Baby-Led Elena

Lately I've had a few friends and family comment on what a great eater Elena is. And she is. Gabe is quite picky and let me tell you it's pretty stressful at times. Elena on the other hand will eat just about anything you put in front of her. Not that she doesn't have preferences but for the most part she loves all the different food groups.

Now most of this I attribute to personality. Elena is just so much more laid back than Gabe in this area. But I think part of it is how I chose to feed her. After dealing with purees for 15 months with Gabe I was downright sick of them. I didn't want to look at another puree. I had heard of a parenting 'fad' called baby-led weaning and a couple friends that tried it swore up and down that their kids were the best eaters. At the time I thought they were a bit insane. I don't like parenting fads at all. But now faced with feeding another kid, and pretty terrified of having another picky eater, I thought it might be worth looking into. I read up on it and a friend sent me her copy of the book Baby-Led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett. I read the book and it made a lot of sense to me. I won't sit here and explain every detail involved with Baby-Led Weaning (or a better title would be Baby-Led Solids), you can read the book if you want or checkout the website http://www.babyledweaning.com/.

For the record, I have nothing against purees. Moms have fed their babies purees for many years and it's worked for them. I just didn't like our puree experience and I didn't want to repeat it. Gabe hated most of what I tried to feed him and it was always a crazy game of trying to figure out how to sneak it in his mouth. This was usually done while my own dinner got cold and for well over a year I couldn't remember the last time I ate a warm meal.

The basics of baby-led weaning are pretty simple - wait until baby is 6 months old + can sit up on their own and skip the purees. Purees were first introduced when our parents were babies and it was a common recommendation then to start feeding babies solids by the time they were 2 months old. You can't get solid food into a 2 month old so they had to puree it up. Before this time a lot of parents followed 'baby-led weaning' before it had a name, it was just a natural way of introducing table foods to babies when they were ready for them. By the time babies are 6 months old and can sit up on their own, they can grip food and bring it to their mouth (and in many cases, rip it right off our plates while we are holding them!). So long as it is is given in reasonable sized portions and easy textures for them, they can learn to feed themselves.

Elena took to eating this way beautifully. At first she did a lot of 'munching' on foods and learning how to move them around her mouth. She still ate a decent portion from probably our 3rd time offering her food, but she didn't really start eating 'meals' until she was about 8 months.

Here are some pictures of Elena learning to feed herself. Did I mention that baby-led weaning is quite messy? If you are a parent who is afraid of mess, you might not want to do this. Actually, if you are a parent afraid of mess, I'm not sure why you are a parent. ;)

One of Elena's very first foods, a banana


Elena gagging on the banana. Gagging in the beginning is really normal as they learn to manipulate food in their mouth. I had to remind myself - repeatedly - that she was not choking and to let her handle it. She did wonderfully of course.


This is either a banana or an apple slice...I can't tell!


Figuring out a straw sippy. Not food but Elena learned this skill pretty quickly.


A pork chop. She ate nearly that whole piece


Turkey bacon. Yes turkey bacon. She ate a couple of those apple slices on the table too, so I'm not *too* horrible of a parent am I?


Patiently waiting for food while Gabe plays with his


Realizing that Gabe has food on his tray...


She grabbed his tray and pulled him closer to her so she could reach his fork


And success!


Pizza crust (I swear we fed her healthy food too, I guess I didn't think those were picture worthy...)


This is what she thought of the puree I attempted to feed her when I didn't feel like preparing any food


Toast and peaches and shredded cheese


Cinnamon-raisin toast with cream cheese and sliced cucumber. She likes veggies but if you put veggies and carbs in front of her at the same time, carbs win every time...


A quisidilla and steamed bell pepper slices


Chicken and cut up peaches. By this point Elena started wanting most of her food in small cut up pieces.


A steamed carrot. Not sure what the rest of it was!


Learning how to use a spoon


Which did not last long


Spaghetti. Ummm...did I mention that baby-led weaning is messy?


Now Elena is 15 months and she's my great eater. And as if baby-led weaning wasn't fun enough on it's own, I never had to buy a single jar of baby food for Elena which I'd say is pretty cost effective. I also never had to puree up any of my own baby foods (I did with Gabe eventually to save money) which saved me a lot of extra time in the kitchen. I'm looking forward to doing the same thing with this next baby, hopefully he or she likes it just as much.

