The Green Mama - Part Three - Baby Food

In addition to products I use on my baby's skin, I of course have always cared about what went into his tummy.

I always intended on breastfeeding my children. After about 5 days of trying with Liam I was completely ready to give up. My nipples were cracked and bleeding, it was excruciating. I couldn't deal with it (on top of being extremely sore, tired, hormonal, etc). We'd been taking Liam in to the doctor's office quite a bit as he was jaundiced and had lost quite a bit of weight. He was doing much better weight-wise and the nurse practitioner was ready to let us go when she asked how everything else was going. I turned into a puddle...I couldn't stop myself from crying (damn hormones and lack of sleep!) She helped me out and found what was wrong with our latch. It took me a few weeks to heal up, but oh my god she was my savior! I was so glad she helped me as I know I would have felt guilty for giving up after only 5 days. Hell, my sister-in-law had lasted 6 weeks with her twins and that was with like 3 really bad breast infections. I figured if I couldn't last that long I was a wimp.

I've continued to BF my little guy for the past almost 8 months. I never thought I'd BF this long. I thought I'd make it to 6 months maybe, but I thought that was stretching it. I don't see any reason why we'd stop any time soon. I just can't justify putting him on formula just so I could have a little more freedom (if I was working I think it would be entirely different, but I'm not).

Of course along with breastfeeding, comes starting the baby on solids. I was good and waited till he was 6 months to start on solids. I decided to skip the rice cereal as it's just junk food as far as I was concerned and super processed. I wanted to make all my own baby food. I started out with banana and then avocado. He LOVED it! I used the website www.wholesomebabyfood.com
to help me decide what to give him next and how to prepare it. It's been a lifesaver.

With starting the g's I also started an addiction to Whole Foods. I get all the fruit and veggies for Liam's food there, which make it easy to get organic. It's so easy to make your own baby food, I wish more mommies would try to. Just making a butternut squash gives you a ton of food and it takes minimal effort. I always keep a fresh stash for a few days and freeze the rest in ice cube trays. Easy as pie.

I forgot to mention the argument I had with our new pediatrician at my son's 6 month appointment. So we went in and I'd already decided I wasn't going to give Liam rice cereal. In fact, our previous pediatrician had told us to just skip it, that he didn't need it and we could just go right in on fruits and veggies. (I loved my previous ped, but had to switch for insurance reasons.) So, we started to discuss starting him on solids and she told us to give him rice cereal. I told her I didn't want to and explained why. She told me he needed the extra iron (as it's iron fortified). I asked her for an alternative option, what food could I make him to give him the extra iron so I wouldn't have to give him the constipating processed crap? She was like a broken record, "just give him rice cereal. just give him rice cereal. just give him rice cereal." She couldn't get her wits wrapped around the fact that I wasn't going to give it to him, but I'd willingly give him anything I could make him myself. We ended at a draw...and he didn't get the rice cereal...

Later on, I did find some organic rice cereal at Whole Foods with probiotics. I decided to give it a try. It gave Liam (who seems to have a tummy of steel for the most part) a horrible stomachache. That was the one and only time he was ever given that damn rice cereal. I'm trying to give him as much iron filled veggies he's allowed to have at his age as possible before his 9 month appointment. We will see what they say!

So, I guess that winds down my current blab. It's late at night and I'm tired. I have other stuff to talk about, but that will have to wait till tomorrow...