Baby Corner

[anya-D 8]

Thanks ladies for your input.

We started giving him some banana, carrots and sweet potato from our plate (mash) just to taste it and he hated those.. he wanted to try and open his mouth to eat it but then make yuckky face and shudder lol. So I went and got the gerber oatmeal - so I can try to teach him how to swollow. that's what our pedi told us that the first few weeks are more like teaching him the new texture anyway. He would open his mouth and grab on to the spoon and put it in his mouth but then he made yuckky face again lol. We are just giving him like a few bites just so he gets used to it.. I dont think he swollow it more than half a baby spoon each sitting.

Our pedi said it's ok to start if I want to - but not to start with too runny puree - the consistancy should be like a mash potato and that's what we are doing. I'm just going to keep giving him a few bites a day like this - just to teach him to get used to eating from the spoon - not that he needs any more food ahahahah

Anwyay, he's been waking up at night - midnight, 3.30AM then 6.30AM for feeding for a few weeks now.. he was very good and would sleep from 8 till 3.30AM and now he's up at midnight for a feeding too...and he would nurse and fall asleep - should i let him cry to sleep for the midnight feeding? I know he could do it coz he did it before. but I'm afraid he got up to nurse becasue he needed more food now that he's so big.. is that possible?

Last night he has a nightmare cry again at around 10.30PM... co-incidence? it's the seceon night we tried oatmeal (but he hardly swollowed it..) and a second night he had nightmare....

[Jenn! 918]

Hope you pass, Kelly! I know that GD is a PITA and it will be especially hard over the holidays.

[anya-D 8]

Good luck Zaidsmommy!!! cross fingers for you.

[Jenn! 918]

@Anya, that's interesting that your pedi said to make the puree thicker - I had always read the opposite - that it's easier to transition gradually by making it really runny at first then thickening it up over time. Rice cereal the consistency of mashed potatoes sounds a little thick to me, then again, I make my mashed potatoes pretty thick, so maybe that's the issue, lol.

About the sleeping - I wouldn't worry about it personally. I think they go through phases of being more wakeful because of developmental stages that they are going through. Then again, maybe I'm not the best person to listen to because I have a 13-month old who still wakes at least once a night to nurse, ha!

[Fandango 1,440]

It's funny that you guys are talking about this, we were just talking about this last night. Nick's poop problems (I think) came from the baby water we were buying to make his formula. We took him off it, and it seems to have done the trick. The doc also changed his formula, but to me, Nick is not getting full on it. Well, he's either going through a growth spurt, or this formula doesn't satisfy him. So we were talking about possibly adding rice cereal next week or so....he'd be around 9-10 weeks by then. My friend's grandson was on rice cereal by 3 or 4 weeks old!!!

Of course, I wouldn't do anything without talking to the doc first, but we were just throwing the idea around.

Anyhoo, I did a bit of googling...introducing solids before month 4 puts them at a higher risk for obesity and diabetes. And their bodies aren't mature enough (usually) to handle processing the solid food. So that's a no.

Back to the water, I bought Gerber Pure. For some reason, I thought it would be better than just filtered water from home. My parents have a water testing kit, and it measures parts per million of any additives (or '#######' as I like to say...the water at home registers like a 5 or 6. The Gerber 'Pure'??? 119!

Years ago, I tested Zepyrhills, it was literally off the chart....the machine cannot calibrate higher than 200.

Anyhoo...good morning everyone, heh! Good luck with your sugar test ZM! Even if it comes out not-so-great, keep in mind that doesn't mean you automatically have diabetes forever now. You remember my situation? I controlled the GD for a very long time just watching what I ate, then took insulin the last two weeks. It's really not undoable...and there are many new sugar free, low carb recipes that taste GREAT!

Steph, I also had BH....I just took it easy, breathed through it. Good luck!

Oh, one more thing...vote for Nick please! lolz http://www.gerber.com/photo/?entryid=154745&/#/detail/

[Jenn! 918]

OMG, that's ridiculous about the H2O, Lisa. I've always just used water from our Brita filter for Adam. Curious as to how that would test...

