mokmok

i have chicken pox :-( [am 34 with two kids] hubby had chickenpox as a child; both kids have been vaccinated. their pediatrician said, if they get it, it'll be mild.

question: do i still completely quarantine myself or just take extra precautions e.g. washing hands, not touching them too much, not sleeping with them at night

my daughter is 1year and 4months old. i'm going out of the country for two weeks this coming March. I would like to gently wean her off breastfeeding. my older child had to be weaned cold turkey because i had bleeding episodes during pregnancy with the second child. i don't want to go through that agony again. Baby is now nursing only twice a day right before the morning and afternoon nap. i try to be out of sight (locked up in my home office) during meal time because she would rather nurse than eat. But ever since i started this twice-a-day nursing routine, it seems she wants to nurse more at night. i just noticed the other night that she kept her mouth on (without really feeding) for close to 2hrs! [i never noticed before because i fall asleep a few seconds after she latches on.] i've also tried to let her sleep with gramma, but she raises a huge ruckus and screams for me when gramma won't give her to me to nurse (sometimes it's just an hour after she fell asleep so we know she's not hungry).

questions

1. How do I start training her to stop nursing during the day and then at night?

2. if she does stop nursing at night, how sure am i that she's not hungry / starving? [she doesn't eat big meals]

my 2-yr-old can form 2-3 word sentences &can communicate fairly well. this past month, though, she's been whining (on the verge of crying) for everything e.g. she wanted a box of cereal from the shelf. my hand is on the froot loops. she says no and starts that whiny cry. i ask her to stop & try for the box of cheerios. whiny cry. i ask her to stop again and rest my hand on the rice krispies, she nods & whimpers. my usual strategy is to not give her what she wants until she stops crying/whining. when her whine-cry goes into full blown cry with tears, i wait for a few moments and ask her if she's finished crying. she will say yes, and wipe her eyes. then i try again (to figure out what she wants in the first place). i usually get it the third time around.

my questions are:

(1) is her whiny crying the beginnings of a future discipline problem?

(2) am i doing the right thing or is my strategy the beginnings of raising a spoiled brat?

(3) if yes to 1 & 2, please do give me other strategies to work with. (it's really hard to focus on her because i have a 4-month-old as well. sometimes, my toddler gets into her mood while i'm nursing the infant. oh wow! i need four more pairs of hands!)

frm 8mos til now,my girl spits out food. if she has potato in her mouth &sees a carrot, she'll spit d potato & eat d carrot. other kids would swallow d potato right? she's not picky about d type of food. she'll eat anything. unfortunately, when there's a variety of food on d table, she'll do the spit/eat scenario.i usually just give her 1-2 types of food to avoid this.

aside frm the spitting problem,she also eats like a bird.few mouthfuls &she'll stop. short of forcefeeding her,m at a loss. i've shopped docs already.they all say nothin physically wrong. she just wont eat! i've tried small frequent feedings, longer intervals between meals (hoping she'll get hungry). she eats the most when distracted e.g. painting, playing, TV although it still takes an hour.

MOST means half cup of rice with soup & meat that went through a blender. she rarely eats chunky food. she still wants her food soupy. she eats chunky veggies like corn, peas, carrots, potatoes, brocolli but not meat (which she needs for the calories)

question 1 - pls recommend strategies to stop the spitting behavior

question 2 - what can i do to cram more calories into her meals given that she eats so little.

question 3 - how do i train her to start eating chunky food. i've tried and tried and tried with different types of meat - chicken, pork, beef, fish - in different types of textures & tastes (chopped up, large pieces that she can hold)

my baby breastfed until 3weeks ago. up until then, i would nurse her to sleep at night (she's out like a light in 5 minutes). she used to take breastmilk from a bottle, but when the milk turned to formula, she refused to drink it.

my problem now is how to train her to sleep on her own. i'm 8weeks along in my second pregnancy and pretty soon, i won't be able to rock her to sleep. she wants to be rocked to sleep while i'm standing up! if i dare sit down, she'd howl my head off. i've been rocking her while sitting down because i really couldn't sustain long periods of standing. it's been a week and i thought she'd get "used to it." but she's not. and i hate it that she goes to sleep crying.

btw, a teddy bear while lying down worked once. took an hour of tossing and turning and squishing /kissing the bear, passing the bear back and forth with me-- before she finally closed her eyes to sleep.

