evening, he was completely stopped up and had a fever. So I spent the night with him in the guest room, trying to get him to sleep as his fever soared to 103.3 at its highest. Not fun. But thankfully he only had 36 hours of fever, and that was the only all-nighter for me. I did come down with his cold, complete with fever, a couple of days later, but we were both feeling better in time for Thanksgiving, for which I cooked a complete feast, even though it was just the three of us. Ethan flattered me by putting his toddler pickiness aside long enough to try a bite of everything:


So between caring for a sick toddler, being sick myself, and preparing for Thanksgiving, blogging was about the furthest thing from my mind. I have posts in my head for toddler breastfeeding, a photo tutorial on making longies from a thrift store sweater, and other fun things, but for now, back to the original topic of this post.

In the past week, I have:
- Gone to my last week of class for the semester
- Started one of my final projects
- Deep cleaned the refrigerator, which included taking EVERYTHING out, scrubbing all the shelves and drawers, washing the walls, etc.
- Semi-deep cleaned the dishwasher, which included scrubbing everywhere that food could build-up (but not taking the shelves out because they get cleaned every time it runs) and running a vinegar cycle
- All of my usual weekly cleaning
- All of my usual laundry, including diapers every other day and including my monthly diaper stripping routine
- Preparing dinner each night according to my weekly meal plan (a new habit I'm trying to get in to avoid last-minute-dinner-headaches)
- Fixing a few extra meals for the freezer
- Going to student health for my yearly physical
- Going to the dentist for my (12-months overdue...) semi-annual cleaning
- Researching and purchasing a chest freezer since our side-by-side is overflowing with frozen produce from the CSA, meat from stocking up when it's on sale, freezer meals both made and purchased, and my breastmilk stash

Again, this may not seem like much, but imagine doing all of this while watching a toddler who just this week discovered he can climb on bookcases, take DVDs out of cases and try to eat them, climb on coffee tables, climb out of play pens (are we sensing a climbing trend here?), and who throws a screaming tantrum any time you try to stop him from doing any of these activities. Then add hour-long meals and snacks since he also decided he doesn't want to eat ANYTHING you offer him the first 100 times. Then see how much you get done and what you consider to count as productivity =)

It's been a good week. Now I just need to hammer out these final projects and study for a final, and then I can "relax." But that's a definition for another day.

Learning to use the spoon

The past few days, Ethan has finally started to rebel slightly against being spoonfed. At first I thought he just didn't want any more of whatever he was eating. Then he reached for the spoon and began feeding himself, with a little guidance from mom when eating more liquidy things like yogurt. This morning, he wanted some of my oatmeal, and it's thick enough to stick to the spoon so he ate all by himself! I managed to grab our new video camera to capture one spoonful:

Thank God We're Not Vegetarians

I have disappeared from the blogosphere lately, mostly thanks to my classes starting back, but I haven't forgotten about it! I have many posts forming in my head, but the paper I turned in this afternoon took up my usual blogging time after Ethan goes to bed. There's plenty to say about the transition this time in going back to school and how getting Ethan down for his afternoon nap without tears has become impossible, but for now we'll stick with the always fun subject of table foods.

Ethan must just sense that he's about to turn one, because lately he has been displaying a toddler's pickiness. Foods that he once ate readily he now pushes away with disgust. If he does decide to try one of these foods (or even occasionally agree to try a new food!), he chews once before sticking his tongue out with the food on the tip and shaking his head until the offending bite falls to the tray. Very frustrating. There are a few exceptions though: meat and carbs. This boy loves him some meat. Turkey, chicken, pork, it doesn't matter. He double fists it as he shoves bite after bite into his mouth, sometimes to the point that slivers of meat stick out from his lips at funny angles. He's also a big fan of bread, cereal, bagels, and even a bit of muffin I gave him in an attempt to get him to eat some blueberries.

Which brings me to my concern with his pickiness. Ethan is refusing to eat any fruits or vegetables in finger food form. However, if I mash it up or give him a puree, he has no problem with it. So thankfully, I'm able to still give him a nutritious meal with all the food groups represented, but it's frustrating that he's being so stubborn about this. I guess it's normal. I've heard of kids who go weeks only eating Goldfish crackers. And at least the meat he so loves is nutritious and a good source of protein and iron.

