Ah, post-industrial life.

October 22nd, 2007

Things like this are the reasons we prefer to avoid processed foods, make our own babyfood, eat local and organic, avoid synthetic dyes and colors, and not buy tons and tons of cheap plastic crap from your nearest big box retailer. We live in the modern world, of course, which means an acceptance of some level of industrial-ness (is that a word?) in our environment and thus our lives. We can cut it out where possible, however. I mean, just the NICU exposure to pthalates in the IV bags and GI tube that went into his tiny body gets to me. Would Avery would have thrived without these modern interventions though? Our modernization comes at a cost, making every exposure a risk/benefit analysis. I mean, does dying ketchup green to make it more appealing to kids make it worth loading up said kids with food dyes derived from coal? Our bodies are designed to protect from and repair damage but they can only handle so much. We should be conscious of what we willingly expose them to.

Ok, rant complete.




Parenting notes for later

October 16th, 2007

Lately I’ve been doing a little more reading up on parenting strategies. Especially since Avery is now fully aware of his ability to manipulate us and whine until he gets what he wants. For example, Avery’s diet has recently shifted to 75% yogurt, 25% everything else (which includes a lot of fruit). As good as yogurt is, he shouldn’t completely exist on it. We realized that when he refused to eat foods, we would just give him some yogurt since it was a sure thing to make sure he got the calories. He soon discovered that if he refused to eat, he would be rewarded with his favorite food: yogurt. Now, we’ve taken a different approach. He loves to self feed so we’re making sure to put a variety of finger foods on his tray. Then we feed him non-yogurt foods while he’s chowing down on the finger food, distracted from the onslaught of fruits and veggies. He’s actually pretty good at self-feeding now. I’d estimate a 75% success rate on tray to mouth transfer. If he doesnt eat, we let him get what he can from self-feeding, and rest assured that if he’s hungry, he’ll eat. If he really didn’t eat much, we’ll just make another attempt in an hour or so. And he still gets plenty of yogurt, but now its offered as a snack or meal and not as a stop-gap measure.

On the drinking front, hes getting better with the sippy cup. He knows how it works and which end gives the goods. He judges on a case by case basis whether he’ll take it though. Sometimes, he’s just interested in shaking it and watching the tray fill with water to push around. We’ve enlisted a new drinking strategy as well: kefir and drinkable yogurt. That’ll get him interested in the sippy cup!

Also, I’m taking notes for future parenting strategies we could use: book traps!