[Anna C. 4]

Yes to what Jenn said...

It is not recommended to start before 4 months with cereal or other solids. 6 months being the general recommendation. We offered sweet potato at 6 months and Jona had no interest. We continued from there on forward foods - fruit purrees, our mashed up foods, even the organic Happy Belly rice cereal. I'm not a fan of rice cereal, it is not the best food for babies. I'd highly prefer fruits or veggies! Something with vitamins and fiber. Anyways, Jona didn't want solids at all. He ate for the first time at 11 months and then very little for a long time. He now just started recently to eat more foods, and now I wish I hadn't worried so much in the past. He was in a very high percentile for weight and height from the get go just on breastmilk and thriving, so there was no need for concern. None of the pedis were ever too concerned with it either. Kids are just different. My nephews both reached for food at 5 months, but my sisters distracted them til 6 months and they just ate whatever you gave them. One of them slowed down completely as a toddler and now is a picky eater, the other one just turned one and still eats like a maniac.

@ lisa: I don't have experience with formula, but I'm pretty sure you are not supposed to use even filtered tap water. I remember reading somewhere that the CDC doesn't recommend that, especially if your water is fluoridated cause Brita filters cannot filter that out. I'd just buy some spring water from the Safeway brand or local supermarket store brand.

As for sleeping... I wouldn't worry, babies wake up a lot and it is actually meant to be that way. Some sleep more than others - my nephew pulled 7 hour stretches until he started to teethe. Jona always slept for 3-4 hours at a time, then nursing for 5 minutes and back to sleep (my milk came out really fast, he could nurse tons within minutes). New foods can be upsetting, I would watch it. When Jona was teething he would sleep a lot worse, and it would improve once they cut through.

Braxton Hicks... Well I have 4-10 per day, painless, not in any pattern. With Jona at 24 weeks I started painless, yet regular contractions and regular contractions I would have checked out. Hydration is a big issue so I drink a lot and avoid stress (easier said than done). Any contractions in a pattern are worth to be looked at, see I had them and it did change my cervix (shortened it in no time and after 32 weeks dilated and effaced it). They initially didn't take me seriously until I spent one night at L&D and the monitor clearly showed the contractions that the obgyns before dismissed... Could have been caught earlier if they had listened to me!

@ Kelly: I hope you will pass the 3 hour test! I bet you will. I know lots of women who did (SIL, my old boss, ladies on forums)!

I had my glucose test on Monday and it was fine. I also was checked for anemia, while I'm not anemic, I'm low now and started Floradix in addition to my prenatal. I've been sick a lot from all the traveling and am still recuperating. Halloween was a blast though for Jona in San Francisco, everybody was crazy about baseball that night (all the parents kept asking what's the score!!!!). SIL gave us a big bag of girl clothes and I picked a bunch and also bought some (Bay Area has so many more stores than we do, hey we don't even have an Old Navy in town!!!)... We are all set til 12 months... I got a super cute strawberry costume for $2 at TJ Maxx on sale in the right size for her for Halloween 2011... I must say there are way better deals on girl clothes, and also way more selection. It's a little unfair!

My friend lent me her Hypnobabies workbook and CDs and I'm getting started with it. It looks very promising I think.

[anya-D 8]

lol, Thanks Jenn - I dont make it too thick, just not runny The example our pedi gave us is banana (ripe) - just puree and I dont need to add liquid to it and that's about the right consistancy. So I guess it's probably not as thick as your mash potato hehehe. Yea, I think I'll let him set his own time for now, but at this rate, he'll be +100 percentile!! and mioght not fit in the airline bassinet by the time we fly lol.

@Lisa, Nick is so cute! I couldnt vote for you coz I vote for my Sam every day, sorry! (can I vote a second time for seperate catagory?)

[chnst 6]

Lisa: yeah I am not surprised about the water. I just read a study somewhere that your tap water gets tested every single day for feces and that kind of gross stuff, bacteria etc its a federal law. But bottled water including babies water does only have to be tested ONCE a year! So technically the tap water is probably much cleane and fresher. I would investigate where your water comes from and what's in it. Not everyone has fluoride in their water system. Last I heard it's ok to mix formula with tap water. And if you have a Britax filter it should be fine, but I'd double check on the fluoride.