::sigh:: Just when I think I have my kid figured out, he goes and changes on me. And if he's already this stubborn as an almost-toddler, I'm afraid of what teenage-Ethan might look like!

Yet Another Table Foods Update

This may get a bit rambling. We've had a lot of success in the past week with finger foods so I just want to record some of them, in addition to my continued anxieties.

As Ethan grew closer to the one-year (!!!) mark, I began to be more concerned about his problems with table foods, especially since it seemed every time we had a breakthrough we had a setback soon after. We FINALLY seem to have hit a good stride, though, and Ethan will now eagerly eat off our plates. However, he still refuses a lot of foods in finger-food form, which is quite frustrating since I want him to have well-balanced meals.

His new favorite discovery is meat. In fact, he will turn up his nose at vegetables, fruits, cheese, etc. and just gobble down turkey or chicken. He's getting pretty good at feeding himself off his tray. I can even put a bunch of small pieces down at once because he still usually plays with his food before popping anything in his mouth, dropping half of it before consuming. Anytime we're eating, he refuses to go in his high chair, instead insisting on sitting in my lap so he can cry if I don't feed him off my plate. As a result, in the past couple of days he's had pieces of bagel at breakfast, chicken and turkey in various sauces, potatoes, rice, and even a bit of potato chip (courtesy of his daddy). Unfortunately, he refuses even the vegetables that come off our plates so his diet has been lacking. I can usually get him to eat a banana or two for his breakfast and will often mix in some fruits or veggies into his yogurt with his dinner, at least, so he's getting some still.

While I'm glad he's seeming to get the hang of finger foods, I wish he would be open to more variety. My dad sent me an article this week that hypothesized (based on the experience of a pediatrician) that a child's willingness to accept new foods shuts down at 13 months, meaning the 15 tries it generally takes to make a baby like a new food suddenly becomes 90 tries. Yikes! So hopefully Ethan will come back around to the vegetables he used to love in puree form. I'm going to try him on some new fruits and things like black beans in the weeks to come. Once I get the foods in his mouth, he's usually OK with them, but he just flat out refuses them at first. For example, I finally got him to eat a cherry tomato quarter because he opened his mouth for more chicken without looking up! After initially spitting it out, he then opened his mouth for more tomato and ate it happily! So I guess there may be hope after all.

Table Foods Update

Just wanted to give an update on Ethan's attempts with finger foods. The day after our breakthrough, we had a bit of a setback. I fed him banana pieces with a fork, he gagged, he vomited. I mashed up the banana to a puree consistency, he gagged, he vomited. I gave him a puff, he gagged, he vomited. I took his temperature. 102.5. Between the fever and the congestion, he stuck to nursing and his bottle the rest of the day. For Friday-Sunday, I added back purees but stayed away from table foods until his congestion eased up. (That's not entirely true because on Sunday morning at worship, I gave him a bit of my bread, thus giving him his first Eucharist. He grinned and gobbled it up!)

By Monday, he was back to a slightly snottier version of himself, so we tried again with the peas via fork. Success! I even added some grated organic mild cheddar cheese to the meal, and he absolutely loved that! Tuesday and Wednesday, he ate scrambled egg yolks, peas, cheese, and a bit of bread. I also gave him a tiny piece of my chicken on Wednesday night, and he liked that up until he gagged on it (but it had been thoroughly cooked in the slow cooker to be shredded for BBQ so it was probably just too dry for him).

Today, I was feeding him peas with a fork and cheese by hand, per norm. He then reached out and grabbed some of the cheese from me, but he just played with it and almost immediately dropped it. A few pieces later, he reached out again, and this time he stuffed it in his mouth. I handed him another piece, and he popped it in his mouth! I handed him a pea and he squished it. But a few bites later, he plucked the pea off the fork and into his mouth. I placed a pea on the tray, and he picked it up and ate it. He finally figured out how to feed himself table foods!

I tentatively tried putting several peas at once on his tray so that he could feed himself as he liked, but he decided that just meant it was pea playtime. This evening, after he finished his yogurt, I put a few puffs on his tray to see if he could ration those himself. While he picked up several at once, he did a good job of only putting one at a time in his mouth. Just when I was about to declare him capable of feeding himself independently, he put two in his mouth at once and promptly began gagging. Oh well.