Commenting

I was told by a friend who follows my blog that she's having issues commenting. I've changed some settings so hopefully it will work now...

Newborn cloth

I have to admit that within just a couple days of finding out I was pregnant I started considering the cloth diapering possibilities.

Yes, please, go ahead and laugh at me. This blog is titled The Cloth Addict for a reason.

While most of our one-size diapers say they will fit from 8 lbs and up I know the reality is that most won't fit until baby is 10 - 12 lbs. Both my kids didn't hit this weight until they were 1.5 - 2 months old. If I want to do cloth I need newborn diapers until baby can fit into our one-size diapers. Since cost is our #1 reason for cloth diapering I had to sit down and do the cost comparison of disposables vs cloth for the first two months. I could bore you to tears by showing you all my math, but the end result I got was that disposables will cost approximately $200 - $220 during that time. Which is actually cheaper than cloth diapering - depending on how you go. Prefolds + covers are cheaper by a good $40 - 60. Just about everything else is more expensive - if you don't consider resale value. A newborn diaper can typically be re-sold for anywhere from 50 - 80% of the retail value (and more often than not closer to 80% because they are often in like new condition after only being used such a short time).

Even with resale value considered I wanted my goal to be to spend less money outright than what I would have spent on disposables. I could just go the disposable route but I love the idea of putting my newborn in fluffy cloth diapers and I am determined to figure out how to do it as cheaply as possible - without using only prefolds and covers. As economical as they are I just don't think I want to use them full time.

I considered for awhile using a newborn rental - up front cost is $225, you get the diapers for 3 months, and then when you return them you get $100 back or $110 for store credit. But one of their rules is that you can only use cloth diaper safe detergent. Since the only thing that has ever worked for me is Tide I'd rather just buy my own.

So far I'm very happy with my purchase decisions. I have spent a little less than 2/3 of my budget and I have nearly all the diapers I need. So far I have:

10 BumGenius XS AIOs
1 FuzziBunz XS pocket with velcro
5 Kissaluvs Size 0 fitteds
1 WAHM (work at home mom) fitted (no link she doesn't have a website)
7 Thirsties XS fitteds (these are discontinued, so no link)
1 Bummis XS cover
1 Small cover (unsure of brand)

All of them were bought on sale or used, some for an absolute steal.

All I have left to buy are half a dozen prefolds (I do want to try them, I just don't want a whole stash of them) and more covers.

My newborn cloth diaper stash so far:

Tubes & Talking

This blog has been a month in the making but finding the time to sit down and write it has been hard.

A month ago, on July 7th, Gabe had ear tubes put in to help solve his his issues associated with recurrent ear infections. Watching my boy in pain and needing antibiotics just about every 2 - 3 weeks was rough. I missed seeing the happy boy that I knew was in there. In addition to the never ending fussiness I wondered if a large part of Gabe's delay in speaking well had something to do with the constant fluid in his ears.

Gabe's tube surgery went very well. It was over quickly and he recovered so well. He didn't do that great waking up from the anesthesia but I expected it, thanks to a wonderful friend who warned me that he might become very combative and hard to control. He did, but he did calm down very quickly. After we were discharged he fell asleep in the car on his way home and by the next day he was back to his normal self again. More than that - he was happy. Since his tube surgery we have had maybe two or three major screaming toddler meltdowns. Before the surgery we were seeing those meltdowns several times a day.

Three days after his surgery I heard him running around the house saying, "Nonny! Nonny!" At first I was confused, but then realized that he was referring to - ME! He had always said 'mommy' with a bit of an N sound. It was never clear though, it always sounded slurred, just like every other word he said before the surgery. My attempts to teach him to say Mommy correctly hadn't worked. So I sat him down on the couch and told him, "No Gabe, I'm Mommy, not Nonny." He gave me a huge grin and said, "Mommy!" and my heart just melted. It sure is something when your 2 year old finally calls you Mommy (correctly!) for the first time.

Since then I've seen slow but steady improvement in his speech and it just blows me away all the time. He's learning new word and finally starting to say words he all ready knew correctly. He didn't suddenly start spitting out full sentences overnight but I didn't expect that. We continually work on his speech and he's getting better every day. He has a whole vocabulary of words now. I haven't tried to count them but I know it's a lot. Before his surgery I could count his vocabulary on two hands and now it's exploded. I am so proud of him and I am so happy we had tubes put in his ears. He hasn't had an ear infection since. His 1 month checkup with the ENT is tomorrow so we'll find out how his ears look inside and how everything is healing.