Thanks everyone for your input on the Braxton Hicks, I had them for hours yesterday, and they were intense!! Every 2 minutes and really painful, but I am so glad they're gone now. I am off til tuesday so I will just relax (as much as you can relax with a 2 year old and a wedding this weekend haha)

Kelly: aww this sucks! I can't imagine! I am always starving. I have a feeling that I will fail my glucose test too. I was very borderline with Ben and he was a big baby. I think this baby will be even bigger, I am huge. It really sucks because of the holidays but only a few more months/weeks and we're done!! I just hope that I won't need insulin. Idk is it just me or does almost every pregnant person I know lately a gestational diabetic?? Anyway, good luck with your 3 hour test, hope it will be ok and that you don't pass out from starvation!!

[TracyTN 237]

We tried Emily last night with cereal from a bowl. She started to open her mouth when hubby put the spoon in front of it, but the moving it around and swallowing still puzzled her a bit. After about 10 minutes and MANY spoonfuls (more than half the bowl we'd made up), she started to cry and get frustrated -- as did her daddy!! He plunked her on me and said 'mommy wants you to have a bottle'. Did I, really?? LOL I had merely told him what the book we have said about trying it the first time, and that we had seemed to be going at it way longer than they said would probably work. He ASKED me to look this up, I might add! But that somehow translated into me saying stop trying. At least he apologized when I pointed out how ridiculous he was being. :-)

@ Lisa - that SUCKS about the water, geez! Like Jenn, we have been using a Brita filter pitcher to make our formula from (also wonder how it would test - probably depends on the quality of your tap water to begin with).

[Fandango 1,440]

I have found that the cleanest water around is from those triple osmosis machines (the ones you see all over town). No water can compare to as far as purity...not even the Brita! Saying that, we do still have a Brita that I fill with the filtered water from the fridge, which actually isn't too bad. I don't know why I decided to use the baby water...just felt like since it said it was the best way to mix formula, that I should do it. I didn't even think to test it until he started having problems and I was racking my brain as to what the cause was. Obviously, since a few things were changed, I can't be certain WHAT the cause was, but we're going to do a little experimenting so we can find out.

Anya - I'd vote for Sam if I could

[Anna C. 4]

Ah yes, triple osmosis is the best. I wish we could install one of those machines in our basement, but since we only will keep this house til 2013, it's too expensive. Our permanent home will have one for our drinking water in the kitchen.

Here is the info that I came across a long time ago when I was reading about formula just in case I might be unable to breastfeed:

http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/safety/infant_formula.htm#1'>http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/safety/infant_formula.htm#1

http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/safety/infant_formula.htm

[Jenn! 918]

You can check if your tap water is fluoridated using a tool here: http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/MWF/index.asp

Ours has fluoride. Adam never got formula, but I do use filtered tap water to dilute his juice - he probably has about 4 oz. of this water a day. Not sure if that's enough for me to get too worried about.

[Ontarkie 14,378]

Hi everyone, I just recently found out I was pregnant and popped my head in here. This is #5 for me although it feels like its all new since its been awhile since I had my last. Anyways I had no idea that ppl use bottled water for their babies. What ever happened to boiling the water from your tap. Other then paying tons of money for bottled water is their really any benefits to it? As for me I bottle fed my first one only, the other 3 were all breastfed. No solids till they where about the 9 months mark and that was pretty much just a taste of table food, mashed up. I never did feed any of the kids late at night to try and get them to sleep longer, its kinda pointless when you think of it. Your digestive system slows down at night, making it harder on them to sleep. Well I guess there is still lots to learn, good luck to everyone.

[KittyPollitt 284]

That's very rare I think that a pediatrician ok'd solids before 4 months and cow's milk before 12. I'm glad it seemed to be ok for your daughter though.

That's what people keep telling me! I think our ped. is of that attitude that if the kid can handle it, is growing properly, and seems to like it, then what's the issue..