The Trick to Table Foods

I discovered the key to table foods today. After some more failed attempts at finger foods, I decided to try Ethan on whole sweet peas for lunch since he likes pea puree, and they are relatively small and squishy. I put a few on the tray. He picked one up and gave me a look like "You've GOT to be kidding me." I ate a couple to show him the mechanics. He stared blankly. I tried to feed him one. He pursed his lips and turned his head away. In short, he behaved like he usually does unless I'm giving him Puffs or "Cheerios." Then I remembered how well he ate scrambled egg yolks when I fed him with a fork. I fetched his toddler fork and, right in front of him, stabbed one of the peas from his tray. He opened his mouth.

Now, it wasn't immediate. He gagged several times with the first one, once almost to the point of vomiting. With the second one, he gagged a little less. By the fourth one, he was eating peas like an old pro. He finished off an entire saucer full of peas with no problems.

This evening, after he ate half a banana in his yogurt, I decided to tempt fate and cut up the rest of the banana into small pieces. Remember, this ended in disaster last time, with one piece causing him to throw up thrice. I tentatively offered him a piece on the fork. He opened his mouth and ate it like he'd been eating them all along. He finished off the banana like it was no big deal.

So could this be the end of our table food dilemma? I don't want to jinx us, but it certainly seems to have helped! I still have hopes that he'll figure out how to feed himself, but for now I'm perfectly happy feeding him if it'll get him to eat. The only issue may be figuring out how to get things like toast on a fork!

In other news, Ethan has a couple of new "tricks." If you say "Give mommy a kiss," he immediately leans in, mouth open, and puts his mouth on your cheek and grins. Not quite a traditional kiss, perhaps, but still cute as can be! If you say "No no no!" (in a happy tone), he grins and shakes his head back and forth. And yes, I'm guilty of having him do both of these over and over, both because it's adorable and because I'm in awe of what a smart little guy he is! He's also adding new words to his vocabulary, but that's a story for another post. This is just such a fun age, and I can't wait to see what he'll learn next!

Homemade Baby Food

As I've mentioned previously, almost all of Ethan's baby food is homemade (the only exception is puffs), and the majority of it is organic, with much of it being local as well, coming from our CSA. While this has gotten me eyerolls from many people (including my husband), it is important to me that Ethan eats organic as much as possible for at least the first year because I just don't see the point in feeding my child stuff with pesticides, hormones, etc. in it. His daddy is fond of sneaking him Fla-Vor-Ice and Cool Whip, but there's not much I can do to stop him at this point so hopefully the good stuff Ethan eats will cancel that out!

So is making homemade baby food as easy as store-bought? No, but it's definitely more fun and tastes better! Plus, the cost savings are enough to make the time spent worth it. I'm a big believer in "don't feed your kid something you wouldn't eat yourself" so I taste every food and combination before giving it to Ethan. That includes the store-bought organic baby food he ate while in Atlanta, and let me tell you, after tasting it, I wasn't that thrilled to be feeding it to Ethan, nor was Ethan that thrilled to be eating it. How does the addition of ascorbic acid make apples and pears so very bitter? And the organics had less stuff added to them than conventional baby food! Anyway, suffice it to say that homemade baby food is better than store-bought in expense, peace-of-mind, and flavor, even if not in convenience.

So how do you get started? It's quite easy! For basic mashed foods (like bananas and avocados), just mash it up with a fork and you're good to go. For other purees though, you'll need a few things first (You can buy gadgets like the Beaba Babycook that do all the work in one machine, but they're fairly expensive, and since we already had all the tools we needed on hand, I don't mind the extra steps):

- Saucepan and steamer basket with lid
- Skillet with lid
- Oven
- Food Processor/Blender/Food Mill
- Ice cube trays (choose ones with a silicone bottom to make the less-hard-freezing varieties easier to get out)
- Saran wrap (to cover the ice cube trays)

Most fruits and vegetables can be steamed by boiling an inch of water in the saucepan, placing the fruit/veggies in the steamer basket on top with the lid on, and steaming until tender. For some vegetables (like green beans), boiling is better so you bring an inch of water to boil in the skillet, put in the veggies, put the lid on, and boil until tender. Likewise, ground meats will require the use of a skillet and some olive oil. Finally, the oven is useful for roasting vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other root vegetables.

