Supply issues

All nursing mummies at some point in time have questions about milk supply. I also had some questions then and here I'd like to share what I've learnt in the process of finding the answers.



Supply immediately after delivery

Once after delivery, try to latch baby as soon as possible and frequently to help your milk supply come in quickly. One of the tricks the lactation consultant at Kandang Kerbau Hospital taught me, apart from latching baby frequently, is to pump frequently as well. This two-pronged approach would enable milk supply to come in faster. I understand that there are different takes on using the pump in the first 6 weeks of baby's life but using the pump on top of latching baby helped my milk supply to come in quickly so personally I would advocate the use of the pump together with letting baby latch. By the time I was discharged from hospital, I had more or less sufficient milk to meet Alicia's needs (but being paranoid, I had a tin of formula milk to stand by).

I borrowed the Medela mini electric breastpump from my sister-in-law... it's got the most basic functions but it worked well enough for me:


















Most of my friends got the Medela Swing Breastpump which has the added function of massaging the breast before pumping. For me, I had to manually massage the breasts since the medela mini-electric doesn't come with this function.

















Obviously, the double-pumps are the most effective in stimulating letdowns and for increasing supply. These however come with a rather steep price. But if you are intending to breastfeed for long and you need the pump to be efficient in getting the milk out from your boobies, then I think this is a good choice:



















Oversupply
Some time after the first month, I started to have an oversupply of milk as in the first month I pumped exclusively instead of latching as she, for whatever reason, only managed to latch properly at about 5 weeks old. Expressing milk instead of direct latching meant that my body wasn't producing the exact amount of milk that Alicia needed. I had to put up with terrible engorgement and wait for my body to adjust accordingly as by the 6th week, I was latching her and not expressing milk for her anymore.
A tip for nursing mommies who face issues of oversupply is to express only enough to make you feel more comfortable instead of emptying your breasts when you express (after your baby has finished feeding at your breasts). If it's not that uncomfortable, you can skip expressing altogether. However, if you notice any lumps in your breasts during this period of readjustment, it means that you have blocked ducts and in this case, you will need to clear them.





Soft breasts - drop in supply?
About 2-3 months of nursing and experiencing hard, engorged breasts, suddenly I felt that my breasts became softer, almost like it was before I started nursing. I started to think that my supply had diminished. Fortunately I didn't stop nursing just because I thought my supply had dropped. After reading up on this issue, I realised that having full and hard breasts is not supposed to be the norm throughout the whole breastfeeding journey: this happens only in the first few weeks. What happens after that is that the milk supply will begin to regulate and the breasts will begin to feel less full, soft, or even empty. My breasts also stopped leaking (they were leaking terribly earlier on and I had to keep changing breast pads throughout the day and I always woke up with a wet t-shirt... eww... gross!). I read that this doesn't mean that milk supply has dropped, but that my body has figured out how much milk is being removed from the breast and is no longer making too much. Finally! No more hard, painful and leaky breasts for the whole day!


Forceful letdown (Overactive Letdown Reflex)
I only realised that I had forceful letdown when I confided in an experienced nursing mom about Alicia's feeding pattern. Alicia would gag, choke, gulp down milk frantically, gasp, cough, clamp down on my nipple or pull out altogether when the letdown occurred (and milk would be spraying everywhere, sometimes all over my darling's face). I had read that the letdown was a baby's reward for suckling and yet it didn't seem so for my baby!

How I handled this problem:

• Feed her in cradle hold but in a reclining position so that the milk doesn't flow as fast and she wouldn't choke.
• Feed her in a side-lying position so that the extra milk can dribble out on the bed (place a nappy below)
• Feed her as per normal, but let her unlatch during the strong letdown and place her back to the breast when the 'spraying' was over (cover the nipple with a burp cloth to absorb the milk rather than let the milk soak through the breastpad)

I also tried latching her by placing her on top of me so that the milk had to flow 'uphill' so the flow wouldn't be too strong but she refused to be in that position so I just used other methods.

It was only when she was about 5 months old that she managed to overcome this problem and she started to enjoy the letdown... :)


Lop-sided breasts
This happens when baby has a preference for one side over the other. For some reason, Alicia preferred to feed on one side more so naturally the body responds by producing more milk on one side, and so that meant that the size of the breasts was different.

After consulting the lactation consultant, I was told to keep feeding Alicia on the less-preferred side as the first breast till things evened out. This is because the baby is usually hungrier and so suckles harder on the first breast and due to the hunger, baby will be less picky. I followed the advice and after awhile, she stopped having a preference altogether.


Can't pump out much milk after latching (and not expressing for months)
When Alicia turned 6 months old, I started expressing milk again to mix with her food. That was when I realised that while I had no problems expressing milk out in the past, suddenly I could hardly pump any milk out! What puzzled me was that Alicia was still drinking fine and putting on weight so I called the lactation consultant again.

What I found out was that my nipples are too used to baby's latch (which is much stronger than the pump) so the pump is less effective in getting the milk out. The lactation consultant suggested tandem pumping: feed baby on one side while pumping the other side. Apparently doing this for every feed for about a week would get the nipples used to the pump again. Well, I tried but the curious little one refused to share her milk 'bottle' with a machine that was making lots of noise. So I called the lactation consultant again. This time, she suggested that I cover the motor of the pump so that the noise doesn't affect the baby. I did that but it still didn't work out because Alicia was too busy trying to tug at the nappy covering the pump, the wires, the bottle that was used to collect the milk... oh well... so I will never find out if the advice works. Maybe you can try it and let me know. :)

Fidgeting at Fidgets

Fidgets is an indoor playground for children and babies at the Turf City and the first time we went there was for a gathering with other mummies (and daddies) from a forum. Unfortunately, we were too excited and forgot to take pictures of Alicia then. So here are the pictures of her the second time we brought her there. She simply enjoyed herself! :)


Here's the section where they have little cars:

I'm driving! I bet I drive better than mommie...

I kinda like this place!

