Is My Baby Malnourished?

 

A little over a week ago I ended up in the E.R. of our local hospital because my baby had croup. We're not a family who goes to the doctor for every little sniffle, and I tend to second guess myself when we have to go to Emergency. Well, it looks like I made the right call this time because he didn't respond to the first medication. The second medication didn't work much better so we were admitted overnight while they treated his croup very aggressively. The poor thing got so used to the mask he had to wear that he just gave in and didn't fight it after awhile. We were released the next day with an appointment to see a pediatrician in the hospital two days later for follow-up.

 

Now to the heart of why I'm writing. At the appointment while taking my baby's history I told the doctor that he still nurses about 85% of his calories (that's conservative - it's probably 90% or more). I told her that he sits at the table with us for every meal, and we offer him what we're eating. Most of the time he takes a few bites. If we're really lucky and he really likes what we're having he may even eat a quarter cup's worth. So I explained all of this, and then she told me my milk isn't nutritious enough and I need to start weaning him. Let's just say I was speechless for a bit.

 

Okay - is she not even looking at this baby in my lap? I know he was still recovering from being quite ill, but his illness had nothing to do with malnourishment. We're talking a little guy who nearly tripled his birth weight of ten pounds in one year - all on my breastmilk. I was so upset. She told me to stop giving him one of his feeds and when he is hungry he'll eat.

 

How do you make a baby go hungry? I was very upset. I came home and called one of my local La Leche League leaders. I didn't agree with the doctor at all and needed confirmation. Doctors, especially if they don't know you, don't always know best. They did a great job at helping Jonah recover from the croup. However, on this issue she was so clearly wrong. The thing that bothers me the most is that if Jonah had been my first I probably would have believed I was starving my baby in spite of evidence to the contrary sitting in my lap.

 

My point - please see a doctor when you need one, but also, please, remember they don't know everything. A baby can be malnourished while milking, but only if his mother is malnourished. A mother's body will deprive her of nutrients in order to given them to the baby. I have seen this first hand. While on a mission's trip in the jungles of Venezuela it was clear which women were mothers -they had no teeth and the babies were chubby and sweet. Their diet was low in calcium so their bodies took the calcium from the mother's bodies to give to the babies. 

 

My baby is developing normally, and I know that one of these days he's going to start eating solids all the time and there will be no holding him back.

 

 

A Book List for Little Ones

Because I have been asked more than once what books I would recommend for young children I thought I would do a post devoted to a few of my recommendations. Some of these are not readily available anymore so you'll have to keep your eyes open at garage sales, thrift stores, etc. I'm listing these in alphabetical order by the authors' last names not necessarily in order of favourites. Not all of the lists are a complete list of every book written by the author, but they are the ones we have read and enjoyed.

Jim Arnosky

• ALL NIGHT NEAR THE WATER
• COME OUT, MUSKRATS
• DEER AT THE BROOK
• EVERY AUTUMN COMES THE BEAR
• GRANDFATHER BUFFALO
• OTTERS UNDER WATER
• RABBITS AND RAINDROPS
• RACCOONS AND RIPE CORN
• WATCHING FOXES

Beautiful, realistic artwork. Simple stories – only one phrase or sentence per page. Some of his later books have more writing on each page. 

  

Mary Calhoun

• AUDUBON CAT
• BLUE-RIBBON CAT
• CROSS COUNTRY CAT
• HENRY THE SAILOR CAT
• HIGH WIRE HENRY
• HOT-AIR HENRY

Most of these books are about a cat named Henry and his adventures. The story is told from Henry's point of view, and being a cat his view of himself is pretty high.

 

 

Nancy White Carlstrom

• BETTER NOT GET WET, JESSE BEAR
• GUESS WHO'S COMING, JESSE BEAR
• LET’S COUNT IT OUT, JESSE BEAR
• JESSE BEAR, WHAT WILL YOU WEAR?

Jesse Bear is a cute little bear that two to four-year-olds will especially relate to. The books are written in rhyme that easily trips along. He experiences what many little ones do and makes it all seem like fun.
 

 

Barbara Cooney

• ISLAND BOY 

This story follows the life of one boy Matthias from babyhood to grandfather and his life on an island on the eastern seacoast. Life was hard but simple and full of character.

 

Lee Davis

• P. B. BEAR 

A series of books about a little teddy bear and his adventures. Pictures are realistically set up photos of real stuffed animals and their toys and etc. Little ones especially love these appealing stories and real and make-believe adventures.

 

Amy Hest

• IN THE RAIN WITH BABY DUCK
• MAKE THE TEAM, BABY DUCK
• OFF TO SCHOOL, BABY DUCK

Baby Duck is a "preschooler" who is afraid of rain, swimming and the first day of school. Her parents don't understand her, but her grandpa does and always seems to say and do the right thing.

