Starting solids soon?

micro-b is 5 months old today! And a month (or less) to go before introducing solids! Hip hip hooray! The sleep-through-the-night routine is a distant memory. In fact, ever since he got the cold in early Jan, he had begun waking up in the night. Ok, so I thought he'd settle back into the old rhythm after the cold but no, he's still at it :( Yes, I've read that these things happen...illness, teething & growth spurts do that. Recently however, it becomes clear that he's increasing his feeds and over a month, he has increased the amount he drinks by nearly 30% which is phenomenal.

Last night, he got me up twice. I'm so sleep deprived as a result. I know it's bad but I'm so tempted to start popping a spoon of cereal into his mouth right now. Why don't I? There's an increased risk of allergies by starting solids too young.. and since micro-b has eczema, I'll just have to grin and bear it for another few weeks or so :P


microbeanie is 5 months old
minibeanie is a 2.5 year old toddler

Back after 5 weeks!

After a long hiatus, this blog is back :)

The last 5 weeks had been eventful. First stop was Singapore for the Lunar New Year, followed by nearly 3 weeks in Victoria, Australia. And when we came back to Chengdu, I'd (and still have) my mum with me. Only now after a week of settling back in, did I find the energy, will & time to blog. But more about the holiday later...

A recent development with minibeanie is that he has all of a sudden decided to use his spoon full time. I remember the precise moment. We'd just arrived in Singapore after a 7 hour flight from Melbourne and I decided to give him a fried egg for supper. Instead of feeding himself with his fingers like he usually did, he insisted on using the spoon and from then on, it was the spoon all the way :) I'm so glad he's feeding himself now because he's back to lapping up oatmeal porridge (with jam!) for breakfast.


minibeanie is 1 year, 6 months, 4 weeks & 2 days old

Fusilli & Meatball

My mantra is "crumbs are my new best friends". Even more so now when minibeanie's feeding himself 2 out of 3 meals a day.

Since he almost never uses a spoon, typical Asian food such as rice or porridge hardly makes its way into his mouth. Hence I like pasta or mashed potato because they offer a convenient 'vehicle' for other bits of food such as meat and vegetables. He manages a fair bit with these foods so I'm not too worried he's not getting enough. Besides, he gets regular snacks like bread with cream cheese ("cheesy toast") and banana. And did I mention that having him feed himself frees up 1 hour of my time? What can you do in an hour? PLENTY.

Read more about self-feeding in this post.


minibeanie is 1 year, 5 months & 1 day old

Self Feeding

Like going without the night feed, having minibeanie feed himself seems like a milestone to me. With the exception of oat porridge for breakfast, he'd been feeding himself lunch and dinner. He's still a total klutz at using his spoon; most times, he just gives up with the spoon and uses his trusty 10 fingers to do the job anyway.

We have the routine down to a pat. He'd bring his plate and bib to the dining table while I bring the rest: placemat, cup & his food in a separate bowl. Then, we would sit him down in his highchair, he puts on the bib himself and I proceed to arrange his plate, cup and placement and aportion half of his food into his bowl. From then on, I could leave him and he'd let me know when he wants a refill of his plate. Then when he's done, we have an "all-done" signal, he raises both hands in the air. At this point, I usually give him his share of fruits to avoid having to wash his hands a second time and besides, he usually picks up a few more pieces of broccoli or mash potato together with his strawberry or mandarin bits. Ha! cunning me...

Then, when he has his fill of fruits, we proceed to wash the grimy boy not just his hands & mouth but often times, his hair, nose & forehead. And once or twice, his pants need to be changed as well. How does one get pasta everywhere??

The morning milk feed

Last Saturday, I decided to make banana pancakes for brekkie. I guess the boys liked it.