Here's the section for crawlers and cruisers... :D

Taking a breather halfway...

Climbing to the top is hard work but look at the persistence written all over my face...

I've reached the summit!

It is said that all things that go up must come down... so I'm making my way down now... :D

Walking along the sides is soooo fun!


Look! I've got the whole place to myself!

Sample Meal Planner (6-7 months)

When Alicia was 6 months old, she ate only 1 semisolid food meal a day.

Here's a sample of Alicia's meal planner when she was 6 months old (after introducing various foods - see Feeding at 6 months for more details):

Mon
Barley Cereal with sweet potato puree

Tue
Oatmeal Cereal with mashed banana

Wed
Brown Rice Cereal with pumpkin puree

Thu
Barley Cereal with carrot puree

Fri
Oatmeal Cereal with avocado

Sat
Brown Rice Cereal, scraped apple

Sun
Oatmeal Cereal, mashed papaya

Note: Her meals were all mixed with breast milk. You can use water or formula in place of breast milk.

At 7 months, she started taking 2 meals (due to her sleeping habits, she ate lunch and dinner rather than breakfast and lunch). See Feeding at 7 months for more details of the foods that she took in that month.

Here's a sample of Alicia's meal planner when she was 7 months old:

Mon
Lunch
Brown Rice Gruel with cod, mashed papaya
Dinner
Barley Cereal with pea and pumpkin puree

Tue
Lunch
Oatmeal Cereal with mashed banana
Dinner
Brown Rice Cereal with sweet potato puree and cod

Wed
Lunch
Brown Rice Gruel with cod
Dinner
Barley Cereal, applesauce

Thu
Lunch
Oatmeal Cereal with egg yolk, mashed papaya
Dinner
Brown Rice Cereal with cod

Fri
Lunch
Barley Cereal with mashed banana
Dinner
Brown Rice Gruel with cod, applesauce

Sat
Lunch
Brown Rice Cereal with pea puree and cod
Dinner
Oatmeal Cereal with pumpkin puree

Sun
Lunch
Brown Rice Gruel with cod, applesauce
Dinner
Barley Cereal with avocado

Alicia's first birthday

We actually intended to bring Alicia to the zoo on her birthday but she woke up late and the weather wasn't good so we decided to go with the wet weather programme instead, which was to go to the Science Centre. She quite enjoyed the excursion though she would have probably enjoyed the zoo better.

Here's our only pic together at the Science Centre:

We didn't take many photos on her birthday as we relied more on our video camera instead. Here're the few photos that we took:

Alicia with my cousin Mark and her new Pooh Bear!

Alicia's birthday cake from Emicakes

Look at that happy, contented drooly girl!

Feeding at 12 months - the big leap forward

Alicia’s turned one! This means that she can start to eat more types of foods, including foods that may trigger allergic reactions like egg white and honey. A couple of days before she turned one, I fed her a wee tiny little bit of egg white to test if she was allergic to it for I had intentions of letting her have a little bit of her birthday cake. It would be too mean to deprive her of her birthday cake – after all, she was the birthday girl. But I didn’t want her to fall ill after having her birthday cake so I decided that I should conduct my ‘experiment’ first… hehe…

And so, the foods that she tried upon turning 1:

• Egg white

• Honey
• Her birthday cake
• Heinz Muesli and Apple Cereal (for 10-15 months)
• Meat Loaf
• Meatballs for little fingers
• Wheatgerm
• Steamed egg with minced meat
• Sauted vegetables with garlic and stock
• Strawberry
• Orange
• Rock melon (I think she tried some of it in small portions when she was younger though)
• Persimmon (was also introduced some time back in very small amounts)

Note: Read on for some recipes and tips regarding the above foods.It’s quite a list isn’t it…




[Read more about egg allergy and learn more about honey and babies.]

Here's a picture of her birthday cake from Emicakes!

More photos of her birthday can be found in Memorable Moments of this blog

Meat loaf and Meatballs for little fingers

For lack of a better description of the dish, I’ll just call it ‘meat loaf’ :D

Meat loaf

Ingredients

• Minced pork/chicken
• Peas
• Diced carrots (other vegetables are also possible)
• Wheat germ
• Baby oats
• Hunt’s unsalted tomato sauce (from Cold Storage)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180degC
2. Mix ingredients thoroughly and put the mixture into a baking dish
3. Bake for about 20min or until the meat is cooked thoroughly

This can be frozen for up to one month.

You can puree this for a younger baby. Alicia ate this as finger food as I broke it up into small pieces for her. She didn’t like it much so I only made 2 batches of it.

Meatballs for little fingers

Ingredients

• Minced pork/chicken
• Potato/ baby oats

Method

1. If using potato, cook the potato and mash it up.
2. Mix 1 part meat with 1 part mashed potato/ baby oats.
3. Form into balls about an inch in diameter and place on ungreased baking sheet
4. Bake in preheated 180degC oven for at least 20 min until cooked through thoroughly.

Refrigerate and use within 24hrs or freeze for up to one month.

Again, Alicia ate these as finger food. But as with the meat loaf, she didn’t like this at all.,,

Cereal

I re-introduced cereal into her life because I suddenly felt that she needed the added iron which is found in iron-enriched cereals so I bought the Heinz Muesli and Apple cereal for her. She was quite ok with it and at the peak of her appetite, she was eating 2 tablespoons of this cereal mixed with 1 tablespoon of Earth’s Best instant oatmeal and 1 tablespoon of applesauce (so that she can absorb the iron better) topped with 1 teaspoon of wheatgerm as part of her meal. Again, this craze didn’t last long and an unopened pack of cereal is still sitting on my table…

Steamed egg with minced meat

As she refused to eat meat still, I tried to hide the meat in her food… here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 quail egg
• Minced meat (1-2T)
• Stock (40-50ml)

Method

1. Beat the quail egg
2. Add in the minced meat, stir well to mix
3. Pour in the stock to the mixture
4. Steam for about 10 minutes or until you observe that the surface of the egg mixture has somewhat ‘hardened’
5. Decorate the dish