Yesterday Gabe was playing with Elena and she started trying to poke him in the eye (ahhhh siblings!). Gabe got all excited and told Elena, "It's an eye!" Excuse me while I tear up a bit. He said a full sentence and was also trying to teach Elena. Since then I've seen him doing such wonderful 'big brother' things with her. He shows her how to use toys and he's trying to teach her words. I can't believe it. My baby boy is growing up.

A new addition

Not much of a blog update, but the picture about sums it up. ;) We are expecting our third child in February and we couldn't be more thrilled.

Penicillin Allergy

A little over a week ago Gabe was diagnosed with double ear infections. This would be infection number 5 (6 I guess if you count that it's both ears this time) and we are headed for tubes on July 7th.

On Friday (day 8 of his antibiotics) Gabe woke up from his nap with a crazy looking rash on his bottom. I thought it looked like bug bites and actually tore his sheets up looking for bed bugs. Nothing to be found and then I noticed over the next 30 minutes that the bumps were spreading. My first thought was that he had chicken pox, though he has been vaccinated against it. But as the rash spread it became clear it was more like hives. I put in a call to the ped's office office and the doctor on call told me it was likely a reaction to his antibiotic - Augmentin - and that we should discontinue it immediately. Sooth with oatmeal or baking soda baths, use calamine lotion, etc. We had planned on going out to my parent's house and Gabe seemed pretty happy despite being a little itchy so out we went. We got there late in the evening. And that's when it all 'broke lose' really for lack of a better phrase. Gabe's hives went from minimal to a crazy rash covering his entire body:



(the white stuff is calamine lotion)

He was clearly unhappy and so uncomfortable. In the morning we ground up oatmeal and bathed him in it and gave him benedryl, neither of which seemed to help him. We covered him in calamine lotion which might as well have been water. He cried non-stop and just itched and itched and while he itched the hives just got worse (yes worse than what you see above). I called the on-call doctor again and she said that since it was getting wore, despite discontinuing the antibiotic, I should take him in to a local ER or urgent care. When we got to the urgent care they said it was definitely hives, probably from the medication, and prescribed an oral steroid.

That really seemed to work and that night his rash went away considerably and he was happy (and hyper!) as a clam. I left him at my parent's house with Nathan and took Elena with me to go out to eat with my parents, brother, and the rest of our extended family in the area to celebrate my brother's graduation. When I got home we finally got Gabe in bed and it was the same as the night before. Crazy itching, very uncomfortable, lots of crying, and no one slept. We gave up around 3am and then at 5am decided we should just head home. He was covered in new hives on top of the ones that had been fading. He finally slept in the car (and so did I) and when we got home we tried another baking soda bath. That only seemed to make things worse and then I started to get pretty worried because the spots that had been there from the first outbreak had turned into bruises. We decided to head into the ER.

Thankfully Gabe is going to be just fine, he just has a very severe penicillin allergy. The ER doctor said that with the way our bodies fight allergens we can expect the hives to come and go for the next two weeks. He gave Gabe a stronger steroid in the hospital and sent us home with a prescription for the same steroid the urgent care clinic gave us, but at a stronger dosage. We are just to continue as before - steroids, benedryl, zyrtec (which he takes daily for seasonal allergies anyway) and calamine lotion and oatmeal or baking soda baths. But for the most part, we just have to wait it out. It will likely be a very long two weeks, but I'm so glad we know now that he has this allergy and I'm thankful that his first reaction was not a life-threatening one. They said that if he's ever exposed again it could be.

So that was my weekend. How was yours?

The OCM fail

Two blogs in one day? I must be on a roll.

Or just avoiding folding my mound of laundry on the couch.

I am just updating to say I couldn't make it another month on the OCM. It just did.not.work. I wanted it to work. I tried to will it to work. But it simply does not. Maybe it works for people who don't have bad skin problems to begin with, but it definitely did not work for me. I could have experimented with different oils or with different levels of concentration of the castor oil vs. carrier oil but let's face it - that's a lot of work for something that probably wasn't going to help anyway. I'm glad I tried it because it was kind of a fun experiment, but overall it was a sad disappointment. Mostly because it would have been the most inexpensive face wash solution I can imagine.

Instead I have picked up a natural face cleanser from the grocery store called Kiss My Face. It smells nummy and so far it's helping my face to clear up so I couldn't be happier.