June 2020 Babies-Six months on: mobile babies, feeding adventures, and still sleepless nights! 3rd thread

[UKtoSK]

Hi everyone! I made a new thread as we were at the end of the last one. A new thread for the new year! I changed the title as we don’t have newborns anymore!

I've been giving LO multivitamin drops, but I was hoping to move onto gummies or something later on as she's not overly keen on the drops!

The HV said to me that the next check will be between 10-12 months, I'm hoping nearer 12 as I took her at 9 months for a weight check.

I really can't believe how fast all our babies our growing!! LO will be 10 months on Tuesday!

She's having such separation anxiety at the moment, it's been ever since I did my KIT days and my mum had her, she was so opposite on and off throughout the day missing me. now whenever we go to see my mum if I leave the room she starts crying 😢

@Gigitree do you know I can't remember I think she got in touch with me t like 5 months so ask if I had any questions re weaning . She's really nice she just mentioned the vit d to me. What other ones are we supposed to give ? The nausea is easing off thank god I have the worst piles in the world tho !!! Awful!
Haven't got my scan date yet expecting it literally any day I'm 9+3 it's going fast I had a mw app this morning and I was asking about if scar rupture Is more likely the closer the gap between births and she said yes so now I'm really scared and wondering if I should have c section but inrealllly cba with the recovery it will be awful with a toddler x

I haven’t been giving vit d or multivitamins... I don’t give snacks either. I give her some baby cracker things when we are out and about to keep her happy. My daughter isn’t that interested in food yet. Everything I’ve read says that food before one is just for fun/practice and the majority of their nutrition and calories should still be met by breast milk or formula. Also cows milk shouldn’t replace either until after 12 months. Since I’m still EBF I still just feed on demand and follow her lead. I give her 3 meals a day but she actually swallows so little that I’m not about to bother giving her snacks as well. Her favourite thing this week is dropping all her food on the floor instead of eating it 😒 has anyone else’s baby had a reaction to any food? Jia gets really bad rash all over her face if I give her yoghurt and I made some pasta with a milk based sauce and the same thing happened so I’m wondering if she has a dairy allergy.

Re sleep. Just... it’s a rollercoaster isn’t it? I’ve seen a graph that shows baby sleep reaches peak shitshow between 8-10 months and I think we are heading down into that dip right now. But then hopefully it only gets better from then on? Right??

@UKtoSK oh bless you sorry her sleep is going down hill again do you co sleep?
Of course you know your baby better than anyone but there is a LOT of research out there to state food under one is just for fun is a total myth. It is so so important for their development especially sensory to be offered lots of different foods regularly at this age snacks should be offered to as they like to graze and eat little and often. Obviously if your lo is still having a lot of milk she is probably filling up too much on this to be bothered by the solids you could try offering her breakfast before a feed if you wanted to see if it made a difference to her appetite. Also after one their growth slows down a lot so this is the time when they need to really delve in and find the foods they enjoy and try lots of flavours and textures. I really hope this has come across the right way it's only meant with good intentions but I think that statement can be quite damaging. It sounds as though she might have an allergy which would be really difficult things are never just straight forward xx

@UKtoSK Ivy drops a lot of food on the floor as well it's so annoying especially when I go to a lot of trouble to make different things for her when I can. We've been finding food quite a struggle on and off so maybe I need to drop a milk feed as @mrssunshinexxx has suggested but I'm speaking to the health visitor next week (all be it hoping she's a good one this time) so I'll ask then. There is far to much contradictory information out there about milk vs solids it is really confusing, I have no idea what I'm doing and it's made harder when everyone has different opinions.
It does sound like Jia has a milk allergy bless her x

Here’s a useful post I saw shared on Instagram about the food before 1 thing

www.instagram.com/p/B8zSOvmHw5w/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I agree @Busylizzie85 there is so much contradictory info out there it’s so frustrating. The thing is all babies are so so different just as we all would have different appetites and some of us would eat more than others.

