The joy of cooking... for baby

Ah the food issue. Mommies have all had it: my kid won't eat this, my kid will only eat that, my kid ate this religiously and now won't touch it.... I can safely say that, in short, food is a struggle for all of us at one point or another.

When MLO started on solid food there was little he didn't like. Those few things were easily avoidable and nutritional equivalents were readily available and appreciated by him. Somewhere around 12 months he started to get weird on me. He would turn his nose up at our tried and true routine of scrambled eggs with cheese, broccoli, and  a touch of garlic powder for breakfast. WTF pal? All of a sudden I had to get creative. How do I pack the same amount of nutritional bang into an MLO sized meal? I started to branch out: french toast made with maple syrup instead of sugar, no syrup on the toast with a banana or oatmeal with honey and whole milk and a serving of veggies and hummus at lunch or dinner. I cut scrambled eggs out all together and started to offer more meats and cheeses. I discovered he loved goat cheese and that aside from 'outside' the only other discernible word he uttered was 'hummus'.

As I was struggling with the need to explore food choices for MLO I kept asking myself, "What changed?" One day it dawned on me, the kid was bored. Can you imagine eating the same things at the same time of day for 3 or more months straight? In hind-site, I would have been concerned if he hadn't started to turn his nose up at our "tried and true" routine. As time went on, I started to mix things up as a matter of course. I tried hard to move those staples around so they didn't happen in the same way at the same time. I began to bake bread and muffins that I knew could pack a punch for the whole grains they contained. As our trip to Montana grew closer I began to fret over how I would meet his needs over 8 days and 7 nights of road trip and camping. The cooler and the fridge in our tiny trailer weren't long term storage situations that I trusted, and I knew that at least one meal of the day would happen in the car. Fortunately, I stumbled on Go Go Applesauce, an individually wrapped packet of organic applesauce. I packed string cheese and a plethora of crackers, my favorite for MLO being the Trader Joe's Multigrain crackers for their relatively low sodium, delicious flavor, practically choke-safe texture and Peanut-free-ness. What I didn't plan for was the emotional and temporal need for fast food; on that trip MLO was introduced to his first McDonald's hamburger and fries, and Jack in the Box breakfast bowl, and I don't feel a bit guilty about it. MLO ate Daddy's grilled burgers for dinner and enjoyed many a breakfast of cheerios and banana as we rolled out of the campsite. 

Since arriving in our destination MLO has discovered fresh trout (shish- for fish), raw spinach slathered in ranch dressing, raw green beans and plain raisins. He loves wheat toast with butter at breakfast and snacks of yogurt with cinnamon, cheerios and applesauce. Oatmeal with whole milk, a touch of honey and raisins or fresh fruit is a welcome way to beat the morning chill. Much to my shame, he has a derth of experience when it comes to feeding himself with utensils. He has such a propensity for making a mess that I shy away from giving him the spoon when he has yogurt and I never thought to hand over the fork except with food already on it. I have resolved to overcome my fear of mess and give him cheerios in a bowl with a spoon (I'm starting slow... don't judge me!) and green beans on his high chair tray with a fork at his disposal. The dogs are going to love it.

Tasty Finger Food for your Little Dude (or Dudette)

MLO has become increasingly picky. In bygone days he would eat nearly anything you put in his mouth with only a brief analyzation trial period (as in seconds) for new foods. Since beginning table foods (the non-pureed version of what we've been feeding him) his tastes have become much more discerning. Whole peas? Blegh. Chopped broccoli? Blegh. Chopped carrot? Blegh. Dude! You ate these no problem when they were pureed. WTF?

I've noticed that the pickiness seems to reach it's height at dinner time. At lunch he will gladly munch more than a few cubes of steamed diced carrot but when dinner rolls around, forget about it. It seems that the progression to tolerating the new textures and demands of table foods requires a well rested, and thus patient, baby. It also seems that this process is a long one (at least in our case).

So against my better judgement, but due to my insatiable curiosity and penchant for culinary optimism, I'm going to introduce a new table food tonight. The baked then pureed or even just scooped version of sweet potatoes is a go-to, sure fire, baby pleasing staple in this house. Lets see what he thinks of SWEET POTATO FRIES.