James Herriot

• BLOSSOM COMES HOME
• BONNIE'S BIG DAY
• MOSES THE KITTEN
• ONLY ONE WOOF
• OSCAR, CAT-ABOUT-TOWN
• SMUDGE, THE LITTLE LOST LAMB
• THE CHRISTMAS DAY KITTEN
• THE MARKET SQUARE DOG

These are stories taken from James Herriot's books for adults and rewritten for children. The illustrations are gorgeous. Any child who loves animals will love these stories. These books can be bought individually or in one "Treasury" volume.

 

 

Shirley Hughes

• ALFIE GETS IN FIRST
• ALFIE GIVES A HAND
• ALFIE WEATHER
• OUT AND ABOUT
• TWO SHOES, NEW SHOES

My children love the "Alfie" books. He's just like any average little boy and has adventures easily related to. His little sister Annie Rose is absolutely adorable and tags along on Alfie's adventures.

 

 

Jane Pilgrim - BLACKBERRY FARM SERIES

• A BUNNY IN TROUBLE
• EMILY THE GOAT
• ERNEST OWL STARTS A SCHOOL
• HIDE AND SEEK AT BLACKBERRY FARM
• WALTER DUCK AND WINIFRED

These books are written in a similar way to the Peter Rabbit books. They have sweet stories and beautiful illustrations to match. The stories are the tales/adventures of the animals who live at Blackberry Farm with a small, moral undertone. We love them. They are hard to find though. We've found most of our at thrift stores and used book stores.

 

Brinton Turkle

• THE ADVENTURES OF OBADIAH
• OBADIAH THE BOLD
• THY FRIEND OBADIAH

These books record the troubles and triumphs of a little Quaker boy living on Nantucket Island around the time of the founding of America. My children (2 and 4) love these stories. In the first book Obadiah tells “stories” of adventures no one believes. Then he has a real adventure and cannot understand why no one believes him. In Obadiah the Bold a gift of a spyglass makes Obadiah want to grow up and become a pirate. A talk with Father finally helps him see what a truly “bold” man is. Finally, a seagull, much to Obadiah’s dismay, adopts him as a friend. In the end Obadiah comes to love the seagull.

Of course, we also have all the classic favourites: Winnie-the-Pooh, Peter Rabbit and friends, Madeline, Babar, Curious George, Richard Scary, Dr. Seuss. In case you haven't figured it out yet our home is full of books. We read all. the. time. What do you recommend that we add to our shelves?

 

What I'm Up To

Just for fun...

The idea for this post came from here.

Now it's your turn. What are you currently doing?

A Productive Afternoon

I like to read about other people's lives. I enjoy posts that give me a peek into what someone else has been doing. I'm guessing at least some of my readers are the same so I thought I'd give you a peek into my afternoon yesterday.

 

I had a lot of baking but I wasn't feeling that great so I had a nap first. I didn't get going until after 3:30. First I had to make a list - I love lists remember - of what I needed to do. Here's my list... 

• bread
• sourdough bread
• meat for supper
• chicken broth
• grape nuts cereal
• dessert? (not sure if I was going to do this)

3:36 - finished my list...time to start

 

3:37 - children decide to go play in the snow so I stop what I'm doing to dress my toddler (I was actually glad they wanted to go out because the house was quiet and they were burning off excess energy in a non-irritating way ☺)...then the phone rang...take a pencil case and its contents away from the baby

 

activating my yeast with warm water and honey

3:45 - try again...start the wheat mill going with six cups of spelt...take a picture of the baby watching his siblings outside...start my sourdough...start proofing the yeast for my yeast bread

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3:57 - the phone is ringing again and I search frantically because I never put it down in the same place twice

 

3:59 - decide I better have a tea to get me through this

 

4:06 - finish mixing up my sourdough bread...I won't need to do anything else with it until tomorrow

 

4:07 - start mixing my bread...As an aside, why am I making two kinds of bread? I need bread tonight and the sourdough won't be ready until tomorrow. Also, the sourdough only makes two loaves which will be gone in a blink and my regular recipe makes four loaves which will last a tch longer.

 

4:10 - more pictures of the fun outside

 

He's wearing the leg warmers I made.

4:16 - finished kneading my bread and set it aside

 

4:19 - time out to change the baby's diaper and nurse him. I enjoy my tea while he's nursing and may or may not have played a couple of rounds of Candy Crush also. ☺

 

4:42 - the phone again

 

4:49 - finish my tea and start mixing the grape nuts cereal. My husband loves plain cold cereal that he can share with the baby. This fits the bill, but it could be jazzed up with fruit or coconut or nuts (or chocolate chips - just saying)...the phone again - my dad this time.

