Ask for it!
I think people often confuse the fact that I have THREE children with the fact that I "know what I'm doing".
Fact is, I'm just as newbie as the rest, I just have more kids to mess it up on, right!?
So, ladies, I need everything you got today. Experience, Inexperience, theories and proven fact.
- Baby food making. I am seriously out of motivation to make it myself. Please tell me...is it really worth it?!? {Dollars, Cents, and health benefits, please!} And why is mine always chunky?!
- Overnight diapering. Owen, my sweet middle child. Wakes up every.single morning. SOAKING, from his neck to his knees. I've tried a bigger diaper size, different brands, 'redirecting his aim' if you catch my drift. I am tired of needing to wash sheets every single day, and I hate cuddling a baby who is soaked, but that's what he wants first thing.....please help me.
- Baby formula. So, in some study I was doing yesterday, my worst nightmare came true. I am very careful about what I feed my kids. Or at least I try to be. Nursing twins didn't last as long as I wanted it to, so here we are at the formula thing. Other than being expensiver than all get out, I was content that it was doing it's job. Until yesterday.....did you know that BABY FORMULA has MSG in it?!? SERIOUSLY people.....I could have cried. I felt so guilty giving the boys their bedtime bottle last night. Afterall, I don't even eat stuff with MSG in it, so I certainly don't give it to my KIDS, but apparently, I do. Did you know that it is made from the WASTE that they make High Fructose Corn Syrup with, did you know that?! It is POISON. HFCS is horrible......and MSG is way, way worse. Do you get the impression that I'm pretty angry about this? Because I am. Oh, but thankfully there is a homemade version of baby formula that you can make....but have you ever seen bifidobacterium infantis in your local health food store? Seriously makes me want to vomit. Sorry if I'm a little passionate about the health and safety of my kids.
- Okay last question. Potty training. Hayden is 22 months, or he will be on Thursday. He says "potty", and knows what it is, and sometimes even says "I go potty". I want in outline, detailed form...are we too early to start potty training him? And if not, HOW do we go about potty training? I don't want to be 'training him' for 4 months. If we're gonna do it, lets do it, be consistent and be done with it. But he just seems so young....?? Thoughts?? Comments? Reactions?
Okay, there you have it.....I don't know what to do. I need your advice badly.
Please, oh , please, have mercy on me.
28 comments:
Hi Katie - I'm no expert for sure but I'll give you my food for though...take it or leave it.
Making baby food....too much pressure on mommy. We did only a couple of months of baby food for both kids from about 4-6 months of age. Then we just mashed up regular food and made it small pieces. Peas, corn, sweet potatoes, all sorts of fruits, even little pieces of meat. At the beginning it takes a while to cut it up but they seem to get the hang of it fast and can move on to bigger pieces. Teeth or no teeth. At one, Aubrey can pretty much go anywhere and eat anything and I think it's because we did "real" food earlier.
Overnight diapering...try 2 diapers. One his regular size and then a bigger one over it. Yes, more money for diapers but less washing if it works.
Sorry no advice on the formula. I was fortunate enough to nurse both kids for about a year and did very little formula. I hate to think what they make it out of especially since I think it's the most nasty smelling substance ever!
Potty training...not necessarily too early. If he's interested, put him on the potty to see if he goes. If he does, give him a few days in some underwear to see if he has accidents or tells you he needs to go. If he does good, great, he's potty trained. If not, go back to diapers and don't force anything until he's fully ready. However, beware that this may be another huge time commitment for you as you have to take him to the potty every time he says he has to go. False alarm or not. Eventually he'll learn exactly when he needs to go but it can take a little while. I would advise against pullups. They're expensive and kids learn quickly they can go in them just the same as a diaper.
Good luck!! Jenny Smith
Hey Katie! So, about the overnight diapering-Landon did the same thing for weeks until I found actual overnight diapers-only huggies makes overnight diapers(here in SF at least) and they worked most of the time...every once in a great while when he drank a ton before bed then he might wake up soaked, but not every morning like he had been. And about the potty training thing-Landon was fully potty trained at like 29-30 months...HOWEVER, he did tell me months in advance that he had to go potty and when he told me then I took him but if he didn't then I didn't force it b/c i felt that he was so young. I guess I figured when I was ready to potty train then it wouldn't be a foreign concept-he would know the feeling of going on the potty...I guess just one less hurdle for him...and it seemed to work wonderfully b/c once we did potty train at 29 months then it took 1 weekend and 1 full week before he was completely potty trained(no accidents) b/c he understood the idea and concept of holding it and feeling when he had to go and what he needed to do about it...just my two cents! :) Hope it helps!
