My son is 8 months old. He was breastfed til he was 7 months (had to give up as i was going back to work in a very smoky atmosphere 🙁 ) He is that happiest baby that everyone who has met him has seen. He doesnt have a dummy. When i started weaning him i bought organic veg and cooked, pureed and froze it to give him. Recently have been giving him jars mainly because i wasnt sure of the texture to give him. He still has no teeth (im not worried by this as i didnt get my first teeth till i was 13 months old). He does prefer savoury food to sweet (he will eat pretty much anything i give him though and lets me know quite vocally if i dont feed him quick enough!)
He has eczema so im not giving him certain foods which by his age he can eat (i.e. oranges) as i dont want to aggravate it for no reason. I would prefer him to eat organic. (last week was the first time he had nonorganic veg). But i believe that you shouldnt force kids to eat junk or drink sugary drinks. When he is old enough to know and ask for them then it might be a different matter. I dont give him chocolate. I dont give him crisps. Other mums i have spoke to with children of a similar age dont think the same as me (i know everyone brings their kids up different and i shouldnt force my values on them etc etc). But i am the only mum i know who thinks this way and im starting to feel like i am doing wrong for NOT giving him chocloate/dummy/quavers.
He is tall compared to when he was born. (now 50th centile was 9th when born) He is slightly above his curve weightwise but he has NO extra fat on him at all he seems like all muscle (no chubby rolls of fat on the top of his legs or anything). He seems to be growing well. Sleeps pretty much all night majority of the time. Doesnt seem to need many naps in the day but he isnt miserable for it.
I know i should have more confidence as im trying the best for my son. But self confidence is not my thing. I am really starting to doubt myself.
Someone please ease my mind and let me know im not the only one who thinks this way!!
RE: Am i that unusual?
I'm certain that you'll be supported by most HP members on this issue. You seem to be be doing all the right things, which is probably why your feeling like the odd one out! 😉
And you're almost certainly a good mum, purely because you question that you may not be. If you catch my drift.
To put it another way - There are those that feed their children junk food need, live in denial and never question that they may not be doing their best for their children. Please allow yourself to be content that you're not one of them. 😉
Andrew.
RE: Am i that unusual?
Hi Octavia
Dont worry, we all do things differently. I follow pretty much the same....however I do feed my sons (three and a half and two) chocolate (only the good stuff though) but not sweets and they dont have juices but will occassionally drink smoothies... the problem i have found is that my sons diet was too healthy and he needed much more calorific content in order to support him. this is probably only going to become apparent when you little one become much more active! He will eat all his veggies and lots of fish with a little meat the problem is there is just not enough fat in there...crazy i know but something to bear in mind.
As you soon gets older and more physically active monitor the weight every three or four months (shoe size is also a good one) and make sure he follows his line, that way you will be sure he is getting enough to support him in his explorations. If he starts to become more tired in the day or his centile starts moving then you can nip it in the bud early on!
Apart from that dont worry, doing your best for your child is what we all try to do and you can only follow your own values and do not worry about anyone elses...
Tigs
xx
RE: Am i that unusual?
Sound like you are doing a lovely job sweetie........be proud of yourself! I breastfed my lil man till he was 9 months refused a dummy(partly because i was terrified of not understanding his needs!)and did all my own organic veg.....much to the disgust of my MIL who thought a dummy was a must .My little boy now loves and i mean loves fruit and veg give hima huge bowl of chopped veg for dinner and chopped fruit for pudding and he is happy.BUT.........he also now has a penchant for chocolate and loves crisps.........a habit from his dad........(a chef that works in a healthy veggie resteraunt!!!!!!).........x
RE: Am i that unusual?
thank you so much guys...you have eased my fears somewhat! i want my child to be healthy and so i try to give him the best of everything (and lots of love and cuddles too) and i know that other mums think they are doing their best too but its not MY best so that might have something to do with it as well.
take care everyone
RE: Am i that unusual?
Hi Octavia
Having gone on to a second child made me realise how much I fretted over the first one - and completely unnecessarily so. My first one was breastfed, even though it was hard work, didn't have icecream until he was around 2 years old, and got really healthy food and he still got colic, slept badly and had eczema. My second one was bottlefed, for a variety of reasons. and from day one slept through the night, also has a bit of eczema and had chocolate a bit earlier, but is also growing well and is very fit. Both of them are.
The main thing to remember is that every child is just different - you certainly seem to be doing your best. Just go with what feels right for you, never mind what other people are doing. On the other hand, if you are tiring yourself out with worry, or are staying up late into the night preparing nutritious meals, then maybe review the situation. A relaxed and happy mum usually has a calming influencing on the child.
Reiki hugs,
Reiki Earth
[sm=nature-smiley-008.gif]
RE: Am i that unusual?
