ILX Parenting 5: I'm a big kid now

kinda surprised yr pediatrician would say you got get 'em off the tit BEFORE solid foods. not my experience at all. we started feeding solids (mashed up bananas, avocados, apple sauce, etc.) to my daughter at 5 mos at she macked down on 'em, but she didn't stop breastfeeding until about 6-7 mos later. so idgi. but yeah every kid is different.

never bought babyfood (aside from the initial infant rice cereal, which we would add to her milk). always mashed up our own food. worked out pretty well.

are we differentiating between breastfeeding and bottle feeding here...? cuz my wife would pump and we would give my daughter breastmilk in a bottle (sometimes w/the rice cereal) and iirc actual breastfeeding kind of tapered off to a before bed/middle of the night thing for awhile until she ended up refusing ye boobs entirely.

I was going to try pumping to transition her off. We have been introducing solids since 6 months and planned on making our own baby food but she never liked anything we made, didn't like store bought until Sprouts. I however did start making a mental list of my future diet should I be lucky enough to live to a ripe old age and lose a few teeth.

Tracer, will look for that book, I feel I have no common sense with this right now. Breastfeeding keeps August very happy. But yeah....I don't think I am ready yet. Have to get there too.

I guess I would like to get her o where she eats something for breakfast, lunch and dinner and then I can nurse her to sleep. That is where I'd like to be by the time she is a year old. More or less....

did anyone else read this? http://www.kveller.com/mayim-bialik/mayim-bialiks-4-year-old-son-is-officially-weaned/

Actually I guess I'm using "wean" wrong -- we started her on solids at 6 months and she basically gets most of her nutrition from them or bottles now, but she still breastfeeds idk once or twice a day? And I think completely ending it will be hard.

I wish were there.

*we

the doctor said she is losing nutrients, must feed her solids NOW, losing vitamin D

I'm a non-parent so I don't usually feel qualified to post here but I'm going to call out your doctor because vitamin D is not an essential dietary vitamin and it's synthesised by our bodies when we're exposed to sunlight. Food consumption has very little to do with the whole equation. School biology lessons taught me this, come on!

The pediatrician said she will not like solids so long as she can breast feed.

this is not true

Tera, FFS at your paed, he's talking bollocks. your BM is the most calorific thing you can give her, and still has everything she needs. Paeds don't advise getting off formula to get babies to eat solids, why do they think they won't eat solids with breast milk?! Just because it's sweet? What do they think the human race did before formula?! (apart from breastfeed for a whole lot longer than 12 months...) Re vitamin D, there are concerns at the minute that people don't get enough daylight to be able to make enough vit D but you can take supplements and she'll benefit through your milk, or you can get supplements for her to take directly. She's not going to get more vitamin D just because you've weaned her off breastmilk

Here's some good links to help you decide what you want to do http://kellymom.com/ages/weaning/considering-weaning/weaning_intro/ I really like the kellymom site for good BFing support.

I did 'baby led weaning' with both of mine (in the UK weaning is starting solids, rather than stopping milk) it made sense to us and it was fun. We just eat healthily and gave them what we were having, and we all got to sit around the table and eat at the same time, very sociable! I once tried some of the rice cereal as we got a free sample, have you tried it?! It's rank! I refuse to feed my children something I wouldn't eat myself.

Aidan took to food like a duck to water and was down to three feeds during the day at 12 months. Molly's been a lot slower and though she eats she still doesn't eat loads and breast feeds a lot. I'm sure if I weaned her from the breast she'd eat more but she'd miss out on the continuing benefits of breastmilk and I'd loose the ongoing health benefits too. The mantra of BLW is 'food is fun until one'

Then there are the non-nutrient etc. benefits of BFing too - M started having a total meltdown on the train on the way home from work/nursery yesterday. I couldn't figure out what her problem was so couldn't fix it. 60 seconds of nursing and she came off happy as larry, and the rest of the passengers heaved a sigh of relief.

in the US weaning is starting solids, rather than stopping milk

Really? I thought there was loads of confusion when the 'baby led weaning' thing became big, as lots of US mums called self-weaning from the breast baby led weaning. Maybe it's changed since 2007 when I had my first.