I've always used our food processor to puree, but I believe you can also use a blender or food mill. Depending on the fruit or vegetable, you may need to add additional water to get a smooth puree (this is where the recipe resources below come in handy). This is another benefit to making baby food at home because you can puree it to a texture your baby can handle, allowing you to leave it chunkier as baby gets older (Ethan was not a fan of how watery the commercial baby foods were).

Cereals are made using many of the same tools. For rice cereal for example, you just place brown rice in a blender and pulse until it turns into powder. Then add the rice powder to boiling water, and it magically turns into cereal! (For the exact ratios, check out one of the recipe resources below.)

Once you have made your puree, you can store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days or divide it into ice cube trays to be frozen for up to three months. Once the purees have frozen in the trays, you can put them into labelled freezer bags for easier storage.

Here is a step-by-step picture tutorial for making summer squash baby food:


You can find instructions with cooking times and recipe ideas in many places, but my favorite book is Cooking for Baby and my favorite website is http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com.

Did you know you can even make yogurt? After buying Stonyfield Farms YoBaby for several weeks, I decided to switch to Stonyfield Farms plain whole milk yogurt and mix my purees in. Then I discovered how easy it is to make my own yogurt, and I haven't bought any for Ethan in months. Here's a step-by-step:

1) Heat oven to 100 degrees. If your oven won't go that low, set it to the lowest setting and then open the door and fan the hot air out for a bit. Turn off oven.
2) In a large casserole container, mix 3 Tbsp. whole milk yogurt with 1/2 gallon whole milk. Make sure you stir them well because it won't work if you don't.

((Once my yogurt supply gets low, I transfer it to an empty Stonyfield container for easier storage than the casserole dish))

3) Place container in oven and close the door. Turn on the oven light and allow to sit overnight.


4) The following morning, pour off any liquid on the top and enjoy your homemade yogurt!

We've made four batches so far, and I don't foresee buying whole milk yogurt again.

So there you have it! Homemade baby food is well within anyone's reach, and your baby will thank you! And you can rest easy knowing exactly what is going into your child's food.

The Trials of Table Foods

Ethan is not doing well with starting table foods. Maybe it's because he just loves his purees. Maybe it's because of his ultra-sensitive gag reflex. Regardless of the reason, most attempts at getting him to eat finger foods have failed.

Sometime after he turned 8 months, I decided to try him on some chunks of food he'd already eaten and loved. I started with bananas. I diced some banana up into tiny pieces and convinced him to try one. He gagged so much that he vomited three times. After that, I was scared off for about a week before deciding to try puffs. The first couple of attempts led to more gagging, so we gave it a rest for a couple of weeks. Magically, he then seemed to "get" puffs and hasn't had any trouble ever since. I held off for a while on trying any other bits of finger foods because I feared making him vomit again and him losing all the calories he just drank.

I asked the pediatrician for suggestions at his 9-month appointment. We tried whole grain bread. Between the gagging and the refusal to eat it, I think he got down just a couple of pieces after multiple attempts at different sittings, toasted and plain. I tried bits of peaches and plums, but he wouldn't even let me get those near his mouth, much less pick them up for himself. One night during dinner, I offered him a piece of roasted potato. Once I finally convinced him to try it, he actually seemed to like it! We've had luck on a couple of other occasions with roasted potatoes, so I began to think maybe he was getting this table food thing after all.

The other morning, I made him scrambled egg yolks, since that's sort of in between table foods and a puree. He wasn't sure what to think of the toddler fork I fed him off of, but he seemed to do OK with the actual eggs. He only ate about half of it, but there wasn't any gagging. Finally! He seems ready! I excitedly got blueberries at the Farmers' Market this morning and sliced them in half just to be sure they weren't too big. And he absolutely refused to have anything to do with them. When he finally opened his mouth to let me slip one in, he made a face, chewed once or twice, and then began gagging. Thankfully, he didn't vomit up anything but the blueberry, but it was hardly a success. After that, nothing I did could make him have any interest in the rest of them. I even tried putting puffs on his tray amidst the blueberry halves, but that only resulted in a game of "Find the Puff!"

I'm at a loss. I know he'll eat them when he's ready, but I wish I could find something that would appeal to him as much as puffs do. Any suggestions?