Alicia smiled at the decorated steamed egg and said ‘hi’ to it (after I made the bowl of steamed egg ‘talk’ to her – I was the one talking of course…). I think she gave me some credit for decorating it and ate a few mouths of it before she refused it… sometimes I wonder why I have the luck of having such a fussy eater… sigh… that wasn’t part of the deal…

Vegetables

This was and is still very popular with her. On a good day, she can wolf down up to 8T of vegetables at one sitting as part of a meal! That’s a feat for a fussy eater…

Ingredients

• Broccoli (about 4T)
• Cauliflower (about 4T)
• Meat and Vegetable Stock (40-50ml)
• Garlic
• Olive oil

Method

1. Clean the broccoli and cauliflower florets thoroughly.
2. Steam broccoli for 8-10min and cauliflower for 12-15min.
3. Sauté the garlic in a bit of olive oil in a non-stick pan till fragrant (you can omit the oil if you want to but I find that the garlic burns quite easily without the oil)
4. Put the cauliflower and broccoli into the pan.
5. Pour the stock in and let the vegetables simmer in it for a couple of minutes for the veggies to soak up the sweetness of the stock in the florets (especially the broccoli!).
6. Remove veggies from pan and leave to cool.
7. Serve warm.

Fruits

She dislikes sour stuff so she didn’t like strawberries at all. Actually even when they were sweet, she still didn’t like it. The same goes for oranges. Rock melon became a hot favourite this month and she could eat like 6 tablespoons of it on top of other fruits till my hubby had to stop me from feeding her more… haha… She ate a bit of persimmon this month but I don’t give her that much of it because it is said that it may cause phlegm.

I hardly get a chance to take a photo of her dinner or lunch properly because usually I don't cook all the dishes at once as they will turn cold by the time she eats all of it. But here's one of the rare days that I prepared the dishes at one go for her dinner:

That's brown rice porridge, broccoli, cauliflower, yellow and purple sweet potato and eggless apple muffins for dinner and dessert.

Did she fnish this that day?

YES!

Must be because it's her new plate (her birthday present from fourth grandaunt)

Subsequent attempts to feed using this plate were less successful...

The 4 day wait rule and "Forbidden" foods in the first year

The 4-day wait rule
One of the most important things to take note of when feeding baby semisolids is the four-day wait rule.

This means that you introduce only 1 new food at a time in small amounts for four days. If your baby has an allergic reaction, you’d know at once what the culprit is. Symptoms typically occur within 24 hours though.

You can start combining foods once baby has consumed those foods without problem.

"Forbidden" foods
Here is a list of "forbidden" foods for the first year. The list is not exhaustive :)

Honey
Nuts
Egg white
Seafood
Citrus foods
Whole grapes (choking hazard)
Chocolate
Cow's milk (as a drink) - unless given the go-ahead by the doctor

When to start feeding semisolids

Well, it’s exciting to start your precious little baby on semisolids and I’m sure just thinking about it gets every mummy raring to go!




One of the most important things before starting to feed the baby semisolids is to first of all decide when to start! :)

Here is a list of cues to watch out for to check if your baby’s indeed ready (http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/readyforsolids.htm):



Loss of tongue-thrust reflex - This allows baby to drink and swallow liquids with ease; with the tongue-thrust reflex still present, baby may simply drink in liquid purees or push the food back out. According to Dr. Jim Sears, in the first four months the tongue thrust reflex protects the infant against choking. When any unusual substance is placed on the tongue, it automatically protrudes outward rather than back. Between four and six months this reflex gradually diminishes, giving the glob of cereal a fighting chance of making it from the tongue to the tummy



Ability to let you know she is full from a "meal" with signs such as turning away from the bottle or breast. This is important so that baby is able to self-regulate the amount of food being eaten. This helps stop baby from accidentally overeating as parents may continue to feed baby thinking that she is still hungry.



Ability to sit up and hold head up unassisted



Interest in your food (we tend to disagree with this one as when a baby reaches the age of 4-6 months, he is interested in putting everything in his mouth.)



Doubling of birth weight



Frequently waking in the middle of the night when a solid sleeping pattern had been established. This may not be the best indicator that your baby is ready for solids. Please keep in mind that a growth spurt will occur between 3-4 months of age, 6-7 months of age and also 9-10 months of age. Baby may also be waking due to an illness or teething.



For Alicia, she was exclusively breastfed till 6 months before I started her on semisolids. Most paediatricians today will recommend that baby starts preferably after 6 months as this is when baby’s digestive system is more developed.

I highly recommend that mummies purchase this book and start reading up about feeding prior to actual feeding. There's loads of information in the book and since it has recipes from 6mths through toddlerhood, it's really a wise investment! The only drawback of this book is probably the lack of pictures. Other than that, it's got tons of recipes! And honestly, there isn't a real need for pictures of the food because I find the instructions on how to prepare the food clear and easy to follow.














Another book to consider is:




Annabel Karmel's famous in the field of baby food so it's really a purchase you can keep in mind!










And if you're more into introducing foods that would suit the Asian palate, you can purchase:

My friend recommended this book to me and I have a copy of this myself. The colours of the photos of the food are invigorating and the (not too complicated) recipes should get you raring to go off to the (super)market to make your purchases and to the kitchen! :)

Tools for feeding

Many mummies tend to think that there are a lot of tools needed to prepare food for baby but really, there aren’t that many things! Here’s the list of what I prepared prior to starting my adventure with Alicia:


• baby cubes (for freezing puree)
This is something that I shouldn't have bought on hindsight. Freezing puree in icecube trays with cover is a much more viable and economical alternative (I read from a forum that Daiso sells good icecube trays with cover as the cover is tight so it lowers the chances of contamination). Besides, when she started to eat more, these cubes weren't enough anymore. After some time, these cubes became little tupperwares for defrosting icecubes of puree and for storing snacks on the go... pretty expensive for normal tupperware usage... but some people swear by them so it's really up to your own preference. Anyway, after Alicia started to like her veggies cooked in stock, I started to use these cubes to store small amounts of stock so that I can thaw what I need for the day.

