Baby Food Portions- In 3 Stages

Babies-

       Weaning babies onto solid food can be very difficult for new Mum’s. When I began Little L on solid food I couldn’t remember how much I was supposed to feed him and there is nothing in the baby book you get from the hospital. It took me quite a while to find an exact list of how much in ml’s, most suggestions only gave times of day and maybe what types of purees to feed your baby, not helpful at all. This list of measurements was one I found online, I confirmed it with my Maternal Healthcare Nurse and tested it on my baby.

I am giving you my suggestions for what has worked for me, but the most important thing is to take cues from your baby. All research and professionals state you shouldn’t give your baby solid foods under the age of 4 months, now I’m not telling you that you should go against this advice, but I am suggesting you talk to your nurse if you feel your baby is needing something a little more than their milk. Pay attention to your baby’s cues and follow them as best as you can interpret them.

The other really important thing to consider before you try solids on your baby is, does your baby have good neck strength, and can they hold their head up straight. If not, don’t even think about introducing solids, the lack of neck strength can cause choking.

Little L was about 3 ½ months old when he had his first try of something more than just milk, we were having a nibbles night with cheese, meats, biscuits and fruit. Little L was sitting in his rocker in front of me and was looking really jealous that he wasn’t being included in the nibbles. I had pieces of mango chopped up on the plate, so I held a piece and let him suck on it. He enjoyed it so much that he nearly sucked my fingers clean of the juice left behind. This was my clear indicator that it was time to introduce solids, after talking with my Maternal Healthcare Nurse the following day. I began with a mixture of ¼ wheat bix, ½ scoop of formula and enough cooled boiled water to make a paste, I put this in the microwave for 5 sec to take the chill off and he loved it. Personally I hate the idea of rice cereal but it’s all personal choice, my kids hated it, but have known plenty of kids who love it, so again, follow your baby’s cues.

Stage 1

Stage 1 is a 14 day cycle that allows you to test your child on different types of food, this also gives you the chance to test to see if your child has any food allergies. Keep puree mixtures simple only one or two different fruits or vegetables.

30ml/1oz Day 1-3- 1 meal

• Meal 1- Mid-Morning
• Texture- runny puree

30ml/1oz Day 3-6- 2 meals

• Meal 1- Breakfast
• Meal 2- Mid-Morning
• Texture- runny puree

30ml/1oz Day 6-14- 3 meals

• Meal 1- Breakfast
• Meal 2- Mid-Morning
• Meal 3- Evening
• Texture- runny puree

Stage 2

Stage 2 has 3 stages of a 4 week cycle testing the increased thickness of the purees you serve, though if you find your child is not handling the thickness thin them out with cooled boiled water. If your child is having trouble with the texture continue with a smoother puree until you feel they are ready, follow your child’s signs.

60ml/2oz 6-7 months- 3 meals

• Meal 1- Breakfast
• Meal 2- Mid-Morning
• Meal 3- Evening
• Texture- smooth and slightly thicker puree, no lumps

90ml/3oz 7-8 months- 3 meals

• Meal 1- Breakfast
• Meal 2- Mid-Morning
• Meal 3- Evening
• Texture- thicker puree with increased texture

120ml/4oz 8-9 months- 3 meals

• Meal 1- Breakfast
• Meal 2- Noon (Lunch)
• Meal 3- Evening
• Texture- minced and mashed with soft lumps

Stage 3

Stage 3 is the final stage of weaning your child on to solid foods. In this stage you will find that your child will enjoy using their hands and finger foods will be a big hit with them. Some children will have a couple of teeth by this age, but not all. If your child does not have teeth, keep the foods at a smoother texture until they either grow teeth or can handle more textured foods. You will also need to incorporate 1 or 2 snacks during the day, normally mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

180ml/6oz 9-12 months- 3 meals

• Meal 1- Breakfast
• Meal 2- Noon (Lunch)
• Meal 3- Evening
• Texture- minced and finely chopped

With every baby food recipe post I will include my portion guide, it easily spells out how much and when to feed your baby. As always with all my posts about babies and feeding though, I am not an expert and these are suggestion only and my experience is personal, as a Mum of 3 children. I have no qualifications in the maternal healthcare field and do not claim to be an expert in nutrition. All my knowledge and experience is the fact that I have 3 very happy, healthy children that I haven’t poisoned.