Ellen
I'm not sure I'm much help on any of those...sorry! Although that's good to know about the formula -- maybe talk to your doctor about that though -- they'd probably be able to tell you whether or not your really need to be worried about the research and the amounts they found?
As for potty training, I saw this video awhile back and bookmarked it because it looked pretty good: http://vimeo.com/7643151
There's also a book called Potty Training 1-2-3 that I've heard is good. Good luck!
I used a food processor for my baby food. I boiled it then processed it then froze it in ice cube trays so I could just pop out one piece at a time to thaw. I sometimes had to add water or breastmilk to get it much correctly.
No advice on the formula but I hope you figure it out soon!
You could limit the water intake close to before bed time to limit being so soaked. Also try to change him right before he goes to sleep after whatever routine you do.
Potty trianing! My friend has a piece of paper with her child's name on it stuck to the door and she gets a sticker on it everytime she goes pee. I just told me 2yo (who is now 3) to pee in the toilet and she did. NO problems. My youngest decided to potty train herself. My other friend does m&ms for every pee in the toilet. Buying cool underwear helps too. Mine started wearing underwear soon and hated peeing in them so that helped them as well.
Good luck. It must be hard to deal with the toddler stuff while dealing with twin babies! My girls are 15 months apart and it was hard! At least mine are close and hopefully yours will be too!
Mommy drama is tough & for every question you ask you are going to get several answers, so I try to always remind myself that no one else is walking in my shoes with my children so ultimately I need to decide what is best for my family! Very few have 3 under 2 so you need to remember that what a mama can do for one may be very different than what you can for 3!!! Don't be to hard on yourself.
Now my 2 cents worth...
Making baby food... the boys are about 9 months right??? I would say you could start feeding them chunks of soft stuff rather then trying to puree everything. I started steaming veggies/fruit/etc. for Benjamin & Joseph at about that age & they did really well with it. That way I saved $ on baby food & didn't have nearly the mess & time of "making" baby food. A side benefit was then when I steamed veggies for them I was more likely to eat them too!
I calculated the cost, and found when I was making baby food, I saved about $12 a month (that was purchasing generic jared food vs farmers market prices).
Formula... Ouch & Hugs. That would be hard for me too. Makes me feel bad about the one bottle a day my boys got! Is it all types formula? Could you see if there are organic options or maybe soy??? If the organic is to expensive maybe you could do 50/50. Or maybe start trying cows milk? I don't know if any of this helps (or is even a good idea), just throwing out thoughts?!?
Potty training... I am so scared of this! We are definitely not there yet. My boys both cry if I try to put them on the potty.
I would say let him try if he wants to. I know of at least one boy at our church that was potty trained at 22 month. However, if he is having lots of accidents & you or he are frustrated just go back to diapers & don't sweat it!
Please keep us posted on how the potty training goes. I will be taking notes!
Debbi
Hey Katie! I'm a newer mom than you so I don't have the experience to give much advice, but I'll try!
For diapers we switched to Pampers Baby Dry for nights (we use Cruisers during the day) and they seem to absorb a lot more. You've probably already tried those though.
I do make babyfood for Delaney. I use a food processor and the book "Super Baby Food" ~ the book is awesome. I probably wouldn't still be making it if I didn't have that book. It gives you all the foods that they can safely eat at each month and directions of how to make it. The only thing I really don't agree with it keeping her a vegetarian. But even though the author doesn't feed her kids meat (she uses tofu) she still gives directions on how to make the meat if you choose to do that. You can find the book on Amazon or Ebay probably for pretty cheap. I keep a couple jars of babyfood on hand just in case we have to go somewhere and I don't make my own cereal (just too much work :)). But the fruit, veggies and meats have been pretty easy using the food cube method.
No advice on the potty training - but I hope this helps! love ya Katie!
Oops. I forgot diapers.
I would try changing him right before I went to bed. Yes, I know that means you have to wake him up, but he will probably go right back to sleep. I would HATE washing sheets every morning!
I check Benjamin's blood sugar right before I go to bed at 10:30ish (sometimes wake him up to eat & drink), and he always goes right back to sleep.
HTH!
Debbi
i can't help much on the diapering or potty training since i had girls and from what i've been told it's WAY different.
Not read the above comments so I hope i'm not repeating anything. And I hope I don't get any hate mail ;) i've gotten fussed at one too many times face to face for this.