 

5:00 - the cereal is ready to be baked...punch down and flip my bread dough over

 

5:02 - finally decide that yes I will make dessert...brownies...a double batch with walnuts and chocolate chips added

 

much later- the finished product

 5:05 - my teenage son agrees to chop up the stewing beef so we can use it in spaghetti sauce...we use the food processor for this

 

5:12 - the meat is ready

 

5:21 - the brownies are ready...phone rings...another nursing break...call my teenage daughter from her bedroom because she offered to make supper

 

5:38 - nursing the baby again...it's just that time of day when he wants to nurse a lot...the bread needs to go in the pans now for the final rise

 

5:43 - bread is in the pans...wash some more dishes

 

 

5:48 - put the chicken broth I made two days ago into Ziploc bags prior to putting them in the freezer

 

my method for holding the Ziploc bag so I can fill it

 5:57 - call my second son to take the chicken broth to our freezer in the basement

 

 

 

6:01 - supper is ready

 

So I now have six loaves of bread (in various stages of readiness), cold cereal, supper, brownies, and enough chicken broth for six meals. Not bad for a couple of hours of work. It feels good to get a bunch of stuff done all at once.

 

Do you ever do a bunch of stuff all at once in your kitchen?

 

 

Celebrating Family

This has been a busy week, but I don't have a lot to show for it. First of all, my husband has his 50th birthday coming up next month, and I've started plans for a big party.

 

Secondly, I installed a new digital scrapbooking program on my computer, and I've been busy setting it up and getting all of my digital pictures organized. I have/had the Creative Memories StoryBook program. However, when my old laptop was replaced I couldn't transfer the StoryBook program to my new laptop. I did a lot of research of what program to go with for making photobooks and decided to get one from the company who designed the Creative Memories program. I'm glad I did. The screens look exactly like the CM StoryBook program. As an added bonus I was able to transfer all my digital kits from CM into Panstoria's Artisan and use them.

 

I love, love, love digital scrapbooking and was so glad to find a simple solution for what I need. I use my digital scrapbooking to make a book everywhere that has all of our birthday and other celebrations in it. I also make a book about our family vacation every year. Last year I made one for my brother-in-law about his time in basic training. Recently I made a book for my mother-in-law's 70th birthday celebrating her life. I also make gifts and Facebook cover photos using this program. I enjoy scrapbooking with paper, but I enjoy the digital scrapbooking because there is no mess. I see value in the paper and digital which is why I do both.

My children love reading books that star themselves and their siblings.

Random bits - We had our first normal week of school since the New Year started. Everyone is finally feeling better. Routine feels so good. My baby turned thirteen months this week - I can hardly believe it. My sister just found out she's expecting baby #6 after six years of no babies. We're all excited to say the least. I read a really great post this week about freezer cooking that made it seem doable. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but couldn't wrap my head around the organization needed. Now I think I can.

 

So how was your week - busy and feeling productive or busy but not feeling like there was much to show for it?

Simplifying Through Sewing

After what seems like forever I think we're finally all healthy again. Just as we were recovering from the flu my oldest son started breaking out in hives. We have no idea what he's reacting to. Personally, I'm wondering if his body is still working its way through getting rid of the flu and it took this form. Anyway, I suggested coconut oil to soothe the itchiness. He wasn't thrilled because of the smell but did it anyway. He was sold. Now he does it as a matter of course when the itching starts. It does seem to be getting less every day so hopefully we'll be past all of this.

Coconut oil is so wonderful - it's antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, as well as being a superior moisturizer. You get the picture. I figured it couldn't hurt. In fact, my toddler has a stubborn diaper rash that I've started putting coconut oil on. From diaper change to diaper change you can see his skin clearing up. To read more about this amazing product check out this post.

Before things got really bad around here I managed to get some sewing projects in. First of all I made a pair of overalls for my baby. I made them with fleece. I love fleece. It is super easy to work with, and when you pick up a fleece-dressed baby they are so soft and squishy - just saying. I wasn't super crazy about the buttons but then I realized that if I turned them upside down I liked much better. I've also learned a way of sewing buttons on with my sewing machine which saves a nice little bit of time.

I also made a cover for my sewing machine. I've had a charm pack of squares for several years now waiting for the right project - this was it. I lined the cover with some pink and white striped fabric. I had a little issues with making the hole for the handle but managed at last. This project I made up as I went along and overall I'm very happy with it. My sewing machine sits out all the time so it's nice to have a pretty cover for it.

Finally, I was tired of my cords for my sewing machine, serger and my glue gun looking a mess and getting tangled. This picture is actually neat compared to how they normally look.

I made individual pouches for each piece - no more tangles, no more mess, no more trying to figure out which cord it is exactly that I need. I used three unique material so I can easily grab just what I need. This makes my life a little simpler and only took about 45 minutes in total to make all three.

 

I hope everyone is healthy where you live. What have you done recently to simplify your life?