April 2011 - Food Glorious Food, Sleep Glorious Sleep <subtle key change> They're our babies, we'll obsess if we want to!

[fraktious]

Thread 4 - that's one a month!

Miserable teething baby has finally conked out on the sofa, my ears are ringing from the silence!

No, I don't think any of my neighbours have a baby, which is one of the reasons why the crying confused the hell out of me. I wonder if a neighbour had visitors?

I've got a teething baby as well here today. Luckily he's not too grumpy, but he doesn't want to be left alone for anything more than about 10 flipping seconds.

I bought him a Sophie the Giraffe teether toy and that has gone down really well. It's easy for him to hold and soft enough for him to chomp down on. I've also given in and ordered some neckerchief style bibs because the dribble coming out of him is epic.

Ooh, ILike where did you order them from? Am thinking of getting some.
We were given a Sophie as a present for M, she likes it & the boys seem to like it too.

When I've had trouble sleeping I came up with something that sort of helped, i would repeat to myself; i'm warm, safe & comfortable, there's no reason to not be asleep. or something like that. Then again sometimes nothing worked

Just one day left then the boys (incl dh!) will all be out of hair for hours at a time

We were given a Sophie too. It seems like they're the toy of the moment round our parts. it's about the only thing that P can get in her mouth though, so it's quite useful.

P has been quite whingy today. Maybe teeth but still can't see any sign of anything erupting in her mouth. She went down pretty easily at 7ish though, so I've been making the most of the peace and have been enjoying a glass of wine on the couch in front of x-factor.

We have a Sophie giraffe too. It's funny though as one of my good friends is called Sophie and I feel stupid telling L to chew Sophie's ear!!!

Yup, Sophie is a member of our household as well, panic stations when she can't be located!

I was talking to another mum yesterday her DS has a Sophie too, in fact he has 3. A full size one, this went everywhere but her DS would squeek it in the middle of the night, so she got him the small teether for nights and when out and about, yesterday she purchased the 3rd, another of the small ones so she always has one in reserve!

imagining life-size toy giraffe held by small boy!

gah! i'm up. its now our turn for the "will not go to skeep baby". i knew it was too good to be true. he just want to chew something, but everytime he drops the teether he yelps ubtil uts put back. so im just sitting with him until he drops off. it could take some time.

excuse the typing doing it onehanded :o

these are the bandana bibs I ordered JKS no idea what they are like, but I thought 4 for £10 was a good price and the fabrics are lovely! People on their FB page were happy with them, so I sort of took that as a recommendation.

I never knew Sophie was so popular!

Pre school starts here on Tuesday . Even though I was dreading the holidays I actually really enjoyed it and it has flown past. I think keeping busy helped, I never had enough time to realise how knackered I felt

We have 5 Sophies here. We got given them by everyone....squeaky toy, teether, rattle!

Thanks for the bandana link ILTMI
I've just ordered a pack of the Fifi,

DS has been at nursery during the summer, but he starts an extra morning next week

can I suggest www.butterfliesanddinosaurs.co.uk/categories/Dribble-Bibs/
for ordering dribble bibs? (It's my sisters shop so I have an interest! I hope no-one minds me suggesting it here)

In other news, I've been reading up on, and consequently ummin and ahhhing about weaning. G is only 20 weeks so I think probably a bit early and I've been swayed by the fact all my NCT group are also at it.. MN is definitely pro BLW but no-one I've come accross in real life is in favour and I'm in 2 minds about it really. G seems ready in many ways for food - I have given him porridge already and he looks at the spoon and opens his mouth wide when he sees it coming, eats all that I give him and sort of smack his chops and goes MMmmmmm. But now I'm worried it's too soon given the stuff I've been reading about their digestive systems not being ready until six months.

Also, I know one of the pros for BLW is 'not having to faff about with purees' but I want to faff about with them . I can't wait to introduce G to new flavours... but I am wondering if this is the problem that my reasons for doing bits and pieces now are to do with what I want to do which is obviously not a good enough reason! I'd definitely can it, if it wasn't for the fact that the porridge went down really well.

What do you reckon sensible April ladies? Will I cause harm giving him random purees and porridge till six months then giving 'proper' food from there if he can sit up?

Ok, I'm going to come out of the weaning closet. H has been having mashed up bits and pieces and the occasional purée since he was 20 weeks (he'll be 23 weeks on Tuesday).

The guidance was changed from six months to 4-6 months recently and we decided he was ready for several reasons. He was grabbing for our food, lip smacking when we ate, crying when we didn't give him any, he can sit in a highchair unaided and is a very healthy and robust baby. Plus he was still hungry despite repeated feeding and was hungry after making himself sick with milk. We tried baby rice mixed up with my BM but he wasn't too interested so he's been having homemade purees and the occasional fruit purée that's suitable for four months and above.

We had to try a jar while in France and it was RANK! I know because I tried some when H pulled a comedy disgust face. I'm a big foodie, as are the rest of my family, if I wouldn't eat it, neither will he!

I've introduced things reasonably slowly to ensure there's no allergy before starting a new food and H often handles, squishes and smears things around before eating as I want him to want to eat it IYSWIM. I too like the idea of baby led weaning but I'll wait until we're at the six-month mark as that way I can give him pretty much what we're having.

I'll be blunt and say I haven't mentioned it before because I've found local mums really judgey and I'm starting to feel a bit attacked over my decisions. But I know this is right for H, I really think that capitalising on his enthusiasm is the best way to introduce new things.

