All by ourselves
Ryan left town on Tuesday morning with his boss to go to another part of the country, which left me on Selah-duty all alone. I know many people would be overjoyed to have Selah-duty and I normally am. However, she started cutting her two top, front teeth last Wednesday and it has been very difficult for her. She's had some sleepless nights, a few days of fever, congestion/runny nose, diarrhea, and isn't eating much at all. I think she is probably dealing with the pain fairly well, but she is cranky with a capitol C! Most of the time I can't figure out what she is wanting and she just whines or cries. She's happy for about 45 minutes after she wakes up, then it is downhill. She is more tired than normal too; I am trying to stay close to home so she will be able to sleep in her bed when she needs her naps.
Because of all the symptoms and some major grabbing at the ears, I decided to make a doctor's appointment for my peace of mind. We went to a great hospital that is associated with Harvard and ended up waiting 1 1/2 hours to see the doctor because the doctor I'd made an appointment with wasn't there. When we saw the doctor, she informed me that Selah had "teething syndrome", which amounts to nothing. She also wrote a prescription for a nose spray, a gum gel and a syrup for pain and congestion. I don't really plan on giving Selah all that medicine. I have Motrin which works great and some Orajel.
The last part of my story is the funny part--to me. The doctor asked me what I feed Selah. I told her rice cereal, vegetables, and fruit. I also started feeding her bread, chicken and pasta just this week. The doctor immediately told me to start feeding her fish next month. I thought, "fish??" Then, she was shocked to find that I don't give Selah egg yolks or cheese yet. She told me to start giving her these and homemade vegetable soup. These things just seem so random. Every country says something different...and, amazingly all the babies survive. Hmmm... I've just decided to stay away from highly allergic type things like milk, honey, and nuts and give her what seems appropriate, except for refined sugars. Maybe I'm too inexperienced as a mom and am careless... I like to think that feeding a baby solids is not a science or babies would have stopped surviving long ago. If anyone cares to offer me some insight in this area, I don't mind! :)
Since Selah isn't at her best this week, she decided to give her favorite cousin, Sara Kate, the spotlight. This picture inspired the one of Selah in her pack in the previous post. SK is only 7 weeks younger than Selah and this picture was at 6 months (I think).
posted by Laura at
10:24 AM
6 Comments:
Hey Laura,
I read in my homemade baby food book that fish fillets starting at 6-9 months is okay. I am having a hard time implementing fish because I can't stand it, but I guess I should give it a try, for his sake. Egg yolks are okay too, not the whites, though. Hope that helps, a little...miss you.
7:08 PM
Thanks, B. Yeah, fish isn't something I make very often because I don't like the smell and I tend to mess it up. I appreciate you cluing me in...Of course I could do research online; I guess I'm a bit lazy in that area.
9:50 PM
You are not lazy!!! You are a very busy mommy who does not have time to be surfing the web. Come to think of it Bethany is pretty busy too!
6:30 PM
This comment has been removed by the author.
12:57 PM
You're doing a great job Laura - a good mommy who cares for Selah and wants what's best for her! I agree on waiting on the egg whites and definitely the honey til after 1 year (risk of botulism), and nuts can even wait longer if you suspect nut allergies, or if they run in your family. That's funny about homemade veg soup! I'm surprised they didn't say anything about yogurt! As far as the fish goes...just try and avoid "Bosphorus-caught" fish. Think about the pollution, and yes, heavy metals are most likely present in the fish...I tend to eat it only occasionally for that reason now! Blessings and happy eating!
1:00 PM
If it makes you feel any better, I am on the second baby and am still pretty much clueless about introducing solids. At 7 months, Caroline has yet to voluntarily injest a molecule of rice cereal or sweet potatos. Keep your grain of salt handy while reading...
Where I do have some hard-won advice is in the allergy department. White fish is a common allergic food for American children. It's not diagnosed a ton because, well... American kids don't eat a ton of white fish.
If you want to introduce foods that are rich in protein and good fats for brain development... without having to cook fish... there's always avocado and egg yolk. Both are good for cutting up in little chunks for self-feeding practice, too. Messy, though.
We didn't know that Alex was allergic to eggs, so we gave him some mashed up hard-boiled yolk before his first birthday. He did not react to the yolk at all, but he did react to the baked whole egg in his birthday cake. Many egg allergies are only to the white.
If you are holding off on dairy until age one, beware the commercial soy product. I can't imagine that this would be the case over there, but here I actually found a few soy "cheeses" that contained milk protein (cassein).
You are right that this has to be a lot easier than we make it out to be. I haven't heard a single story of a child not getting into Princeton because her mother didn't feed her fish.
7:32 AM
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