The other reason why I'm glad we gave them the food we made is because I don't trust the companies that make baby food. this is quite gross and looks pretty well researched http://www.thealphaparent.com/2013/02/the-truth-about-baby-food-jars.html

well, i guess there may be.. er... regional differences within the US but in my specific case with my first, pre-2007 btw, and general impression of what was going on with our peers i would say that notwithstanding my pretty mainstream trad pediatrician and even with our own non-"hippie" tendencies we were more the norm and there was no question about pro-bf/slow weaning no pressure regarding the stopping of breast milk. my kids were still nursing once or twice a day until after the age of 2

Wow, that's fab! There's so much society pressure to wean after 6 months in the uk, and BFing after 12 months, while more common now, still gets people staring at you as though you've got two heads if you dare to feed in public (if they actually realise what you're doing that is!)

This has all been great, I do appreciate all input, it has been extremely helpful.

Vickyp: reading this on the website made me feel better, great website, thanks:

"It’s a myth that the benefits of breastmilk stop at a certain point. Instead, they continue and are more significant and longer-lasting for both you and your child the longer breastfeeding continues.

I do take vitamin D supplements and other vitamins.

We have two great baby food recipe books I want to use so still hoping to make her food and I still try....

I forget how old she is, but you don't even really need special "baby" recipes. Early on you can just puree things for them (fruits, vegetables etc.) and give them things like plain yogurt. Once they can take solids, they can really eat a lot of the same things adults eat, although it's a good idea to cook them with no or little salt and not too spicy. You just use common sense -- mash or cut into very small pieces, if you give them fish be REALLY careful about bones, etc.

I also have the totally non-scientific opinion that foods like "rice cereal" are really over-recommended for babies -- they're not filling or nutritious and I think they acclimate the baby to a bland diet.

it's funny how their tastes change too - things they loved when they started eating solids they will no longer even consider eating a year later.

She doesn't like just plain puree. The books started with sweet potato with a pat of butter and she turned her nose up that. Sprouts adds a bit of mint and nutmeg, I noticed garlic sometimes. The baby recipe books build up to that and have similar ideas... She likes just a bit of the cereals. I tried them, they have a mild sweetness to them. She makes a face with everything she eats, it's one of just dissatisfaction or unhappiness.

She reached for refried beans at a Mexican restaurant once and I gave her a tiny bit,tip of spoon and she liked that. My grandmother always told me not to give babies pinto beans until a year old because they can be heavy on the tummy, causing really bad tummy aches and gas. But the broth was fine.

I also don't think she likes the high chair. She cries every time she is placed in it. Had more luck just sitting on the floor with her the other day.

Anyone done a long international flight with a 1-2 year old? We have a semi-obligation to go abroad so the extended family can see K (wife's side) but we really have reservations about doing it. Aside from feeling a little iffy about going out of our way to visit the grandma who couldn't be arsed to come to our wedding, we're just worried about handling the flight and about what it will do to her sleep schedule (some friends have said it gets screwed up for weeks after the trip). Add in the large expense and I kind of don't want to do it. It's not like K will get much out of the experience other than exhaustion and confusion.

we've taken two 10 month olds back & forth across the Atlantic (separate trips), & one 2 year old back & forth across the Atlantic (yet another trip). we didn't have any big trouble with these trips. the flight was fine, kids just conked out most of the time; jet lag was less of a big deal for the kids than for us

obv this isn't everyone's experience; I flew b/f to Europe about a month ago sans enfants but other people's kids howled up a storm

One of the problems is that K is too big for the bassinet thing. How did yours sleep, in a carrier?

sarah took evie to france to visit her sister last year and it went fine, she just brought a bunch of distractions (books, toys, loaded kid movies on her phone, etc). also if she's under 2 she can ride on your lap so no extra expense. but i understand looking for reasons to not making long flights to visit family.

