Switching to Step 2 and Sterilizing

[Lindsay27]

Okay, his rash has cleared now so I can try the cheese again, and if the rash comes back, I'll know that's what caused it.  I never thought of quinoa.  He is not liking the new textures so much, it's really frustrating for both of us.  I'll just have to keep at it.  I gave him some cheerios the other day though and now he's a cheerio fiend, I'm pretty sure he's addicted.

In terms of the A times, I kept him at 3hrs 20mins yesterday and he did much better - a 2.5hr AM nap and a 2hr PM nap, so that amount of A time seems to be working for now

[*Kara*]

Great news about the A time and the naps!  I would just be careful with that much day sleep!  You could end up with awful nights from being UT... Most babies are max 3.5 hrs at this age for both naps together.  Mine was at a total of 3 hrs.

DD was never really a big fan of lumpy purees either... and in reality, what do you eat that is that texture?  If he isn't liking them, don't worry too much.  I started doing little cubes of well steamed veggies and fruits at this age... also sliced bananas and so many Cheerios

[Lindsay27]

His night was okay with that much daytime sleep, 1 NW at 4am and he settled back to sleep until 6:30am, but the long naps was probably more because the night before was NYE and we were at a party with him and had to wake him up at 1am to go home...so he was pretty tired from that so I had no issues with him having long naps yesterday.  (Especially because Mommy & Daddy had a nice long nap too!)

Today he did 1hr 20min in the AM and had a 30min OT nap in the PM (I missed the boat on getting him down on time), so I resettled him, but I ended up having to wake him up later because I didn't want him sleeping too much 

I was making lasagna today so I tried making some pasta with the meat sauce for him.  I blended it up but it was still a bit chunky because pasta doesn't exact blend well, and he did great with it.  I think the cheerios is actually helping get him used to the textures.  Going to try to add more finger foods.  I also got the greek yogurt and ended up eating literally half the tub myself it was so good   We are going to try it for breakfast with fruit tomorrow.

[*Kara*]

LOL!  My mom swears that Liberte brand coconut greek yogurt is like heaven in a tub

[Lindsay27]

That's the brand I got!  But I got the vanilla one.  DH came home and I was just attacking it with a spoon out of the container LOL.  If Ben doesn't like it, it certainly won't go to waste that's for sure

I actually had a question about yogurt in general, I was standing in the grocery store wondering...do I buy the low fat, no fat, full fat (2%)?  I got the 2% one because I figured I shouldn't be buying any no fat stuff for a baby.  (I am obviously capitalizing on this philosophy LOL!)

[Lolly]

They need full fat dairy products and milk once they switch to cow's milk as a drink at 1 until they are 2 at least. UK guidlines say you can drop to semi-skimmed (in between full fat and fat free) at 2 if they have a good balanced diet but otherwise it's full fat all the way!

Check the labels though because some yoghurts have a lot of sugar in them (especially the ones aimed at children here ) so you want to get one with as much fat and as little added sugar as possible!

Laura

[Lindsay27]

Okay, I figured as much

Questions about the NF - since I switched to 3 bottles he hasn't STTN at all (though he only did a few times before when he took 4 daytime bottles) and is usually waking at least once - I have dropped the NF down to 4oz.  Last night he took an 8oz bottle before bed at about 7:30pm and he woke at 11:30pm.  I figured since he took a full feed before bed, that the waking wasn't due to hunger, so I settled him.  An hour later, he was up again, so I settled again.  Another hour later (about 1:45am) he woke again, so I fed the 4oz.  After he ate he slept until 7am. 

This morning however, I tried to feed him his breakfast bottle at about 8am, and I couldn't get him to take more than 4oz.  So I am not sure what to do? 

[Lolly]

You can wean that night bottle by dropping an oz every 3 nights then you offer water when the bottle gets down to 1 or 2 oz. He may have been tirsty when he woke before midnight so you can offer a drink of water and see if he settles better first!

Laura

[*Kara*]

I buy the Lil'Ones yogurt here in Canada.  It's 3.25% fat (same as homogenized milk) and sweetened with fruit juice, not added sugar.  There are no lumps either so no worries about choking on a random chunk of fruit.  And, there is a veggie/fruit blend version too!

http://www.lilones.ca/

[Lindsay27]

I'll check for those yogurt's Kara, thanks   I live in a really small town, so our grocery stores don't carry the same level of items as they do in the city...but I"ll look!

We are really struggling with his bottles.  Yesterday for his morning bottle he only took 4oz (which I suspect was maybe due to the NF?), and for his second bottle he only took 5oz, and 7oz at bedtime - so a total of 16oz    He hardly ate any lunch yesterday either, so why he only took 5oz for the second is a mystery to me.  This morning I reduced his breakfast down because I suspect that he maybe ate too much for breakfast yesterday and that's why he didn't want his lunch.

He woke up around midnight and I just went ahead and fed him, because he ate so little during the day, and I fed 6oz because I honestly felt like he needed it.  This morning he took 5oz when he woke up - so he would pretty much need the next 2 bottles to each be 7 - 8oz in order to meet his daily requirement, and I'm not sure if he's going to be able to do that because the intake has been so low. 

[*Kara*]

How much is he eating in terms of solids hun and what is he eating at each meal?  I can't imagine that a big breakkie with a few hours after it would really interfere much with lunch.

Maybe we do need to drop solids a bit to get that milk intake back up.

The yogurt is made by Dairyland so anyone who carries the brand should be able to order it for you

[Lindsay27]

Yesterday I gave him quite a big breakfast, probably more than normal which is why I suspected he avoided lunch.  Also, introducing the new textured/lumpy foods isn't going particularly well, so I think that had something to do with the non-lunch too...once he decides he doesn't want to eat it, he doesn't want to eat anything (except cheerios ).  I think I am going to try to start doing a mix of his usual smooth purees and finger foods and get a best of both worlds scenerio, because the lumpy stuff just isn't working at all.

I reduced his breakfast this morning to 2 cubes of fruit  and about 1.5 tbls of cereal mixed with a few baby spoonfuls of greek yogurt.  I'm going to feed him lunch shortly and I'm just going to stick with something he really likes and maybe do 2 cubes veggies, 1 fruit...which is what I always used to do.  Now that I am thinking about it I have been increasing his solid intake, and he probably just isn't ready for it yet.  I'll see what happens with bottle #2 after going back to less solids. 

I see how much my friends feed their LOs and it gets me freaked out that I don't feed enough solids as they are taking probably double or triple what Ben is.  But, I probably shouldn't be thinking that way and what is important is what is right for him

[*Kara*]

Does he have solids at lunch and dinner as well?

The fruits/veggies are a good idea - will satisfy him but not overfill him for too long

[Lindsay27]

Yes, solids at lunch and at dinner.

His bottle #2 was better today - just a few sips under 8oz, but his BT bottle was worse...only 6oz    His BT bottle is usually his best, and I reduced his dinner tonight and somehow he ate less at BT?  I'm confused 

[*Kara*]

I wouldn't read too much into his dinner/BT bottle   It used to make me panic when DD did that on occasion cause I worried she would wake overnight to eat.  At this age, they won't generally wake from hunger, rather wake up and realize they are hungry and a shortage of about 2 ozs won't be enough to pull him from a good sleep to request food.

How much is he taking for lunch and dinner?