You can refer to
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/FreezePage.htm
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/baby-food-freezing-chart.htm and
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/heatandthawhomemadebabyfood.htm
for information about freezing and thawing purees.


• food processor

Regarding the food processor, I must say that it was a mistake to have not simply bought a small blender instead. The food processor isn’t good enough for mincing up the harder food so I always had to do it manually. I didn’t want to use my blender for Alicia’s food as I use my blender for making rempah and I was paranoid that maybe that might contaminate her food… hehe…

Well, so if I could have a chance to go back in time, I’d probably have bought a normal blender.
A highly recommended blender by some mummies is this:
















• Tollyjoy food maker set

This food maker set was a gift from my piano teacher and I must say that it came in really handy when my food processor didn’t quite manage the job as well as I wanted it to. :) This set also includes a plate, bowl and spoon so you don’t need to run out to get a separate set to feed your baby!

And yes, this is all that you need!

Feeding at 11 months

More new foods at 11 months! Alicia tried the following:

• Heinz beef casserole
• Heinz Creamy pasta and tuna mornay
• Only’s lamb and mediterranean vegetables
• French toast
• Scrambled egg yolk with breast milk

• Organic Green Lentils
• Earth’s Best instant oatmeal

• Organic Baby Oats
• Healthy Times Teddy Puffs
• Petit Miam yogurt

• Pasta with vegetables, meat and tomato sauce
• Baked macaroni with chicken, cheese and vegetables
• Meat and Vegetable stock
• Eggless apple muffins

Note: Read on for some recipes and tips regarding the above foods


I started to give Alicia some bottled food which contains meat this month because she started rejecting pork and chicken which she used to eat. I was concerned that she was not getting her usual dose of protein and iron from the meat so I decided to let her try a little beef and lamb. She loved the beef and lamb but simply hated the tuna. Well, I tasted all of it and felt the same way too. I think the capsicum taste in the tuna bottle was too strong and made it taste strange. She probably felt that way too. Hahaha…

Cereals

Since the fussiness began in the 9th month, she had not agreed to eat any cereal up to this point. To try to get her back on eating some cereal, I tried out Earth’s Best instant oatmeal. It has a cute Elmo on the packaging and smells like popcorn. I must admit that this is rather high in sugar but I thought giving her a little bit of sugar when she’s almost one shouldn’t be too much of an issue. In any case, she loved it though she took the first mouth warily. This oatmeal became a trusty companion when we needed to go out in a hurry and had no time to feed her at home because the oatmeal was instant and in my opinion, despite the sugar content, still nutritious.

Alicia's fond of this cereal in this month!

She tried organic baby oats this month too because I thought since she's begun to accept cereal again I could try to get her back on eating healthily (instead of relying on the high sugar instant oatmeal). I cooked the oatmeal and mixed it with mango puree and mango cubes when I first introduced it to her. She ate most of it and she ate it again the next day and a few more times before she decided she'd had enough of baby oats. Fortunately, I made eggless apple muffins (see below) for her using the baby oats so at least it wasn't wasted. Then again, of course I could eat it myself... but I'm not too fond of oats and unless I've got a sudden craving for oats (which is really rare), I think I'd give them a pass...

Here're a couple of pictures of the oats which my friend requested me to upload:

Ok, I know the photos aren't very clear coz I'm using my HTC phone to take the pictures at night...

I simply love Healthy Times’ products. It seems that Alicia feels that way about it too. The apple cinnamon Teddy Puffs are super versatile – finger food for babies or cereal for toddlers. And the best part about it is that it is made of whole grain so I can give this to her without feeling guilty that I’m feeding her snacks. At this point, I’m giving her the teddies as finger food, especially when we’re out and she needs to be occupied with something.

Alicia's favourite snack (for now)

French toast and scrambled egg
I cooked both the dishes with my breast milk because I refuse to introduce any other type of milk to Alicia for fear that she may reject my milk after that. I checked with the lactation consultant if it’s ok to cook with other types of milk and she encouraged me to stick to breast milk. After all, isn’t breast milk the best milk in the world? Well, we can’t argue with such logic so breast milk was used in cooking. =)

She took some of the French toast, say about a third of a slice of bread, before she rejected it. She didn’t seem keen on it so I only cooked it a couple of times for her.

I thought that perhaps it would be nice to offer egg to her in a different form instead of the usual hard-boiled yolk. But my fussy little one didn’t appreciate my good intentions and spat out the scrambled egg in disgust. Oh well… she’s not called ‘The Fussy One’ for nothing…

Organic Green Lentils
Ok, I gave this to her a bit earlier on but I think it was only once and she didn't like it so I stopped adding this into her porridge. Well, lentils are very nutritious and I'm glad she started to eat them this month! I'd just cook it together with the rice grains and stock in the slow cooker. By the time the porridge's done, the lentils would be nice and soft. But I must say that lentil brown rice porridge on its own doesn't look quite appetitising... but as usual, for Alicia, porridge is just the staple and she has other side dishes to spice up the look of her food!