Someone has morning hair

Tarzan

minibeanie is 16 months old today. While he has limited his verbal communication to grunts (and babble that only he could understand), it was amazing that we are nonetheless communicating. The grunt "ugh!" accompanied by a heave of the shoulder signified "yes" to the question I was asking. And if he really really wanted the banana/teddy bear cookie/watch Sesame Street, it would be a vapid bounce up & down :D

He's also keen to exert his growing independence by wanting to feed himself. Hence, I've adjusted my mindset on 2 fronts. #1, it's ridiculous to expect him to use a spoon - fine motor skills is still somewhere in the distance. So, he now feeds himself most of the time with both hands a la Tarzan. #2, the natural consequence is that he makes a royal mess each mealtime. (the Baby Bjorn rubber catch-all bib has paid itself back many times its Euro 11 investment!) I've therefore stopped being anal because I'm hoping that with all this practice he'll soon learn how to feed himself and besides, my capable Ayi, who comes 3 times a week, simply makes all the grease and crumbs vanish :)


On the Chengdu front, it has been nice. We visited a couple of hotpots recently. One of which was 粥底火锅 ; basically, instead of a broth, everything's cooked in a base of porridge. At the end of the meal, the porridge steeped full of flavours and nutrients is eaten. Wonderful... if not for the lack of baby chairs in the restaurant so I guess the chances of us heading back there is rather slim :P

We also tried a fancy restaurant, 8 Trees, owned by a Singaporean. It boasts of a good selection of wine and a menu with entries like foie gras etc. But we went for its selection of Singapore food - chicken rice in particular. It was good! ..... but they've only got the taste 90% right. The chicken was juicy and done just right. But the rice wasn't aromatic enough and the defining chili lacked that garlicky punch. It was ok by chengdu standards but at SGD44 (ok, we also had a Thai beef salad that was way off the mark & a glass of house red), it must be the most expensive chicken rice meal we had. Again, I don't think we'd return. Not just because of the chicken rice but because they didn't have baby chairs!!! What's with these restaurants?!

Eating out with a toddler has now made me view restaurants entirely different. Obviously, imho baby chairs should be de rigeur but if they've got baby-friendly utensils such as melamine plates, that's a huge plus. And a really big plus will be if they've a play area in the corner for parents who wish to indulge in a little coffee after the meal. No no, I don't mean parents drinking their coffee in the play area but little tykes being let loose there; thought I'd clarify that. And I'm already beginning to look at McDonalds' and KFC in a different light ;)


minibeanie is 1 year & 4 months old

Bye bye night feeds

We heard a horror tale of how a 3 year old would still be screaming for "maito!*" at 3am. I thought if we didn't do anything, that would be US 2 years down the road. And knowing how entrenched toddlers could be in their habits the older they become, I felt it was time to bite the bullet. It was all too easy to sail along and take the path of least resistance but like I said, better to tackle the issue now with a 15 month old than a 3 year old!

It has now been 3 nights since minibeanie got any milk at night. The first night happened rather accidentally or perhaps it was my subconscious that didn't allow me to get up when he fussed a little for his supper. It wasn't too bad; he fell asleep after a short while. Friday night (#2), dada got up at 2hour intervals to put the tutti back in when he fussed. Likewise, minibeanie fell asleep without much ado. Night #3 last night, Saturday, I got up about 3 times but thankfully he fell asleep quickly without much fussing.

Is this it? I hope we're training his little tummy not to expect food during the night. Despite the amount of milk he drinks some nights, I'm convinced it's more of a habit than real need. After all, he's now having 3 square meals & more a day so there's no need to wake up for food during the night. I know how it is, I get 'addicted' to a nightly mug of warm milk & half a cookie/muffin (that's bad, I know!) before bed myself... Here's to an uninterrupted night of sleep?

* milk, in Finnish

minibeanie is 1 year, 3 months & 2 weeks old

Sushi & garlic rice

We are extremely proud (& relieved) that minibeanie has been receptive of new food. He had his first sushi a few days ago at Sushi Tei when I met up with grandma for lunch. I had packed his usual lunch along - pork & beef porridge with french beans, sweet potato, spiced with loads of garlic & coriander. Honestly, I thought it was really tasty (don't all mums out there?) but I suppose since it was:
1) salt-less and
2) it's still porridge however disguised,
minibeanie wasn't too hot about it. Nonetheless because of the late hour at 2 in the afternoon, he ate most of it. Then I placed a piece of rolled sushi with unagi (bbq eel) on a plate in front of him. He grabbed it like he would any new curio and put it into his mouth. And that was it. I couldn't pry his hands away from his mouth even when I'd to put on his catch-all Baby Björn bib.

For the next 15 min or so, he happily ate 1 piece of sushi after another. By the 4th piece, he started picking out grains of rice in his bib to give to me. All right then, when he starts playing with his food, that's a cue that he's full. And as expected, I'd to turn him upside down to brush off the sticky Japanese rice that speckled his pants and entire high chair ;D (Someone should invent a machine that sucks rice/crumbs/mushy-half-chewed-on biscuit... mash/sand/cereal from toddlers!)

