We are back from our 3rd out-of-state trip this fall. I would not recommend taking 3 trips (2 by plane and 1 by car) in 4 1/2 weeks with an infant. While we enjoyed each of the trips, my energy is really sapped. Not that I had a ton of energy to begin with (I'm still wondering about adrenal and/or thyroid problems).
Anyway...I'll talk about the trips more later, but in the meantime, the following miscellaneous questions are on my mind. I would love responses you could give to any or all of them!
1. Is anyone in touch with Little Joann? Is she ok? Her blog has been taken down, and I'm worried about her. Plus, I miss reading about Toddler Ann and Little Joe.
2. Does anyone have good websites to calculate cost of living differences between two cities? Or is there a place I can go to find the average cost of living in one city? I've googled and been to a few sites, but all the information is different for each calculator I've used.
3. Has anyone ever worked with a moving company that comes to pack up your house, moves it, and unpacks in the new location? If so, how much do you clean and organize your things before they come and how much do you just get rid of things, so they don't have to move them? I'm thinking of all the junk drawers in our house, our big plastic totes full of things, etc. I've been trying to declutter and eliminate things since before R was born, but it's a slow process when you have so much stuff from having lived in one place for almost 10 years. (Don't interpret this question as us having made a decision about moving. We haven't at all, but I'm already thinking about this and wondering if I should start super-declutter mode now...just in case).
4. Are there things I can eat to increase little R's immune system? It seems she has another cold, or at least another plugged nose after her 2nd airplane trip. I've been trying to eat super healthy to help her get over it quicker, but I wonder if there's more I can do? I also take a probiotic and she takes Tri-vitamin drops (Vitamins A, C, and D). I'm exclusively nursing.
5. Do any of your little ones wear an amber necklace to help with teething? Do they really work? No teeth here yet, but the drool and irritability has increased. I'm thinking teething season has started.
6. We're 2 weeks away from starting solids....oh my! How do I start? Do I just offer rice cereal before nursing? How many times a day do I give rice cereal? When do I start pureed foods? I'm super paranoid about rice cereal since Consumer Reports came out with their article on arsenic in rice, and I'm super clueless about how to start solids. I'd like to make my own baby food, so I borrowed a few books from a friend but haven't had a chance to read them yet.
7. Changing pad acrobatics. That's what it's like to change a diaper in our house lately- an acrobatic feat. We have the changing pad on the floor because as soon as you get a diaper off and start lifting her legs to change her, she's arching her back and going on her head. It's sort of like the reverse wheelbarrow move if you ever did that in elementary school where someone picked up your legs and you had to move forward by crawling on your hands.
Anyways, I don't know how to get her to stop or at least slow down, so I can put a diaper on properly and minimize the chance of blowouts. And if it's not the reverse wheelbarrow move, then it's rolling over onto her tummy. I thought the novelty of these new tricks would wear off after a few weeks, but they haven't. She also does the arching her back, lean her head backwards/upside down move while she's nursing. That old trick continues as well. Maybe she just likes looking at the world upside down?
Thanks in advance for any answers or experiences you might be able to share. Once again, I am humbled by how little I know about raising a child, and yet she seems to be turning out ok so far:-) It must be those prayers.
Anyway...I'll talk about the trips more later, but in the meantime, the following miscellaneous questions are on my mind. I would love responses you could give to any or all of them!
1. Is anyone in touch with Little Joann? Is she ok? Her blog has been taken down, and I'm worried about her. Plus, I miss reading about Toddler Ann and Little Joe.
2. Does anyone have good websites to calculate cost of living differences between two cities? Or is there a place I can go to find the average cost of living in one city? I've googled and been to a few sites, but all the information is different for each calculator I've used.
