One thing you learn when you have a house full of babies is to obsessively track how much they are eating and when. As all parents know, the timing of the last bottle of the day is directly correlated as to the timing of when the baby will awaken during the night. Or so you hope.
Miss Tiny, who is anything BUT Tiny, is still not consistently sleeping through the night. I am a sleep loving mama. She is a 22 pound 8 month old who is perfectly capable of going 12 hours without a bottle. She would like you to know that about 8 hours is her maximum. She wins.
Feeding her has become an exercise in creativity. The child loves food. FOOD. Real, adult, people food. She has no teeth. NOT A SINGLE TOOTH. If it comes from a jar, her nose scrunches, her lips clench and she refuses to even consider it as edible. And really, have you tasted baby food lately? YUCK.
And so we get creative with pasta and canned fruit. She is lactose intolerant so all things cheese are out. Cheese has always been a staple baby food in my house and losing it from the menu challenges my creativity. I would love some ideas from the more domestically inclined of my readers. Or people who actually have enough energy to remember what they fed their babies.
At the same time I also have to feed Miss Precious, who is with her new foster family (HOORAY!!!) but continues to come here every day for daycare. Miss Precious and Miss Not-So-Tiny are pretty much polar opposites in all things personality. Miss Precious refuses to eat. ANYTHING. There are a variety of good reasons for her strong oral aversion, but let me tell you, nothing stresses out the motherly types like a skinny baby that won't eat. I feel like an abject failure and appease myself by giving Miss Tiny another cookie, and a few chocolates for myself.
Damm you cheap halloween candy.
16 comments:
Hi! My son is L I and recently came across this guy who spelled out some specifics about cheese. I found, since my son isn't going to die from mik, just has a bad poo that he can have the harder cheeses, like cheddar. His Gastro dr said to try little bit of dairy stuff to see what he can manage and so far harder cheeses have been alright :) http://www.stevecarper.com/li/AHC0400.htm
I love love love the picture of your four boys. I hope somehow that baby will decide eating might not be so bad :)
ness v.
Skinny strips of toast? Bits of cheddar, pear, banana? Jess.
I hate food stuff. Seriously. However, I do have some ideas for you for Miss (Not So) Tiny.
We found that canned veggies can be pretty darn mushy. Hannah and Micah both ate canned green beans and peas fairly early although that both refused the carrots. She probably doesn't like the baby rice cereal, but you could always try things like oatmeal cream of wheat. And as unhealthy as it sounds, french fries. I would but the frozen crinkle cuts, bake them to warm, but not crispy and they could suck the potato right out of them
As for Miss Precious, I'm sure her foster mommy is starting EI stuff with her. There are lots of OTs and SLPs out there who would in the area of food therapy. Micah's school program last year did it and we are still working on it now. Most of the tricks I know are more for the 18mo-5yo age range though. It's hard when a child associates pain with putting things in their mouth because then it becomes a fear issue as well.
Hi Jen,
Been following for awhile, I am actually related(through marriage) to Teresa, your hubby's cousin. We are in the process of adopting a sib pair from Ethiopia, and actually have a few people we both know in common! Anyway, I was commenting because my son has a dairy allergy, and therfore can have no mlk products and our go-to for him is anything we can replace with soy. So, soy milk, soy cheese, soy yogurt. He LOVES it and it is much healthier than dairy anyway. Nowadays there are generally more options to replace the dairy with...hopefully where you are too!
Flora
Thanks you guys -- I have tried goat cheese, and we buy the soy yogurt and soy cheeses as well (ouch pricey!) and thanks for the ideas.
Flora -- I am sure we know some of the same people :) Laura?
I only used Jarred stuff when we were out and about. And Bubba refused any type of baby food or cereal for the longest time. He just wanted real food. He did enjoy those teething biscuits but they are a mess.
Mostly, I took whatever I made for dinner and put it through the food processor and then strained it with a mesh feeder.
