April 2011 - Babies turning one, shopping to be done, toddling, tantrums and talking to come

[Fraktal]

New stage, new thread!

whatever takes your fancy

I've just read that back and realised how bossy I sound

I think what I'm trying to (clumsily) say is, often we try and fix things but sometimes they don't need to be fixed.

UBW b is right off his food just now too. He seems to have a biggish breakfast and then doesn't want anything else all day other than raisins or quavers (dh is to blame for that one).

He is also having mammoth naps, 3 hours at a time. Twice a day. But only when he is with me. At the cms he is doing well to get an hour. I think there is more to keep him occupied at cms so he banks sleep when he's not there. Does that make sense?? Can babies bank sleep? Maybe it's a growth spurt?

We've got the River Cottage baby and toddler book too. I think it's pretty good - the recipes are generally alright for grown up too. I've certainly had no complaints here from DD, and it beats Annabel Karmel's stuff hands down now she's older.

I can't imagine that amount of milk would be making a difference either. DD has a full beaker of cows milk when she gets up and one before bed and still eats lots. I read somewhere that we generally feed our toddlers too much (I think DD eats too much, particularly on nursery days) - I'm sure that F is eating plenty UBW.

ILTMI you didn't come across bossy! And I needed a bit of a talking to anyway! (DH came home and put tea & cake in my hand, supervised consumption, then provided dinner & wine. He is well trained!)

He's not eating a terrific range anymore. He's not really into veg any more (unless it's peas or sweet corn), won't eat meat. In fact I think his diet mainly consists of porridge, banana, bread, cheese and yoghurt. Oh, and grapes/blueberries. He's not really into pasta any more, and prefers to throw potato.

Fizz F eats the most at breakfast too, and it seems to dwindle through the day. He also does the sleep thing. When he's at the cm he'll sleep for an hour, but he'll have 3 hour naps (unless I try to do some work!) at home. But this has continued over the summer. He'll only have one nap though.

Star do you think I should offer him more milk? He's only 25th centile (although before both height & weight, but 75th for head circumference! ). He was asking for more milk this afternoon. Maybe I should just do as ILTMI says and follow his lead.

Thanks you guys. You keep me sane!

Oh god, don't take my advice - I'm completely muddling through myself! I only give P so much milk because I know she it doesn't affect her appetite. If I was worried about the amount she was eating, I think I would prioritise food IYSWIM?

Try not to worry too much. If F is anything like P, he'll be a contrary little thing and will change his habits before you know what's hit you!

Ps: can you send your DH round here? I am officially a football widow again. Barely seen sight nor sound of him since the football season started

UBW I would go with what he is asking for. DS1 suddenly contracted his diet to a very small range of foods at this age, and slowly slowly expanded what he would eat after a few months.
It is really hard not to get anxious, and I think all you can do is keep offering a range of things.

I am expecting T to do the same any day, he is already fussy about some things. Bread is the main thing he won't have, except I discovered that he likes a hideously expensive seeded loaf that M&S do - which DS1 won't touch 'the bread is wrong mummy'

In short - try not to stress, although that is easier said than done

UWB poor you, it's so hard not to get stressed. C is also very fussy (though eats everything he's given at nursery apparently, which I do find takes the pressure off me). I try really hard not to make it an issue because his reflux made feeding so awful in the early days that I can't face food being an issue too. Didn't F suffer with it too?

My tricks include:

Sometimes I just feed C from 'my' plate. He'll eat anything he thinks is destined to go elsewhere!

if I'm worried about his fruit/veg intake I'll give him the Ella's Kitchen smoothies, which he drinks from the pouch and loves.

Baked beans are a good source of iron and also something he will always go for. You can get reduced sugar and salt version.

Fish fingers are a fail safe too.

Often I give him something 'fun' to distract him while I try to get some proper food down too - raisins, baby crisps, rice cakes etc.

I do often offer an alternative if he refuses to eat. This might be a rod for my own back and i don't cook something different but I'll give him a cheese sandwich or something that I know he'll eat (he would survive on bread) and just act as though I was always planning to do that, not that it's a replacement for anything.

i know this all sounds quite slummy mummy but I have taken the view that I'd rather he eat something than nothing.

Also, you could give a vitamin supplement to bolster things.

Thanks Jo, I did try to do a post this morning, but my phone ate it.