We also had success with grilled fish & rice when we had our dinner at Manhattan Fish Market. Granted, it was fried garlic rice. It was no wonder then he has turned his nose up at the boring, bland & mushy fare I'd been been offering. In some way, this is a milestone for me - as a provider & gatekeeper to what goes into his tummy. He's not so much a little baby now but a little boy curious about new flavours & textures. Oh, and those 8 front teeth he has so far are not to be underestimated.


minibeanie is 1 year, 2 months & 4 days old

Stack

On the feeding front, I'm hugely relieved to say that after the first day, minibeanie has now gotten used to eating from his high chair sans Elmo & co. Yes overall, he may eat a little bit less than he may have eaten with Sesame Street on tv but that's ok. My motto right now is, if he's hungry he'll eat. Better to cultivate a good eating habit right now.

And lately, he has gotten the hang of stacking things. (I didn't know it was such a milestone BMb*!) For a long time, his primary joy is in knocking down towers - the higher the better! Now, his little fingers are tentatively clasping the block and clumsily putting it on top of another. Apparently, fine motor skills still have some way to go ;) This afternoon, he even placed his shoe on top of the other. Encouraged by his success, he moved on to his dada's shoes - arrrgh, no!!

* BMb = Before minibeanie


minibeanie is 1 year, 1 month, 2 weeks & 5 days old

Mealtimes are such adventures for parents and toddlers. If only toddlers can be reasoned or bribed! Lately, I realized I've gotten minibeanie into a really bad habit - he NEEDS Sesame Street to stay sitted in his rocker in order to finish his bowl of food. I'm not sure that's a good thing because firstly, toddlers shouldn't be watching much tv to begin with, even if it's educational. Then, what really made me take issue with it is when I read that when kids go into that 'video mode' with transfixed eyes glazed over, they are not really consciously eating. This 'unconscious' eating may lead to over-eating in the future and I don't wish minibeanie to be a broad bean. So then, it was cold turkey on 2 fronts today. First, no Sesame Street and second, we migrated to the high chair which had been used only occasionally before.

As expected, today's lunch & dinner were torturous. I couldn't get him to take more than 5 spoons before he'd squirm, turn his head away and cry to be let out of his prison. No point feeding him then, so down he went. Not long later, he would realize that he was hungry so up he went into the chair again. This would happen for 3-4 times - up, down, up, down, up, down.... until we were both exhausted. Finally, I decided that lunch/dinner was over. A friend with 2 boys once said, children won't starve themselves to death ;)

The little angel despite everything

minibeanie is 1 year, 1 month, 2 weeks & 1 day old

Finger food

I've been giving minibeanie finger foods. Besides its too obvious nutritional value, there are 2 other more sublime intentions. It is good practice for perfecting his fine pincer grip as he chases a soft piece of pumpkin around his bowl (bringing together one's index finger and thumb together neatly is a milestone for babies! :D). Leading from that, there's the hope that in the hopefully not so distant future, he would be able to feed himself. Yikes, which brings me to another 'babyism' -

Mantra for new mothers: Crumbs are your new best friends. Repeat again.

There's a third reason for finger food. Entertainment. It is something for minibeanie to do while in a restaurant. Alas, its entertainment value is short-lived as we often find out. Last week, minibeanie turned our Anniversary dinner in a nice restaurant into fast food. Two courses is as much as we can manage and even that is stretching it.

Speaking of the Anniversary dinner, _I_ forgot our Anniversary last week! I couldn't believe it! I'd been so busy with the humdrum of daily life and planning minibeanie's 1st year bash that it slipped my mind. Thank God there's backup in the form of DH, my better half :)

minibeanie is 11 months & 5 days old

Baby mash

February 14, Thursday
minibeanie tried beef today - he's no longer a vegetarian! :D Today's lunch menu was potato, broccoli & beef. He frowned when he tasted the first morsel and took a long pause...before swallowing. After 3 spoonfuls, he wiped the back of his hands on his face and gave a long pleading grunt. Bits of broccoli became stuck in his nose and potato on his brows. Excellent. That was his way of saying, "no more!" but guess if it fell on deaf ears. Ok, there is a fine balance to thread between giving him total freedom to choose and making mealtimes world war 3. In the end, minibeanie ate half his lunch; I guess that was as good as it could get on the first try.


