My 1st foods

12 Dec 2010

On this day which Mummy planned for me to start solid food,
she woke up extra early to go to the super market to get organic brown rice for me.
According to the book "Super Baby Food", you should grind and cook your own brown rice porridge so Mummy wanteda get this

Lunderg Organic Brown Rice

to grind/blend at home.

According to the book, it's easy and fast to cook and healthier and cheaper than getting those commercial packet of Baby Cereal.

Then Mummy saw thisHealthy Times Premium Organic Baby Cereal - Brown Rice Cereal for Baby.

One pack of this cost almost the same as one pack of those Lundberg Organic Brown Rice.
Mummy checked their nutrition facts (see below).

Left - Healthy Times Organic Brown Rice Cereal
Right - Lundberg Organic Long Grain Brown Rice
as the serving size on Lundberg is 3x that on Healthy Times', in blue ink is the amount divided by 3 for fair comparison.

It seems the nutrition value of both are comparable.
Of cos, the commercial Healthy Times Baby Brown Rice Cereal has all the vitamins and minerals added so got all those "stuff" at the bottom of the nutrition fact sheet.

Having considered how hopeless she is in the kitchen, Mummy decided to buy the just stir-into-water/milk Healthy Times Baby Cereal instead.

So that was my 1st solid food.

Next up is Healthy Times Wholegrain Oatmeal Cereal for Baby.
Mummy bought this cos it has more potassium and fiber compared to the Brown Rice Cereal.
(See why potassium is important here.)

Other food I've tried so far are
papaya
potato
carrot
sweet potato
and baby biscuits (will talk about that in another post).

My first solid meal

12.12.2010 6 months 4 days old

This is the day I start on solid food.

My korkor helped me put on my bib.

Eagerly waiting to taste solid food.
Organic Brown Rice in this case.

Super Baby Food Tip: use a cup instead of a bowl so that Mummy can hold the bowl cup more easily.
Tip from Jade's Mummy: Beware of Baby grabbing the cup!

Tip from Jade's Mummy: Use a soft tip spoon cos it's gentle on baby's gums.

Super Baby Food tip: Have a wipe-cloth ready. Not for baby to chew on but to wipe baby's mouth, hands, etc.

As you can see, Baby gets messy during mealtime.

Super Baby Food Tip: Give baby a little water after and between meals. Water will help her kidney dilute the more concentrated waste products of solid foods.
Common sense tip: Water helps baby pass motion more easily.

My first solid food experience's been fun though messy.
Appears to Mummy that I will love food like my korkor did, rather, does.


Stock list:
Ikea High Chair with removable tray
Combi soft tip Spoon with Case
Pigeon MagMag Spout Cup

happy boxing day

Happy Boxing Day!

Thanks to every1 for your presents!

Time flies!
This picture was taken on Christmas eve.
I was sick then and left the party early to go home and sleep.
I can't sleep outside that's why.

Super Baby Food

When my korkor was a baby, my mummy never thought of reading up on starting solids for him.
She just did everything intuitively and follow my brother's infant care centre's leading.

This time though, Mummy decided to "start it right" for me by reading

Super Baby Food
by Ruth Yaron

There are a thousand and one books on starting baby on solids, Mummy chose this because
she knows 3 super mummies who feed their 5 babies super baby food and their babies are healthy and smart and love fruits and vegetables.
No prize for guessing whether my korkor love vegetables. haha.

Super Baby Food is mainly a home-made vegetarian diet for babies and toddlers.

"ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING you should know about feeding your baby and toddler from beginning solid foods through age three years. How and when (and what) to start your baby on solid foods, with detailed information on the best and safest high chair, spoons, bibs, and other feeding equipment."
~ Product Description from Amazon.com ~

also check out its contents pages at amazon.

Ruth Yaron also talks about baby's development in Super Baby Food.
Mummy strongly recommend this book to all parents.
Oh. you should start reading this book as early as possible to you know what to expect/do when the time comes.

Available at Books Kinokuniya Singapore.

Infant Care Centres: Questions to ask, n things to look out for

From the stats, it appears that some1 was looking for info on
"Sending breastfed baby to infant care"
on my blog.
Sorry you couldn't find what you need
but hope u come back and see this.