We took your advice today and let F share our food, which worked well. DH gave him a mega breakfast (banana, a small handful of Cheerios, sautéed potato & spaghetti hoops!), and he wolfed down the majority of an organix microwave meal tonight (we've been out all day). Oh, and we gave him an innocent smoothie at lunch too (it's probably terrible for him, but we were out and it seemed like a good idea )

So not so bad today, and much less stressful.

However, we've had the aftermath of the grapes today. Might go a bit more sparingly next time! oh bugger, the smoothie!

Yes, he had reflux too. He still gets a bit. He's had some gaviscon tonight, in fact.

In a couple of weeks we'll finally be on to proper family evening meals, which should be better, and there'll be both of us, at least.

Kitty how far along are you know?

Glad today was better. I am 34+2.

Do u all still give milk in bottles. I just tried s with his straw like cup again and he only took about an ounce.

UBW, totally agree with Ali, give him milk if he asks for it and try not to stress on the food. Easier said then done I know.
I remember going through the same with DS. I kept a food diary and it helped that i could see over a week that although it wasn't the most varied diet he wasn't starving.
He's now 4 and still rather a fussy eater and will often hardly touch his tea, but he knows he won't get a pudding and he can have milk at bedtime if he wants it. He tends to just have a bigger breakfast the next day. Unfortunately I am still yet to get a piece of salad past his lips. His sister has also got the salad aversion but they will eat their veg cooked most of the time. During the summer we've opted for the nice and easy picnic tea most days.

Again thanks to everyone for your kind words and thoughts. We now know what happened to my cousin. She went for a late evening walk along the bay fell, hit her head and drowned. We are taking consolation that hopefully it was quick and she wouldn't have been aware.

We use a beaker with either the top on or off depending on how brave I'm feeling!

P's never had a bottle though, so she hasn't ever known anything else apart from the boob and I'm not sure she even remembers that now!

Cross posts with Gsy - how awful. Such a tragic thing to happen :(

We still do bottles, but cm has started giving him milk in his cup as he wasn't drinking water at hers.

Kitty you are 2 weeks ahead of my friend and at her mw appointment last wee she was 4/5 engaged already!! She was early with ds1 but I really think she is just about ready to drop!!

Of gys how incredibly sad.

Omg fizz. I'd be thrilled if this ind comes early. Tho it would mean labour before elective

P is on one BF before breakfast, a 7oz FF bottle in the afternoon and another at bedtime. She also gets cows milk in a TT free flow cup at mealtimes and the same type cup with water is always available for her to help herself. In the last few days I have tipped the afternoon FF bottle into a free flow sippy cup instead which she has been fine with. I will probably try to swap the evening bottle to a cup in a couple of weeks and eventually switch the FF to cows milk.

GSY that's so sad. x

Kitty I can't believe it's so near! Perhaps not too soon though, eh?!

F has boob & TT cup for cows milk. Although he put away a good amount in the M&S cafe from a glass with a straw.

I have no idea when or how to give up the BFing though. Especially since it gets me an extra 10 mins in bed in the morning!

I think you'll just know when you're ready to stop UBW, or at least I did anyway.

We stopped a couple of months ago and it was nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be. We just made sure that DH was at hand with a cup of milk to replace the BF. I thought that it would awful and that she'd be desperately upset, but she wasn't . I was definitely ready to stop though and think that helped me.

Gsy :(

kitty - T has boob morning, bedtime, occasionally when he wakes in the night and sometimes during the day when he is teething and we are at home. If we are out he isn't bothered in the slightest.
He and DS1 both have a drink of milk mid-afternoon with their snack, and T has now learnt to ask for milk and will come into the kitchen brandishing his cup and asking for some which makes me DS1 still has a cup of milk at bedtime, which I guess we might stop at some point when we can deal with the argument!

Gsy thinking of you and your family. That's a terrible tragedy.

Glad it was a better day UWB, my take is that I try to be la la la relaxed even when I want to scream! I am sure reflux makes them more wary of eating, hardly surprising. I bet when you have meals together it improves too. C is at his worst when I am just sitting with him watching/helping. I think that's why he eats well at nursery, because they all just get on with it.

Kitty C still has a morning and bedtime bottle. During the day he has water or milk in a TT cup but, as you say, he doesn't drink much in one go. I tried to get him onto one of the explorer cups with a straw, that I think ilike suggested but he doesn't get it - bless. I'm raising a genius. I keep thinking I must get him off bottles and then not really getting round to it. I might wait till after I'm back from SA now. Wow, you're so close to kitten2 now. How exciting! All the new-baby-snuggly-little-white-all-in-one-suited cuteness to look forward to!