The Recipe

• Approximately (~) 1 pound of medium sweet potatoes halved, then sliced into ~1/4 inch strips. Turn the strips on their sides and slice again to the same dimension.
•  2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil
•  A generous sprinkling of Italian Seasoning
•  A similarly generous sprinkling of garlic powder
•  One more generous sprinkling of fresh ground pepper

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place sweet potatoes in a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Add seasonings and mix the sweet potatoes until coated. It's best to use your hands here to ensure the fries are covered with oil. Place the fries in one layer on a lined or lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the sheet and flip the fries over (a spatula works great). Bake them for 15 minutes or so; you want them to brown. It's ok if some of the ends get black, but they just aren't very nummy when the whole batch is that way: trust me.


I like this idea because the fries are salt free, oiled with nutritious and tasty olive oil, and baked instead of fried. They are a good size for little hands, and at the very least, a novelty. They are tasty as-is for grown-ups, too, which make them a wonderful side dish for the whole family to share.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out tonight. If he doesn't like them, I'm sure I'll find someone who'll eat them....

The Darkside: When you can't defeat it, eat it!

Yeah, that's right. I made Star Wars themed teething biscuits. Recipe courtesy of Courtney Russell, Wonder Time, Feb 2009 and cookie cutters courtesy of Williams Sonoma. If you don't like my nerdiness, you can suck it. No, seriously, they are made for people without teeth. Enjoy.

Big Food

MLO has begun to eat chunky foods. I started by scooping the butternut squash and sweet potato out and just mashing it a little and processing his green beans to a relish consistency instead of a puree. I also chopped his banana into matchstick width cubes. Our pediatrician suggested we start meats at 9 months and told me not to bother pureeing them. His words were, "Would you want to eat that stuff? Ick. Just chop it up fine, and feed him what you're eating that night."

MLO has always been a robust eater, so the change in consistency didn't phase him. I try to mix things into his cereal to expose him to different texture experiences, but I've heard many people say that method works well for getting a picky eater to progress out of purees. MLO has since tried chunked up green beans (which he ate with his hands and to which he seemed to have a topical allergy), chopped and steamed baby carrots and broccoli. I get a kick our of letting him feed himself; it allows me to do some dishes while he enjoys his meal. He enjoys playing with the food and carefully chooses different veggies from his options. He seemed to prefer the carrots to the green beans.

Today we will try pork. He has eaten chicken plenty and had some ground beef before the crazy allergy scare, but I haven't reintroduced it. A few days ago I introduced mandarin. I've heard conflicting things about when to introduce citrus, but I had it, and some sources say 10 months is fine, so we tried it. I have these nifty feeders that allow baby to suck and chew on food in a little mesh holder. I stuck a few wedges of mandarin in the bag and let him go at it. At first he made a face, but he persevered. Yesterday he looked blissful, chomping and sucking on that thing. I also tried a new recipe with him yesterday that he seemed to love:

Pear Yogurt
1. a few good sized globs of pasteurized plain whole milk yogurt (no sugar added)
2. half a semi-ripe pear, shredded
3. a pinch of cinnamon

I had some and it tasted delicious. I want to raise a child with a broad and experimental pallet. MLO's love of food should make that a simple task; it's really up to me to introduce unique textures and flavors. Speaking of which, I made chicken for him the other afternoon that was pretty damn spicy. I used my father-in-law's patented Spicy Southern Seasoning and thought I had significantly dulled it with flour. Not so! MLO ate it no problem mixed with his cereal or beans while I was gone. Surprisingly, it didn't seem to bother him coming out the other end, either. When I returned I tried the chicken and found myself nearly breaking a sweat. That's my boy! 

New Year, New Faces, New Insanity

Exciting news! I've invited a friend of mine to contribute some of her experiences to the site. I will let J's Mama introduce herself, but suffice it to say she's a wonderful mom and a great friend. I would probably have gone crazy if it weren't for her friendship and understanding! Stay tuned for her first post!! (No pressure JM ;)

Speaking of new faces, MLO has moved into and possibly out of the stage of making this hilarious Klingon face. It is in response to everything from happiness to frustration. If not for the myriad weirdos on the internet, I would share it with you. Much like the fearsome Klingons, MLO has begun to yell and scream. He mostly shares this over-vocalization when things simply aren't going his way. Remove him from the dog bowl? Ear-splitting shriek. Take the time to cut up his banana? Repeated angry yelling. Change his diaper? Both. It's really lovely to be yelled at for meeting his needs... all day long... every day.