Petit Miam Yogurt
I introduced Petit Miam yogurt this month because I thought that since she was almost 1, it wouldn’t hurt to give her yogurt with a little added sugar. She simply detested Baby Yoplait (which was introduced to her last month), and I can totally understand why… it’s super sour and I really take my hat off to babies that can accept such yogurt. You can understand how Alicia appreciated Petit Miam’s yogurt after tasting Baby Yoplait. She wolfed down the whole tub of yogurt (60ml) after her food happily and eagerly (of course it took her awhile to get accustomed to eating cold food). But this was again short-lived. It wasn’t long before we started throwing away tubs of yogurt that she (and I) refused to eat…

Pasta with vegetables, meat and tomato sauce
This dish is pretty simple to make.
For this dish, I used alphabet pasta with Hunt’s No-Salt added Tomato sauce. Here’s the recipe (again, the quantity’s up to your discretion):
Ingredients

• Alphabet pasta
• A bit of onion
• Minced chicken/ pork/ beef (your choice)
• Peas
• Diced carrots (add any other vegetables that you wish to)
• Hunt’s No-Salt Tomato sauce (bought it at Cold Storage)
• McCormick's All-Purpose Herbs (unsalted)

Method

1. Cook the alphabet pasta till it’s soft, drain and set aside (not for too long!)
2. Steam the peas and carrots till tender
3. Sauté the onion in a bit of olive oil, add the meat and cook thoroughly
4. Mix in the peas and carrots and sauté a little more
5. Pour in the tomato sauce and cook till the mixture bubbles
6. Pour the ingredients and the sauce into the pasta and mix well
7. Add a dash of all-purpose herbs (unsalted)
8. Cool and serve

You must be wondering why I always add peas and carrots into her food… That’s because she hardly wants to eat these vegetables on their own so I have to hide it in her food somehow… :)

Baked Macaroni with Chicken, Cheese and Vegetables
Here's the recipe for this dish (the quantity of each ingredient is omitted as I can't really remember how much of each item I put in - just do as you deem fit):

Ingredients

• Peas
• Diced carrots
• Chicken fillet
• Alphabet pasta
• Shredded mozzarella/ parmesan cheese
• Breast milk (if breast milk is not available, you can use other types of milk)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180degC
2. Steam the peas and carrots till they are tender
3. Steam/ pan-fry the chicken the puree it
4. Cook the pasta till soft, drain and set aside (not for too long though!)
5. Add some cheese to the cooked pasta and mix well
6. Heat the milk over medium heat until hot then add the milk to the pasta and hceese mixture. Simmer over low heat, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens
7. Add the peas, carrots and chicken to the pasta and cheese. Mix well.
8. Pour the mixture into a baking dish. Sprinkle some cheese over the top and bake for 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
9. Cool and serve

Alicia was quite ok with this dish but I think I didn't really try this again as it took quite long to prepare. Maybe I will try again when I'm in the mood...

Meat and Vegetable Stock
Ingredients

• 1 soup pot of water
• 2 chicken breast bones (washed clean, fat removed)
• About 6-7 pieces of pork ribs (more if you like; washed clean, fat removed)
• 2 corn cobs
• 1-2 carrots (depending on the size of the carrot)
• 2-3 pieces of garlic (to 'remove' the smell of the meat)

Method

1. Put the chicken bones and pork ribs in a small pot of water (just enough to cover them). After the water starts boiling, turn off the fire. This is to remove the dirt and possibly some blood from the meat and bones. Remove the chicken and pork from the water and discard the water.
2. Clean the corn and chop it into a few pieces.
3. Peel the carrot(s) and cut into cubes.
4. Put in all the ingredients into a fresh batch of water in a deep soup pot.
5. Once the soup starts to boil, you can turn down the fire and simmer for at least 2 hours. Normally I will simmer till I have about half a pot of soup left so that the stock is sweeter. The longer duration you boil your stock, the sweeter it will be.
6. Let the stock cool and portion into small servings to be frozen for future use.

Eggless Apple Muffins
Another new item I tried this month was eggless apple muffins. This recipe's available in the Super Baby Food book by Ruth Yaron and due to copyright reasons I will not reproduce it here. But here's a picture of the book:

This book is a comprehensive guide to feeding baby and is useful for first-time mummies who want their little ones to grow up eating right! It has recipes from 6 months to toddlerhood. A wonderful investment. 

I highly recommend that mummies purchase this book and start reading up about feeding prior to actual feeding. There's loads of information in the book and since it has recipes from 6mths through toddlerhood, it's really a wise investment! The only drawback of this book is probably the lack of pictures. Other than that, it's got tons of recipes! And honestly, there isn't a real need for pictures of the food because I find the instructions on how to prepare the food clear and easy to follow.

Here are some pictures and a video of Alicia eating the muffin. Through this experience, she learned to take bite-sized pieces of food instead of stuffing the whole muffin into her mouth!

Look at how smug she is! haha...

Taking food apart is part of the process of learning the art of self-feeding

Ok great, finally got a shot of her putting the muffin into her mouth to bite!

Feeding at 10 months

At 10 months, things picked up again. After her first 2 teeth appeared, she started to eat better. She began to like porridge again and agreed to eat from the spoon. Her favourite was sweet potato porridge. The new foods I introduced her to this month were:

• Chicken
• Cheese
• Red date
• Short-grain rice
• Cherry tomatoes
• Kiwi (green and golden)
• Dragonfruit
• Yogurt (Baby Yoplait)

Note: Read on for some recipes and tips regarding the above foods.

Basic Chicken Puree

• Pan-fry chicken in a non-stick pan for 1-2min per side. Avoid browning the chicken otherwise it will be too hard to puree.

• After cooking chicken thoroughly, add a little water or stock for easier blending.


The first time I introduced chicken puree to her, I placed a tiny amount on the spoon instead of mixing it into the porridge just in case she hated it (and the porridge would have to be thrown away). She came back for a second helping so I gathered that she liked it and I mixed it into the porridge. From then on, I gave her a mix of pork and chicken porridge.

Red date pork porridge

• Soak 1-2 red dates for at least an hour

• Cook the red dates together with the rice grains and stock in the slow cooker

• 15min before serving the porridge, mix the minced pork with some warm water (so that it doesn’t clump up in the porridge which will cause choking) then pour the mixture into the slow cooker.

• Stir the porridge and leave to cook for 15 minutes.

• Add in cooked vegetables into the porridge before serving (optional)

Don’t serve red date porridge too often as the taste is quite strong and some say that this may spoil baby’s taste buds. In any case, Alicia didn’t find red date porridge all that appealing so after awhile I just stuck to cooking porridge using stock. Just for info, the goodness of red dates: they nourish the stomach and spleen and strengthen the heart and lungs. And to reduce the heatiness, you can remove the seed from the red date.