February 16, Saturday
There was more success with the potato-broccoli-beef combo today. He ate about 3oz, so that's about 85ml or so? We have increased his solid meals from 2 to 3. For breakfast, minibeanie had baby rice porridge with banana ("more more!"), lunch was potato, broccoli & beef (hmm, not a big fan of it) while supper was baby rice porridge again with applesauce ("yum!"). I'm considering switching the first meal to oat porridge for variety & more nutrition. Question to mums out there, what would your typical daily menu be like for a 6-month-old? :)


minibeanie is 6 months & 3 weeks old

Beginning of a Food War?

Ever since minibeanie started on solids about 3 weeks ago, I've been wondering if and when a food war will be waged. Well, maybe it has just started ;)

There are times when it's near impossible to get him to eat more than 3 teaspoons of the lovely mash. No amount of coaxing, bribing or silly voices/faces will do the trick. Of late, he has wizened up to the laughter-causes-u-to-have-a-spoon-in-your-mouth trick so he has clammed his mouth shut :D Not that That worked well; whenever a spoonful of mash is neatly deposited into his mouth, he squished his food out again. And as if to take revenge for mummy's mean trick, he would proceed to rub his mouth and eyes thus smearing mash all over his mouth, nose, eyes, forehead and hands. We have become a paper-towel family.

I hope someone will tell me that ups & downs in appetites is normal? And is there anything one can do to make baby eat more?

So far, I've introduced him to baby rice porridge, potato, broccoli, sweet potato and apple. Next on the menu are avocado, banana and meat! I'm thinking chicken or beef and perhaps fish as well. Something that he absolutely loves is applesauce with baby rice porridge :) I think minibeanie has a sweet tooth like mummy.


minibeanie is 6 months, 2 weeks & 3 days old

First 'bite'

Let me retract my statement about minibeanie not having jet-lag. Over the last 2 days, he had been waking up at 4 and 3 in the morning respectively. And he seemed to have gotten terribly hungry as well. He would put everything that his pudgy little hands could lay hold of into his mouth - his socks, tissue, my bill..... Ok, I know this wasn't related to hunger; more like insatiable curiosity on how every darn thing tastes ;P Anyway, it was true that his appetite appeared to have gone up a notch. Today, I felt as if I was doing nothing but feeding him!

We started minibeanie on solids yesterday (how fun!!!). I'm glad I managed to stave off pressure from the neuvola (Finnish clinic) & DH to start on solids sooner. Now, nearly 6 months old, I think minibeanie's ready. I decided to debut with rice porridge soon to be followed by mash potato, then carrot, sweet potato and avocado. With the rice porridge, the lil 'un loved it! he lapped up a grand amount of 3-4 teaspoons each time :D

Waiting expectantly...this picture doesn't do justice to the almost palpable excitement and anticipation bubbling beneath the surface.

UUMMMM!

minibeanie is 5 months & 4 weeks old

Update: Feeding solids

Thank you, all of you who took part in the poll :) The majority of you started at 5 months although the weighted average is slightly over 5.5 months. My personal take is, I'll revisit the issue in about a month or so. Somehow, it doesn't feel like the right time yet.

The ideas given by Clara & Nonka (re: comments on the post) are highly interesting & unconventional by 'normal' standards. 'Normal' is of course a highly subjective concept -what's normal and acceptable with one belief system may be strange to another. By 'normal', I thus mean the Anglo-Saxon books and websites that I've been reading. A different approach doesn't mean it is wrong. Regardless, I do know with drop-dead certainty that I'll be feeding minibeanie on a diet as varied as possible. The epicurean world doesn't just revolve around potatoes and rice porridge as the Finnish system would have one believe.

... I suspect this is just the beginning of the food topic ;)

minibeanie is 4 months, 2 weeks & 4 days old

Feeding solids

I've been toying with the idea of feeding minibeanie his first spoonful but after some thought, perhaps I'll revisit the issue in a month or so. Reasons being: he can't really sit upright yet & there's a higher risk of allergies. However, our midwife had said it was ok to feed solids by 4 months so I suppose like so many questions on childcare, there are as many opinions as there are issues :)

Thus, I'm conducting a poll on all of you mummies/daddies out there, when do you first stick a spoon of goob into your baby's mouth? What food do you start with? rice cereal, potato? And what are some of the mashy recipes up to a year old? potato & carrot? broccoli? Leave your comments by clicking on the "comment" link below, will love to hear what you say!