any other suggestions out there?

just curious. my 16mo old walks in circles. sometimes, she barrels towards people-- leaning forward with head down. other times, she would walk with her head tilted back. all curious walking forms done when she's happy :-). and she laughs out loud and shrieks after spinning or when she finally wraps herself around legs. was wondering if there was a "scientific" explanation for these walking behaviors or is it just "something babies do."

do other babies do this?

since i breastfed exclusively, i don't really know how much my baby should be taking at this age & weight. i've been a full time mum since baby was born but i'll be teaching again this june. i have plenty of Bmilk stored. i've been trying to give bmilk in a bottle since she was 3mos but she never liked it. on the rare times that i had to leave her with my mother, baby would just take a few sips& looked like she was waitin for me. my mom said, baby never really fed til full when taking from bottle

i've left her quite a number of times in the past couple of wks to prep for sch. from a bottle she would only take 3oz! she'd sleep then eat again in an hour, so i'm sure that's too little. tried giving Bmilk from a cup as well. same result. she really wants to nurse from me :-)

good thing now is that she's starting solids so i'm sure she doesn't go hungry. worried abt nutrition though. once sch starts, i'll be leaving her for longer intervals &she really needs to bottlefeed

any ideas?

my baby is exclusively breastfed. we started on mushed solids 2wks ago. how often and how much per feeding should she be eating? right now, she takes slightly more than a tablespoonful of mashed solids twice or thrice a day (always after nursing)

but then, since solids are harder to digest, i find that she's also nursing less often. there's often a four hour interval before she'd want to nurse again. i'm worried about her nutrition since starter solids like mashed potato, yam, carrots, peas don't have that much in them. What do i do about the nutrition? (although she does "make up" for the nutritional intake at night. she's nursing more often compared to last month)

i have really bad allergies and always carry an epipen with me. i want to go scuba diving but am scared of jellyfish (abundant in the seas of my country).

it would be a comfort if i could bring my epi down into the water, and use it in case of an emergency. the epi literature says it can go through denim jeans.

so:

can i use epi under water?

will the epi go through nalprene?

i have really bad allergies and always carry an epipen with me. i want to go scuba diving but am scared of jellyfish (abundant in the seas of my country).

it would be a comfort if i could bring my epi down into the water, and use it in case of an emergency. the epi literature says it can go through denim jeans.

so:

can i use epi under water?

will the epi go through nalprene?

she started on watery mushed rice, mushed banana with breastmilk, mushed potato with breastmilk.

she;s now very gassy and poops twice or thrice a day. poop is still color of breastmilk poop, liquidy/ gooey with a few dark fibers included. no stink. is this normal?

before the solids, she was pooping twice or thrice a week

i don't know if i should worry -- my baby can now sit upright, with support. she doesn't like leaning her head back, &would always lift her heat to look at things. but lately, i've noticed that when she lifts her head off the back support (eg my chest or her stroller or her little seat at home), her head is always tilted to the right.

when i show her things that i put on her left side, she'll turn to the left, but the head is still tilted a bit downward to the right - so she doesn't really just swivel her head to the left to look

now i notice that even when lying down and playing with her mobile, head is tilted to the right as well.

am i being paranoid or is there really a cause for worry?

it's on the underside of the left breast (if the side matters). it only hurts when touched (found out when i was showering this morning) or when boobies move (when i'm running up and down the stairs).

i'm sure it's not a clogged duct. i have one chronic clogged duct on my right breast, so i know what that feels like. it didn't get hit or anything so i doubt it's a bruise; just feels like one. i felt the "bruise" earlier without touching it when the breast was quite full. but baby has just emptied it now and the pain is still there when it's touched.

any ideas on what it could be? [i can't see my doc until three days from now :-( bec it's a national holiday tomorrow in my country & am conducting a two day workshop after that ]

she's purely breastfed, nothing new added to my or her diet. poop still yellowish bmilk poop but has whitish stuff (like drops of glue). poop doesn't stink; still regular smell of bmilk poop. 1st 2poops 4days ago was A LOT! like she's been saving for a wk. poop after that was arnd a tablespoonful each time

she's been more irritable, but still active& doesn't look weak or dehydrated. i give her boiled water (we're in a tropical country, 38-40C/100-104F. been giving her water since 3mos). nursing her more often now. she's still peeing same number of times as b4

Q1: IS THIS CAUSE FOR CONCERN?