He finally mastered coming down the stairs, though I would never allow him to do this unsupervised. He moves down feet first, backward. We decided early on that we didn't want to tempt him with gates. Gates present a challenge, and MLO loves nothing more than to do exactly what he knows we don't want him to do. Since I recently noticed him getting a foot up on the middle of a panel of Alcatraz, I decided that our decision was a good one. The last thing we need is a baby taking a header from over a gate at the top of 13 steps. I sometimes wish we had a gate at the bottom so that he were relatively penned in downstairs, but oh well. It keeps me on my toes. He actually took a spill from a few steps up the other day. I was standing a couple of feet from the bottom of the stairs, going over his list of tried solid foods when I glanced up and caught him tumbling down head first into our wood floor. We both freaked out. He was fine, scared but uninjured. I felt like a terrible mother. Of course I know better than to let my 10 month old play around the stairs; he's a fast little bugger and it doesn't take long for him to get much higher up the stairs than one might expect.

He has also begun to wave. This motion is somewhat rudimentary as it mostly consists of a fist in the air with perhaps the addition of a single finger or splayed hand in the direction of whomever's attention he is trying to get. His friend (2-weeks younger than he is) already has waving, clapping and head shaking down, and she has for months.

I've also made what, for me, is a big move. I have officially stopped the regular pumping I've been doing 2-3 times a day for the last 2 months. I hated it. It was restrictive, isolating, and increased the difficulty of caring for MLO when it was just me and him, because I had to pump when I had to pump regardless of whether he was asleep or not. This made tending to his needs and keeping him out of trouble especially challenging. The problem with this decision is that I don't have milk with which to make his cereal, which means that he isn't getting the high calorie, and ultimately nutritionally complete meal he was getting in the past. With his low weight and height I worry that I'm selfishly keeping him from breaking that 5% mark on the growth curve, though he isn't a hungry baby and he is already eating yogurts and cheeses.

Ah, the trials and triumphs of motherhood.

Well, that's the news from Lake Wobegon...

Allergy Update

The results of MLO's allergy test came back today and sure enough, our little peanut is severely allergic to peanuts. Boo. We were told to pretty much just stay away from bakeries, Asian food restaurants and ice cream parlors in addition to carefully avoid any potential cross-contamination of food. I'm bummed that he won't be able to experience the joys of peanut butter and peanut brittle, and I'm apprehensive about having to watch so closely everything he eats for what it's made with and from where it comes. I hope we never have to use that Epipen....

How I Screwed up my Milk Supply

As you may know, I chose to breastfeed MLO. My goal was to keep him on breast milk for the first year of his life. I struggled with different breastfeeding challenges as he grew and his appetite and behaviours changed, but I never felt that my milk production was too low. When he started to eat solid foods I failed to remain diligent about retaining my production. I used to produce 8 ounces (oz) of milk at a pumping, but now I'm lucky if I get 4oz, and more often I only get 2oz. I wanted to share my experience with you in the hopes that you don't follow the same faulty path as I.

As MLO began to eat solid food I noticed that he would skip a nursing. He didn't seem to miss it much, whereas he was crazy excited about eating solid food. I figured that if he didn't want the milk, I didn't need to worry about pumping, so I just started skipping a couple of feedings a day. At first I pumped in the morning and at night when he was getting his solid food meal so that I could get enough milk for his cereal meals the next day. Often I would forget to pump in the morning, adding to the decrease of demand. When MLO started eating solid foods in the middle of the day I allowed him to simply nurse 1-2 times a day. I didn't pump at those increments of every 3 hours, times at which he used to nurse. As my body received signals that the milk wasn't being used, it simply stopped producing it.