Cheese
I introduced cheese in small amounts to her in this month. I let her have some Emmi cheese (which my niece was having at that moment) and she took a few mouths of it before turning away. I also tried giving her cheese with potato cubes so that the potatoes were tastier. Again, she only took a few mouths and that was it. I gather that she needs more time to get used to the taste of cheese…

French beans… AGAIN!
In this month, I started adding finely chopped French beans into her porridge. Finally, I could give her French beans without pureeing it… =)

Cherry tomatoes
I added cherry tomatoes to her porridge and she didn’t really like it. I sautéed the tomatoes in a bit of olive oil and added minced meat into it – much like our adults’ spaghetti sauce. I placed this combination into the macaroni shells and on the first day that she had it, she simply loved it. Subsequent days when I tried the same thing with her, it became a battle of wills (I try not to let it come to that state but sometimes it just happens – well, I’m still learning every day!)

More new fruits: Kiwi and Dragonfruit
As long as the fruit is sweet, my picky little eater will eat it – this holds true at least for this month. My little fruit baby is starting to not like papaya though it used to be her favourite fruit! How their tastes change!

Baby Yoplait (Yogurt)
She simply detested this! After feeding her the first mouth and tasting it for ourselves, we agreed that it was only human to detest the yogurt. It was sour and gross and it was little wonder that The Fussy One refused it...

Mikayla's birthday party

Mikayla's birthday party's the first of many kiddy parties Alicia will attend. She was visibly excited by the atmosphere - there were plenty of balloons and loud music at Masala Art and lots of people who simply loved her. Here are some of the photos taken by my friends, Franklin and Yi Kai:

Hubby with Alicia when we just arrived at Masala Art - she still looks blur.. yet to warm up

Making friends

Simply fascinated by balloons!

Feeding at 9 months

Feeding Alicia became a nightmare in the 9th month. Somehow, when she turned 9 months old, she decided that it was time to be a fussy eater. I have no idea what triggered that off but from then on, it’s been a nightmare to feed her. My little girl who used to love food given by mummy now suddenly transformed into the pickiest, fussiest eater on planet Earth. The porridge which she took only 15 minutes to finish in the past suddenly became the most detestable food to her. She rejected everything that I fed via spoon so porridge and cereal became impossible to feed. That meant that I had to figure out how to get food into that little mouth… so I tried these foods (carbo):

• Potato cubes and mashed potato
• Slices of sweet potato
• Mee sua
• Wholemeal bread (Sunshine)
• Macaroni shells (small)
• Whole wheat pancake
• Tofu

From the above list, she took well to bread, pancake and macaroni shells. Finally, I thought… something that she agrees to eat.

Of allergies and tofu…
Tofu was served with mango cubes and mango puree. It looked like tau huey with mango sauce and cubes, looked pretty tantalising and my fussy eater took a little of it. Unfortunately, Alicia was allergic to soy – something we found out two days later when she started developing hives. Poor little darling… but fortunately, I don’t think she felt any itch unlike adults for she behaved normally and wasn’t fussier than usual. We brought her to the doctor and she was given some medicine for the hives to clear. I was later advised by a nutritionist that the next time I can introduce soy products to her is when she’s 15 months, so those who have babies with soy allergy do take note...

The recipe for whole wheat pancake can be obtained from First Foods by Anna Jacob, Pauline Chan, Samantha Thiessen, Janie Chua and Wong Yuefen and for copyright reasons I will not publish it in my blog. It's an interesting book and has recipes for the Asian palate as it is written by Asians.

For Alicia, I actually adapted their recipe to make my own pancakes. Instead of just flour in the batter, I added vegetable and even meat puree into the batter! And when I served the pancake, I would serve it with some fruits like applesauce or mango cubes. Voila! A complete meal for the fussy little one.

Macaroni Shells
For macaroni shells, I would cook the shells till they were very soft instead of al dente. Then I’d fill up the shell with some fruit puree (applesauce/ banana) or mango/ papaya cubes. Vegetable puree wasn’t used because I thought the taste of the vegetables might be too overwhelming and she may not like it.

Snacks
I introduced Bellamy’s organic toothie pegs to her at this time and also Gerber’s stars. She really loved the stars and quickly mastered the art of self-feeding. =)

I find this really nice and fragrant!

Here's a picture of the packaging of the rusks:

Check out my little darling eating her rusk!

Look at her naughty face!

She kept moving... changing the rusk from one hand to the other.. so difficult to get a steady shot!

Here she is, looking a bit blur and slightly more demure and less cheeky than usual... :D

Other things she ate were steamed cod with wolfberries (which I had to feed by hand) – messy, but it’s worth the mess to get some nutrients to her! I tried various ways of serving the fish - steamed cod with wolfberries, steamed cod with sweet potato puree topped with wolfberries, pan-fried cod with a drizzle of orange juice... in the end she loved her cod with wolfberries best.

And so the days passed, with feeding finger foods as the only way of getting any food into her little tummy…

Feeding at 8 months

When Alicia turned 8 months, I decided to introduce some new foods to her:

• Healthy Times Mixed Grain Cereal

• Broccoli (only the florets; the stalk gives rise to gas in tummy)
• Cauliflower
• French beans
• Spinach (only the leaves, make sure it’s washed properly and try to buy organic ones because of the large surface area of leaves)
• Minced pork
• Porridge cooked with vegetable (and fruit) stock
Note: Read on for some recipes and pointers

Vegetables
I had put off giving her broccoli and cauliflower earlier because these vegetables are harder to digest and may cause discomfort to baby. Pureeing these vegetables was very, very hard work. The food processor I bought for preparing food for Alicia was not very good at pureeing ‘harder’ food like broccoli, cauliflower or French beans. So I had to do it manually by pushing them through the sieve. I remember that I almost had blisters on my hand after spending an hour pureeing a batch of French beans. That was the first and last time I pureed French beans for her. I decided that French beans could wait till she could chew them properly although beans are really nutritious.