More on the topic:
AskDrSears.com
BabyCenter.com

minibeanie is 3 months, 3 weeks & 3 days old

Feeding problem

minibeanie hasn't been eating well over the last 3 days :( Over the weekend, he averaged 550ml when the long term average is over 700ml (the advantage of a spreadsheet). He will feed for a while and when he stops for a burp, he wails his head off and refuses to take the bottle again. Gas also seems to be a huge problem - lots of flatulence (since we're in polite society here ;). Yesterday, in a desperate measure, we massaged his tummy with a Chinese traditional oil - 'Ru yi you'. I'm not sure if it worked but the lingering smell is awful. Today, he continued with his drink-a-little-&-wail routine but it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps his teat is too small! After all, this has been the same teat used since he was a newborn. Maybe. The next sized teats were dug out of the cupboard, sterilized in a jiffy and refitted into the bottle. It's still too early to tell if that solves the problem.... we can only sit, hold the bottle & hope :)

minibeanie is 3 months, 2 weeks & 4 days old

Demand vs. Schedule

At 3 in the morning, I want the feed to be a generous bite rather than a nibble. An upsized Big Mac meal rather than 2 steamed carrots. Here's the thing. If I get up at 3 am, I'd rather have minibeanie drink 120ml and not 50ml because with the latter, he's going to get up again at 5 am.

There are 2 schools of thought on feeding. Feeding on-demand means offering his feed as and when the baby demands for it. While feeding on-schedule means following a strict timetable. Most parents settle somewhere between the extremes. Here's my intent. Lengthen the time between feeds from 3 to 4 hours gradually by adding half an hour to the time he starts fussing...if possible. Feeding him as much as possible during the day so that he doesn't feel the need to make up for calories during the night. Have a major feed just before I retire to bed and avoid a nappy change (again, if possible) during the night feed. In theory at least, those should work. I don't claim credit for having come up with them; in fact, they are straight out of Murkoff et. al's "What to Expect In the First Year". Ironically, I chanced upon this section at a 6 am feed, the second one of the night. Guess if it was a eureka moment for me.

It's too early to say how it's working for me. But last night, minibeanie woke up only once at 5 am and the next time he demanded his milk was at 9:30 this morning. I reckon that's pretty good for a coming to 3 month old baby. Sleep-wise, it's a definite improvement for me :) And if someone says that's good enough, here's food for thought -

"By 4 months, most babies don't really need to be eating at all during the night. (From a strictly metabolic standpoint, babies can usually go through the night without a feeding once they've reached 5 kg...) If the night-waking habit continues into the 5th or 6th month, you can begin to suspect that your baby is waking not because he needs to eat during the night, but because he's become accustomed to eating during the night; a stomach that's used to being filled at regular intervals around the clock will cry 'empty' even when it's full enough to last a lot longer."

Murkoff et. al, "What to Expect In the First Year", 2nd edition, page 255

minibeanie is 2 months, 2 weeks & 1 day old

Meet minibeanie

The night routine usually goes like this. minibeanie's fed at about 2330 before our bedtime. Then he wakes me up at 0400 for the next feed. At 0700, DH feeds him before leaving for work. But, that's a pretty good night because sometimes there are 2 feeds before the morning.

One day last week (can't remember which, all the days run into each other now ;), I fed minibeanie at about midnight. The next time I woke up, it was 0530. WOW! He slept through the night. What a milestone. Man, I gotta blog about it. I was feeling incredibly refreshed after 5 hours of sleep... who would have thought 3 months ago? But since you're only reading about this now, there's obviously more to the story. Apparently, DH had let me sleep and done two feeds before 0530. Ok, so much for minibeanie sleeping through the night.

Anyway, on one of DH's morning feed-cum-playtime last week, he made these 2 video clips. If a picture speaks a thousand words, what more of a video? Enjoy :)

ps. make sure your speaker is on.

Before the feed - 1 Non-Optimum Baby


After the feed - and all's good with the world

minibeanie is 2 months 1 week & 3 days old