3. Has anyone ever worked with a moving company that comes to pack up your house, moves it, and unpacks in the new location? If so, how much do you clean and organize your things before they come and how much do you just get rid of things, so they don't have to move them? I'm thinking of all the junk drawers in our house, our big plastic totes full of things, etc. I've been trying to declutter and eliminate things since before R was born, but it's a slow process when you have so much stuff from having lived in one place for almost 10 years. (Don't interpret this question as us having made a decision about moving. We haven't at all, but I'm already thinking about this and wondering if I should start super-declutter mode now...just in case).
4. Are there things I can eat to increase little R's immune system? It seems she has another cold, or at least another plugged nose after her 2nd airplane trip. I've been trying to eat super healthy to help her get over it quicker, but I wonder if there's more I can do? I also take a probiotic and she takes Tri-vitamin drops (Vitamins A, C, and D). I'm exclusively nursing.
5. Do any of your little ones wear an amber necklace to help with teething? Do they really work? No teeth here yet, but the drool and irritability has increased. I'm thinking teething season has started.
6. We're 2 weeks away from starting solids....oh my! How do I start? Do I just offer rice cereal before nursing? How many times a day do I give rice cereal? When do I start pureed foods? I'm super paranoid about rice cereal since Consumer Reports came out with their article on arsenic in rice, and I'm super clueless about how to start solids. I'd like to make my own baby food, so I borrowed a few books from a friend but haven't had a chance to read them yet.
7. Changing pad acrobatics. That's what it's like to change a diaper in our house lately- an acrobatic feat. We have the changing pad on the floor because as soon as you get a diaper off and start lifting her legs to change her, she's arching her back and going on her head. It's sort of like the reverse wheelbarrow move if you ever did that in elementary school where someone picked up your legs and you had to move forward by crawling on your hands.
Anyways, I don't know how to get her to stop or at least slow down, so I can put a diaper on properly and minimize the chance of blowouts. And if it's not the reverse wheelbarrow move, then it's rolling over onto her tummy. I thought the novelty of these new tricks would wear off after a few weeks, but they haven't. She also does the arching her back, lean her head backwards/upside down move while she's nursing. That old trick continues as well. Maybe she just likes looking at the world upside down?
Thanks in advance for any answers or experiences you might be able to share. Once again, I am humbled by how little I know about raising a child, and yet she seems to be turning out ok so far:-) It must be those prayers.
The only comment I have is on #7. have you tried giving her something to play with to hold her attention for a minute to change it..
ReplyDeleteGood idea. Why didn't I think of that? She's usually wanting to play with her toes.
Delete#6. Don't bother with rice cereal. It has no nutritional value at all. A great first food is mashed avocado or banana. Check out baby led weaning. You completely skip the purees, which saves a lot of your time, both now and later. With a few exceptions (honey, strawberries, cow's milk, etc), just give her very small pieces of what you're eating, and let her feed herself. She'll make a mess at first, but not much more than you would feeding her a puree, and she'll quickly learn where the food goes. Plus, even though she might gag at first (scary, but you have to remember that gagging is not choking, it's just how babies move food around), she'll have less trouble learning to chew and swallow overall.
ReplyDeleteI agree w/ skipping the rice cereal for another reason: all the controversy over arsenic levels in rice.
Deleteregarding immune system... you can buy probiotics for babies..N is on his own baby probiotics.
Oh, and nurse first, then offer solids. Right now, food is for fun and learning, and your breast milk provides most of the nutrition. Start with once or twice a day, and go from there. My 10 month old generally just eats when we eat.
ReplyDeleteBoth of your comments are so, so interesting! Thanks for giving me lots to think about. I'm going to look into baby led weaning more. It's not something I'm familiar with.
DeleteThank you! I wanted to add that my youngest is currently wearing an amber teething necklace and has been for several months. We haven't had too much trouble, but then we had zero teething issues with her sister, who did not wear anything. However, I figure, for $20... Also, I think the Nose Frida is the most amazing invention ever. Completely gross, but absolutely amazing.
DeleteI am so bummed we missed you guys last week, but hopefully next time!