I also would boil chicken breasts a bunch at a time and grind them up. Then I would divide that up into individual servings so I had something on hand for times we were eating something a baby couldn't, like chilli
Scrambled eggs were another favorite (check with the doc first about allergies).
You might be surprised, even without teeth, she can probably gum down foods you didn't think she could.
Lets see what I remember....peeling and boiling and mashing sweet potatoes, and sprinkling cinnamon or a little bit of nutmeg in them and feeding it to babe....babe liked spicy foods...he was strange...see if Miss-Not-So-Tiny may be objecting to bland flavored foods like my son did...he liked my spicy curried lentils with the mashed couscous...liked organic bananas (had to be organic baby food bananas, he didnt like the regular ones in the baby food jar for some strange reason)...liked mashed up fresh string beans cooked til bright green in water, drained and mashed up with butter...even liked ground lamb meatballs...are there foods in her culture that she may have been fed, sometimes babies are fed solid food before they have teeth...I know in my family we feed them solid food when they have no teeth if they are grinding their food with their gums....my son also loved avocado mashed up...loved collard greens, spinach cooked in butter...ruffled kale and mustard greens cooked with some chopped leeks, oil, seasonings and a touch of liquid smoke in the pot....he also loved the cooked yolks from boiled eggs...and bits of cold raw butter (non-salted) He was also very fond of broiled fish. Loved that stuff would bang his high chair for more. Maybe she likes her food seasoned or spicy or savory or seafoody--AdrienneG
Also she may be on the verge of sprouting teeth. My son got very very interested in solid food at a very young age and we thought that was strange until he sprouted teeth soon after.
Some babies will refuse the food you cook if they were fed junk food and sodas and candy and cookies. It may take awhile for Miss Precious to accept and eat the food you cook if she's expecting sweets, even if its juice. Juice can fill up the stomach with the sugar and kill their appetite for real food.
--Adrienne
Ignore my mixing up the babies names. Miss-Not-So-Tiny shoudl have been written Miss Precious.
--AdrienneG
Get the book 'First Meals' by Annabel Carmel. (Think that's her name.) It has tons of easy-to-fix baby recipes, broken down by age. Tons of ideas I never would have thought to try. I would cook a bunch up in an afternoon, freeze it and have enough for a week or two.
Both of my kids were on soy formula/milk, so I simply substituted soy-based joghurt/cheese and soy milk in the recipes.
Good luck!
Magnif7 (Lisa)
I actually live 2 min from Laura! My daughter has become good friends with her oldest 2 girls, and she has been a huge help to me. It's funny how the adoption community is spread out, but everyone's connected!
Hey Jen,
I just googled "how to make money from a blog," and there is lots of info. One way is to post ads on your blog, and then you get a certain amount of money per click.
You and your family are doing such interesting and good stuff, and you are such a thoughtful and engaging writer, that it might be worth a try. I know, it's a tad distasteful to most of us to commercialize our lives, but your family could use the money to help raise your kids, and I think your readers would understand.
Abby
North Manchester, IN
Just a couple of ideas here. I have a skinny and we've had luck with mini-go yogurt (it is part cream cheese, so high in calories). Also good is avocado. Potato chips made with healthy oils work as well. We also mixed her whole milk (at 2) with formula, and added formula to her juice. She LOVES garlic, so I add that to a lot of things too.
As far as sensory issues, I've had luck with frozen veggies where cooked ones won't fly. I've let kids eat their toast with a fork, because sometimes the aversion comes from touching the food. Straws for drinks sometimes help.
You can call the dietitian at the hospital for help, too.
i nannied for a lil girl who didnt get teeth til about 11 months, and worked in a baby daycare, and found that the best non-babyfood food was any fruit or veggies and to soften them you can either use a steamer or if you dont have one, just put the cut up food (always lengthwise, not widthwise) in a bowl with a few tbsp of water and cook in the microwave until soft. apples, carrots, pears...
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