Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Questions for Me, Questions for You

So I have a question for you other moms out their about working out a feeding schedule. I also had a couple of questions from readers about other random topics, so I figured I would wrap them all up into on post of questions and answers. First, the answers of readers questions...so you all that don't have kids that you attempt to feed can just move on to another post...

Question 1: Coco asked what I use to take the videos of Henry.

Answer 1: I use a Canon Powershot SD750 Elph. It is just a digital camera, not a digital camcorder. I really want a digital camcorder (we have a regular one, but eventually I want to upgrade to digital) but we just don't have the money right now. For now this canon works perfect for the short little videos I take of him. Plus, it takes AMAZING pictures! LOVE LOVE LOVE. I HIGHLY recommend it for anybody looking for a small, easy to use, digital camera.

Question 2: Ashley asked what kind of a front carrier I have Henry in in the pictures of us in Chicago.

Answer 2: I was so so stupid before I had Henry. I was all like, "Who needs a front carrier?? They look so COMPLICATED and ANNOYING and and...just no. I will get a sling and be done with it." Well, I did get a sling. And I love it. But this does not mean you don't ALSO need a front carrier. Especially if you are like me and got the Chicco car seat which wont latch on to a buggy at the grocery store. Right. So, this is really rambling...back to Ashley's question. It is a Baby Bjorn. A wonderful and magical Bjorn which Henry ADORES. He would happily ride around in that thing all day. I now freely admit that I was wrong. It's rare but it has been known to happen.

Now, to my question for you all!

Question 3: How in the heck do I come up with a feeding schedule for Henry?? He is already on a good nursing schedule, but now that we are working in food I am having a hard time figuring out when to do it. We now nurse at 7:30, 11:30, 3, 6 and 9. We have to add in three meals of rice cereal by the time he is six months To avoid allergies we don't get any other food until then. Henry is jealous of all the babies that get other things besides rice...). We started with 6pm...dinner time. That was easy enough. We have now also added in 11:30 for lunch. My problem is breakfast. Should I feed him cereal at 7:30 when I nurse him? Since he doesn't go to daycare I usually grab him up and nurse him in his PJ's, then I just lay him back down and he usually goes back to sleep. Should I feed him his cereal when he really gets up between eight thirty and nine thirty? Then what about 11:30? Will he be hungry yet? Am I just not wanting to do cereal at 7:30 because I don't want to get up earlier?? Maybe...but at the same time I feel like if I feed him cereal he will be officially up for the morning. I just don't know. What is the timeline you all use for adding cereal to a baby's schedule?

Answer 3: ________________________(fill in the blank in the comments)

11 comments:

  1. You Mighty consider à Baby Carrier that allows your Baby To face your Body instead of the World such As the ergo Carrier or other. This is Even more comforting for Both of you and insures a more Natural positioning of the baby's spine.

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  2. Actually, I am not sure if this is all bjorn's, but the one I have lets Henry sit facing me, or facing the world. The best of both worlds!

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  3. I had a bjorn and evenflo and both let the baby face you or out.

    As for feeding I say go for 9 its the magic number. Since that is when he officially gets up for the day

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  4. Not sure if this will help cause my baby girl is a few months older. I worked meals into the schedule around bottles ( she's exclusively on formula). So typical day is bottle at 7, breakfast at 8:30 ish ( at daycare). Bottle at 11. Lunch at 12:30. Bottle around 3, dinner at 6, bottle at 7. I found that when she was younger she would happily eat cereal any time so I usually tried about an hour after a bottle. I always put the meals after bottles so she wouldn't cut down too much on her liquids.

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  5. I love love love baby bjorns and then when Henry gets too heavy for the bjorn I now Love ergo carriers!

    As far as the feeding my opinion is different. You really need to keep the cereal with the nursing times or it will mess up your wonderful nursing schedule. You don't want to add in additional feeding times for cereal. They are supposed to be connected to the nursings. I know exactly what you mean about not wanting to feed him cereal when he wakes up but I've found that mine would generally go back to bed after cereal too.

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  6. OK my friend Katie gave me this schedule for Cam it is working (probably not anymore since I wrote that :)
    8 8oz cereal
    8-10 play
    10-12 nap
    12 6oz cereal
    12-2 play
    2-4 nap
    4 6oz cereal
    4-6 play (cat nap for 45 min)
    6:30 bath
    7 8oz and bed

    when he starts eating veggies and fruit. I mix fruit with oatmeal at 8, feed fruit at noon, and veggie and rice at 4. I hope this helps. You do what you need to for Henry....I wish these boys came with a feeding schedule :)

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  7. there is now rule that meals and nursing should be connected so don't forget that he is growing and what satisfied him last month might not work next month

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  8. Re: Feeding solids

    I say don't stress about it. You don't have to have a regular 3-feedings-a-day schedule down pat. Kasen started solids last week (he turned 4 months yesterday) and so far I've only been able to fit in one feeding a day. At this point you aren't introducing the food necessarily for nutrition... it's more about him just learning to eat it and experience the different flavors/textures. The reason they say to wait until 6 months is so that before that time they aren't being deprived of the healthy calories they are getting from the breastmilk.

    Also, you don't HAVE to start with cereals... and you don't have to wait until he's 6 months to introduce other foods. Just wait the standard 3-4 days to make sure an allergic reaction doesn't occur before introducing something new. Kasen got homemade rice cereal (easy and cheap!) for three days then mashed up avacado diluted with breastmilk for three days then mashed up bananas diluted with breastmilk for three days. After seeing that he didn't have any allergic reactions to any of those things, I spent about an hour making a batch of homemade baby food: Now I have a freezer bag full of about three weeks worth of rice/avacado/breastmilk and rice/banana/breastmilk cubes that I just pop out and nuke for 5 seconds to melt. Sometime soon we're going to do sweet potatoes!

    Oh, and I read somewhere that you should introduce a new food once in the morning for those three days so that way if an allergic reaction occurs, it will most likely be that afternoon/evening... which is much easier to deal with than if you fed him in the evening and the reaction occurred in the middle of the night!

    Love this site: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/solidfood4to6montholdbaby.htm

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  9. 100% agree with Carrie. Girl - I had no plan & no locked schedule. Makes me all jittery just wrapping my mind around it. I know I am a minority here, but for me it's all been just fine without it. Good luck!

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