Archive for October, 2006
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Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
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How To Put Recipes Onto The Blog
Monday, October 16th, 2006Post them wherever you like, of course, but if you'd rather they didn't get lost in the scrum of comments then it's a good idea to email them to me and I'll stick them up 'officially' for you. With all due credit, of course…
Press on the Aitch above and you'll get my email address, along with a miniscule photo of Babybear and I, you poor creatures.
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Sunday, October 15th, 2006
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Brussels Sprouts
Sunday, October 15th, 2006Not my first choice of vegetable I'd have to say, but we were out for lunch at a friend's house and in addition to cooking roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, asparagus and baby carrots, he knocked up a bowlful of brussels.
Babybear thought them rather marvellous, actually, and very much enjoyed biting chunks out of hers with her four new top teeth. Later, while her parents were discussing how tiresome it is to be driven onto the pavement and into a fence by some tit in a 4 x 4 (so often the topic of discussion, I find), she contented herself with peeling the leaves of the sprout back, fanning them out and blowing on them in the manner of Citizen Kane's Jedediah Leland at the opera.
Did not notice any increase in her already prodigious farting after the meal, so that's one worry crossed off the list for Christmas Day.
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Remember, this is a blog.
Saturday, October 14th, 2006…so for everyone who's thinking 'where do I start?', the answer is generally 'at the bottom and read up'. In the case of Finger Foods, however, I have 'organised' (and I cannot use that word too loosely) the first couple of months' posts into Month 1 and Month 2. Look to your left, two new sub-sections have just appeared as if by magic!
It's just what I happened to give Babybear, though, so you must absolutely do what you like if you want to give different foods (apart from things like peanuts, obviously). Good luck!
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Allergies – a sensitive subject
Saturday, October 14th, 2006My friend Jen is a good and impressive woman, but let's just say that she is un petit peu cautious by nature. And a teensy bit anal, as well, but in a cute way, with just a hint of Monica Geller. (Like Monica, I suspect she is secretly a flibbertigibbet of monumental proportions, but I digress…)
On the matter of allergies, however, she has good reason as her family history seems to predicate her son to having frightening allergic reactions. Maybe he'll have them, maybe he won't, but you can bet your life that Jen will make every effort possible to avoid him suffering in any way.
She has also recently discovered that she can't be bothered cooking, so she has evolved a cunning way of bulk cooking BLW foods, which is worth reading even for those of you who are intolerant of the very idea of intolerance. Here it is…
Fast-food baby-led low-allergen-risk
weaning
How’s that for a title?
On behalf of all Canadians I should come
forward as the true Canadian worrier that Aitch was referring to, and perhaps
come clean about my anxious tendencies. This, I hope, will help everyone
understand that my worrying is simply a result of being a product of a
skilfully nervy family, as opposed to being a citizen of a worrying country. Or
maybe it’s about my need to be in control?
Perhaps that’s for my therapist to sort out…
his eating has really stemmed from a legitimate source, as opposed to my own
delusions. The fact is, he has a cousin on each side with life-threatening food
allergies (egg, dairy, wheat, peanuts), and his parents have had eczema and hay
fever. So clearly Bubby is pretty darn
eligible for the food allergy award of the year.
her 18-month-old has a dairy allergy, and that her GP told her it was likely
because her child had been both (a) genetically vulnerable to developing this
allergy, and (b) introduced to milk too early. Combined, this has resulted in
the allergy, she thinks.
It seemed clear to me then that when we
began weaning, Bubby’s diet needed to be as cautious as possible when it came
to introducing foods since exposure to the food plays a significant role in the
development of an allergy.
not-planning-meals-more-than-five-minutes-in-advance, the fact that almost
every pre-prepared baby food out there contains at least dairy, if not other
potential allergens, has meant I need to find creative ways of weaning that are
both healthy and quick.
thought perhaps there might be others not so keen to sort through everything
like I have (or not so obsessive), and my discoveries might help you. Even if you’re not Canadian… I mean, a
worrier.