Little L Rolling

Rollers and Crawlers-

            Oh my goodness, Little L started rolling tonight and I think this is the first time I’ve ever caught this type of thing on video. It was fairly late, for him anyway, and he was laying on the floor by himself while I sat on the couch. He had been rolling on his side for a few days, you know the typical motion of the legs up in the air, they grab their feet and fall to the side.

Well tonight he let go of his feet and hooked a leg up to brace himself and then over he rolled. The poor little boy, we were all so excited and happy that he finally rolled over that we cheered and clapped and hoo-har’d, and he burst into tears, we couldn’t help but laugh.

But I think the funniest thing is that P thinks he taught him to roll. P had been playing on the floor with him for most of the night and had literally been turning himself upside down to try to show him how to roll over. So as soon as Little L rolled over, P was beside himself with pride, boasting about how he had been the one to teach him how to roll. So cute!

            It’s these moments that are the most precious, and so heart breaking if you miss, so to be there for his first roll meant so much to all of us, and to think I got it on video was so special. This is normally not the biggest deal for most Mum’s, but my baby is almost 6 months old and as I’ve mentioned is a big 10kg’s, so it was taking a very long time for Little L to even make the movement towards a roll. I was at that stage where I was getting worried if he would even roll at all, the older boys who were just as chubby rolled at 2-3 months old so I was really starting to worry. Now we just have to encourage the roll back onto his front.

            We can’t wait for the next motions to take place. Everyone keeps saying, “You’re in for it now, he’ll be crawling and into everything before you know it.” But seriously I can’t wait, there is that sadness I think we all feel when our babies go through their different stages of growth, from being so tiny, little and helpless, to holding their head up and holding their body up while they sit assisted, to these moments when they start rolling. I’m already missing those sweet sleepy cuddles, when he used to fall asleep at the bottle and snuggle me until I’d put him in bed, but these day’s he self-settles and I have to put him into bed awake. I wish that those little baby cuddles lasted forever but I’m excited to see where his next stages of growth go and what his personality shows.

E

Little L

Motherhood-

            I distinctly remember having moments with all my babies where I couldn’t get over how much I loved them, but as they grow up I forgot that overwhelming feeling. Little L has helped me remember that, his beautiful little smile is so cheeky, he melts my heart and makes me feel so grateful to be a Mum. I’m so lucky to have been blessed with such an easy going child, he is so carefree and cruisy. I’m sure there are people that even wonder if there’s something wrong with him, most babies cry at some point, at least every day. But not Little L, I think I’ve heard him cry maybe a handful of times and the majority of that was from vaccinations and one time when he bumped his head. He is honestly just so happy.

            Little L is almost 6 months old and is a whopping 10kg, yes I know that’s the average weight of most 1 year olds, but trust me he is not over fed. My 3 boys were all born tiny little babies, all well under the 7lb, but all were unsuccessful at breast feeding for whatever reason so I had to put them onto the bottle. As soon as they started drinking formula, they started stacking on the weight. Throughout their weigh in’s, all scored higher than the 97^th percentile for all attributes. They all consumed different types and brands of formula, S went through about three different brands until we found one that didn’t give him a tummy ache which ended up being a Chemist brand, P had similar problems but we only found success with Karicare, but true to his nature Little L hasn’t had any problems and is thriving on the Aldi brand Mamia formula. We started Little L on solid foods about a month ago because every time we ate he looked so interested, and was mouthing like he wanted to try some too.

            It’s funny I feel the most comfortable being a Mum this time around, it’s probably all a matter of circumstance (this I may discuss at another time), but this time I’m happier, healthier and able to really enjoy this experience being a Mum. I find so much more joy this time around, I feel free to see the light and beauty in his smile or first new things. It might also be the fact that, I have, in my mind, successfully brought up 2 truly amazing members of society, or the fact that I know I didn’t break them and they are fully functioning kids. Before I gave birth to S, I had never held a baby before in my life. I was 22 years old when I became a Mum and I had no idea what the hell I was doing, and back then the internet was still pretty much stuck on a computer desk top and answers were not so easily come by. My goodness, Mums these days have the hand book written for them on any Google search, website, Facebook page/forum or blog out there. I didn’t even have any friends that had kids that I could ask advice, well really, I didn’t even have any friends. Twelve years later and I’ve nearly raised my first two children and helped a few friends along the way not break their kids and now I’m starting all over again, but armed with so much more knowledge and confidence.

