Thursday, March 31, 2011

Solid Snafoo


loving her bananas
How in the world does a person spell "snafoo?" Snafu. Snafue? I don't know.

Lydia's been a bottle snob lately, apparently for good reason, as you'll see. I've had to be gone from her more than usual this week with work and board meetings, which necessitates her taking a bottle from her caregivers. Fortunately, I thought "no sweat, she'll be with my mom or MIL, they're amazing with her and Mom always gets her to take a bottle."

No dice.

Both Charlie and I have been off and on sick, leaving our noses stuffy and our senses of smell decidedly less accurate. So when my MIL tried giving Lydia a bottle Tuesday afternoon and Lydia didn't take it, it didn't register that something could have been off with the bottle (it smelled fine, after all....) Then yesterday, when my mom tried, she didn't have anything to do with it, and the same with Charlie when he got home from work and took over for my mom. By that time though, instead of politely refusing and going on with playing or whatever, she screamed after taking a few swallows and refused the rest.

The milk we used Tuesday was fresh out of the freezer and fridge that day; since she didn't take it we should have thrown it away and tried another, but with the different caregivers and whatnot it didn't happen.  So the same bottle was tried on Wednesday without success. When I got home last night from work and Charlie told me of her vehement response to the bottle, I smelled it and indeed, it smelled a tiny bit off. Not terrible, but enough to dissuade her from wanting to drink it. I wasn't stuffy when I smelled it last night, but who knows, maybe I was still unable to smell things fully and it was worse than I thought. Anyway!

mmm, carrots and squash. We gave up the spoon halfway through.


Here's our game plan from now on, because I hate it when my daughter gets filled up on solids with a tiny bit of milk, and not the other way around--at this point in the game, most of her nutritive needs should be satisfied with my milk, not puffs, baby food and cereal. Those can certainly help boost calories and other nutrients that I can't keep up with, but her main food should be breastmilk. We'll always try a fresh bottle; if I'd have been thinking I would have pumped a fresh bottle and tried it after I got home from work on Tuesday. And I'll really make sure to keep my pump and its associated hardware super clean while pumping. My milk stays frozen in our big chest freezer, so partial thawing and contamination shouldn't be an issue. Charlie feels so bad when we have to dump out milk because he knows how hard I work to pump enough, but I can pump more. Not a big deal.

So yeah, we're still struggling a bit with that. We really should give her more bottles because of conundrums like these. Anyone have any helpful ideas for us being more than six months into this and still struggling with the pumping/bottle giving process?



Otherwise, our venture into the world of solids has been going okay. It's tricky to figure out a balance where Lydia gets the nutrients she needs during the day, but doesn't OD on solids like I know she'd like to. I've never met a kid that liked to eat as much as she does (imagine
that). It's a joy to feed her, which has led us into some trouble with constipation and allergic reactions. Apparently Lydia's tummy doesn't like mangoes, which made her break out in little red patches all over her body. But she's tried, and loves, the following:

Fruits
apples
avocado
bananas

blueberries
raspberries
cherries
peaches
plums/prunes
pears

Vegetables (she loves veggies way more than fruit, atta girl!)
spinach
celery
broccoli
peas
sweet potatoes
squash
mashed potatoes
zucchini
carrots
green beans

And she loves puffs, especially the Greens from Happy Baby Organics, and her breakfast cereal mixed with my milk and a little fruit. It makes me happy that she's such a happy and easy eater, but still, we need to remember that my milk comes first.  To make it so, though, we need to be really conscious and intentional about how we collect, store, and give it to Lydia.
Don't worry, she had peaches for lunch, not Daddy's jambalaya.

2 comments:

  1. Hey there Katie! If you haven't already tried the Breast Flow Bottles, they are supposed to be the most like a Mama's nipple available. My girls went easily back and forth from those to me and vice versa. Other than that, all I can say is good luck!! It can be such a challenge sometimes...
    Oh, and I might still have one around here, if you want to give it a try before investing money. Let me know :)

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  2. We've been using the Tommee Tippee bottles with limited success...if she's willing to take a bottle, generally she'll take one of those or, if she's feeling extraordinarily forgiving, any bottle we put in front of her. Most of her issues with taking a bottle involve timing, something I think any parent struggles with any time related to any thing. :) I'll keep you posted on her successes (fingers crossed!) If you'd like to bring in the bottle I wouldn't say no!

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