Sunday 18 March 2012

We're doing it all wrong!

8 months ago, I was sat with my newborn son in my arms still wondering what the was in that carbonara The Mrs had the night before that seemingly caused her to go into labour the following day!

I am not sure that a milestone like BB's 8 month birthday will ever go by without us thinking to ourselves how much our life has changed since he made his debut appearance. Everyday is still a whirlwind of nappy changes, tears and tantrums and of course giggles and playtime. All in all (Mostly down to The Mrs) BB is coming on great, He is chattering away, rolling around like a man that's been set on fire and occasionally you can see him contemplate crawling...only occasionally!

So when The Mrs took BB to the doctors for him to have his 8 month checkup and be weighed she didn't expect to receive so much negative feedback. Let me explain....

Firstly, she was asked my the nurse if he was sleeping through the night. BB goes to bed at about 19:15 and sleeps well but wakes once or twice a night. He is easily settled by giving him his dummy and he falls back to sleep until he wakes and realises its fallen out again! The nurses first response was that at 8 months he should be sleeping through the night and we should stop giving him his dummy during the night and eventually he will sleep through. The problem with that is nobody likes to hear their baby crying especially at 3am. This particular nurse was an advocate of letting babies 'Cry it out' which Christine is very much against and surely there must be a better way? I know babies that are older who still use their dummies and I am aware of at least one who still gets a dream feed at 9 months.

The next mistake we are making according to Mrs Nursey is that we are under feeding him!
His current diet looks a little like this:
Breakfast 1 07:30 - 8oz formula
Breakfast 2 08:00 - Porridge made from any formula left over.
Lunch 1      11:30 - 4oz formula
Lunch 2      12:30 - Most likely some veg that Christine has pre-made (Pretty tasty!) and pudding.
Dinner        16:00 - 8oz formula
Supper        19:15 - 8oz formula
According to nursey, we should be giving him at least 3 portions of real food (Not formula) a day.

So even though we thought we were doing a pretty good job, it turns out we have a lot left to learn, at least in that particular health visitors opinions. Even after the lack of foody goodness he weighed in at a very healthy 20lb 4oz! Which for those that know these things means he is about the 75th Percentile. The Mrs tells me that's pretty good. lol

So with the knowledge that everybody is different, have you had similar experiences to us? What would your advice be? Any suggestions for good recipes we can feed our malnutritioned little boy?

As always, thanks for reading.
F-T-D


2 comments:

  1. Hi !

    Our day goes a little like this ! Lauren started to be weaned at 5.5 months and had just turned 7 Months.
    up at 7am
    7.30am - Bowl of Porridge/Cereal plus a yoghurt
    10.00am 7oz of Milk
    12.30 - some sort of veggie dish with poss pudding
    3.00pm 7oz of milk
    5.30pm Meat and veggies with pudding plus some finger foods
    7pm 7oz milk and bed
    I know realise we have been totally baby led, Lauren did have a morning bottle but just started to take less and less until she dropped the feed. I have been told as long as they get around 19oz per day that's ok ! I think all babies are different and if BB is thriving then what is the issue? !

    I had one health visitor tell me at her 6 month weight in, that I should be giving her a sandwich by now....say WHAT ..... if I followed the WHO guidelines then she would have only JUST began with solids !!!!!!

    If BB is happy , that is all that matters xx

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  2. firstly well done on refusing to let your baby cry it out - he is a baby and wont understand that. The baby whisperer book has good tips on getting babies through the waking up/crying episodes at night. In terms of the feeding, maybe work on one milk feed at a time, reducing the volume gradually and dropping it so that he will be hungrier for solids. I dont think it matters too much now but whilst the milk has plenty of calories for weight gain, he will start to need other nutrients that may not be adequately supplied by milk. Good on you to feed him what you eat. Good luck ! (Annabel Karmel books are good and also a book called yummy baby by Jane Clarke.

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