C woke up covered in snot this morning. Just in time for our weekend away with 14 other people and he'll be sleeping in our room. JOY.

Congrats on your new choir-mistressing role Fizz :)

Gsy I'm so sorry to hear about your cousin. We are going through something similar in that one of DPs good friends died on Monday after a week on life support :( It's so sad when something like that happens, especially to someone close to you in age.

On the topic of fussy eating, R has started playing up a bit at mealtimes too but I'm hoping it's more related to her having a cold just now than actual fussiness although she does share F's love of throwing things all over the floor UBW It stresses me right out. I tried a bit of reverse psychology with a yogurt yesterday to see if she would take it while I pretended to eat it.....fail, she just thought it would be fun to spoon feed it to me instead!
I'm trying to stay strong though and am not offering alternatives as I am really not going down the road of cooking lots of different meals for everyone. R will take a cup of milk in the morning and a cup of milk at bedtime now, I'll occasionally offer a cup in the afternoon if she hasn't eaten that well but 9 times out of 10 she won't drink it anyway. My steriliser and bottles etc got put away last month and it felt very momentous!!

On the shoe topic, I feel bad for bursting the croc bubble but I don't particularly think they're very good for little feet. They have zero support and can cause fallen arches and splayed feet so IMO they aren't ideal for growing kids. DSS used to have them on 24/7 and it used to really annoy me so I told DPs ex and he's never had them on since, infact she sent him round the next time in bloody walking boots! I'm sure they're ok for puddling about in the garden or at the beach for a wee while though? Sorry hope that doesn't come across the wrong way, I'm just not a fan!

R has similarly pukey pink Clarks shoes, although I did opt for the darker shade so not quite so bad!

OOoh chilli I've just ordered some muslins from your shop. Brilliant idea!

Joanna has barely eaten anything for days now. I'm putting it down to the heat. She also tanks up at breakfast (2 weetabix this morning!) , and I second the Ella's kitchen pouches for getting vitamins nito them. she drinks the babyfood pouches like smoothies. Somehow that feels better to me than giving her just the straight smoothies as they're usually in a two fruit/one veg ratio so I feel like she's getting something beyond pure sugar (deluded)

Gsy and MrsW I'm so sorry for both of your losses. It is really very sad indeed. And a really nasty shock when it's someone of a similar age. I'm pleased your family at least have some answers, Gsy. That must be some comfort.

Also, I sometimes used the EK fork mash pouches when we're out and about. Even though they are for younger babies they're handy as you can put the lids back on. C will almost always eat these, novelty perhaps. He even sometimes sucks it out of them. Bleurgh.

I also use the babyfood pouches as snacks. Surely a bit of fruit sugar isn't dreadful. It's not like we're giving them Haribos!

Thanks for your purchase ecuse they'll be in the post soon. M loves her muslins - mainly playing peepo with them. I've got a number of things waiting to be dyed which I really must get on with. I think I need to do some more stuff for M in the next size up so she can continue to model for me - she's nearly into 12-18 month clothes at 17 months!

I use the fruit pouches with natural yogurt instead of buying baby yogurts which can be loaded with sugar or sweetener. I had also been giving her Heinz dessert jars but she seems to have gone off them now so I'm going to have to rethink on things to fill her up - maybe things like flapjacks (but reducing the sugar) and freeze-able things like muffins.

We ended up buying boys shoes for M because we couldn't stand the pink (and they were in the sale).

It must be of some comfort that you have an answer Gsy, still no less of a shock though. Such a waste.

Sorry to hear about your dp's friend too MrsW, again such a waste.

What shop chilli? Link please

Wrt to Crocs, I wouldn't put a lo in them all day, but also a child's arch doesn't form until they are 2-3. So a bit of croc wearing is ok, and the very best thing is wearing nothing at all - which my feral children would be more than happy with

Gawd I need an early night. We've been really busy over the holidays and I've been late to bed too. I am officially knackered. Roll on the new term I have started to write a to-do list for when ds2 is back at pre school. I am determined to tidy, declutter and EBay. The EBay selling can pay for Christmas

You must have missed the Facebook links I've been putting up Ilike This is my etsy shop, I also have a folksy shop which I started first but I think etsy is better known and busier so when the folksy listings run out I'm going to move everything over to etsy. Feel free to make any suggestions about any of it, including patterns you like or colour combinations, etc. That way I can be sure I'm not just doing things that I like (you may notice a lot of purple!)

Just picked M up from nursery - they've been playing in jelly this morning! I'm so glad she gets to do things like that there and I don't have to clear up the mess.