ReplyDeleteHmm...great questions. Here is my $0.02...I don't know how much help I am.
6. My pediatrician suggested starting with veggies, then fruits, then meats, and then cereal. So, what we did was start with peas, sweet potatoes, squash, etc. E loved all of them (well, I thought the peas looked disgusting so I actually haven't purchased them again) and after a few weeks of veggies, we moved onto fruits, and now she eats everything (veggies, fruits, proteins - such as sweet potatoes and turkey dinner, chicken noodle dinner, apple/pears/bananas, etc.) Though I haven't given her anything that is specifically just rice cereal or any other kind of cereal as I too have been worried about the arsenic. We have started giving her some non-baby food too - such as smooshed up squash, little pieces of bread, mashed potatoes, and yes E has had a few tastes of ice cream. :) I just bought the Gerber Nature Selects - we started with the 1s and moved onto the 2s.
7. I echo Lucky - E does the same thing so I just give her something to play with - sometimes a clean wipe - she loves playing with wipes, or a lotion bottle, or sometimes I just give her her pants to play with. She loves playing the "Where's E?" game when I cover her eyes.
Good luck!
Thanks, M! I already tried #7 with a toy, and it works wonders. Thanks for sharing what your pedi. recommended as well.
Delete#4 Have you tried zinc? It's shown to help shorten colds and possibly prevent them. No idea if the benefits would transfer through BM but it couldn't hurt.
ReplyDeleteNo, I haven't. But thanks for the idea!
DeleteWith starting foods, what does your pediatrician suggest? I agree with the above, your milk is providing the nutrition, food is just for fun for now.
ReplyDeleteI've had lots of experience with the alligator twist, lol. When I nannied, the little boy twisted like crazy. I changed him on the floor and used my one leg to straddle his chest to hold him down while I quickly changed his diaper. I know it sounds cruel, but it worked really well.
The pediatrician recommended rice cereal than single foods every couple of days. I think he said nurse 1st, then do food.
DeleteI don't have my baby yet, so I don't have personal experience with the amber necklace, but I know someone who swears by them.
ReplyDeleteAs for solid food introduction, I attended a La Leche League meeting a month or so ago and they were very down on rice cereal. It apparently causes constipation and allergies. The better route is to wait until baby starts reaching for your food and then just let her have small pieces of easily mashable food that you're eating.
Yeah, I'm starting to think no on rice cereal myself.
DeleteI really like the baby-led weaning approach. Besides, with regards to solids, "food is fun up till one." Breastmilk will continue to be the number one source of nutrition until she is about 12 months.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the fun phrase. I was under a different (incorrect) impression for whatever reason, so this is good to know.
DeleteI am enjoying reading all of your comments....great advice! I am sure I will need the same advice in just a few months.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I wanted to share was my experience with a moving company. It was through my husband's company when me moved from AR to MN. It was a very positive experience. I spent a lot of time getting organized but you don't have to go crazy with it. I couldn't believe how they moved our closets of clothing. They had boxes with a closet rod built in and simply transferred the clothes from closet to box. They also use some sort of packaging material for filing cabinets so those don't need to be emptied out. One word of caution...they are told to pack EVERYTHING. Dirty dishes, garbage, random papers, etc. It was kinda amusing finding some of that stuff after unpacking at the new destination. Overall, a great experience. Be organized but don't stress too much.
Oh wow...I did not think that's how they would pack a closet. Good to know. I think I will still go through our drawers an downsize some. I've been wanting to do it for months now anyways.
DeleteLittle JoAnn is doing well. We text most days. I will tell her you are worried about her.
ReplyDeleteWe both took our blogs down around the same time.
Have you tried using saline drops in the nose daily?
Thanks! Yep, saline drops regularly and I'm waiting for the Nose Frida to arrive to suck out the boogies.