Puffs

As mentioned previously, this week Ethan has really figured out Puffs. I tried them with him last week, and he just couldn't figure out what to do with them (other than gag). But this week, he's stuffing them in his mouth, chewing, and swallowing like a pro. He loves them! In fact, I have to dish them out one at a time or else he'll put another one in before he's swallowed, and I'm still too anxious to let him, even if he can handle it. Today, he ate 10 of them, even after his usual solids meal, and he probably would have eaten more if I let him. And since my mom can never get enough videos:

You Are What You Eat

I figured it's been a while since I talked about this, so this will be a general update on all that Ethan eats (except for cat fur because that's not supposed to go into his mouth). We're still nursing at least five times a day, and he's taking three bottles of formula supplement and two meals of solids. So let's start with nursing:

We made it over a hump a month or so ago. He'd gotten to the point where he was refusing the breast in favor of the bottle, which really upset me. He would only nurse a couple of minutes on each side, and I worried about my supply. Finally, I just stopped stressing out about it. And gradually, he stopped popping off and crying until I gave him the bottle. He still often nurses only a few minutes on each side, but I put him on each side 2-3 times in the course of a feeding so I feel like he's doing enough. As stressful as it's been, I love nursing. Obviously, I wish we could just nurse exclusively, but my body had other plans for the past almost 7 months. However, as he continues to add solids, his need for formula supplements is decreasing (just as the lactation consultant predicted). Already, we've dropped one bottle due to his changing nap and eating schedule. I was very nervous about this, but the numbers on the scale continue to rise! As a result, I have a new goal. I'm going to add back pumpings and such in order to boost my supply, and with increased solids, I hope to be off supplements around 10 months. I don't know if we'll reach that goal, and obviously we'll continue with the supplements if his weight starts to stall, but it would be so nice to not have to deal with bottles and formula anymore. (Don't worry, Mom. I talked about this with his doctor, and she thought it was a great idea provided we continue to monitor his weight, which we will. I know you're going to worry anyway, but you know I would never do anything that compromises Ethan's thriving.)

Now on to those supplements. Around the same time as the nursing hump, we dealt with Ethan getting easily distracted when taking his bottle. It became a major production and required multiple bottle breaks and changes in scenery to get him to finish. We seem to have overcome that, as well, much to my relief! He gets a bottle after his second, third, and final nursing of the day, so even with my tiny stash, I only have to wash bottles twice a day and mix formula once. It's still a pain, but not as bad as when he had five (smaller) bottles a day.

And now onto solids. My freezer contains the following (in order of introduction):
- Organic sweet potato puree: Likes it now!
- Organic brown rice cereal: Not a huge fan unless mixed with banana.
- Organic pear puree: Loves it!
- Organic apple puree: Loves it!
- Sweet pea puree: Loves it!
- Organic asparagus puree: Loves it!
- Turkey puree: Tolerates it if mixed with pear, but he has a hard time swallowing it without a sippy cup of water
- Organic spinach puree: Waiting until 8 months to try due to Nitrates and Oxalates

In addition, Ethan still loves banana, still hates avocado (we tried it again last week... not good), and is obsessed with yogurt. We were using Stoneyfield Farms YoBaby, but then I decided to just get Stoneyfield Farms Plain Whole Milk yogurt and mix his purees in. Now I'm thinking about just making my own yogurt because it's actually quite easy! I'll let you know how it goes. He eats 4 oz. of yogurt every afternoon, which helps to make up for the lack of a bottle then since yogurt actually has more calories.

So all in all, we're both doing great!

One screaming baby and a $10 copay later...