            Some days I wonder how I have been so lucky to have made it to this point without breaking my kids, especially considering I had such little experience. But something has always given me the thought that they would be ok, and that I couldn’t really break them. Teenage years still haven’t hit them so I’m trying to prepare myself for the next stage in parenthood. How does one even prepare for this? Have they written a hand book for this stage yet? Well I guess we’ll just figure it out as it happens, at least I kind of know what I’m doing with Little L and his such an easy going baby. The hardest thing with Little L at the moment is keeping up with his clothing sizes, his growing out of his clothes so quick.

E

Babies, Kids and Teenagers Intro.

            This is an interesting topic as I currently have one child from each category. My youngest is my baby L, my perfect little boy. He is almost 6 months old at the moment and a whopping 10kgs, but he is a very happy and healthy boy, who sleeps 12 hours a night and is so content that he never cries, sooks or whinges. My middle child P, has just turned 8 years old, he is a highly energetic, and highly emotion boy, but he is also the sweetest, most thoughtful and imaginative child you have ever come across. Lastly is my eldest S, he is 12 years old and just started high school last week. This is probably one of the scariest years I think I’ll ever experience as a parent, as S is just a little bit on the interesting side of things. Entering into the Pre-Teen age group is proving to be a lot tougher than I thought it would be.

            This subject is going to be a tough one, not only to write but it might be a bit tough on the reader as well. I will have to admit failures, as well as triumphs throughout this topic, and I will even throw questions out there, for advice and tricks you might have for me, to help me through this time. I think the hardest thing is I will not just be trying to figure out the workings in the mind of a Pre-Teen but I will be raising baby L and helping him through those tough times as a toddler. I think many cocktails will be consumed after bedtime over the coming months and years as S grows into a full-fledged teenager and P enters into his Pre-Teen years. Please stick with me as these may be the years I truly lose my mind.

E

Motherhood Intro.

            I think every Mother out there could agree that it’s the toughest job there is, though not a job, but harder than any that could ever exists. From birth our children test us, then break us and then make us……………………………………..

Those statements have caused more than a 24 hour pause. Now, I don’t mean for anyone to think or feel as though I don’t love and care for my children out of pure love and blind devotion, but this is a topic that I have struggled with for most of my life. I never connected well with other people’s children or many adults and even as a child, kids would piss me off, their ignorance, their arrogance and the pure disregard for rules and things set out by the adults. I see this trait in my own children, thankfully, but regretfully at the same time.

It was hard for me as a kid, I never fit in, I was brought up around adults my whole life, so there was that expectation that I would behave and just be a part of the adult world. This, of course reflected my behaviour towards other children and why I never developed sound relationships with people of my own age. Even now I have trouble developing relationships with people and have trouble accepting authority figures my own age or younger. This is something that I place no blame upon anyone, this is just a fact of life and something that I am probably overly conscious about. As my children grow I will be even more conscious about it as our youngest grows older, he is 12 and 8 years younger than his brothers and in a similar situation that I was as a child.

Above all, I believe children deserve to be children and not have the worries of adult’s places on them. I just hope I have the strength to follow through with these beliefs. Even now I try so hard not to make my older children responsible for any moment of our baby’s life, he is ours and ultimately our responsibility. Though our eldest loves him so much and always wants his alone time with him, so will get him up in the morning, just so he can have that special time with him. How lucky I am he expresses so much love but he takes on way too much responsibly that I don’t want him to feel or think he has to take on.

There’s one strong opinion that may cause some debate or controversy but this is my home truth and something I feel strongly about. As a Mother we have the ability to completely forget that we exist, we forget to take care of ourselves, we forget that our needs and desires exist and we forget that there is more in this world than just being a Mother. While our one and only worry will always be our children, some Mums forget that they themselves are important too and will often put their dreams on hold to care solely for their home and their children. To have that clean division between the house, our children and ourselves is the battle every Mother has to fight with.

I’ve never been a career driven woman, and my job descriptions have never been anything special but I made a decision for myself 5 years ago that I hoped would offer me a career and a solid financial future for me and my children. At this time I was a single Mum working Retail in between caring for my boys. There were things I wanted to achieve in life, places I wanted to travel, and goals I wanted the freedom to make, but my position in life was not going to give me the financial freedom to pursue that. So I made the choice to apply to University and study a degree in Psychology. Five years on and I’ve had a lot of hurdles to leap over and I’ve had to repeat and defer a few units but now I’m stuck at a cross road where I must make another life changing decision for my future.

E