Delete(6) Just came back from C's 6-month appointment... she suggested starting with veggies, then fruit - fruit is sweeter and they might not want the veggies after that! She said it was ok to not give him rice cereal - my personal feeling is that it's just a filler - there are more nutrients in fruits and veggies. Plus, I want him to like a variety of foods and eat what my husband and I eat since he won't be eating it when he's older anyway!
ReplyDeleteI had a friend tell me she would mash up the foods on her kids high-chair trays and let them kind of explore.
Oh, and yes, as others have mentioned, BF first, then give the real food. Introduce new fews a few days apart so you can watch to see if there are any allergies or problems - that way you can pinpoint the correct food.
Oh, yeah. I had heard about starting veggies 1st. Thanks for the reminder and other great advice.
DeleteAmber necklace ... my SIL has tried it with her son and hasn't noticed a difference. So I haven't done it with Luke.
ReplyDeleteFeeding acrobatics ... I thought Luke was just a super mover! :-) He wiggles and squirms almost out of your lap giving him a bottle ... I can't imagine being attached to a baby squirming! Must be something about them being ready to crawl and see the world. :-)
For food, we started out in the evening with a bowl of rice cereal and did that every night. Then we tried morning & evening the following week. We switched from rice to oatmeal to "xxx" each week, so we could see if there were any allergies. All I know is that traveling over the last weekend (3 days), Luke did NOT want to eat any solids, so we are back to square one as far as feeding him. He is super tired and worn out.
Yes, R. is definitely ready to start crawling. She wants to so badly, but hasn't quite figured out the coordination.
DeleteDid you find he sleeps longer at night by doing the rice cereal in the evening?
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI have zero advice on any of these so I am creeping the comments and stealing yours, haha! As you know we will be in the same boat very soon!
ReplyDeleteI love that you can creep the comments and steal:-)
DeleteI agree with Patiently waiting on the packing/moving stuff... don't stress about organizing too much, but I would try to clean out junk drawers and make sure you don't leave things lying around that are meant for the trash or donation.... THEY WILL PACK EVERYTHING!!!!
ReplyDeleteFor feeding, I think everyone does it a little differently. My pediatrician told me to start with one feeding at breakfast time after morning breastfeeding somewhere between 4 and 6 months. I did oatmeal (less constipating than rice and no worry about arsenic). This meal was not for calories at all, just to improve his oral motor skills and prepare him for eating. Around 6 months I added a dinner time feeding where we introduced veggies, fruits, and meats. The only things my pediatrician said not to feed him were cow's milk and honey. They used to hold off on a lot of things, but newer data suggests kids will have fewer allergies if you introduce them to more things earlier. I would never introduce more than one new thing a day just in case of an allergic reaction. Sometimes he would eat great and other times he would refuse. I think the key is to not stress about how much they eat. As others have said, before 1 year, most caloric intake is still from milk. My pediatrician also said if he refused something to offer it again another day. The new taste may have been shocking at first, but he/she may grow to love it. At 9 months, we added lunch. I did a lot of purees... with a food processor it is soooo easy The basics method is steam/boil until soft, put in food processor and add water until you get the consistency you want. I would make large batches and freeze in ice cube trays. One cube warmed makes a nice size serving. I also really liked the puffs and freeze dried yogurt you can buy at the store. Once he could crawl, around 8 months, I started giving him things he could chew and swallow. He didn't really have the coordination for it before then. Good luck and trust those mama instincts!!!!
Super helpful. Thanks for sharing. Your approach to solid feeding is more in line with what I was thinking I would do before I even posed these questions.
DeleteSuch amazing advice...I have been wondering about Little Joanne too!!!! Glad she is good.
ReplyDeleteI started M on avocados, bananas and egg yolks at 4 months. Here is a great article Sew sent me:
http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/nourishing-a-growing-baby
I never gave rice cereal..its junk.
Michael now eats anything, I just cut it up into small pieces.
Have fun!! This stage is fun!!