Well I'll swap you cycle because the local mums here are judgy the other way. BLW has already been declared 'a bit namby pamby'! But the fact I still have him our room and gasp sometimes in our bed is also a shocker so there you go, each to their own!

cycle how have you found it affects his nappies? Just wondering as I gave G baby rice last week and then there were some veerry dodgy nappies so if we have a repeat after the porridge I think maybe he's not ready for it yet as can't digest properly.

hello,

I'm only just hanging on with EBFing. I've only done 2 days at work but F's been up at least twice a night between 12-6. (Didn't get to bed till after 11 when I'd finished speed-planning for next week).

This morning I cracked and asked my sis about how weaning helped her DS sleep (no effect till 7 months at least, she started at 18wks. And it's an indication of desperation that I asked the "have you started weaning" queen), and started looking at baby rice & porridge on tesco.com.

F's been sitting up for a couple of weeks now (he'll be 23 wks tomorrow), and has his gaviscon with all the gusto you describe, cycle.

I'm trying to hold off. The last thing I want is for him to have digestive issues or allergies (we've already got a family history of cows milk sensitive eczema). But it's hard!

He hasn't been doing well with the bottle either, so I'm torn with thinking at least he wouldn't feel hungry if DH or cm gave him food/puree.

The nappies have been fine, semi digested at first but proper poo now that H passes with no problem whatsoever. Interestingly, the baby rice was a bit too solid as it were and H wasn't happy, whereas the veg purees are going through well. As he's still mostly BF though he still does the occasional runny one.

His sleep is still hit and miss and I've heard that the introduction of protein (ie meat) at six months sometimes helps with that but it wasn't even a consideration in our case.

Oh and there are no allergies on either side of our families too, we considered that before starting.

Well DH and I have had several weaning talks over the last few days. We had to calculate how many weeks M is now (19 and a half) and decided to revise 26 weeks down to 24 because:

he's desperate for food - he looks longingly at ours and tries to swipe it out of our hands
he's sitting virtually unaided
we can't detect the tongue thrust reflex any more
he's definitely feeding more frequently (but I also know that milk is more calorific so that's not a reliable indicator)

He doesn't yet have a well developed pincer grip, although he can bring stuff to his mouth.

BUT I don't want to wean him now, or in the next few weeks, because I have enough allergies all by myself and if he's inherited my food sensitivites I'd rather deal with an anaphylactic 5.5mo than an anaphylactic 4mo.

Buck try BM lollipops. In desperation I froze some BM onto a stick to help with teething and M loves it. It's like eating but still EBM and not a bottle. It does get messy though. Otherwise maybe a doidy cup? Or faster flow teats if you have a quick let down.

moley if you're giving porridge then IMO that's weaning and you'll probably do no more harm with carrot or pear than mushed up rice. There's no way of knowing whether a baby is ready but studies show definitely not before 4 months and definitely by 6. The grey area in between is up to you and your baby... Having said that dodgy nappies could be a sign the gut isn't developed to deal with food.

We are planning to start with a bit of fruit and veg at 24/25 weeks like we did with DS1.
There is a lot of asthma, eczema, etc in the family, and when we started with DS1 advice was 6 months which is why we waited.
I really feel that I want to treat both boys the same as far as I can in this respect, otherwise if one has health problems then I'll always wonder if it was a choice I made.

Him having food made no difference to his sleep, that only got a bit better at 8/9 months.

Moley - I agree with Frak that porridge is weaning, so there is no difference between that and some carrot or whatever.

Weaning is like BF/FF, a massively emotive issue, and all you can do is do the research and do what you think is the right thing. I am having to bite my tongue massively at a post atm where someone is thinking of babyrice at 10 weeks....
The next thing that is this charged, I am now discovering with DS1, is where you send them to school

Buck - the intolerances would bother me, i'll be honest. Have you talked to your GP about it? Worst case scenario for you though is 3 weeks - and if it is a sleep improvement you're hoping for you could always add a bit of formula for awhile if you are struggling to keep up with pumping etc. That doesn't help with the lactose thing though does it?

Yep - I was meaning whether I should stop with the porridge, I realise that's weaning! Have given him baby rice twice and porridge twice so far but that's it. Having been reading more about it today, I'm wondering whether I should stop that altogether and go back to just milk.

No allergies or intolerances on either side here either, but I think on balance I'll leave it for another couple of weeks and think about it again then.

Moley - the answer to your question about would you be harming your lo is, no one truly 100% knows if early weaning will harm your baby. However if you wait until 6 months you can pretty well assume that you won't. It is the chance you choose to take based on the information you have.

Giving babies puree's is actually quite a recent development. When formula was first developed it didn't have the amount nutrients that it does today. So, the parents were finding that their babies weren't putting on weight as they couldn't physically get the amount of fluid into them that would give them enough calories to gain weight. What to do? The answer was to wean them onto food. However as a baby's gag reflexes are further forward in the mouth than an adults, they only way to bypass them is to use a spoon and the food would have to be smooth and liquid. Voila, that's how the puree version of weaning started.

Of course the manufacturers grabbed the idea and produced pots, spoons, mashers, choppers, puree's in a pot etc etc. When you are surrounded by this you just straight away assume that that is how things are done, I know I did with ds1.

Like I said, you have to make your baby's choices for them, and believe me that this is one of the first of MANY , and they only get harder!

I don't think it's lactose, Ali, probably the milk protein. Eggs and food colourings also set me off. I grew out of it by... 20! But it took about 6 years for my folks to find out the triggers. 6 years where I would scratch till I bled, etc.

We'll take it steady with those, I think.

Do us a link to the 10wk weaner, Ali. I could do with some bunfight entertainment.

Sorry, I'm on my phone so I can't scroll up and down!

If you are finding there is no real point (in terms of sleep or anything like that I mean) then maybe stop and see how you go?