((Warning: This gets somewhat graphic, so if you're not ready to read about baby poop, perhaps skip this post))

Yesterday was a rough day. Not the entire day, but as a whole. The day started out as usual. Ethan ate, he napped, he played. It was after his second nap that things took a turn. To begin with, I let him crawl around while I got ready to feed him, and he bumped his head on the coffee table. Not the end of the world, but he cried, I comforted, he nursed. After eating, I put him back down to play, and I started to make some strawberry bread. He crawled into the kitchen, happily chasing Toby. All of a sudden, he stopped and started crying. At first I thought maybe he'd bumped his head again, but there was nothing he could have hit it on. Then I assumed he just wanted to be held, so I picked him up while I continued cleaning strawberries. But, for once, being picked up didn't help. He continued to cry and even scream. All kinds of theories came to mind. Did he really hurt himself when he hit the coffee table? Could he have a headache? Do babies get headaches? Maybe it's a bad gas bubble? I did eat a lot of broccoli for lunch (thank you, CSA!). Could it have affected my milk that quickly when it's never done so before? Maybe it's his teeth? While I tried to figure out what was wrong and comfort him, I stood him on the dining room table and handed him his sippy cup. He happily sucked on in for a minute before his entire face contorted. He strained like he was trying to poop and let out a horrible scream. He cried uncontrollably and buried his face in my shoulder.

At least now I knew the culprit. I brought him up to his nursery and laid him on the changing table. Sure enough, he had pooped, and there was a decent amount. I'd noticed the past three dirty diapers had been smaller than usual, but they were also fully formed so I figured it was just a result of the solids transition finally occurring. I was actually thrilled since this meant no more scraping diapers in the toilet before washing them! Now, watching my baby scream, I was less excited and more concerned. He began to scream more as he pooped again. It looked normal, though formed, so I couldn't figure out what was causing him such pain. As soon as he was done, he went back to playing with the toy I'd handed him, perfectly happy. But when I wiped his bottom, he began crying again. I noticed the slightest tinge of blood on the wipe, but there was none in his stool, at least.

I decided to put in a call to the nurses at the pediatrician, just to see if there was anything I could do to help him in the future. I figured his body was just adjusting to more formed stools, and the pain and tinge of blood was just the result of his straining. However, when I called the nurse, she wanted me to bring him in immediately. Begrudgingly, I rushed him in, even though he was ready for another nap. Thankfully, the doctor agreed with me that it was unlikely to be constipation, and she didn't see anything more serious, so she agreed with my diagnosis. We're to limit his intake of bananas, sweet potatoes, and other binders and give him more pears and other fruits, which thankfully he loves. He flirted with the doctor and nurses the entire time and seemed to be in great spirits. So basically, I paid $10 and dragged Ethan out during naptime in order to get the same information I'd hoped to get over the phone in calling. At least, if it happens again, we know for sure nothing serious is wrong.

Within 7 minutes of getting home, Ethan was asleep, but I still had to wake him up after a bit to make sure he'd sleep that night. As a result, he was already a little cranky. He nursed OK, and then I mixed up a batch of pear yogurt for him. In order to get the plain yogurt sweet enough, I had to add 7 cubes of pear puree, but even then, after a couple of spoonfuls, he began refusing it. He drank water out of his sippy cup just fine, but if I even picked up the spoon, he began to fuss. I was relating this to my mom on the phone and picked up the spoon so she would hear him. And of course, he grinned, grabbed for the spoon, and ate his pear yogurt happily. He polished off the entire plate, in fact. What a mischief!

Unfortunately, his fussiness continued to a lesser extent for the rest of the evening, and the events of the day led to the worst bedtime since day 1. When I put him down, he did his new fake-out of snuggling up to sleep, but this time when he lifted his head, it was to cry, not to grin. He cried fairly constantly for 23 minutes before finally conking out just when I was getting ready to go in and check his diaper.

Thankfully, this morning has been off to a better start. He didn't stir all night and woke up at 7. Plus, he woke up with a dirty diaper, and it was completely unformed, which meant no pain for him. I don't know if the past two days were just anomalies or if the extra pear did the trick. And while it meant I spent another morning with my hand in the toilet, I'll gladly do it if it means no more pain for him.

Food and Teeth and Crawling, Oh My!