This was written by my Mummy and posted on a forum some 4 years ago in 2006:
in blue are updates this year - 2010, after my breastfed brother has gone thru' infant care.

Hi everybody, After having a bad time at our 1st infant care n having visited a few centres, I came up with a list of questions to ask n things to look out for while hunting for an infant care centre.

In case you dunno, Here's where u can get the list of infant care centres (as well as childcare centres). Can sort by area.
http://www.childcarelink.gov.sg/ccls/home/...areServices.jsp
click the link at the bottom of the page.
You can also take a look at the guidelines for the centres so u know if a centre is "compliance" when visiting.

Questions to ask over the phone:
1. (1st thing to ask) Any vacancies?
2. How many babies n teachers at the moment?
3. What is their recomannded teacher to baby ratio?
(anything worse than 1:3 is crazy not realistic. Zhenghu recommendation is 1:5 (which is ridiculous)
4. What is the maximum capacity? lesser better. the centre may have very few babies but can take in more.

If the answers to the above are not favourable then dun have to visit liao.

If wanta visit, ask if can stay there with baby for a few hours.

Questions to ask when visiting:

For BreastFeeding mums:
1. what is the centre's stand towards breastfed babies/ breastmilk? Any babies there on bm?
The politically correct answer is of cos they support breastfeeding. So you'll have to "dig" deeper.

2. Ask to see the fridge they use to keep breastmilk. It should be dedicated to bm ONLY. that's the guideline set up by MCYS.

3. u probably want baby to continue at the same centre when he goes to childcare. If you want to bf beyond 18 months, Ask them if the childcare side accomodate bf babies. Some don't. e.g. some NTUC.
actually if they don't support breastfeeding beyond 18 months, you more or less know how supportive they are towards breastfeeding.

4. ask how they warm bm.

5. what will they do if baby reject the bottle?
the 1st infant care Jade's brother, Hann, went to, they do nothing. Their stand is baby hungry, he will drink from bottle.
but no loh! it just doesn't work this way.
My stand is, the priority should be to let baby adapt to the place and people.
Then baby will drink from bottle.
I feel that bottle strike is a way of "protest" from baby.
in the 2nd infant care, the one Hann stuck though, they were patient with him when he rejected bottle and spoon-fed him until he eventually took the bottle.

For all:
4. what are the teachers' qualifications. how many of them are trained teachers? (teacher assistants not counted hor.)

5. what's the turnover rate of the teachers?

6. How do they handle new babies esp if they can already recognise people n places n may cry a lot.

7. Do the infants mix w the toddlers/preschoolers? (if yes, more exposed to viruses)

8. look at the bath n sleeping area. Ask how they clean up the sleeping facilities (usually a cot).

9. Look at changing area. how they dispose the diapers. are the soiled diapers exposed?

10. Impt: look at the children. are they happy? are they engaged in activities?

11. Impt: look at the teachers. how they handle the babies, how they feed them. Are the teachers happy, confident. Talk to the teachers.

12. Discipline. ask how the teachers discipline the children. if they don't discipline at all, you may want to think twice.

13. If quite happy with the above, ask for a trial period, though it seems nowadays infant care and childcare centres don't give trials. ask abt the trial charges.
Even if you are sure happy with the place, still ask for a trial period. otherwise, if things don't turn out well and you want baby to leave, you may have to pay for 2 months.

I can sit!

5 months 3 weeks

This is rather overdue.
Finally, I can sit unsupported!
so I didn't lose to my korkor after all. =p

Fan vs Aircon for confinement

not Jade but Jade's Mummy the trained application scientist says...

a friend, who is expecting her baby real soon, post this on her Facebook status:

Mothers out there, any scientific proof that aircon has no negative side-effects during confinement??? I need to win this war very badly! pls help

Fret not, Mummies! Scientist to your rescue!

basically the whole idea is to prevent wind from entering your body during confinement.
Hence, Fan is actually worse than aircon w/o fan.

Aircon
just keeps the air cool.
keep it at no less than 25 deg would be good and don't blow the aircon directly at you though.
If you Don't let the aircon "sweep", and/or keep it at low fan speed, the air in the room is actually quite still.
So, no wind!