Thankfully Grace doesn’t throw her food and we have a dog to clear up any dropped food 😂 but I’ve heard it’s really normal for them to do this. She does however like to throw her cup on the floor, she will wait until I’m not looking to do it too the cheeky monkey, the whole time I’m watching her with my hand out to catch it, she holds on to it and just hangs it over the edge of her high chair, as soon as I give up and look away or move my hand she drops it 😂

@mrssunshinexxx glad to hear the morning sickness is passing, ergh sorry about the piles though, gosh pregnancy is just so glamorous isn’t it? 😂
Sorry I forget, did you have a c-section with Nelly? I’ve been told I could have a c-section if I have another baby as I had a third degree tear, but I don’t know how that would work in terms of recovery and trying to look after Grace too.

According to the NHS they need A, C & D unless they are formula fed and having 500mls per day or more.
www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/vitamins-for-children/

@UKtoSK the guidance re:vitamins may be different in SK, for example the vit d one is a big thing in the UK because we don’t get enough vit d through sunlight

Grace is finally getting her first tooth! 🦷🥰

@Busylizzie85 there really is a lot of advice and it makes things difficult! My weaning / nutrition lady says at this age they only 'need' 1 or 2 milk feeds in 24 hours now and to aim to just have a bedtime one by the time she's 1 then offer some cows milk in a beaker at snack time.
@Gigitree cool thanks I will look into the vitamins today. Yeah I had a semi elective after 26 hours of labour. Erm ouch!! How bad was that?? The recovery was shit last time but I had been in labour for over a day so was exhausted already so I need to take that into consideration if I have a planned section it will be abit better I would hope.
What do you think you would do next time ? I can't imagine your recovery was fun? This is the thing with labour it's so unpredictable but I need to decide if I want to risk a VBAC and it ending in a section again x

@mrssunshinexxx recovery was actually no where near as bad as I had thought it would be. I mean it was sore, but I’ve no idea how sore it would have been with just a 1st or 2nd degree tear or episiotomy etc. She was 9lbs 1oz and it was only 8 mins of pushing so I think she just came out so fast in the end that it’s not surprising I tore so much.
It’s hard isn’t it, my sister had an elective Caesarean the second time round after a really long labour ending in a forceps delivery and other complications the first time round and she raves about how amazing it was to have an elective Caesarean. I guess for me I’ll just have to speak to someone and weigh up my options. I have a follow up gynae scan later this year (delayed twice thanks to covid) where they can assess how well everything has stitched back together and I guess from there I’ll have more info to work out what I would think would be best next time round.

@mrssunshinexxx I do give Jia a variety of foods across 3 meals a day but I can’t force her to eat any more than she does. I am giving her iron rich foods when I can. I do BLW so she gets all the sensory benefits. I am not going to restrict her breastfeeding in the hopes that she eats more, she’s only just turned 9 months, I’m sure she will start eating more by a year. She doesn’t feed that often during the day anymore anyway, when she wakes up and before each nap and bedtime, maybe once or twice more, plus overnight.

@Busylizzie85 You are right there is so much conflicting information and I believe this is because there is no one right way to do things. We all do what is right for our own baby and that will be different for each of us.

@Gigitree yes we have never been told to give her vitamins here, but I will certainly look into it.

@UKtoSK 👍🏻

@Gigitree yeah this is true you have nothing to compare it to you did so well!
I feel abit sad if I choose a section the likeliness of ever having a natural birth is very very slim I just hope the recovery would be better if I hadn't spent so long in labour first and was well rested

Another one whose sleep has hit the fan . Not that it was great to begin with. He’s back to taking an hour to get to sleep at night and waking every hour again- back co sleeping 😂

I have never met a health visitor wondering when and if he will get a development check ? We have another eye appointment to discuss future treatment options for his squint at the end of the month though .

Dd has come out in chicken pox today . Just in time for me to go back to work on Monday . Just praying baby manages to avoid it .🤞🏼

@Gigitree Awww lovely !. leaving us in the toothless club 😯

@UKtoSK is Jia's heritage East Asian/Korean? As I thought dairy allergies were more common in Chinese/ Korean/ Japanese ethnicities- think there have been some Lancet studies on this.

NHS guidance is no snacks until 1. 3 meals and any additional hunger give breast milk or formula. Although like everyone else we have given some snacks when we are out and about to keep her going!!

LO was woken up by one of our cats last night at around half ten and we could not get her to sleep for love nor money! I sat with her until nearly midnight with her dozing/chattering alternately and then just had to bring her in to co sleep. Nightmare!

