Monday, May 17, 2010

Questions!

A couple quick questions...

I know I've asked this before, but anyone with any advice/input/experience with IUD's?? I have an appointment Weds for one of my twice-yearly annuals (one of the bigger bummers of having had early stage cervical cancer), and despite Ava being 4.5 months old, still haven't chosen a post-baby birth control method. IUD seems like a good choice, but since I technically haven't birthed a baby, I'm worried about pain, permanence etc. Any input is welcome!

Also, for those mommies feeding babies solids - do you breastfeed/give a bottle before or after? How often do you do solids - just at breakfast or at night as well? Did you start out with rice cereal or a wheat/whole grain cereal? Just curious for when our time comes!

Thanks as always, ladies!

5 comments:

  1. Your craftiness never ceases to amaze me! We haven't started on solids yet (plan to try out some cereal this weekend!) but I can tell you what we're doing based on reading/talking to other moms. Babies should be breastfed or given a bottle first, then fed a little bit of food. You can do either morning or night, but I would start out only feeding solids once per day and only a couple teaspoons. I am going to do evenings to start, but I won't be giving Jack milk right before. He gets his last bottle at daycare around 4 and I'll feed him solids at 5:30, then nurse him before bed around 6:45. Once he is able to eat 2-3 teaspoons at one time, I'll add in a morning feeding and once both feedings are going well, I'll send him with food to daycare to get a "lunch" meal as well. Once he is successfully eating twice a day, I will add veggies. I'm planning on giving him oatmeal mixed with fruit for breakfast, fruit and/or veggies for lunch and cereal mixed with veggies for dinner. I have no idea how long it will take for us to get to that point though (of having 3 "meals") and I'm certainly not going to rush the process. I am making my own cereal and I'm using short grain organic brown rice to start with. I'm also going to try Barley and other grains. I'll try various meats as well, but haven't given this as much thought. Once he's doing good on fruits and veggies and then meats, I'll cut out the cereal altogether but probably continue with oatmeal. I haven't really thought that far ahead! I'm focusing on our first meal this weekend and trying to prepare for that.

    A babies first food doesn't have to be cereals or oatmeals. It can be veggies or fruits or even meat. You have a lot of options which can seem overwhelming, but just do what you think is best! The reason we're starting with rice cereal is because I hadn't originally planned on starting this early. I was going to start with sweet potatoes at 6 months. But Jack is bigger and I know he is ready for more. I want to ease him into solids so we're starting with the cereal and oatmeal! Good luck and be sure to read about our experience with food next week!

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  2. I don't know anything about IUDs so I can't help you there, but Riley started solids a couple of weeks ago and has done so successfully! Basically, I started her out with just a little rice cereal (1 tbsp) for a couple of days in the evening. Those two days let me figure out the best way for her. I started adding a little bit (couple of small spoonfuls) of veggies (sweet potatoe, sweet carrot, or peas, etc) to the cereal to add a little flavor and she LOVES it. Then I figured out that if I fed her her last bottle FIRST, waited 30 minutes to an hour, then fed her the cereal & veggie mix, she was not nearly as messy because she wasn't starving and she was happily full when it was time to go to bed.

    After about a week of this, I introduced fruit about 30 minutes to an hour after her lunch bottle. She eats the entire small jar of fruit without cereal! (Usually bananas, apples or applesauce). I have also had to add another tablespoon of rice cereal and a couple more small spoonfuls of veggies to her dinner because she is demanding more now. It's funny because she won't eat the veggies by themselves like she does the fruit. I also don't need to heat up anything cause she likes it as is (either room temp or cold out of the fridge). The only thing I have to heat up just a little are the peas. She wrinkles her nose at it otherwise. LOL.

    I feed her a 4-5 oz bottle every 3-4 hours and this doesn't change even with the additional solid food. Make sure to stock up on bibs, cause they dribble A LOT. Oh! and one more tip.... when they first start eating, they aren't sure how to treat the new food in their mouths. I wouldn't start right off feeding her in a high chair. It worked best for us to put her in her bouncer so that she was reclined a little bit. When she was sitting up, she didn't realize she was supposed to swallow and what I put in her mouth came right back out. She was used to taking a bottle/breastfeeding in the reclined position so it made sense to continue that until she got the hang of it. :-) Good luck!

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  3. I was hoping I'd be able to offer some advice since you've helped me so much, but I'm useless on both of these things!

    We haven't started solids yet, but once Asher is 6 months we're going to try either sweet potatoes or avocado first. I've heard that a veggie or fruit is easier for babies with milk intolerances, so that's what we'll try.

    I've also read that offering new foods in the morning/early afternoon is a good idea because the Pediatrician's office will be open, just in case there is some kind of allergic reaction. I know that's pretty unlikely with cereal, but might be a good idea with other foods!

    That's all I've got -- can't wait to hear how Ava does! :o)

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  4. The IUD - I have a copper one (the Paragard) which is completely non-hormonal. The other they sell is the Mirena, which has low-dose hormones. If you don't have problems with BC, the Mirena might be the best choice, since it lightens periods and is supposed to be less hard on your system. If you're like me and can't tolerate hormones, then the Paragard is a good choice...no issues with mine so far, though your periods will be HEAVIER on the Paragard.

    Mine are still just as irregular as before I went on the Pill years ago, but I'll take slightly irregular, heavy periods over liver damage.

    Solids - I would give Marianne a bit of cereal when she was hungriest first, then finish with a bottle. She'd get impatient with the speed of the food-having at first (learning to speed-shovel is an art form), but after the first few times she realized she got full faster if she let me feed her solids than if she gulped a bottle, which also caused gas.

    After that she was an all-solids, all-the-time kid, and I basically gave her a meal, then a bottle. When she was old enough to drink her bottle herself, I'd give her a bottle WITH the meal. Now she eats table food and drinks a sippy with the meal, just like everyone else.

    She doesn't seem to be the excessive drinking and not eating type, so I've rarely had to take it away.

    Solids are fun. I had Marianne exclusively on cereal until 5 months, when I started veggies/fruit. I didn't start meat until 7 months, because it caused really bad constipation, so beware if you decide to start em early on meat, it will back them up.

    Also, when you introduce a new food (veggie or whatever) I would mix plain rice with WATER (not formula) and mix in some of the new veggie.

    It worked wonders for getting Marianne used to the taste of things that are pretty strong tasting, like green beans and carrots and spinach. After she'd had a few meals with the rice mix, I'd feed it to her normally.

    Marianne's favoritest hot cereal is Malt-O-Meal (the plain stuff) with a little sugar and formula.

    Allergies - a baby can have an allergic reaction up to 12 hours after you introduce something. The rule is, give them a new food for three days, if there's no reaction, then it's safe. Most of the time if your baby has a n allergy to any food, you'll know in a couple hours...they'll usually vomit or have a blowout.

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  5. Oh...rice first.

    Some kids have issues with wheat and mixed grain cereals...I didn't give Marianne mixed-grain cereal until 7 months.

    She did rice, baby oatmeal, malt-o-meal.

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