What to feed a fussy eater? Baby won't eat!

Okay so maybe that is an exaggeration but seriously, this kid is picky.  I tried to do the whole "Super Baby Foods" but around 10 months or so Owen wasn't having ANY spoon fed puréed foods AT ALL.  Used to loved squash, sweet potatoes, even spinach, but NOOOO won't touch it now.  He really fell HARD in love with crackers and cheese.  

In no particular order, that is.  Can one baby live on banana, crackers and cheese?  Stay tuned. 

Okay here's what he eats but not in any particular order and sometimes hates it one day and loves it the next:

pasta w/ marinara  (I get the enriched kind)

crackers (loves Amy's Bunnies)

cheddar cheese (little cubes)

hummus 

avocado

veggie burger

yogurt (although hit or miss big time on this one)

cottage cheese

cream cheese

cow's milk

pears

oranges

bananas

blueberries

raspberries

strawberries

mangos

sweet potato fries and regular french fries

whole wheat bread

peanut butter

apple butter

any cookie you put in front of him

any ice cream you show him

any cake

muffins, zucchini bread, baked goods in general

fried tofu cubes

beans: black, kidney (SOMEtimes)

guacamole n' corn chips

HATES: 

mac n' cheese (whaa?)

hot dogs

chicken anything

mashed potatoes

rice

meat

veggies

eggs

Any suggestions or sympathy out there in Mommy-land?  I really would like to sneak in more veggies and I do have that Jessica Seinfield book but most of that food is for older kids.  

Fever in the Morning, FEVER in the Afternoon. FEVER!

Hi blog-land. Hopefully I'm back. Made it through a very busy fall wedding season and the aftermath (READ editing) is almost done. Now I can do things that I like to do such as baby bloggin'

So, after the holidays (Owen received plenty of shiny plastic and battery operated toys) Owen decided to spend our last 4 days of vacation time operating at a balmy temp of 103.6. Now this is only the second time he's ever been "sick." Both times were just fevers without any other symptoms and both times coincided with teething episodes. I just wanted to write a quick post about his fever and how we dealt with it.

He was hot one night when I went in to nurse him around 11:30PM and it was directly after a day of serious drool so I figured it was just another 24 hour fever like the last one. He wanted nothing more than to hug my shoulder fall asleep and nurse endlessly and sleep on me (he never wants to sleep on me). That night he had trouble sleeping and woke up many times. The next day he was hot all day and we took his temperature and it was 103.6. I have a pediatrician friend, so I called him and he said to just stay on the Tylenol, lukewarm baths and ride out the fever. I'm a believer in keeping the fever somewhat hot because your body is rising its temperature for a reason: to kill stuff. With babies; however, they just cannot get comfy so we did give him Tylenol and on day 3 broke down and gave him some IB. Luckily he didn't have any febrile fits (rolling eyes into head and having small seizures). The doctor said 103.6 is too high to be a teething fever, but he had no other symptoms, so I'm chalking it up to fever. We did the bath, we kept his activity low key and he rode it out. Four days later it just went away. It was a long four days and nights and there were a few naps in there that kept us alive. Each time this happens it takes him several more nights to get weaned off the constant night nursing but after about a week his schedule is back.

This fever gave me pause because I thought of all the parents out there who deal with terminally ill children and see their children in the hospital frequently and even just the thought makes me tear up. I can think of nothing worse, really. We have been fortunate that Owen is very healthy and happy child.


Cheers and Happy 2009.

Where's the POOP? baby didn't poop for 5 days

Just wanted to make the note that Owen didn't poop from sometime on Friday until sometime on Tuesday. All was well, but I was worried.

Why? I asked myself did it take 4 days for waste to move through my son's intestines... answer? Just because.

Yes, it was delightful changing urine-filled cloth diapers for DAYS--BUT somehow these small blessings are plagued by the mommy thought

"Where's the poop?"

You have never worried about poop like you when you have a baby. Poop and sleep. Poop and sleep. Hot topics of conversation at playgroup.