Aww sorry to leave you in the toothless club @Picklesbaby
Sorry to hear about your dd’s chicken pox, how is she coping with it? Has baby managed to avoid getting it.
That reminds me, is anyone planning on getting the chicken pox vaccine for their little
ones?

@NeurologicallySpeaking yeah I read the same info on the NHS website about not needing snacks before the age of one which is what I was not sure whether to introduce them or not. Those Heinz melty biscotti biscuits have been a life saver if we’re out on a walk and little one gets hangry, although they make a huge mess!

Oh you poor thing that sounds exhausting, I hope you have a better night tonight

@UKtoSK the rash could be a contact reaction...my little one got it with tomatoes to begin with. I was going to recommend SR Nutrition on Instagram and she has a website / blog also. Really helpful advice and she did a blog about contact reactions that were really useful - think @Gigitree already linked an Instagram post of hers above!

Mines not a big eater either, he can only really eat mashed food. Anything more solid like meat he will put in his mouth and then slowly spit back out..its quite frustrating but maybe he just isn't quite there yet with the firmer texture. He still has 4 bottles a day and probably more milk than is recommended but I couldn't imagine reducing it as he would be really hungry and would be very grumpy!!

@NeurologicallySpeaking yes she is half Korean, I know it’s much more common in Asia (although I haven’t met a single Korean who avoids dairy). I’ll have to see if I can get her tested, maybe I should give up dairy myself since we’re still breastfeeding.

@SRS1311 yes we have also had the redness from tomatoes but whereas the tomatoes just make her skin red, dairy seems to also make it very sore, kind of rough textured, like a real rash, and it seems to leave some roughness behind after the redness fades. I’ll have to take her to the doctors. I’ll read that blog too, thanks.

I’m glad mine isn’t the only one who’s not a big eater yet. Some days she eats more than others, but my milk is so much more calorie and nutritionally dense than anything she could eat so she definitely still needs it right now. She actually does really well with meat though - chicken, egg, salmon and ground beef are all big hits and judging by her very solid poos she’s eating more than it seems lol.

I think it’s great that some of the babies here are such good eaters already, as with everything with babies they develop at different paces.

@UKtoSK I hope this helps. There are allergies and intolerances. We had to do a lot of research into it as we went round the houses with what was making our girl poorly and her eczema flare up.

Allergies appear within 10-15 minutes and could be red skin/swelling etc. Tomatoes does cause red skin but it's due it being acidic - our paediatrician suggested putting Vaseline on her face before giving her tomatoes/acidic foods.

Intolerances are symptoms which appear after 15 mins and can take upto 48 hrs. That can't be tested for but can cause baby to get upset.

When we were trying to work it all out, I cut out diary and wheat against the advice of GP/HV. I think it's supposed to be 3 weeks before you can consider it fully out of your system if you choose that path. A dietician can maybe help do it more systematically but we are still on the waiting list to be seen by one.

In terms of vitamins for babies, we sometimes give ours an iron top up if she's not eaten much food. But we use follow up milk which should have all the vit she needs. She still loves drinking her milk during the day... and night!

Also we had our first tooth come out now. To the mums who already brush baby's teeth, once you brush the tooth with the toothpaste, do you just leave it on? Did you start as soon as you saw a little white bit shoot out? It's only tiny and we haven't built this into the routine yet!

@Gigitree shes not as bad as I thought she would be. Is covered in spots but not overly poorly thank god !.Baby has a runny nose And temp so think this is the start :(

@UKtoSK it’s amazing how different they are . Jj shovels food in and races round on his bum but won’t crawl and has no teeth🤦🏻‍♀️

Back to work tomorrow 😳 gosh it’s been a while. Can barely fit in my uniform 🐷 Not looking forward to 10 hour days on these sleepless nights

@PurpleLaws thank you so much for all the information. Did you find that cutting out dairy helped? I actually have quite a bit of experience with food eliminations as I have had a lot of intolerance symptoms myself in previous years. My daughter’s skin reaction does happen instantly, but no swelling or any more worrying symptoms.

@Picklesbaby I’d love to get all our babies in a room together and see how different they all are. good luck going back to work! Ten hour days... are you a nurse? My old boss called me last week asking if I could come back in May (wasn’t planning to go back until next March) so I had to turn her down. I’m just not ready!

