Adventures in Weaning - Take One

So I've decided as an extra little side project to my normal blog posting. I'm going to do a monthly post on weaning Archer. It'll include recipes, methods, successes and failures. I think it SOUNDS interesting, but I may be wrong.

Today I decided Archer was ready to start solids. Having failed miserably with Farex when weaning Lily I had gotten it into my head to try making my own rice cereal.

It's very simple, grind brown rice to powder, cook 1/4 cup powder to 1 cup water for 10 minutes. Voila! Rice cereal.

So of course, I experienced difficulties.

Firstly, we only own a hand blender.

Admittedly, it is very powerful and has tons of nifty attachments, but I nearly killed it trying to grind the rice. The motor got very hot, the blades, while still usable, are worse for wear and it was so noisy I hid in the bathroom to do the grinding. Also, because it's a hand blender, I can't just switch it on and do other things, I need to hold the button down, so it made the slow process barely tolerable.

Here is the half way point.

Here is the finished powder. I started with 1 cup of rice and ended up with half a cup of powder and half a cup of itty bitty rice I just couldn't be bothered with.

I put it through the sifter to make sure I was only getting the finest possible, and it ruined the sifter. Nevermind.

So then I boiled my two cups of water and added my powder.

It said in the recipe I was following to stir continuously, but, of course I stopped to take the photo, which caused it to clumped up in the most horrible way. It whisked out fine, but I didn't take any more pictures.

Here is the finished product

I decided it was way too thick for first tastes, so I used one tablespoon of the cereal to one tablespoon of breastmilk

As I had done this while the kids were napping, with waiting for him to wake up and pre solids milk feed, the mixture went a bit gritty, but I decided to proceed anyway.

Here he is pleased to be in the highchair like a big boy

He held the first spoonful in his mouth for a few seconds and decided swallowing was overated

In the end I offered him about half the mixture and he only swallowed the tiniest bit, so it really wasn't a great success, but we'll try again tomorrow.

He was so happy to be finished.

The Great Poo Debarcle

This post is about poo, or rather, the lack thereof. Consider yourself warned.

Ever since we started solids with Lily at around 5.5 months, she has had some ongoing issues with poo. Constipation often goes hand in hand with starting solids, so this was no surprise at first. We usually cleared it up with prune juice, warm baths and massages. It never really lasted more than 3 days at a time.

As she grew, she would occasionally suffer bouts of constipation, especially during a food strike or, more accurately, a fruit strike, which she goes through about a week out of every month. She just doesn't like sweet things and on occasion, fruit is considered to be as distasteful as lollies and chocolates are the rest of the time.

Now that she is almost two, Lily eats very well most of the time. She will taste everything put in front of her, even if it's being introduced for the first time. Her diet includes sushi, curry, soups, pasta, rice, meats, fish, cheese. ANYTHING the average family eats, Lily has enjoyed at some point. She does like McDonalds, especially the chips and "bikkies", which is just her general word for sweet and savoury biscuits of all kinds but her favourite foods are vegetables. Broccoli, corn, potato, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, peas. They invariably disappear first at meal time and she has been known to knock back a whole plate of dinner because the meal failed to feature broccoli. She also eats a lot of whole grains, her favourite breakfast being organic peanut butter (tastes to me like pre chewed peanuts, but she loves it)on multigrain toast and apple slices. She drinks water like it's going out of style and normally eats at least a little bit at each meal. So why and how she gets constipated is beyond me.

But she does and this week was the worst ever bout she has suffered.

I'm pretty sure she had a dirty nappy Monday, but from Tuesday, there was no movement at the station. She got increasingly grumpy, restless, unable to sleep and was refusing to eat. On Saturday lunch time, she cried and strained, but nothing happened. By Saturday dinner she was trying to go again. Screaming, refusing to eat her dinner, sweating and straining. We decided to Dr Google it and felt the best course of action, as our GP was closed, was a warm bath. But when Bob took her nappy off, she had a swear of jelly like stuff that definitely had a bit of blood in it. And if we touched her belly or bottom, she would scream and shove our hands away. So I called the free health nurse line and she said she'd transfer us to a doctor, but felt we'd need to see a doctor that night. The doctor we spoke to agreed.

I dispatched Bob to the Gosford Hospital emergency room at 8:30pm with a bag of toys, books and colouring in the size and weight of Lily and stayed home with Archer, anxiously cleaning and tidying, trying to keep myself busying and not worried.

They finally arrived home at 11:30 and Lily was relieved. She had been given a gel suppository and had passed a blockage roughly the dimensions of a golf ball and then a large normal poo. When I scooped her up as she came delightedly running in the door, she felt lighter. Bob said, shoes on, pre poo she had weighed 13kg. I would say she had easily shed 500g or more. It was like the feeling you get when you pick up a baby when you're used to carrying a toddler around.

And today, although tired, she has been back to being her usual sunny self, eating homemade raspberry pancakes, apple slices and sultanas at breakfast, potato and leek soup for lunch and butter chicken, rice and vegetables for dinner.

I felt really bad for her, but the doctor confirmed we aren't doing anything wrong in what she eats and drinks and said next time just to try a child laxative before it gets so bad.

To celebrate, Archer had his first nappy blow out in months. Hooray for poo.

Teeth?

Archer is teething. Well, more accurately, I THINK he's teething.

As with many children cutting their first teeth, this has been going on for some time. Drooling (which is, for the record, my most hated of things about babies. Give me cluster feeding and pooy nappies over a well chewed hand or a string of luke warm dribble any day), days of the incredible grumps, light fevers, weird nappies and exhausting sleep patterns.

But, for the last week or so, it has definately ramped up. If left to his own devices, he will soak his shirt and tummy mat in under five minutes. He chews his hand incessantly, and, for a child who normally sleeps very well, he's been sleeping awfully. He's also been chewing ME, which Lily never did and I am not a fan of. On Monday night he woke up every hour on the hour. I was sure the next day we'd have teeth. But no such luck.

They are sitting there, just below the surface, visible and tormenting me. "Haha! Here I am to rob you and Archie of your sleep and make your nipples sore."

Did I mention that I hate teething?

I hope they cut soon. I'm exhausted, Archie is not himself and I happen to think babies with teeth are much cuter.

Wish us luck and think toothy thoughts!