So when Kate, (sister and part time nanny -- seriously don't get jealous, 10 hours a week) called from the landing of our house,

"POOP! He pooped." I knew we had reached a new plateau as sisters. We both RUSHED in to change this dirty diaper. The irony was thick. Just a few weeks ago I was dreading changing another poopy diaper and now, I couldn't wait to unsnap that Fuzzi Bunz

She got it. She was worried too... humm, I wonder if she woke up the night prior with a nightmare about poop? I know I did.

At any rate, he pooped. Finally. So don't worry if your baby hasn't pooped. Feel his belly, if it's hard, maybe call your doctor, but if he seems happy, he's probably just processing more slowly for whatever reason.

Solid Foods (and Poop) | Super Baby Food | How to make baby food

So despite that Owen was not 6 months yet, he had teeth (4 months, I KNOW, I KNOW) and because he wouldn't drink from a bottle and I had to be away from him a few times during month five, we decided to pump some breast milk and mix it with rice cereal (Earth's Best Organic brand). He loved it. Knowing that I really didn't want his sweet smelling baby poops to change just yet and realizing that breastfeeding exclusively until 6 months was a goal of mine, I chose to introduce solid foods slowly and irregularly. When he approached his 6 month birthday (the last 10 days) I began to give Owen at least 2 solid food feedings a day, sometimes three. I would follow the four day rule (introduce new foods one at a time and wait four days before introducing something else so you can predict what, if anything is bothering your child's digestive system). Knowing virtually NOTHING of solid foods and not getting great of advice from the pediatrician's office, drove me to look at my growing baby book library. Ah yes, my friend had given me the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. Great ideas in this book, but so much to read that it's impossible to pick and choose chapters, one really must read from cover to cover. This book is the authority on making baby food. She has LITERALLY exhausted every possible question or topic within this genre.

So, the day has come... solid poop. Yes, friends, it's here and it seems it's here to stay. I even got to see a "live demonstration" on the changing table the other day. Incredible display of the human body... a few grunts some flush cheeks (facial ones) and voila! More baby poop than I ever thought my little 16.5 pound dude was capable of. GOOD NEWS: it's easy to pop the poop off the cloth diaper and into the toilet (65% of the time) BAD NEWS: it's hard to pop the poop off the diaper and into the toilet (35% of the time).

Here's my summary of Ruth's method for 6 month old eaters:
1) bust out your Cuisinart (forget the blender, folks, it doesn't cut the mustard-ah hem--grains) My mini prep bought at a yard sale for $5.00 works great, although I COVET the Vitamix blender in a way that cannot be quantified... I WANT IT BAD.
2) blend (separately silly) avocado, mango, banana, yams (cook yams in oven in foil for 1 hour)
3) dump puree into little ice cube trays
4) put ice cube trays into the freezer
5) next morning, pop little cubes into a 1qt freezer bag, and store in freezer
6) defrost cubes and feed to baby...mmmmm

I defrost mine the night before in a little plastic Tupperware and in the AM, I mix with either store bought WHOLE grain rice cereal (Earth's Best) + breast milk or into the Super Baby Porridge I make from Millet, whole oats or brown rice. Super Baby Porridge is the staple morning goop that you feed your baby. As they get older you can mix in all sorts of stuff: egg yolk, brewers yeast, beans, etc.

To make Super Baby Porridge:
1) blend 1/4 cup brown rice or whole oats (or 3 tbs millet) in Cuisinart -- 2 minutes... create yourself a powder... no lumps, no bumps. (baby will make funny face if you don't follow this direction).
2) boil 1 cup water
3) sprinkle rice, oat or millet powder into boiling water, turn down to LOW LOW
4) break out the that metal thingy that whips stuff and beat that mixture up
5) cook 10 minutes
6) divide into 3 portions and save for morning goop...yummy
**I have to re-blend mine in the Cuisinart one last time after it's cooked to make it even smoother or Owen give me the funny face and no food is swallowed**

The stuff in the jar is good, especially the organic stuff, but I take pride in making my little man some "real food" and hey, this might be my only baby, and I always wanted to make baby food... so I'm having fun and Ruth says her babies were NEVER sick and I believe firmly you are what you eat, so Owen is going to be a big old YAM-BANANA-PEAR-WHOLE-GRAIN-AVOCADO-- at least that's what his poop is telling me. If you want to live a long time, one should listen to one's poop.