At first I thought this was no big deal. He didn't want the milk and I was previously pumping around 8oz in a sitting, so the 1-2 pumping sessions a day should have been fine. What I didn't realize was that my production was going down overall, not just at the times when he didn't want it anymore. When it became difficult to pump 2oz in a sitting I knew I was in trouble. Hubby is actually a lactation physiologist, and though his expertise is in bovids, the hominid system is virtually the same. He implored me to begin pumping again at the 3hour intervals, warning me that if my milk supply did return, I would never produce as much as I did before I had allowed my supply to dwindle.

With diligent pumping and a significant increase in my water intake (60+ oz a day) I have been able to get my volume back up to between 2-4oz in a sitting. Through that time we used up a large portion of our frozen milk supply, so the odds of me having a day or 2 without the baby are slim to none. I rarely produce enough in a day to freeze, and MLO has re-discovered his affinity for breast milk. I now feed him every 3 hours and his middle of the day feedings consist of nursing and solids. It's obvious that there isn't much available for him in the middle of the day, but he still gets a good dose of milk in the morning. I am back to pumping only in the morning and at night (sometimes twice, if the timing is right), but with the feedings in the middle of the day he drains me well.

When I reflect on how I let this happen I touch on a couple of points. First,  I wanted to have a little more autonomy. I had committed myself to breastfeeding for a year in a very emotional way, but I was tired of being bound to the baby every 3 hours. That isn't to say that I didn't want to be around him, or didn't enjoy the act of nursing (which is wonderful quiet bonding time), it was more the need to stop whatever I'm doing wherever I am and find a discrete place to feed my kid. Nursing can be very isolating and can put the breaks on whatever you have going on. I wanted him to cut down on nursing because I wanted a little more freedom to go out and about. I also kind of wanted my boobs back. It follows then, that I wasn't too keen on pumping, because it isolated me in the same way that nursing did. Second, with a decrease in breastfeeding came a decrease in puke. We had lived in a sea of vomit for 6 months. This new-found respite from regurgitated milk felt fantastic. The less he nursed, the less puke I had to clean up off of myself, my son and my floor.

It was an easy trap to fall into. Unfortunately, the repercussions were far reaching and I regret having let it happen. Be smart: when your kid starts eating solids stay on the pump!

Emergency Continued

MLO, my mom, dad and I hung out in that ER room for 5 hours. MLO slept about 30 minutes over two naps. Within the first hour after administration of the drugs the redness and swelling largely subsided. By the time we left he only looked vaguely splotchy and his one eye was puffy, but nothing like it was when we arrived that morning. We were prescribed an EpiPen to have with us at all times, and have been given an order for a blood test that will theoretically indicate to what he is allergic. It seems that he may have ingested trace amounts of peanutbutter that morning, so peanut is the most likely culprit, though we'll have a better idea after his allergy test. Neither Hubby nor I have food allergies, nor did we when we were children, so this came as a surprise. I don't look forward to the constant vigilance required of a parent whose child may have a life threatening reaction to a food, especially a food as prevalent as peanuts. Of course it's possible that he isn't allergic to peanuts, or that he will grow out of this allergy. The allergy testing is not terribly accurate, but it's better than nothing, so it should give us some information we can use. The bottom line is we have to just wait and see. As with all things baby, this characteristic is as likely to unpredictably change as it is to stay the same. I just wish the consequences weren't so scary!

Emergency

Well we made the first of what is likely to be many trips to the emergency room on Tuesday morning. MLO and I went up to hang with my folks for a couple of days on Monday morning. That night he had me up at 2:30, 3:30 and 5:30. He has four teeth working toward the surface so the nights have gotten rough again. After nursing him at 6:00 I decided to see if there was anyone up and willing to take the little bugger so I could rest some more. My dad was up and they shared some english muffin, played and wandered around. By 9:00 we were starting his meal of cereal and banana and I noticed that the skin around his left eye was red and puffy. That had happened the last time we visited my folks and the inflammation had receded pretty quickly. This time I commented that they must have something around the house to which he was allergic. After breakfast I tried to lay him down for a nap (he'd been up since 5:30). He whined and cried while I tried to finish my own breakfast before jumping in the shower and running off to an appointment at 10:45. As he got more frantic my mom decided to go in and soothe him. Based on his inability to calm down she got him up. That's when she noticed his eye.