no bassinet, just on lap (for baby 1) & in a seat (for baby 2 & toddler 1). which we paid for, obv. was worth the money imo

baby acne is the weirdest

haha Ben has had a bit of that
also a hernia

whoa

i didn't know babbies got hernias. how does that happen?

belly button hernia?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inguinal_hernia

think it's one of these, p common among male babbies. my pa in law had one when he was a bairn.

way more photos on that Wiki page than I expected

interesting!

hope yr babby heals up nicely :)

evie keeps insisting that real simple magazine is a book for kids because one of the articles has cartoony ivan brunetti illustrations (and if you know the type of stuff brunetti normally does, you know she's doubly wrong)

Ha! I have a ton of Brunetti stuff in storage. Yeah wouldn't August seeing that stuff :)

I ordered a plain, Joovy brand walker even though August can walk. She will be so tired, ready for bed and shoot off walking, trip and fall back. Just too drowsy. I thought a walker in the evenings may help until she's got it down a bit better or learns to just get to bed. Don't know how correct my thinking is on this.

The other reason I got it is because I had a feeling she would enjoy eating in it. So far, I am right on that. She has eaten everything I have given to her in this walker. She can eat anywhere and I think she likes that. I also needed a place to put her on "pause" while I checked the oven, used the bathroom etc... It arrived today and has been a great upgrade to her playpen. She cannot stand the playpen, that is going away and her bouncer is only fun for five seconds. Hoping the interest in that returns. It is for up to 18 months and I'd use it if I could. Nice recliner/bouncer...

Oh man I miss the days of the bouncer. I think it was called a jumperoo or something. Abby had so much fun she would practically bounce right out of it. Eventually though, she realized that sometimes we were putting her in there and she rebelled against it. Probably only lasted a couple of months.

Going through a phase where she's really growing up mentally and suddenly able to engage in basic conversations about things, sometimes events that happened days ago. Her little imagination is developing and I'm starting to see her just get totally immersed in a little world of play with all her toys. It's so awesome, but suddenly I'm looking at her and she's a kid, not a baby anymore. I'm tearing up on the regular.

The jumperoo worked for us for a bit but given that K is a one-year-old nearly the size of a two-year-old (literally, not kidding), and that we live in an apartment building, we thought her thunderous jumping might not be pleasing the neighbors.

In addition to saying words (in both languages) K started to unleash these extremely long strings of babble, like she'll just sit there in her high chair and hold forth for five minutes straight as though delivering a lecture.

How's life: I am starting to tear up as this 9th month is passing by at a way faster rate than previous months....Tonight J said he wishes she'd stay this age a while longer. My dad told me he remembers me well at 9-12 months. But your post reminds me that there is just more fun to come...and tears.

Hurting: August has started that this week...not very long but short spurts of what sounds like speaking in tongues. Done with such conviction...

Looking like August will tolerate the walker long enough for me to get a quick chore done but will sit a lot longer in the evenings. She seems to relax a bit while in it in the evenings. But also J comes home and she misses him and stays by his side the entire evening.

I don't think I have more fun on Valentine's than I did this year. Not since I was five or six. Threw a lil party for August and it just became an occasion for us. So that's what a family of three is like :)

daughter now periodically adopting faux British accent, which is pretty funny

lol where did that come from

Julie Andrews movies? maybe episodes of Angelina?

it uh might be my fault too, as I periodically lapse into comedy cockney/Irish/scottish accents whenever any subject involving the British Isles comes up

Ha!!!

explaining cockney rhyming slang to your child also endless source of comedy fwiw

tera (re: the walker) we had one of these for both beatrice (pond style) and henry (jungle style). they both LOVED it. We would put henry in that thing when we got home and he'd be so busy in there like he was at the office and had a ton of work to do. Always good for a 30 minute break for the parents too.

http://www.nestingmode.com/uploads/product/12175343790.jpg

lol 'like he was at the office' - so cute

^^^ YES, this made me laugh too :) Okay so I know what I need to do!!!

Survived one year of parenting. Party this morning for birthday. DRINKING.

Awwww Happy Birthday, K and Hurting :)