Q2: dunno if related. she doesn't fall asleep after nursing, wch she used to do. now she cries after nursing, i carry her upright, put her head on my shoulder &rock her to sleep. she'll still be crying/whimpering at this point.sometimes, she'll lift herself off my shoulder, arms spread eagle, crying w eyes closed. COULD IT BE TUMMYACHE FRM D POOPING PROB? [no prob w burping]

just an observation about the quirky funny things babies do. if you have any ideas on why our babies do this... please enlighten me. if not, no biggie. just curious

my 5mo old baby girl

-holds her hands in front of her, opens & closes them and stares at them for long periods

-opens & closes her hands while she's nursing. sometimes, she does this on top of my breast so it's like pinching

-goes hahaha/ hehehe when she wants to nurse

-smiles or laughs while she's pooping

-lies down with her feet up

-puts her feet into her mouth

i tandem pump switching after every feeding (if pump on left side, i put it on the right next round). i get arnd 2oz in a minute, sometimes in just 40secs!

prob(?) -baby prefers right side. hav no idea why [i've asked this b4 &tried all suggestions but she still prefers it]. so when i put her on the left to nurse, this is how our session goes : suck suck suck, push away, whimper, go back to suck suck, push away, waaaahwaaaah, suck suck, push away... you get the drift.

even with just a couple of sucks, i get a letdown, hence the pump gets its share of milk but the baby doesn't. i still try to get her to nurse from the left because after the previous pumping session, it gets fuller than the other one. sometimes, she'll "give up" & empty the left breast. sometimes, she won't "give up" & continue the pushing away deal.

so i give her back my right breast, & she'll stay there for a good 10mins! Q: does she get full? (i know there's milk but dunno if she gets full)

i was cupA prepregnancy. cupB during. now cupB's really tight (nursing bra stretches out so can't use that as gauge)

pump gives arnd 2oz at a time frm one side. my baby is a few days shy of 5mos. doc says at this age, she's an efficient nurser bec she usually just nurses on 1side & will suck a few on the other when i transfer her. i know at least she's not hungry anymore but i'm not sure if she's full because -- sometimes, she'll nurse again after 2hrs. sometimes, it'll be 3.5hrs before she looks for food, so i hav no idea how much she's really getting

bottle isn't good indicator either bec she doesn't like it. when i gave her pumped milk, sometimes she finishes 4oz, other times 2oz only. same results with giving frm a cup

question really is: How much milk does a cupA/B woman really make on one breast? Is there even a way to determine that? [i need to know bec i hav to compute how often to pump & how much i can store before i start teaching again in June]

i'm thinking of homeschooling my bub. but i'm not too keen on the program available in my country. it's not even a popular option here.

so... like online education for grad students, i was wondering if i could get homeschool programs from the western world and teach that to my kid (substituting my country's history for social studies and such.)

my doc told me my 5mo old baby could start on cerelac. unfortunately, all the cerelac that's sold in my country contains milk or milk iingredients to which my baby is allergic to (found out when she broke out in rashes when i was still drinking milk and breastfeeding her).

so my question is, can i just grind some regular cereal or oats, cook em and give my baby that instead? i still breastfeed by the way.

things i already do: give her a taste (half teasepoon) of different food once a day (e.g. mashed potato, squash, carrot, mashed rice).

my 4month old usually nurses on one boob at night & fall back to sleep. she'll sleep a good 3.5 to 5 hrs before needing to eat again. right after she nurses, i pump the other breast, and empty out the one that she nursed on.

i used to get 2-3 let downs on the "fresh" breast in 10-12 minutes on a medela electric pump (one let down usually = 1oz). but for the past week, i haven't been getting any letdowns. aaaaargh. no let downs mean that i've been pumping for 20mins and could barely fill an ounce. and my breast remains full.

the only change in routine right before the problem was around 4 nights straight of no pumping at all. my baby was soooo troubled she kept crying the whole night, even while asleep. i calmed her by breastfeeding. (she'd nurse for a few minutes, sleep for an hour & get on with the crying again)

Q1: any ideas on why i couldn't get a let down through the pump?

Q2: any ideas on how i could get let downs again?