Owen eats 1-2 cubes three times a day + one serving of porridge

Baby won't take a Bottle

So Owen is a funny little guy. He takes the bottle sometimes (by this I mean 4 times in his life so far) and other times rejects it in a major way (by 'other' times I mean approximately 12-16 rejections). Obviously, as a wedding photographer, I will have to go back to work eventually for ALL DAY. I think it's a good thing that this is inevitable because hopefully it will make him a more flexible baby. We try at least once a day to give him the bottle. I've read up on this, of course, and it seems there are many suggestions including these that I've tried

1) have Dad feed him while Mom is outside house
2) have Mom feed him with shirt up
3) wait until baby is really hungry to try
4) use Avent nipple or try different brands of nipples and bottles
5) use soft cups (laps up like a kitten) * haven't tried
6) do a feeding when baby is calm and relaxed
7) have an experienced bottle feeder feed baby
8) feed baby in a calm familiar environment (ie: favorite nursing chair)
9) make sure to try bottle feeds at various times of day

All in all, I wish I had started with this on week 3 or so because Owen had such a great latch and zero nursing problems. It probably would've been helpful to get him switch hitting early on. The Sears book said not to worry, get him to take a bottle once 2 weeks before going back to work and he'll adjust when Mom's away. What about peace of mind, Sears? Then in the Sleep Lady book it says give baby a bottle every day even if you plan on breastfeeding all the time just in case you have to leave baby for some emergency like surgery (makes sense to me). In another book it says to start as early as 2-3 weeks or you'll have problems because they come to prefer one or the other.

We'll see how it goes this weekend, I'll keep you posted.

I have a short 3 hour work engagement this Saturday from 11-2PM so we'll see how it goes. I don't REALLY go back to full days until June and even then it's only once a week.

Any help/comments in this department would be appreciated. I've already consulted with my pediatrician, midwives, La Leche League

GREEN SMOOTHIES

OH oh, I've got to tell you about GREEN smoothies... they are the best. I've been eating so much Kale and collard greens it's ridiculous. I read this book, Green for Life, which talks about all the benefits of green leafy vegetables and how we humans don't eat enough ... so the magic solution, because otherwise greens require cooking, which can lead to losing some nutrition, is to blend 4-5 leaves of any green (kale, collards, dandelions, romaine, spinach, NOT arugula) up in a blender with 8 oz juice + 2-4 oz water, (juice like apple, orange, grape-- preferably something without added sugars) and then add 1-2 bananas and slowly add 1-2 other pieces of fruit: mango, apple, kiwi, orange, pineapple whatever OR (1/2 cup to 1 cup frozen berries), it will appear green but taste like bananas and strawberries AND you are getting all the amino acids of GREEN leafy vegetables, which helps digestion, bowels, REDUCES GRAY HAIR, defies aging and promotes increased stomach acid and has helped people to have more energy and less craving for bad foods. The trick is to change your vegetables daily and mix up your fruits. Too much spinach or anything is never a good thing. Kate & Norm and Matt & I drink at least one a day, 16 oz, if not 32 oz. This way you never have to eat greens. It's great for kids, but start them slow because it can mess up their digestive systems if you add too much greens too fast. Sometimes kids want it to taste a little sweeter so I add a teaspoon or more of agave nectar (it's got way less glycemic index) or maple syrup. I have it for breakfast and it's quick, easy, portable and CHEAP. You can make them at night, shake them up in the AM and they are ready to go. They will keep 1-2 days in the fridge. TRY IT!! I'll post a photo.