Hi Octavia,
How refreshing to hear of another mother who thinks/acts along the same lines as me !!
I thought I was the only one!
I have a little girl who is nearly 7 months and she is very long for her age and is not overweight at all and is in proportion!
To top it off she is very very happy and is bright & health visitors say she is "old" for her age.
Maybe you could help me out ...she sleeps for about 1hour during the day- goes to bed at 10pm but still wakes during the night before finally getting up at 8am...any tips for a peaceful nights sleep ??
Hope to hear from you
xx
RE: Am i that unusual?
hi octavia, i was the same and my daughter is now 17 and has a very balanced attitude to food and still sticks to the 'only 1 packet of crispss a day' that i introduced when she got to an ange of wanting to have something in common with her peer group. when she put pressure on me to let her 'have all the things her friends have' i told her that either her friends parents didn't understand about food or they didn't love their kids as much i loved her, or they wouldn't give them junk. (harsh, i know, but needs must sometimes). i allowed her to have 1 or 2 sweets directly after a meal when she was older, as pudding, as the body copes with it better on a full stomach. she has been to macdonalds twice that i know of but never eaten a burger (we're not vegetarian).
however, reiki eaarth is also right that it is important to relax and accept that not everything than be perfect all the time, just do the best you can without stressing yourself out too much. Have fun!!!!!
selegreen, you don't say how often yr daughter wakes but it is quite usual for them to wake at least once in the night until they are around 3. best tips i can give you: make sure her room is really really dark. if you go in to her, keep it brief and try not to pick her up if you can avoid it. 10pm sounds really late to me tho. i always used to bath my daughter about 6 and take her traight to her room, where we'd play, sing songs and have a story for around an hour and then she'd go to sleep. i don't think she even realised there WAS a downstairs in the evenings till she was about 6!!!!!!!!!!!
RE: Am i that unusual?
My boy , Peter, has had eczema and asthma since about 5 months old. It was a shock when he had his first asthma attack- we thought it was a nasty flu virus, or croup. He was rushed to the Edinburgh Sick Kids Hospital and put on a nebulizer for 2 days. I had been so confident in his health and `sturdiness` up until then. I was breast feeding him like a big milky goddess! My own diet and health was organic, vital, strong. We had no chemicals, `toiletries`, cenral heating, anything synthetic in our home or in our lives. The only conclsive cause I could think of was that he had just had his first lot of innoculations (vaccinations). I felt so guilty, as though I`d got it all wrong and let him down- in a way caused him to become weak and ill by having this done to him, and i still regret having him innoclated like that.
Luckily we went to a homeopath who prescribed Kali Phos for Pete to take at the onset of an asthma attack and this has worked so well. We eat lots of apples and have fresh apple juice every day, which i believe helps calm his eczema. Pete does eat some `gack`... biscuits, crisps, the occasional sweetie- you can compromise.
When his eczema does flare up (it`s only on his legs now) I use shea butter -from Akamuti- smoothed into his skin (and my own! It`s lucious!) to take away the itch and heat.
When he was a baby, i would squirt some breast milk on any patches of eczema !
RE: Am i that unusual?
I breast fed my daughters until their second birthday (the eldest is now 19 and at Uni, the youngest 15). I fed on demand until they were about 8 months, and then they went straight to a 'tippy' cup and drank water or watered down apple juice. We moved to the USA when the youngest was 10 months old, and my neighbours were amazed that I still fed the 'baby' and that neither girl was overweight. The area we were in was very 'affluent' - foreign diplomats, military people, government people - but with maybe 2 exceptions, the local children were obese! I made a rule to only shop on the outside of the local supermarket! By outside, I mean the outer walls on the inside of the building! This is where all the fresh stuff is - veg, meat, dairy, bakery. I rarely went into 'middle earth!). Neither child saw sugar coated cereal unless they stayed at a friends house. Some of their friends had awful problems with chronic upper respiratory conditions, and skin conditions and spent alot of time at the Emergency Medical Room trying to get it fixed! Some of the mothers spent hours before school, applying lotions and doling out medication, then gave the kids a goody bag to eat on the bus!! My eldest daughter developed asthma when we lived in Brussels (worst 5 years of my life!) and it was traced to air borne contaminents. We lived under the main flightpath of the international airport. Once we moved back to Scotland, her need for inhalers disappeared.
I think 'Octavia' is doing everything a mum could do, and doing it right! Don't get swept up by 'peer' pressure - just say no, or don't have questionable food in the house. Goodness knows what my eldest gets up to at Uni, but she has had a thorough education from me, and I know that she drinks lots of water and eats salad whenever she can - so the odd trip to MacD's does not worry me now.....
Jabba