Our doctor said we could put Emily on 2% milk when Emily {oldest dd} was about 10 months. So we did. Audrey came along and we were going to do the same with her but ended up doing it about 6ish 7 months since emily feed her so much milk from her sippy cup we figured it would not hurt her. It actually helped with her fussiness. She was a colicky baby and formula always made her sick. even the stuff they recommend for babies with colic. when we made the switch she was fine. I know many doctors do not recommend to give babies milk until after a year (milk allergies maybe) we have an older doctor who has been practicing for years, so we trust his judgment. Plus, it's funny it was ALWAYS the younger generation that gave me a fit about giving milk to them so young. The older generation, never said a word. i wonder what they did back then when you couldn't buy formula? never thought to look that up, guess what I'll be googling ;)
Baby food making - with 4 boys I just bought it. I really never had the time to make it, but mostly I started feeding them table food early anyways.
Diapers - Huggies make an overnight diaper. I've never tried them, but have heard they work from other mommy bloggers.
Formula - I used the Wal-mart brand Parents Choice. It's way cheaper and is the exact same as the more expensive ones. If your worried about what's in fomula maybe check out and see if you can find an organic brand.
Potting training - Don't rush it. Boys take their time when it comes to potting training. My boys were all 3 by the time they got it down. One thing that really worked was letting them go pee outside. They thought it was fun and they got the hang of aiming while the pee! Ha!
Hope some of this helps! Good luck!
oh and about the food thing.....i'd say go with soft foods from the table. my girls hated baby food. i always just mushed up what we were having for supper. the older they got, i just dumped it all on their high chair and let them go at it....
the small corn on the cob ears are great! especially if they are teething. lots of oatmeal, creamed potatoes, i would also take a chopper and chop spaghetti up really fine when we had it. baked beans, oh goodness, they loved them some baked beans. are they picking things up yet? cheerios? once they can do that you can cut up waffles & pancakes. sweet potatoes are great to have on hand to, throw it in the microwave and once it cools either chop up into small pieces for them to pick up or mush and spoon feed.
can you tell i have older kids? ha! and that by the time Audrey & sarah came around I threw all caution to the wind.
I used the Three day Potty Training Method with all of my boys so far. I plan on using it with my third who is 21 months old.
http://www.3daypottytraining.com/
warning about this method: you will need a lot of support from others using this method. At first it will feel like it's not working but by the end of day three your child will be potty trained! Don't give up!
My kid is 4, so I don't have a whole lot to offer. But I am FREAKING OUT about the MSG. Seriously???!?!?!???
The comment above mine already talked about it, but try the 3 day potty training method. She says children as young as 22 months can do it. You will need a lockdown weekend, which means the twins might have to go to grandma's house for the weekend or something. I used the method with my little girl and we had perfect success.
Hope you get the advice you are looking for!
I don't know much, but here's my thoughts...
Food:
It is cheaper to make your own and I did it because I like being in the kitchen and had the time for it. If it's not something you have time for or does not sound enjoyable, I would say don't worry about it. Just keep easy things like bananas around to mash up last minute, avacados are easy and now that Harper is older she loves plain yogurt mixed with unsweetened applesauce (that I bought, not made).
Sorry about the wetness! I hate that feeling. Hopefully it's just a phase? (doesn't that seem to be the answer for everything!?)
I have no clue about potty training. My 38 month old is just getting it this week. If he seems interested though, I'd say give it a shot!
Hi Katie, ok, so I'm no expert by any means, but I thought I would share a few things I have heard/experienced in the potty training world...i've heard before to put a cherrio in the toilet and let him stand up to pee and have him aim for it, i've heard that works, he might need a step stool, not sure, but also just encouragement with "big boy underwear", lots of praise, stickers, etc...but i agree with what another person said about no to the pull ups...anyways, like i said, no expert here lol...just a couple thoughts! Well and I know that my nephew was ready to be potty trained when he started talking about it and just consistently taking them to sit on the toilet helps a lot too...good luck! :)
I of course am not an expert in any of these subjects, but I'll give you my thoughts anyways...
Baby food - tried making it with my 2nd child and found it too time consuming for the little amount of money I was saving. I know that Walmart used to have a generic brand of baby food (not sure if they still do) that was fairly cheap compared to the name brands.
Overnight diapering - I had this same problem with Addie until I started splurging on Huggies Overnights. They were expensive, but since she just wore one each night, it wasn't so bad. Maybe you've already tried these, if so - sorry I don't know what else to tell ya!
Baby formula - YIKES! I'm starting to run out of breast milk already at just 6 months, so Tate has been getting at least 1 bottle a day now. I had NO idea there was MSG in it! I know there are organic versions, but I'm sure they're much pricier than our $11 Target brand. I'm going to ask Tate's doctor about this at his appointment next week...
