Solidifying Our Food Choices

We had a bit of a crisis over the course of a week or two that has pretty much been resolved at this point. And thus, the tale can now be told!

As mentioned before on this very page, PrettyGirl has been eating solid food for varying solidity. It had been recommended by the Maryland Food program, with which our daycare provider must conform, that we give PG cereal three times a day at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a fruit or vegetable twice a day. Since the only fruit PG had been introduced to was bananas, she was eating banana twice a day. PG was cool with this, from a flavor standpoint, but her innards weren't too crazy about it after a week of this diet so it ultimately made her uncomfortable and cranky.

So, after conferring with some other mothers who had been there and done that, along with Dr. Sears and La Leche League, M decided to take PG off the solids for a weekend and stick to breast milk. After all, M was assured, breast milk is really the only important thing, nutritionally. At six months, solid foods are just there to expand the baby's flavor and texture horizons and get her used to all that.

But when M let our daycare provider know about the milk-only weekend, she got upset about it. Apparently, it was "cruel" to introduce solids, only to take them away. While we can appreciate her concern for our daughter - a good trait to have when we're entrusting her with caring for said daughter during the day - we didn't appreciate the accusatory attitude, especially when it went counter to all of the advice we had been getting over the previous few days.

Finally, at our daycare provider's insistence (and my suggestion,) M called our pediatrician. She talked to a nurse there who agreed more or less with us - that PG was getting too many solids too soon. The nurse consulted a grid (which she subsequently faxed to M) that stated that until PG can sit on her own (which she's close to doing, but not there yet,) she should have cereal for breakfast, milk all day long and a fruit or vegetable for dinner.

That was a plan we were comfortable with, and we passed it along to our daycare provider. She was cool with it too, though we did have to give her a signed letter giving her authorization from us to not follow the Maryland Food Program, for when inspectors come to check up on her.

So, everybody's on the same page now, and all is well.

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PG had her six month doctor appointment today. Her usual pediatrician is on maternity leave, so she had a different doctor. I wasn't there, but the report from M is that he was A-OK too.

PG is falling a bit behind in the weight percentile, down to 40th after being in the 50th two months ago, but the doctor isn't worried about it. She has, however, kept up in the height/length percentile, still in the 50th. So I'm guessing she's gonna be a skinny kid.

Her eye color should remain what it is now, which makes us happy because her eyes look like mine, and that's what we wanted in our kid(s) since before any kid had even entered the picture!

She got a few shots, including her first of two flu shots. The shots made her sad, but she calmed down once M picked her up, which apparently doesn't happen often with post-shot babies. Such a good girl!

And the latest verdict on the solid food question: she's ready for a sitting-on-her-own baby's diet, which means cereal and fruit throughout the day, but we can increase the solids at a pace we feel is best.

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And now, here's your dose of other random stuff...

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Lately I've been seeing bumper stickers that say "Choose Civility In Howard County." I used to live in Howard County, and now I'm not sure I'd want to go back. It's a bit troubling that things could be so uncivil there that someone thought it necessary to make a bumper sticker asking people to be nicer. On the other hand, it might be a good sign that so many people have that sticker on their cars. After all, civility isn't exactly running rampant here on the East Coast, so it's a good sentiment to advertise.

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I imagine the slash fiction writers are gonna have a field day with the recent Dumbledore revelation. They were probably way ahead of the curve on that one, actually.