Here’s my combination approach:
1. Baby-led weaning
2. Introducing low allergen-risk foods at
recommended stages to minimize reaction
3. Foods pre-prepared for speedy, dash-to-the-fridge/freezer-and-grab-what-you-need delivery.
Baby-led weaning? Well, you’re on the website, and can sort
that out pretty easily. We’ve offered
Bubby a range of food options at each meal, which he feeds himself.
Introducing low allergen-risk foods? For the sequence of introducing foods,
we’ve followed the guide you can find under ‘links’ to the right of the screen:
‘Sequence of Adding Foods…’ (this by the way came thanks to my frighteningly
all-knowing paediatric physiotherapist sister—see my above reference to family
for more insight)
But what the heck kinds of foods can I give
him?
It’s one thing to know what I’m not allowed
to feed him, but what and how I can feed him is another problem altogether. I
have to recommend a great book which has helped me through all this stuff: Lucy
Burley’s ‘Optimum Nutrition for Children’ outlines best options for food
choices.
The pacing of introducing foods
Lucy Burley’s book also has a chart that
gives recommendations about the pace of the introduction food. It was her chart
I’ve used to guide us through first three months of weaning. It’s been
particularly helpful since I’ll be going back to work, have been breastfeeding
till now, and needed to plan how to wean him from breastfeeding without using
(dairy-based) formula.
course…surely you’ve read enough of this website by now to understand that BLW means
being relaxed about mess and food amounts? But I am someone who always needs to
feel some sense of control over the world (surely this is related to my great
worrying capacity?) and who needs to have some grasp of the direction we’re
moving in at all times, so this chart was a lifesaver.
teaspoon and dessertspoon bits aren’t that relevant to Baby Led Weaning but
it’s a good place to start. And it does give you a good idea of just how little
babies are supposed to be eating in the early stages.
|
|
Week 1&2 |
Week 3&4 |
Week 5&6 |
Week 7&8 |
Week 9&10 |
Week 11&12 |
|
Early Morn |
Milk |
Milk |
— |
— |
— |
— |
|
Breakfast |
Milk Milk |
Milk 1-2 tsp solids Milk |
Milk 2-3 tsp solids Milk |
Milk 1-2 dsp solids Milk |
Milk 3-4 dsp solids — |
Milk |
|
Lunch |
Milk 1-2 tsp solids Milk |
Milk 3-4 tsp solids Milk |
Milk 5-6 tsp solids Milk |
— 4-5 dsp solids Milk |
— 4-5 dsp solids — |
— 4-5 dsp solids Beaker of Milk |
|
Tea |
Milk |
Milk |
Milk 2-3 tsp solids Milk |
Milk 3-4 dsp solids Milk |
— 4-5 dsp solids Milk |
— 4-5 dsp solids Beaker of Milk |
|
Bedtime |
Milk |
Milk |
Milk |
Milk |
Milk |
Milk |
Adapted from Lucy Burney, Optimum Nutrition for Babies
and Young Children
http://www.lucyburney.co.uk/books/index.html
to worry about amounts; Bubby gobbles up just about anything – even if he gets
three chews in and then suddenly remembers that he hates what I’ve sneakily
given him again (like butter/ lima beans). Aitch calls this ‘weaning groundhog
day’. Hilariously, it happened with
organic lamb’s liver again this week.
The quick and easy solution.
Remember I said I just don’t do
‘plan-in-advance’ foods very well? I used to think it’s because I work long
hours. Now I’m at home with Bubby, I
have had to face the raw truth that I simply just don’t like cooking. Not that
I don’t have great aspirations – I’ve read through the recipes on this site a
million times, thinking ‘right, next time I won’t buy the organic oat cakes,
I’ll bake them’. Hasn’t happened yet,
and I’m coming to terms with the fact it may never happen. Surely this doesn’t make me a bad mum…?
