June 2013 (3) - teething & not sleeping!

[rrreow]

I broke the old thread! Step this way, step this way.

Welcome Eliza, my little lady still breastfeeds on demand but I would imagine she feeds about 8/10 times per day (usually about 3 during the night). I never pureed anything, she either has things she can hold or things mashed with a fork. She is offered food usually twice a day but would eat all day given half a chance!!

I should add that dd may find herself on ebm soon as she has started bloody biting, she actually drew blood today little toad

sunbeam yes, M is crawling - commando mostly, but can get up on all fours. He's decided this isn't good enough though, and starting pulling up to standing last week which is, frankly, a PITA! He's 8.5 months though now.

Eliza - I am still BFing, M has 5 or 6 feeds total on a normal day, sometimes an extra, sometimes misses one. We are BLW so he has lumpy food all the time - maybe try giving finger foods along side your purees, and let him explore that way? Don't worry about it going in, just let him hold/mash/beat/throw/gum it and see what happens. Maybe try with dryish foods to start with so you don't get the full BLW clear-up experience though :o

Welcome, Eliza. My DD has just turned 8 months and is still being breastfed on demand along with solids. She is having a similar amount of feeds, so it sounds fine to me. She has just started eating three meals a day, and eats a similar amount to your son by the sounds of it.

We started weaning at 6 months and gave DD finger foods straight away, as well as spoon feeding - letting DD use the spoon herself and play with it all with her fingers. We started to move on to textured foods within a couple of weeks, mashing food a bit with a fork rather than pureeing it (we also make homemade food). We batch cook food and freeze it, but she also eats the same meals as us when it's suitable (i.e. doesn't have too much salt etc), either as finger foods (ie florets of broccoli) or mashed a little so it's lumpy (ie potato and beans). Gagging is normal but I don't have any advice I'm afraid as DD hasn't gagged yet.

don't worry about gagging, tis normal.

We're doing a mixture of purees and BLWing (I know, I know, the BLWing people say you shouldn't do a mixture, but it's working for us). DD seems to like strong flavours, so I've taken to just pureeing what we're eating, although last night we tried her with spag bol with some little pasta stars, was a hit.

She's crawling rather fast and worryingly, has taken to pulling herself up and wanting to stand. She's only 8 months today so slightly concerning... She's got mentally strong legs, I think it's she's inherited her father's thighs (he's a cyclist).

Has anyone got a real clingy baby moment going on? She's just wanting to be held all the time. (when she's not crawling). Getting bored of it now.

oh and FYI - if you give them lots of courgette and spinich puree, they produce florencent green poo.

dontmind yes I think separation anxiety has hit here too. Z cries whenever he sees me if he's with someone else and whenever I leave the room (even if other people are there). He's all smiles if I pick him up, but I think he's definitely catching on to the fact that he's separate from me.

We're flying to the US tomorrow! I am so excited but also really nervous. Travelling in itself is stressful, let alone with 2 kids. We've massively stocked up on little things to keep the kids occupied during the flight.

Wow, thanks everyone for all your replies ,advice and tips, you are all such a friendly bunch! :)

Reassuring to know bf can be more or less at this age dependant on baby but my boy is nice and chunky so 6-8 feeds I kinda expect (he's a greedy guzzler hehe!

I have been offering fingers foods and he mushes them with his hands and plays with it which is great for his hand eye co-ordination. He will put everything towards his mouth or in his mouth...apart from food weirdly! I will continue with mixture of puree with finger foods and hope that he starts to pick up on fingers foods eventually. He still cant sit without a hand propping him up (he lasts all of a few seconds before flopping) so maybe he is just not ready yet (he's laid back like his daddy!) but will continue to persist with fingers foods alongside homemade purees. His current favourite is chicken and apricot and he loves pears too :)

Re; the jumperoo...we bought one when he was 4 months and put him in it around 5 although he just hung there and did not bounce-as of Jan 1st he found his legs and now adores it and bounces non-stop. It is a good thing to have if you need to do an odd quick household chore and he can sit and bounce while watching you for a little bit.

I second the 'clingy baby' thing, he has started to burst into tears if I leave a room and crying the instant I pop him down-he has always been quite an independent baby and likes lying playing by himself so this is strange for him. I play peek-a-boo with him lots which has seemed to help with the whole seperation thing. Feel for us mumma's though as its exhausting when they are so demanding of us.

Love them to the core thoughxxx

Eliza - a friend who's a midwife said to me re weaning something along the lines of: that it's weird, we accept there's weeks/months between when different children first crawl, first walk, say their first words, and when they start sleeping through the night, yet there's a view that 6 months on the dot, all babies are ready for solids. Some will be ready eariler, some later.

If your DS isn't sitting unaided, he's probably not quite there yet. Keep the milk feeds up and offer food, see what happens. (also try cooking without salt or chillies and offer him bits of your food, at least it's less frustrating if it just ends up on the floor if you didn't go to the effort of making it specially).

DD enjoyed our bolognaise yesterday, the little that she ate. Most of it ended up covering her, the high chair and the floor!

I've bought her a few new things to try today (and apparently she liked a piece of hot cross bun while I was out shopping!). She did eat a small part of a Krispy Kreme doughnut last week too. Appears to have a sweet tooth.

She's only just started to be really interested in eating, despite showing all the signs for ages.

She also rediscovered her love of rolling while I was out after trying to perfect crawling this afternoon. No stopping her now.

Today's been hell for teething too :-(

She's got a seriously runny nose and has barely napped as she's been grumbling all day. I assume it's her top teeth, but she won't let us look at her gums.

My little ratbag has gone backwards on the whole weaning thing.