Potty training - I did the "just start wearing underwear" route with Addie and after just a week of accidents (and having to throw away poopy panties at Target...) she was potty trained! I'd say if he's asking, you might as well give it a shot!
Hope that helped!
Hi Katie -Just my 2 cents worth:
I totally agree on the whole give them what's on your plate thing. It makes it much easier when you are out and about. It's pretty easy to mash or chop up what's on your plate.
Potty training. It's been WAY too long since I was potty training my kids, but one thing I do remember well - if you try and they aren't ready STOP and go back to diapers. You want to train them to go potty, NOT train yourself to take them every 15 minutes!
Not sure about the diaper thing, they have changed too much in the 18 years since I used any! : )
Formula - YIKES!!! I'd say check on the organic stuff or maybe look into the regular milk thing (I think I gave my kids milk before 1 year - I can't remember for sure tho).
Katie,
I wish I lived closer to you--I would totally make baby food for your boys! I bought it for Cloe and made it for the boys--totally loved making it! I would steam the veggie and pop it in my blender. I had a little system with ziplock containers that I kept filled and stocked in my freezer. I did big batches at a time and kept a nice stock pile going. Homemade applesauce is so easy in the crock pot, too!
Formula--that makes me feel sick, too! I spent weeks in tears because I couldn't keep up nursing the boys. I reluctantly gave them formula and felt awful. However, God really convicted me that this was all in His plan and His control and I HAD to learn to entrust my babies to our Loving Heavenly Father in *everything*. Pray for God's protection over their bodies and supplement with wholesome good nutrition in other areas! I'm sorry--that does really stink!
I'll leave the other areas for the experts!
Wow, MSG in formula?!?! I'm curious where you heard that...i wanna do some investigating myself too. I don't doubt it, seeing how there's junk like that in just about everything these days! I'm still nursing Payton at every feeding, but giving her a bottle at nighttime and mixing her cereal with formula.
I'm making most of Payton's food at home. I'm finding that it's slightly cheaper but not too much than buying store-made. I still keep some jarred baby food on hand to grab if we going to be away from the house. I spend about 1 day a week making a whole bunch of food - peas, green beans, peaches, sweet potatos. Freeze them in ice cube trays. It'll usually last a week or so. Plus, there are preservatives in canned baby food, i mean, how else does the jarred bananas not turn colors from sitting on the shelf at Walmart? So i feel slightly better when i can feed her stuff that I know is pure.
Good luck!
My kids were all eating table food by nine months, of course they had teeth very early, so I made very little baby food. I agree with Katie that it's not worth the small amount you save.
Noah sometimes wakes up SOAKING, but when I think back to the night before I realize that he wasn't changed right before bed (had been recently changed) or went to bed very early therefore had lots of peeing time :)
Only Hannah ever had formula so I have nothing to add except to say I think sometimes people get too worked up about food stuff. What we're told is great for us one year (nutrisweet) will kill us the next year so who knows, next year I'm sure we'll be told that oranges will cause something terrible!
The girls were both completely potty trained by 2. I'm talkin' wear-panties-to-bed-potty-trained. I DO NOT EXPECT THIS WITH NOAH! I've been told to be afraid ... very afraid. That being said, from 15 to 17 months Noah went poop only in the toilet! Pretty sweet, huh? Yeah, didn't last long though. He now brings me a diaper and says "I poop" (usually means pee) Who knows what will happen. He could follow his sisters, or be T_E_R_R_I_B_L_E! One thing I know: I will not let it make me crazy. I've had enough experience (potty trained about 12 kids, so far) to know that letting it bother you will not help you, the child, or anyone else in the house!
oh dear. All the issues at once. Well, never made my own food so I'm sitting that one out.
Didn't worry about formula, my child was happy and healthy and growing properly (both times) so it was doing what it was supposed to.
Overnight/overwet - if you get THE answer to this one, LET ME KNOW!!! I'm desperate too hun. Only thing that helps so far (15 months) is to stop fluids at 6.
Now, about potty training. I tried with Zoey at 2.5 yrs when she expressed some interest. About 2 weeks of accidents and we went back to diapers. Tried it again at 3 with no problems whatsoever from day 1. They'll let you know REAL quick if they're really ready. Just pay attention to the kid and it'll answer itself.