For spinach, one of the most important things to take note of when feeding spinach is NOT to use the water in which the spinach was cooked in to puree it. Always use a fresh batch of water to puree it. This is especially so for younger babies as nitrates may be an issue.


Egg yolk revisited
Some time during the 8th month, I decided to try a new way of feeding her egg yolk coz she simply detested it when I mashed it into her cereal. See her pathetic look after fighting with me over her meal:

She looks like a super-hero with the bib acting as a cape... hahaha...

I decided that I’d just feed her the hard-boiled egg yolk as it is instead of mashing it up and boy was that a hit with her! So sometimes when baby rejects a certain food, try cooking it and feeding it in another way and the baby might just accept it! And so it was, an egg yolk a day was a critical part of the daily menu from then on.

Minced Pork (and chicken)
Try to buy pork fillet and do the mincing at home on your own instead of buying minced pork over the counter. This is because the pork used may be scrap meat and hence lower in nutrients and hence not suitable for our precious little ones. [The same goes for minced chicken (opt for chicken fillet and mince it at home)]. Also, you get the wash the pork really clean before mincing it.

Porridge
And porridge came into the picture in this month. I tried several times before I figured out how she liked it to be served. She liked the porridge when I cooked the grains in stock rather than water.

Vegetable (and fruit) stock

Ingredients
• 1 soup pot of water
• 2 corn cobs (IMPT note: some babies are allergic to corn, so if baby develops any allergic symptoms, stop giving the stock to the baby)
• As many apples as you like (skin and seeds removed, chopped into pieces: you can leave the skin on if you bought organic apples and washed them really really thoroughly. Personally, I wouldn't risk it so I always remove the skin although it is said that the skin adds nutrients to the stock)
• Carrots (only suitable for babies above 8 months due to nitrates)

Method:
Boil on high heat till the water boils then simmer over low heat for 2 hours. Sieve the ingredients from the soup and pack the stock into small portions to be frozen.

Directions for cooking porridge using the slow cooker:
• Wash 1 tablespoon (15ml) of rice grains thoroughly to remove dirt
• Pour in three ladles of stock (about 150ml) and the rice grains into the slow cooker
• Warm the stock and grains on the stovetop till the stock is boiling hot before placing the slow cooker back to cook
• Leave it to cook for at least 2 hours. After 2 hours, check the consistency of the porridge in case the porridge becomes too thick and dry. (If it does become too dry, add some hot water to it and let it cook for a little while.)

By this time, Alicia was having 3 meals:
• Porridge (cooked with stock) with cod and at least 1 type of vegetable (comes up to 1 ricebowl of food) followed by fruit
• cooked minced pork with sweet potato and cereal (and breast milk) (1 baby bowl)
• 2 types of vegetables (mixed with breast milk) with cereal (optional) followed by fruit
• Egg yolk as a small snack

Up to this point, it seemed that she loved eating for she ate everything that I gave her happily… but my happiness was short-lived...

Feeding at 7 months

Besides feeding the usual fare of the food that she’d been eating when she was 6 months, I started her on some new foods when she was 7 months old…
• Peas
• Applesauce (steamed apple) (well, not exactly a new food but this went down much better with her compared to raw apples because it’s sweeter)
• Cod (remember to get the fishmonger to sell you only the tail portion for it contains the least bones, get him to debone and deskin it and of course, remember to mention that it’s for cooking for baby)
• Brown rice gruel (Moon Rabbit Si Shen Brown Rice Powder) – she ate some of it but didn’t really like it
• Baby Bites

This is the full range but we started her with the original flavour first before proceeding to chicken flavour and lastly the carrot one...

Pea puree
Remove shells from frozen (or fresh if you wish) peas.
Steam for 5-7 minutes.
Puree the peas.

Pea puree freezes well.

I usually use Watties' extra sweet frozen baby peas when feeding Alicia peas.

Applesauce
Cut apple into pieces and remove the core. Keep the skin intact for nutrients retention.
Steam the apple for at 20-30 minutes. It is ready when the flesh is easily scooped out from the skin.

I watched a programme about cooking and this is the most recommended way of arranging the apples for steaming

Remove the flesh from the skin.
Puree the apple flesh.

Applesauce freezes well.

Cod
She liked the cod (I’d just steam it and serve it plain)… oh well, she liked it better than threadfin though I wouldn’t say that she loved cod. From then onwards, she has been eating cod every day till today and I’ve been slowly increasing the amount of cod she takes a day. It’s pretty expensive but I feel that it’s essential for my little one…

About allergies and such, some literature also state that fish should only be introduced after 10 months but from my own observation, Asians tend to introduce fish much sooner, almost as soon as the baby starts on semi-solids. My take on this is that as long as you start with a fish with low-mercury levels, it should be fine for the baby. I have also come across comments that cod is too oily and hence difficult to digest. Personally, I think it’s ok to just give the baby a little to try and see if there are any real problems. If it is true that the baby does have difficulties digesting the fish or if the baby detests the fish because it is too oily, then just switch to another type. There is really no need to strike cod off your list of fishes to introduce to your baby immediately.

Egg yolk
Oh, and at 7 months, she still didn’t quite like egg yolk. Anyway about egg yolks, some sources state that egg yolks should only be introduced after 9 months in case of allergies but the literature I worked with at that point in time (a pamphlet from the polyclinic handed to me by the paediatrician at KKH) said that egg yolks can be introduced at 6 months of age. The kiasu mummy that I am followed closely to the advice and fortunately, Alicia didn’t have any allergies… :)

Feeding at 6 months - Alicia's first foods!

Just thought that I’d share what I did for Alicia when she started eating semi-solids at about 6 months old. It seems as if I have only just started but looking at the range of food that she can eat these days, I’d say that she has come a long way in her adventure with food.