It's been an eventful couple of weeks in the Marks household. As previously mentioned, last week Ethan got his first tooth. He didn't seem to mind it as much when it first broke through, but the following few days were rough. He was fussy during the day and didn't sleep well at night. On Saturday night, he refused to be put down so I eventually put his crib mattress on the floor and curled up beside him, spending the majority of the night on the nursery floor. Thankfully, the next day he was in better spirits and proceeded to sleep all night long for three days in a row. Last night, that streak was broken by two wakings, and this morning I discovered why: My little boy has another tooth. If past is prologue, now that it's broken through, things might get rough again, but now I know the mattress-floor trick, at least =)

Speaking of his mouth, we've been working on solids for over two weeks now. I've made all of the following thus far:

- Mashed banana - Initially loved it, but yesterday he wasn't as interested as usual
- Organic sweet potato puree - Initially hated it but has taken it a few times since then. I haven't tried it lately.
- Organic brown rice cereal - Initially hated it but will eat it readily when mixed with banana and once by itself
- Mashed avocado - Hated it. And after sampling it myself, I can't blame him.
- Organic pear puree - Initially wasn't too impressed and still won't open his mouth as wide for it, but I catch glimmers of smiles occasionally, and he cleared his plate today
- Organic apple puree - Haven't tried yet
- Sweet pea puree - Haven't tried yet

On Sunday, we'll start with the apple, so hopefully that will go over well since he's already used to the texture with the pear. And here in another week or two, we'll add a second meal! I'm loving making all of his food myself. I just wish he enjoyed eating it as much!

Ethan is definitely on the move with his army crawl. As I type this, he's crawling around on the floor and trying to pull up on his Jumperoo. While I'm excited for his development, it makes the need to babyproof the house even more evident. He gets frustrated with staying in one place for too long, and he can't be left alone for a second unless he's in his pack-n-play or Jumperoo. Maybe over the next couple of weeks we can get that taken care of... As I said, it's been an eventful past two weeks so I'm afraid to see what the next two have in store for us!

Solids = Success?

After last weekend's failure, we decided not to keep up the solids attempts for a while. However, this morning Ethan was grabbing for my food as usual and managed to get my banana to his mouth while my head was turned. Unbeknown to me, he actually bit a chunk off, which he subsequently gagged on and spit out. Once I was sure he was OK (he was completely unfazed), I decided to take advantage of his interest and mash up a piece of my banana for him to try. The first spoonful was spit out, but for once he didn't gag. I kept trying, and finally got him to swallow a bit. His face lit up in a smile, and he opened his mouth for more. After a couple more small bites, he was back to spitting it out, so I decided he was probably ready for his morning nap (which he was). Following his nap, I nursed him, and prior to giving him his first bottle of the day, I decided to try again with the banana. He happily swallowed the remaining spoonfuls (still not much since I didn't mash up too much to begin with), with nary a gag or spit! And some of the spoonfuls were pretty full, so I was quite impressed. He seemed to lose interest around the time I ran out of banana, but he continued to smack his lips and play with his tongue like he does after a nursing session to get the last drops, so I think he might actually like it! At the very least, he's beginning to figure out the mechanics. So we may try again with banana tomorrow in hopes that we can soon graduate back to cereals and sweet potato!

Oh, and to address the old wives' tale that babies shouldn't have fruit as a first food: Breast milk is extremely high in sugar so breastfed babies already have a sweet tooth, thus making fruits a natural choice for a first solid. In fact, more and more studies are showing that (white) rice cereal has no place at all in a baby's diet, yet the same people who say you shouldn't give a baby fruit are usually the same people pushing store-bought rice cereal. For more info on this, check out The WhiteOut Movement.

Solids = FAIL

After much debate and reading, we decided to go ahead and try Ethan on solids a week before he turns 6 months since he certainly seemed ready (sitting well unassisted, attempting to grab and eat our food, allowing a spoon to be put into his mouth). I'd made brown rice cereal last weekend and sweet potato puree yesterday morning so yesterday afternoon after his feeding, we put him in the Bumbo and got ready. He was immediately enticed by the new bib:


When I approached him with the plate and spoon, he was very excited and immediately reached out to grab them. In fact, he grabbed the puree off the spoon before I could even get it to his mouth. Thus the messiness began:



Overall, he was not a fan. He enjoyed playing with the food, but very little actually made it into his mouth:


He was quite happy when the whole ordeal was over and it was time for his bath:




Today, we tried again. I thinned down the rice cereal some more and had more success getting him to open his mouth and take it off the spoon. Then he gagged. This isn't too unusual for him since he'll gag on a bottle from time to time, too. However, this was the first time he gagged to the point of vomiting, and up came a couple of ounces of formula and breastmilk. At that point, I called it quits, and I think we're going to take a break from the solids attempts for a little while. At least making the baby food is fun, even if attempting to feed it to him isn't yet.