She ate wonderfully at first. Lots of purees and finger foods. Great mix of foods. Now she has decided though that I am NOT to be trusted with the spoon. She will only accept porridge or yoghurt off a spoon from me. If I try to feed her something else she point blank refuses but I can send it to nursery and she'll take it off them with sunny smiles.

I've been making a variety of finger food type things too. There will be things she thinks are fabby one day and the next day she'll declare it poison and that I'm a terrible mother. Last week I made her a vegetable rosti and she devoured it. Gave her the same thing a few days later and the little ratbag chucked it on the floor for the dog to eat.

Infants are terrors!

So true sunny. The battle of mealtimes starts here. DD is now constantly screeching through mealtimes. I think it's because she wants food faster but it does make it all feel quite stressful. She eats a ton, as long as it's 'perfect' temperature. Meanwhile DS at nearly 3 has reached the 'don't like that' phase. After 15 mins of persuading he'll finally try something then say 'mmm that's nice.' Particularly frustrating when it's things I know he's liked before. Last night - "I don't like curry" - what do you mean you don't like curry? you LOVE curry, you were weaned on it. Grrrr.

HV came yesterday. Useful to get the weight (16lb something - 25%ile) and to find out that oops I'm supposed to be giving her vitamins, and oops I'm suppose to be giving ds more fluoride. Oh well.

Last thing, am thinking of planning a summer holiday to scotland, to visit family in Galashiels, friends in Glasgow then on west. Does anyone have any recommendations? Was thinking maybe Oban, then coming back via Loch Lomond? I don't know the area at all...Would probably be for about a week.

What's that about Fluoride Aloha? My dd is a similar age and I haven't being giving her any??

Aloha I'm in Scotland so might be able to help. Have you ever been?

If you start in Gala I'd advise hitting either Edinburgh or Glasgow for a mini city break - personally I'd recommend Edinburgh over Glasgow a) because I'm an east coaster and b) because its got great activities to do for families esp the Castle, Holyrood Palace, Scott Monument, Britannia etc.

After you do a city definitely head over to Loch Lomond if you have never been. It is truly gorgeous and as its a tourist hot spot there is lots and lots to do.

Oban itself is nice enough. The best bit about Oban though is it is a short hop onto the islands. Mull is gorgeous - and its where Balamory is filmed. We spent a few days on Barra last year as well.

If you are short on time though you can do Glasgow, then Loch Lomond and then on to Ardrossan and get the ferry to Arran. Thats an easy week and will show some of the best Scotland has to offer.

grrrr just lost my reply.

madame, the water here is not fluoridated, i thought it was. he should be using toothpaste with >1000ppm, making sure to use pea size amount and swallow! I was going for less, and using tiny amt and having him spit. oh well.

thanks for the tips sunny. i do fancy visiting the islands. probably will avoid the cities as i jsut find it too much like hard work with the kids, and i've been to edinburgh a fair few times. glasgow i think we'll visit anyway as we will have to see friends, but probably jsut overnight. i'm more of a rural/countryside kind of girl really. give me unspoilt beaches, nice wildlife and good local food and i'll be happy!

The jumperoo arrived this morning, we have a fan :o

Also, DS1 went and shut himself in the playpen earlier, to get away from M :o :o was very funny, he was most serious about telling me that M "is a bit annoying mummy, so I'm sitting in here so he can't get me". He also keeps asking me to put M in the playpen/jumperoo/high chair, need to have a think about that one as there's clearly something going on in his head!

Rue - glad the jumperoo has worked its magic once again! Good luck puzzling out what is going on in ds1's head

Ladies, some nappy advice please...ds keeps leaking wee at night. It usually comes out the side around his waist towards armpit. We use size 4 naty nappies and he is 16lbs something/7 and a smidge kg, and wears a fair bit of 3-6m clothes still.
I don't think the next size would fit him (but correct me if I'm wrong). Do you think we should go back down a size/try another make/or just be more careful putting it on?

Mrs81 does the nappy actually seem full to capacity when it leaks, or you think it's just leaking up the back? You might just have to try different brands, some of them have more/less elasticated backs. My DD is ~16 lb and still wears size 3. We use pampers at night and have never had a leak but I usually change her once in the night when she wakes up to feed. She is a pretty heavy wetter I think too. Oops having just looked online I realise she should be at least in 3+. Oh well, I only had her weighed monday so I didn't have any idea how much she was!!

Generally not full, so I don't think the next size up would help. It's only really become a regular issue since we went up to size 4 (maybe that's the answer!). We've used the same brand of nappy since day 1...

Sounds like you should try the smaller one again. It's probably just too baggy around his middle.

You can get size 3+, can't remember which brand but my friend uses them on her tiny nearly 2 year old. Might work as a half way between 3 & 4.

oooh. that would be perfect. I'll do some googling

Mrs81, I think pampers do a 3+ size. I had a friend who's ds had similar issues, she ended up putting a super absorbent wooly outer nappy on top of his disposable one (think it was for people using renewables.) seemed to work. Oh, and her ds was one of the first to be dry when we potty trained the older ones.

Oh and are others giving vit supplements? I'm not, although using formula which I think it fortified with them, and lots of fruit and veg.

Our water is fluoridated here (kent), but I guess I need to start thinking about cleaning her teeth.

In other news, she's already worked out how to undo lots of the baby proofing.

just having a catch up not been on for so long...finally adapted to being a single mum and I couldn't be happier :)
it's reassuring to read that BF babies are still having plenty of feeds thought it was just mine!! The HV asked me if he was just feeding 3 times a day now he's weaning I nearly fell off the chair!!
He still wakes a good 3 times in the night too!!
Had a dietician appointment yesterday and as well as being dairy free we both have to go soya free too hopefully it will make a difference we'll see.
Back to catching up just wanted to drop in and say hello xx