MLO's eye had gotten so red and puffy that it looked as though he'd been hit. The eye was rapidly swelling shut. As my mom showed his face to me he turned his head and I noticed that he had what looked like red welts (or hives) on his neck and shoulders. This prompted me to call our pediatrician (250 miles away) and leave a message with the physician's assistant. In the intervening minutes between our initial inspection of his head and neck and the end of my call to the doctor's office the swelling on his face and neck had worsened and we noticed more hives. This is when I started to freak out. The swelling was spreading and becoming more intense at a rapid pace; the most dominant thought in my mind was, "How long until he can't breathe?"

I ripped open his button-down footie pajamas and my stomach dropped. He had angry red swollen hives all over his body. His groin, his underarms, his torso, arms, and legs were all covered in swelling hives. At that point I had two voices in my head. The first one said, "Emergency room now!" the second one said, " Stay calm, he's breathing fine, he isn't crying, don't lose your head." In an attempt to be fiscally responsible I called our insurance to try to figure out if I would be totally screwed if I took him to an emergency room. It sounded like I would be.

One of the insurance sanctioned alternatives to the ER was known to my mom as a good place to go so we decided to head there. As I turned onto a busy street I realized that we had miles of pokey downtown traffic through which to meander while the hospital was a quick 3 minutes away. While stopped in the turning lane at a light, I couldn't shake this feeling that my son could start having breathing problems and I would be stuck in downtown Monterey at some light while a steady line of tourists marched across the street in front of me. In tears, feeling literally damned if I did and damned if I didn't, I made a split second decision to rush to the hospital. I checked the lane next to me and barrelled through the green light.

MLO happily babbled at my mom who was sitting next to him in the backseat. I can't tell you how much that calmed my nerves. He was breathing fine and was in good enough spirits to make conversation. When we got to the ER I dropped my mom and the baby off, knowing that she has been to an ER more times than I could count, and I parked the car. When I joined her she looked forlornly at me. She had signed us in but we were told to wait. I picked up the red, puffy little baby and paced in front of the front desk. Nurses spied me as they walked by and in no time we were being seen.

At this point MLO could only see out of one eye, and not very well. His ears were swollen and the red puffiness had spread all over his scalp, torso, arms and legs. Upon his examination the doctor told us that his temperature was normal, his lungs sounded good and no swelling was observed in his mouth or throat. They put in an IV, the little trooper only fussing for a moment when they stuck him, and administered a steroid and a histamine blocker....

Stay tuned for more, MLO is awake and hungry!

A Note About Carrots

Apparently, carrots (beets, broccoli, cabbage, celery, collard greens, lettuce, spinach and turnips, too) have or can have high levels of nitrates. These compounds can be converted to nitrite, which can bind iron in the blood, rendering the iron unable to carry oxygen. Anemia may result if a person consumes enough nitrates. Infants are especially susceptible to nitrate toxicity because of differences in gut flora (the bugs in your intestines that convert certain nutrients) and because of certain enzymes that they have less of than adults do (Greer et al.). The University of Maine cooperative extension suggests limiting intake to 1-2 tablespoons per serving.

The Daily Grind

This is has been a huge month for our family. MLO has become a champ at eating solid foods, pooping real, human poop, crawling, and climbing.

We started solid food with oatmeal instead of the traditional rice cereal on a recommendation from our doc. We have successfully tried banana, butternut squash, and carrots. I'm making the baby food myself which is so easy. I use some ice cube trays with lids to freeze the pureed food into serving sizes and it works great. MLO is eating 2 meals of solid food a day which has cut down on his nursing and his puking (yay!). I am concerned that he isn't getting enough to drink, but he seems happy enough and I offer him water from his sippy cup.