A summary of the foods that she tasted this month (read on for more details):

• Healthy Times Barley Cereal
• Healthy Times Oatmeal Cereal
• Healthy Times Brown Rice Cereal
• pumpkin
• sweet potato (orange)
• carrot
• banana
• avocado
• apple
• papaya
• egg yolk
• porridge
• threadfin (ngoh hee)

Her first taste of food other than mummy’s milk was Heinz Rice Cereal (mixed with mummy's milk) at about 6 months. She was alright with it and even wanted to help to feed herself by holding the spoon. After eating some of it, I decided to let her try other cereals (following the 4-day wait rule of course):
• Healthy Times Barley Cereal

• Healthy Times Oatmeal Cereal and

• Healthy Times Brown Rice Cereal.

This range of cereals is suitable for babies 6 months and older and I’d really recommend the Healthy Times cereal as it is not only tasty and organic, it has no added sugars (perfect for a young baby). Of this range, Alicia liked the oatmeal best and indeed I’d say that she has good taste as the oatmeal cereal smelt the most fragrant! Well, it’s a pity that we didn’t take any pictures of her when we fed her her first semi-solid meal (but I think we did take a video if I’m not wrong) but here’s a picture of her in her bumbo seat for the first time after we brought it back from Takashimaya:

After the four-day wait to check if Alicia was allergic to the cereal, we proceeded with introducing orange vegetables:
• pumpkin
• sweet potato and
• carrot (waiting for at least 4 days before introducing a new food).

She didn’t quite like the pumpkin, was ok with carrot and simply LOVED sweet potato. That’s just like mummy!

I notice that sometimes the vegetables may contain some fibers so I actually prefer to push the vegetables through the sieve to 'catch' those bits of fiber which could cause choking.
Other foods that we tried before she turned 7 months are:
• egg yolk
• porridge and
• threadfin (ngoh hee).

She didn’t like the porridge or threadfin, so we gave them a pass and just gave her iron-fortified cereal mixed with one of the orange vegetables.

At 6 months, we tried giving her
• banana,
• papaya,
• avocado (hated it)
• apple.

Of these, her favourite was papaya, and it remained so for quite a few months – and she became affectionately known as the “papaya freak” within the family for she’d end off her meal with papaya puree every day. Other fruits just didn’t quite appeal to her. Well, as you have probably expected, feeding her so many foods high in beta-carotene resulted in her taking on an orange hue, a medical condition known as Carotenemia. It’s really nothing dangerous although it sounds so frightening and honestly, having people nagging and telling me that my alicia’s turned ORANGE was really quite annoying and irritating. They’d sound as if it was terribly serious and make it out to be as if I was overdosing my daughter with Vitamin A. People should read up on facts before they comment: Vitamin A may be dangerous and even lethal when too much of it is taken in the form of a vitamin supplement BUT natural Vitamin A, such as that which beta-carotene converts to, is harmless and is indeed very beneficial for promoting good vision and eye development as well as helping sustain healthy growth and development! That said, I did try to cut down a bit on the orange vegetables and fruits…

Musings about World Breastfeeding Week and breastfeeding

How fast time flies. World Breastfeeding Week 2009 (1-7 August) has just passed. I remember last year's WBW: hubby and I brought our precious little darling Alicia to Kandang Kerbau Hospital (KKH) for a free baby massage lesson, specially organised for breastfeeding mothers. Back then, she was just a month old, and was still trying to master the latch.

Looking back at my breastfeeding journey, I recall how I almost gave up breastfeeding because of the problems I faced in the first month: very sore and cracked nipples (I could barely recognise them!), blocked milk ducts, and blistered nipples after Alicia bit them (more than once) during the 'latching wars'. If you think having blistered nipples are bad, having the lactation consultant clear my blocked ducts was far worse. It was definitely one of the most excruciatingly painful experiences of my life, comparable to labour pains.

Breastfeeding in the first month was terribly painful and tiring. I had to pump every 2 – 2½hours for 30minutes (because Alicia couldn’t latch well in the first month), bottle feed her, then wait for her to settle into sleep and hold her up for awhile just in case she regurgitates everything out, wash and sterilise the pump and bottle … and this cycle just repeats throughout the day. I hardly got a two-hour stretch of sleep and was literally a walking zombie. I always looked forward to the weekends (I still do!), when my hubby would help with the night feed after I pump milk so that I could get that little bit more rest. The fatigue was killing me and with the very painful nipples I had to tolerate 24/7 (they hurt just by being in contact with the air, not even fabric!), I really felt like giving up breastfeeding. This wasn’t what I thought breastfeeding was supposed to be. Nobody said that it’d be so painful and tiring. Everyone only said how good breast milk is and how it seemed so natural to just place baby at the breast and voila, the baby knows how to nurse.

I was so tempted to give up breastfeeding because the pain was really getting to me. I tried alternating between formula milk and breast milk for a few times to let my nipples heal and to monitor how Alicia took to formula. In the end, she didn’t take well to formula milk and always regurgitated most of it out. Even then, I was still in two minds about whether or not to make the switch. Eventually, it was the guilt of giving up breastfeeding that kept me on the course: for that few days that I pondered over the matter, I cried uncontrollably whenever I picked Alicia up, thinking what a terrible mother I was to even think about giving up the best milk in the world for her. I could never do such a thing to my daughter. One day, I just decided that I would persevere no matter how difficult it was going to be. I really couldn’t imagine how much worse things could get anyway. There has been no looking back since I made that decision. Now at 13 months, she's doing acrobatic nursing and is able to indicate that she wants to nurse. I love breastfeeding and I’m so glad that I didn’t give up.

Look at how contented she looks after nursing!

Alicia in the midst of nursing

It is only those who managed to overcome the initial problems of breastfeeding who can truly understand and empathise with me. Those who have had a smooth-sailing breastfeeding journey and those who have never breastfed before should avoid commenting on whether or not it is right for a mother faced with such difficulties to give up breastfeeding. Whenever I get someone asking whether they should stop breastfeeding because of the initial hiccups, I would share my story, hoping that they would understand (but not feel pressurised) that there is light at the end of the tunnel - only if they walk far along enough to find it.