Parent Extremis

I took over this site back in February and I have always felt a little guilty for not posting more about, oh … those controversial parenting issues, you know, like bottle versus breast feeding and attachment parenting and the dreaded sleep-issues. I haven’t been living up to the TITLE of this blog, writing about parenting EXTREMES. Personally, I don’t parent in any of the extremes, at least I don’t think. I have my nuttiness, as my husband likes to remind me, but for the most part I dabble. I make some baby food, I buy some baby food, Noah sleeps alone, in his crib and he does get a little fussy sometimes and I don’t rush in to grab him, I do use Tylenol for those teething moments and post-vaccine fevers, I do use a sling and a carrier but only BEFORE he reached 20-pounds and mostly for convienence, not because I thought we weren’t bonded enough. So, I don’t really fall into any of the strong beliefs about attachment parenting and authoritative parenting and cry-it-out (Ferber/Weissbluth) versus Sears-method sleep training.

But! Some of you do! And I’d like to get some of those debates out in the open here at PARENT EXTREMIS. It’s what we’re all about, when I’m not writing about nose-picking and Cabernet play dates.

TypeAlice recently had a down and dirty comment war with another blogger about letting a baby cry and where to draw the line at ABUSE and WRONG. It is hard to hear your baby cry but sometimes when they are really tired they cry for like 30 seconds before they fall asleep, after you have fed and comforted and rocked them. Is that BAD? To me, that isn’t crying, its more like, fussing. Each parent has a different tolerance for hearing their baby cry and only each parent knows the line of a distress cry versus an I’m-annoyed-come-entertain-me cry. And to some parents, it doesn’t matter, a cry is a CRY.

I think the problem comes when one parent thinks THEIR way is better and RIGHT for someone else. But, who am I to judge? I buy baby food and put my baby in a stroller??

What are your thoughts on these extremes? Food, sleep, etc … do you dabble in the “methods” or do you follow one more than another?

I started feeding Noah a mixture of baby rice cereal and purees of fruits and vegetables right around his six month birthday. True to family form: He ate everything we gave him and never spit out one bite. We take our food seriously around here.

So here we are, almost eight months old and I’m getting a little bored with his food. I actually make about 75% of his food, and not because I am a SAHM WAHM SUPERMOM but rather, it is CHEAPER. Like, seriously cheaper. A jar of Earth’s Best Spinach and Potato (Stage 2) is $.76 at a local grocery store. A bag of frozen organic chopped spinach is $3.99. If I steam and puree the spinach it will make more than one ice cube tray of frozen spinach blocks, a minimum of twenty meals.

When I first started I would make a huge mess of puree all over the kitchen. I used all the spoons in the drawer and I had leaky watery stains of spinach green and cherry red all over myself and my counter. I am happy to report that I have gotten much better at containing the food and getting it cooked, pureed and frozen in the time it takes Noah to individually toss ten cheerios onto the floor after first licking them and showing them to the dog.

I just found this book this week and I’m really excited to make some new foods for Noah. This book tells you how to make something as basic as a puree of carrots to something more complex like fish and meat and pastas. I also really like the section at the beginning discussing baby health and nutrition. It is short and concise; well suited for a mother to read while her baby crawls into the kitchen to play in the dog’s water bowl.

Four new flavors of Stage Two/Second Foods dinner are now available from Earth’s Best Organic. New flavors include the following: Beef, Carrots and Corn Country Dinner, Chicken and Brown Rice Country Dinner, Chicken Tomato Pastina Country Dinner and Harvest Squash Turkey Dinner. All the dinners are 100% organic.

They also make organic formula and a soy-option is available too. You can purchase these items anywhere that baby food is sold. Also, visit the Earth’s Best website for direct purchase information.

So far I have fed Noah almost exclusively organic foods from Earth’s Best. I like their variety of flavors and foods. The website is very useful and full of nutritional information as well as general baby-health and baby-eating advice too. Each foods nutritional and allergy facts are also located easily on the website.

We had some friends over for dinner last night and I was busy running around grilling steak and pork chops and pouring my pasta salads into serving platters and setting the table that I asked my friend to feed the baby. Who doesn’t jump at the chance to feed a little cute cherub like mine?

I made a little bowl of rice cereal and put a spoonful of pureed edamame in it, opened a jar of babyfood peaches and finished off a jar of Spinach & Potato. Noah ate it all. Go figure. He does love his vegetables.

So far he has eaten with success (well, he hasn’t NOT liked anything, so it’s all been successful, I suppose) the following:
Baby Food Peas, Green Beans, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Winter Squash, Pears, Apples, Bananas and Prunes.

I have made him pureed organic chicken that I poached in broth, pureed white potatoes, a mixture of pureed bananas and blueberries and spinach. I also steamed and pureed Edamame.

Mah baby loves to eatz zee SPINACH.

AM SUCCESS AS PARENT!!

ALL WILL BE EASY FROM HERE ON.

…

Well … I figure at least until the pureed spinach comes out the other end.

For the most part I have fed him almost 100% organic food thus far. It really isn’t feasible to live 100% organically, at least not when you live in the suburbs of Washington, DC and don’t have a garden or year-round Farmer’s Market or a cat that sheds dollar bills instead of hair. But, I am trying to be open-minded and give him the best start I think possible. Giving him organic baby foods help to eliminate a small amount of the toxins that we get from our environment. So, if I can give him a little head start on the poison collecting, I think that’s a good thing. Now, if only I’d stop eating my mom’s Velveeta Cheese Dip, ’cause it’s not like my breast milk is organic with that shit in my body.

I just got an email from another blogger who has a baby the same age as Noah and after reading one of my postings about finally getting the baby to sleep for a nice long period of time, things are about to hit the fan because it is just about TEETHING time. Can I get a collective sigh of URGH.

I think the baby is starting the whole dreaded teething phase. He drools like a fountain and gnaws excessively on his hand, my hand, my shoulder, the dirty washcloth in the bathtub, you get the idea. His top row of gums have puffed up in the shape of little baby teeth. The bottom hasn’t shown too much action so far.

Babies can start teething as early as three months and some don’t show any signs of teeth appearing at their one year birthday but for most babies, the little nubs start cutting through that soft gum tissue somewhere around seven months of age, just for an average.

Sometimes breastfed babies will start to bite when they are teething. They are not doing it to hurt you, but rather because their gums are sore and biting down feels good but rest assured you can teach them not to bite. Moxie has written a good piece about breastfed biters.

The teething ring pictured at the top of this article is made out of all natural maple wood. It is made in the United States and is free of chemicals, most importantly, lead but also there is no potentially toxic gel inside. It is sold on Amazon.

When your baby starts teething and you want to offer some organic means of gum soothing, consider offering them a washcloth damp with cool water at room temperature or one that has been refrigerated for awhile. The cool sensation will gently and naturally numb their gums. Some babies will take to chewing on a pacifier. Even if the baby hasn’t liked a paci in the past, consider showing them they they can chew on it now. Sippie cup spouts are just about the right size to be chewed on. Overall, just choose something safe and large (READ: NON-CHOKE-ABLE) that your baby likes to chew on. Anything that takes the edge off of their discomfort is a good option.

There are also a hot of over-the-counter medicines including Tylenol and Orajel, a benzocaine-product. It is recommended that you speak with your pediatrician before offering any of these products.