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I need to start with a disclaimer.
CONSULT YOUR CHILD'S DOCTOR BEFORE TRYING THIS. CARTER'S STORY MAY BE SIMILAR TO YOUR BABY'S STORY, BUT EVERY CHILD WILL HAVE DIFFERENT REACTIONS TO THINGS AND IT'S IMPORTANT TO SPEAK WITH A HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL FIRST. THIS IS JUST WHAT HAS HELPED US.
ALSO, NOT A PAID POST BY NUTRIBULLET 😂
Carter came home on mixed feeds.
I breastfed, gave him 20ml of rice cereal in a syringe, and then gave him a formula top-up.
At this stage, Carter hadn't formed an allergy to Cow's milk, so he was on normal formula and thickener.
I've talked about this before, but we began giving Carter the rice cereal so that we could remove the thickener from his bottles.
To be effective, we had to put a LOT of thickener in his bottles. By the time we got to the last half of the bottle, it had turned into a gel-like consistency and Carter couldn't suck it through the teat. It was driving me insane!
As we started giving Carter the rice cereal with each feed, we noticed, within a week, that his reflux had almost completely subsided.
After talking with Carter's paediatrician, we came up with a plan to feed Carter full meals of pureed fruits and vegetables.
Carter was 18 weeks old when he started on solids - 8 weeks corrected!
It started with a couple of tablespoons of pureed fruit, taking about 45 minutes to syringe feed it to our tiny bubby who was still getting used to swallowing.
There are certainly risks involved with starting your baby on solids too early. Apart from the obvious choking hazard, your baby can also aspirate their food if they haven't yet got the hang of swallowing it, sending it down the wrong 'pipe' and into their lungs. It can also cause issues for their bowels and some research has shown that introducing some foods too early could possibly result in the onset of allergies later in life.
We knew all this. We researched it. We spoke to medical professionals. We already had two other children.
But the benefit of introducing solids early, far outweighed the possible side effects.
I say 'possible' because, that's all they were.. they were things that MAY happen. Whereas, having Carter's reflux completely subside was an absolute definitive. For us, it was better than having him guzzle all the medication he was on, which had their own horrible side effects - he was on medication to help manage the side effects of his medication.
Moving forward a few months and Carter was taken off ALL medication. His reflux was still causing issues, but he could lay on his back for long periods of time - something he was never able to do before without having breathing issues (caused by his reflux). Now, at nine months old, Carter is 7kg; still well under the 'average' weight of a baby his age. He doesn't even make it into the third percentile - Yep, if you had 99 other 9-month-old babies, Carter would be the smallest.
This is partly reflux related and partly 'prem baby' related.
So, I tried something out..
I started adding rice cereal to Carter's meals.
Let me explain my thought process.
Carter wasn't gaining weight well with just a couple of tablespoons of pureed vegetables and his bottles. Because he was so underweight, each time he became unwell, his feeds would go backwards and his weight would suffer even more, causing other issues.
So, like with puppies, I added a 'filler' to Carter's food.
What we do is purchase the steam packs of frozen vegetables that can then be microwaved to cook.
I'm all for fresh fruit and veg, but I'm not about to tell you we use that all the time because I'd be talking out my butt.
Here's the thing, three kids, homeschooling, our photography business and laziness are all key factors in our choice to use these microwave steam packs. Literally two and a bit minutes in the microwave and they're done - and I didn't have to wash a saucepan.
After it's been in the microwave, I let it cool a few minutes, then throw it in the Nutribullet cup with cold water. If it's too hot when you whizz it up, it creates a really strong suction and it's an a**hole to unscrew! Hence, the cold water. So for those of you following closely, I put enough water in to cover the veggies. ..be sure to screw it on properly 🙄
If you don't have a NutriBullet, you can use your Baby Bullet or Ninja or whatever it is you have.. a normal blender or stick blender should do the job too.
It'll look like this. It's a liquid. You've just made a vegetable smoothie.
I got the idea because you can really throw anything in the Nutribullet! (This is starting to sound like a sponsored post, but I swear it isn't!)
We were having smoothies one morning and saying how it's probably the most nutrients our 3-year-old son gets. I thought 'it'd be perfect if we could give these to Carter! But it wasn't going to help him gain the weight he needed to gain.
So I decided to add the rice cereal.
I add enough to make the finished product thick and lumpy (you'll see).
It's something that you can play around with and alter as bub grows and that gag reflex isn't so.. 'gaggy'? - If bub is gagging with every spoonful, it's too lumpy for them. They'll let you know when they're ready.
This is how it looks when I'm done mixing it through.
Remember, Carter is 9-months-old (6-and-a-half corrected). When we began doing his food like this, it was MUCH smoother.
If you want it smoother, you would add less rice cereal. I'd stay away from adding too much rice cereal and then trying to fix it by adding water (or milk, formula, EBM etc) because you end up feeding more rice cereal than vegetables.. the idea is that you just want to add a little bit of a filler.. not entire meals.
Then all I do is spoon them into these jars I bought (I mean, I sent John to buy) from Big W.
One lot makes two jars.. which is about 4-5 tablespoons; perfect for the amount of food Carter has per feed.
You can quite easily make different flavours with the same idea.
If I'm doing a berry one though, I add a little squeeze of vanilla bean paste.
It's totally personal preference! But I think it tastes much better.
**STRAWBERRIES ARE ONE OF THOSE 'DON'T FEED UNTIL SUCH-AND-SUCH MONTHS'**
Honestly, the guidelines are totally different to what they were with our first child, or even our second.. so we kinda just do what worked for us with the other two. But I also ate soft cheeses and raw fish during my pregnancies.. so.. take from that what you will.
Below are some of the combinations Carter really enjoys..
- Cannellini Beans x Creamed Corn
- Roast Potatoes x Apple Sauce - if you see 'roast' anything, I didn't roast it especially for Carter, it was just what we had for dinner than night!
- Peaches! Just peaches, no liquid.. whizz it up, add some rice cereal.. he LOVES it!!
- Strawberries x Vanilla Bean Paste x Almond Milk
- Butternut Pumpkin x Roast Chicken
- Roast Lamb x Roast Veg x like, a tablespoon of Gravy - our gravy is usually homemade, using the juices from the roast, so there's no dairy issues.
- Baked Beans (tinned) - he was LOOOOVING this, but it made him sick.. turns out, there's dairy in baked beans!
- Quinoa x Grilled Chicken - this was a one time thing and he LOVED it!.. there was no rice cereal in it though.
- Rice Cereal x Cinnamon x Vanilla Bean Paste - this is often what Carter has for breakfast, if he isn't just having mashed banana. No need for a blender, just make a normal meal of Rice Cereal (we add almond milk or formula instead of water) and a little squeeze (about 1/4 teaspoon) of vanilla bean paste and a good sprinkle of cinnamon (about half a teaspoon, if that!). It's delicious! I will actually do "one for you, one for Momma".. no lies.
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