About the baby food: we bought some and made some. Making it is SO much cheaper, considering you can get a 2 lb. bag of peas of $2, as opposed to 4 jars for $2. At first I used the food processor, but it took SO much longer, I hated it! My mom bought one of those long-handled mixers (sorry, I'm tired and can't think of the actual name of it), but it goes down into the bowl/pan, and she let me use that. It was such a lifesaver!! You can stick it right down inside the pan and mash it up. You don't need several bowls, and it's not near as messy. If there was quite a bit of water in the pan with the vegetables, I drained some in a bowl and added it as I needed it. For sweet potatoes I wrapped them in foil and baked them for about an hour at 400 degrees. Then I scooped them out and still used the hand mixer. We had lots of those plastice gerber baby food containers, so I used those to freeze the food. I put as many as would fit into a freezer baggie. I did try the ice cube tray, but found that the plastic containers were much easier. You can just take out however many containers you need and be done. The foods that I did make were peas (frozen), carrots (fresh, but you could use frozen), broccoli, broccoli with cauliflower (frozen), sweet potatoes, frozen green beans (those were not always a big hit :), lentils --I added parmesean cheese and cooked them in chicken broth and water; they actually were not too bad. There may be others, but I can't think of them now. I bought baby food meat, or used on of those mesh nets. For fruit, I bought most of that. I did find out that "Natural" applesause has no added sugar to it, so it's just as healthy as the baby food applesause and much cheaper. So we just bought that.
Hope this helps some!!
Don't stress!! :)
Oh friend, I am with ya on the peed soaked
mornings! I found these things called Diaper Doublers at Babies R Us, and they are awesome!! They are like pads that go in the diaper, and they are super cheap, and work like a charm. I Love them!
Hey Katie- don't have too much advice for you, but for the baby food we were given a food grinder from when Levi and I were babies and it works great! We use the food that we are eating and then grind it up for the kids to eat. There are some small pieces, but they get use to it pretty fast. My kids were eating our regular food by 1! I found you can get the grinder at K-Mart and it is just like the old ones. It works great! On the diaper thing- my kids did it too. Have you ever seen those plastic diaper covers that kids were when they are potty training? My boys are potty trained, but they still go at night sometimes and we have them wear these plastic training pant covers to bed if we don't have pull ups and we have never had to wash sheets with them. You could try using them over top of a diaper. This way you would only have to wash the diaper cover and not have to buy expensive diapers. On potty training- we just had our boys sit on the potty chair and made a big deal out of it. Especially at Grandma's house, because they were always so much prouder when they got praised at Grandma's and wanted to do it that much more. We gave them games to do and things to color and then rewarded them for doing it. My boys were completely potty trained by 2 1/2. Make a big deal about it when it happens. Our girl is 20 months and she has gone in the potty chair once, but we really haven't pushed it. She just doesn't seem ready yet, but we do ask and let her sit on it and do make the potty chair a fun thing. Will probably just it more in a couple of months as we can tell she is starting to get interested and get the idea. Whenever we change her diaper we tell her it is gucky and tell her she should go on the potty chair. Well, hope some of these ideas might help. I am with you on the have lots of kids, but not much experience. We will soon have 4 under the age of 4. I do have two kids out of diapers and hopefully a third by the time the fourth comes! Hope it all works out for you! -Sarah Bartlett
Both my boys were 3 1/2 when potty trained. We waited until they felt comfortable with it and were able to follow through. My little girl though, is already showing signs of being ahead of the game and she is only 14 months! :)
Blessings-
Amanda
Not sure the brand, but we used overnight diapers on you girls. (yes, you all had this problem). Memory is bad these days, but if it isn't failing right now, I think that solved the problem. Also, when they are older, not giving milk before bed time, just water also helped. Something about milk "going through" quicker. I know it doesn't make sense, but it did help!
Oh, my heart is breaking for you over the formula thing! That is a very hard spot for a mom to be in. It's been a few days, have you come up with anything? I did a little searching and found some "healthy" oganic-y formulas, but they didn't mention being MSG free. My experience with things like that is that if they don't let you know it's MSG free right up front then it's probably hiding in there. How old are your twins?
Let us know if you find a good option! That would be worth knowing about to share with other in the future.
dustin @ www.onlydustinthewind.blogspot.com
I didn't take the time to read the other comments, but I just double up the diapers, even the disposable ones. It makes mornings soooo much nicer!
Hey Katie - I made my own baby food for awhile. I would steam my veggies, puree them in the blender and freeze in ice cube trays for single serving size. As the kids got older and ate more then I would add another cube. When the food was frozen in the trays I'd pop them out and store in a freezer zip lock bag.
About potty training....he's not to young if he's interested. Parker was 18 months old when he screamed because I was putting a diaper on him, he wanted underware. I took him potty every 1.5 hrs and kept him on that schedule for 2 days...that's all it took for him. Now I do have to say...it seemed easy considering I have an 8 year old who still is not completely daytime or nighttime trained due to health issues.
Hope you find out what works best for you and your family. :)
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