Along with solid food comes the Poop Shift. That relatively odorless yellow mess that used to squeeze out the legs and top of the diaper is no more. In fact, for a few days after his introduction to solids there was no poop at all. You can imagine my anxiety: "When will it happen? How much am I going to have to deal with? Will it hurt him? Will it overflow? Is he impacted?". When it finally happened after almost a week it was not so bad. MLO didn't seem to be bothered by it, although the look of concern and concentration he made while making his special delivery was priceless. I texted my husband, "Full on turds. Stinky turds." Boy, are they stinky. If by chance you miss the spectacle that is his eyebrows furrowing and his face turning purple while he delivers, you will definitely not miss the smell. At first it was a bit pasty and messy to clean up, but now he presents us with neatly bundled poops that roll off into the toilet: no poop laying around in a diaper pail, so no lingering ick. I like it fine.

MLO has mastered crawling. He isn't terribly fast, but when he wants to go he goes efficiently and directly. It is so cute to watch. I definitely need to invest in a pen to keep him safe and allow him to practice while I clean house or make meals. With crawling has come climbing. He pulls himself up on anything he can reach. With both crawling and climbing comes heightened anxiety. I try to let him bonk in hopes that he'll learn to watch his head when coming up to a table or not to crawl into the door, but of course I don't want him to hurt himself. I'm trying to find that balance between appropriately protecting and not hovering anxiously.

Yeah, so big changes this month!

Mommy and Me = Peace of Mind

When I was pregnant I had these grand visions of participating in all sorts of mommy and me programs with MLO. I envisioned us swimming together, hiking together, playing together and learning together with all of my new-found mommy friends. This was one expectation I actually fulfilled. MLO and I have been a part of some sort of 'mommy and me' program since he was only a couple of months old and they have been total life savers.

The first group I took our son to was a nursing support group hosted by a local breastfeeding consultant. The program was free and tons of moms (with their babies) showed up. We asked our questions and the consultant answered them with great detail and expounded on certain aspects of the issues we hadn't experienced yet or thought about. The topics ranged from breast health to baby health, so it wasn't just about breastfeeding. This was a great opportunity to learn some tips about monitoring my baby's health along with meeting other moms in my exact same situation. While I didn't go enough to make any lasting friends, I value the times I went as educational and comforting.

The second group I took MLO to was a weekly 'Parent Participation' class through our local adult school. This was AWESOME. We shared birth stories and our latest challenges and had guest speakers that covered everything from post-partum depression to infant nutrition. We learned songs and games that I remember from my childhood and some new ones, too. It was a wonderful resource for hashing out our problems and getting advice, for getting better informed about the needs of our growing babies and for re-learning those songs and games that babies love so much. I made some friends in the class and really understood for the first time that I wasn't alone in the challenges I was facing and that there was light at the end of the tunnel. I really couldn't recommend this type of thing more to any new mom.

Concurrently, I took MLO to a mommy and me hiking group (once again, Parent Participation) that met weekly at different trails around the county. This was a wonderful opportunity to meet like minded moms that valued exercise and the outdoors while forcing myself out of the house. It is really easy to become a home-body when you don't get enough sleep and you don't have the motivation to take a shower, much less walk out your front door. Being apart of this group and the parent participation class helped me feel accountable, and therefore, prompted me to get out of the house. In turn, my sanity was preserved and I started to get back in shape.

The next class MLO and I took together was a pre- and post-natal yoga class, also offered through the adult school. I took this with my neighbor whose son is a few months younger than MLO. This is a neat way to practice balance, and I don't just mean the sort you do standing on one foot. With a baby you have to drop what you're doing and attend to his/her needs at the drop of a hat (or a toy). At the same time, you need to find ways to satisfy your own needs for peace and fulfillment in order to retain sanity. Taking my son to yoga allowed me to do both. When we started, he was about 5 months and learning to sit. He was and is very vocal. While I was trying to do a pose he would be trying to scoot around, falling over and bonking his head, or making it known that he was present and how he was feeling about it. I learned to breath through my stretched muscles and through the disruptions, while happily attending to his needs. Sometimes that required me breaking my pose and sometimes it didn't. Every class was a success no matter how much of it I actually was able to do, simply because he and I did it together and me with a peaceful mind. This has proved a great take-home lesson for me.

The short of it is that I really valued these classes as sanity savers and educational tools. I feel more centered when I attend and more social, too. While I still haven't made any lasting friends from these classes I don't feel the least bit cheated. I have had wonderful experiences and have met some really neat people that helped me understand that no parent is perfect, no baby is perfect and that is ok.