Cuba Gallery: Retro fan blowing hair
Originally uploaded by Cuba Gallery - Now on Twitter!

Fan
creates wind which is exactly you want to avoid.
Wind is also known as convection currents which is a type of heat loss,
hence Sweat + fan is the worse combi.
If you are sweaty and you blow the fan at yourself,
the convection currents promoted by the fan will cause the sweat on your skin to evaporate more quickly and as a result, more heat lost from your body.
Even if you have no sweat on ya skin, heat will continually be removed from your body thru' convection if you blow the fan at yourself.

so Jade's Mummy, the trained application scientist (aka engineer), strongly recommends Aircon over fan.
Well... of cos, if you are one of those who can survive in hot hot Singapore without aircon as well as fan, Bravo!

but Jade's Mummy will just die without at least one of those.

Shopping and Delivery

December's the best time to shop for baby stuff!
cos on top of The Great Singapore Sale (GSS), there're Christmas specials all around.

topperIMG_1524
Originally uploaded by alwayscake

but Did you know...

most, if not all, major departmental stores deliver ya shopping to ya place for free if u spend above the minimum sum.

for Takashimaya, it's >$200
and Robinson, it's >$150
check other departmental stores for their min sum for free delivery.

so no more lugging all those heavy shopping!
especially helpful if you're pregnant and/or carrying a baby and shopping alone.


Can't make up the minimum sum?
No prob!
just pick up a few of those 6-packs Pigeon Baby wipes. cost $19+ per.
otherwise, u can get those boxes of 60-piece Pigeon Breast Pad, cost $13.90.
These are the stuff that run out quite fast and they are soooo heavy and/or bulky so it's best u don't have to carry them!

Warning:
If u're in ya 3rd trimester, excessive shopping may cause contractions to start earlier than due.

Happened to my mummy twice!
1st time: Mummy just had her gynae appointment at my brother's 36th weeks. Doc said baby won't be coming out for at least a week. So she went shopping for baby stuff for the rest of the afternoon. Her contractions started that very evening.
2nd time: Mummy went to Robinson sale at my 35th week. She did asked for delivery (no pun intended) but still... I came out 3 days later and just managed to pass the "premature baby" mark.

erm... so according to this logic, it's best for expectant mothers in their 1st trimester to please take note of how long u've been shopping for the day. Rest is important!

Sleeping habits

this is how I sleep - in between two pillows + one bolster above my head, suck thumb and hold hands.

This was at my Ah Gong's house and the soft toy I'm holding hands with belongs to my Xiao Yi.
I usually hug a small pillow at home or just grab the pillow I'm tucked into.

Activities for babies

Many parents wonder what to do with baby.
So here's a list of things you can do with your baby:

Baby Centre's
Let's Play! Weekly activities for your baby's first year

My parents have not been reading this so here's what they usually do with me:

1. read
I love reading.
actually I love eating the book too!

Get those "touch and feel" or peek-a-boo books.
They're great for baby's development.

2. talk
I enjoy talking and learning to make new sounds.
I always try to copy the sounds my parents teach me.
just make sure u're facing baby and hold his attention while you talk to him.

3. Mirror
Sit with baby on your lap, both of you facing the mirror.
Tell point to him and name his body parts.
Sing the song "head and shoulders" and move baby's hands to touch all the parts mentioned.
Make funny faces as you look into the mirror at baby's reflection.

4. action songs
believe it or, at 5 months old, or even earlier, I've been actively worshiping God.
my mummy plays the children's worship CD and lift my arms and body to move to the music.
One of our favourite songs: Bubbling Joy.

better still if you do all the action songs in front of the mirror!
another action song good for this purpose is "if you're happy and you know it"

5. Hang Laundry and Fold clothes
While hanging up the laundry, Mummy will put me in my Bumbo Seat and let me watch her.
As she takes out each garment from the washing machine, she'll show me and tell me its colour.
When folding clothes, mummy gently sweeps the piece of clothing she's going to fold across my face to let me feel its texture.
You can also play peek-a-boo with baby while folding clothes.