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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Introducing Solids

Quite a controversial topic so I have found, but one I'm not afraid to talk about here.

When to introduce solids. It's always been something that parents have been told should NOT happen before the baby is 6 months old. However, Harry (our very hungry 4-month old baby, who will not sleep through the night and demands milk 3 hourly, even at night) urged me to investigate the reasons for this further.

We are told that the World Health Organisation carried out research which proved babies digestive systems were not ready to receive solids any earlier than 6 months old. This is something which is backed by the UK Government and is the message which filters down to us via our Health Visitors.

However, Dr Gillian Harris, a clinical psychologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital who also lectures at Birmingham University, says that such guidelines are "based on no scientific evidence whatsoever". She claims that they are derived from WHO studies in developing countries and are simply not applicable in the UK.

“We have bigger babies who are growing much faster,” she says. “I don’t know a single health professional in this country who agrees with the Department of Health's suggestion that mothers should breast-feed exclusively for six months, and research shows that only 2 per cent of women manage it.” She adds that “there is no reasoning in terms of allergy prevention and no reasoning in terms of health”.

Annabel Karmel, the baby food guru, agrees. “There is a lot of confusion over when to introduce solids to your baby,” she says. “Many parents carry on giving fruit and vegetable purees for far too long, leaving it too late to introduce lumpy food. This makes the transition to family food difficult and increases the propensity for babies to be fussy eaters."

With this new-found information, I dropped in to see my Health Visitor at my local GP to get some more advice and suggestions with what to do with 'Hungry Harry'.

I was surprised to hear that she agreed with the view of Dr Gillian Harris above and added that as a direct result of the WHO's and Government's advice, Health Visitors were finding there were a large number of undernourished babies in the UK. Babies were crying out to fed more and parents were so concerned about causing actual bodily harm to their babies, they ignored the cries of their unhappy babies and just became stressed, worn-out parents, eventually going to their Health Visitors pleading for help.

In Harriet's case, my Health Visitor advised me to introduce baby rice and pureed vegetables on the day she turned 4 months old. Once fully introduced to vegetables, I could then progress onto pureed fruit.

I can't tell you what a relief it was to hear this advice and since introducing solids on 18th January 2010, Harry is less demanding and is sleeping for a lot longer through the night. For us, it was definitely the right advice.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Synchronised Poohing

As a parent, your bowels really do take second place in a household of nappy-wearing ankle-biters.

With both kids ready to go out the front door, I stupidly decided to have a last-minute no. 2.

However, I never even made it near the bathroom.

Drew & Harry must have read my mind.


First, I could hear Harry filling her nappy in her usual 'parpy' way and whilst changing her nappy and getting the contents out from under my fingernails, Drew had gone unusually quiet and left the room, only to return to advise me there was a pooh-pooh in her nappy. Great! I then chased Drew round the house as changing her nappy has become a game of cat and mouse. Having caught her hiding behind the coats, I changed her nappy. Then looked at the clock.

Too late for my pooh-pooh!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Harriet Hartell - Giggler Extraordinaire!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Drew Hartell - 2nd Birthday 2009

Just shows you doesn't it...time DOES move quicker the older you get.

Drew turned 2 years old on 8th Nov 2009 (last year now!).

If you've been reading my BLOG recently, you'll know November was 'November Nightmare' as both rugrats were ill, so her birthday was a bit of a forced affair.

We threw a party at our local soft play centre with all her friends there, but little Drew was tired and grumpy
through most of it. I wasn't so sure she would be aware what was going on anyway at such a young age, but at the point she sat down next to her giant pink number two (for those of you with the same brain as me, let me assure you I do not mean that Drew magicially produced a pink coloured bowel movement - see photo evidence below), and she saw all the party food, the balloons, the presents and her 'hot air balloon' birthday cake with candles, you could see by her face, she KNEW it wasn't just a normal get together. All eyes were on her.


I think the
icing on the cake for Drew was having 'Happy Birthday' sung to her and she could see we were all singing to her...she looked so embarrased and excited at the same time. I will remember that face forever.
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