@UKtoSK it makes me not worry as much knowing babies are so different . & I wish . Retail manager, it is a very different place to when I left . Doing my teacher training though ! He is loving nursery but they have given him a yogurt as he refused the milk. I’m wasting all of my frozen stash but perhaps he will just save himself till he’s with me & I may not need to introduce formula 🤷🏻‍♀️ Oh I wish we could afford so long off ! What do you do ?

@UKtoSK cutting out dairy didn't impact my baby much - we started combi feeding after we had to go into hospital with jaundice and weight loss. I think it made me feel mentally better that I was doing a change to help. We did a lot to try to reduce her eczema which started around 2 months but never knew or realised it was caused by allergies.

Cutting out wheat seemed to have a better effect so we think there's intolerances and avoided it for months until we had wheat tested for as an allergy and had it confirmed.

She does have a nut and dog dander allergy which has tested positive for. We found the instant reaction with peanut butter when we started weaning. We had piriton (spelling?) prescribed as an antihistamine. Think you can buy it in the pharmacy but most are labelled for children over 1.

Allergies in babies apparently can change as they get older. Our next referral is when she turns 1 and they'll test again.

@PurpleLaws we waited for both the bottom teeth to come through completely before starting to brush them (when I say brush I mean daughter chewing toothbrush and mostly refusing to entertain it)

We are having a horrendous time at the moment, not sure if it's sleep regression, or leap 7 or teething again or a combination of everything but we are back up to 2 hourly wake ups and not self settling at all now 😔 I have had two of the worst weeks since she was a newborn. I'm literally at my wits end and feel sick from lack of sleep. She's not drinking hardly any milk a day now where as we had got to a good 21 ounces a day I'm lucky if she has 8 and will only breastfeed over night so I have no idea how much she's taking as I don't think I am producing much now. Meal times are hit and miss also with breakfast and dinner being the worst with barely a few mouthfuls eaten before refusing any more. Some days are better then others admittedly and I make sure she eats cheese/yogurts to keep the dairy intake up. I just don't know what to do, if this is 'phase' it's a bloody long one 😔

@Busylizzie85 oh my...I'm glad I'm not the only one. My LO has stopped self settling(so disappointing), if we put her down drowsy she'll turn round to look for us and cry 😢 Last night she woke at 3:30 and didn't go back down until 7:20...We've never had a night like it 🥺

Our food/milk intake is currently ok. Think her top teeth are coming in which has caused the latest bad nights. I'm sure she'll have her phase on the food front, it seems like something the babies go through.

Hoping for a better night tonight. Good luck 🤞🤞

@Magpie21 firstly 'hugs' it's so hard when they stop don't something they clearly could do a week ago! I hope they both sleep better tonight but I know there is another week or so left of this wonder week leap so I'm not counting my chickens 😔

@Busylizzie85 thank you 🙏 I just had such a giggle...checked the app and we have 26 days left of this 'fussy phase'. You have to laugh don't you! Please let me know when your LO starts to self sooth again (I'm going to say 'when') and anything you do that helps in this process.

@Picklesbaby oh I worked in retail for a while before coming to Korea, I don’t envy you doing that! It’s hard work. That’s great you’re training to be a teacher. What age do you want to work with? I teach English out here as that’s all I can really do, but I’m not qualified. I was working in a kindergarten before I got pregnant. My husband is a PE teacher and thankfully gets paid enough to allow me to take this time to be with our daughter. I’m really lucky. But I do need to start earning again eventually so that we can afford to move.

@PurpleLaws yes I’m hesitant to get her tested when she’s so close to one and it could change anyway. I’ll have to just keep monitoring it.

@Busylizzie85 sorry you’re having a tough time recently. We have been having very similar! I just noticed yesterday that her top tooth is finally cutting through so I think that’s why. We’ve had a lot of bad nights recently but last night she was really upset at every wake up so I think that’s the issue. Must be painful. We also started leap 7 last week and between the two she had been nursing round the clock for days. We also have good days and bad days with meals but she’s finally eating more the last two days so I think maybe it’s the tooth that was the issue with that too. But who knows with babies.

@Magpie21 oh my gosh that sounds like an awful night! And 26 days left! I hope the fussy phase passes quicker than expected for you.