Here’s what I’ve done to make things really
easy:
1. Buy up all the vegetables and fruit for
baby in one shop. We’ve gone organic with everything.
can’t eat raw
appreciative recipients of some fantastic hand-me-down baby things, including a
‘babycook’ which has made things even easier, since it reduces the risk of over-steaming
food)
5. Let them cool
(and label and date them, if you’re OTT organized). We keep food in the freezer
for up to 1 month.
freezer and make room for these bags.
out whatever you want to feed baby.
9. Put in bowl, and pour freshly boiled water
over them.
10.
right ready for baby; a whole healthy range of colourful veggies and fruit.
kidney beans in those ice cube boxes, and toss them into separate freezer bags
too.We heat them to piping hot in the microwave then let them cool before letting the baby loose on them
foods, after all he doesn’t know that I’m limiting him. He can eat off our
plates when we’re out without having to dig into the rare prefab baby food that
doesn’t have dairy, and we’re all happy.
approach to baby-led weaning. May other
control-obsessed (and consequently control-grieving) mothers be buoyed and
encouraged: there is a way!
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Coping with sceptical Mothers-in-law and other animals
Thursday, October 12th, 2006My mother, as I many have mentioned once or twice, was very dubious about Baby Led Weaning when I first suggested it. She seemed convinced that my having kept her grandchild in one piece until the age of six months was largely a fluke, and that any further off-piste baby decisions would surely result in disaster. (Remember that Babybear had been sleeping in a hammock since the day she'd been brought home from the hospital, so my mother felt that she had paid her dues already with regards to toleration of her daughter's loopy childcare ideas.)
So I mention Baby Led Weaning and she tells me that I should go ahead so long as I don't mind Babybear choking to death, or words to that effect. Babies must have their food mushed for them, otherwise how will they learn to chew?
Now I know that there isn't a great deal of information out there about BLW even today, after all why would you be reading this godforsaken prose if you had a choice? But at least now more people are talking about it on websites like Mumsnet and others. A few months ago it felt like there was nothing but the excellent Yahoo users group and that spooky Dutch website… after that you were on your own, with just a vegetable steamer for company. No leaflets, no recipe books, no Annabel Karmel ticky-box calendars of weaning… nothing.
So there wasn't much that I could employ to fend off my mother's concerns, other than clear-eyed logic. It worked, and I am delighted to pass on my wisdom to you all.
Simply ask: “When did you start weaning your children?”
(In my case the answer to this question was an astonishing two weeks but really that wasn't my mum's fault, it was the midwives at the hospital putting Farex infant rice into my bottle. And yes, I do suffer from IBS thank you for asking.)
Generally, however, the British matron will reply 'three months', for that was the advice back then.
Now leave them to think about whether they spooned and spooned and spooned for, what, six months, before offering so much as a slice of toast? Didn't happen, did it?
Of course after three whole months of spoon feeding, women of our mothers' generation were only too happy to try finger food with their babies, it's just that they fondly assumed that their children had needed the three months of puree to get used to the idea. (Which was kinda true in a way, in that a three-month-old is incapable of self-feeding).
So when my mum realised that I was doing was my best to adhere to both modern WHO guidelines and copy her own shining example, she suddenly chilled right out about it, surprise, surprise. And the funniest thing is that I've now overheard her recommending baby led weaning to her golden girl grandma pals and she is proud fit to burst when she sees her grandchild eat her roast potatoes.
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How long did it take Babybear to defeat the Tommee Tippee stick-the-plate-to-the-highchair thing?
Thursday, October 12th, 2006Who said 30 seconds? Yep, that's right.
The bowl was stuck tight, tight, tight to the tray, there was no way it was shifting… until I turned around and Babybear frisbeed her spaghetti bolognese across the room. I've tried it again a couple of times with different plates and things and she overwhelms them all with her Hulk-like strength.
It cost a fiver… available from all good supermarkets selling baby shite you don't need that doesn't work.
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Dips
Thursday, October 12th, 2006When I read the guidelines and tips for 'normal' weaning I see a lot of experts recommending dips for introducing babies to finger food, but I'd have to say that Babybear doesn't care for the dipping experience. I think she thinks it's a bit stupid… a retrograde step for one so obviously advanced…