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Grab some demitasse spoons. I picked up a 6 pack of them from Ikea for like $2.
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Feb 20, 2013 02:42
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Ben Davis posted:I'd think if something's hot enough to affect the bpa-free plastic or silicone, it wouldn't be fed to an infant anyways. In many cases the BPA in plastics was replaced with Bisphenol-S, which studies are showing is also harmful. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130122191412.htm BPA can be released without even heating things, heating just makes it easier. For example, cans of tomato products and canned soups have BPA that they've absorbed from the can liner. Since nobody is required to label if a plastic contains BPS at this point, I can't avoid it. And since there are already several ingredients in a variety of plastics that are considered to be bad, it just seems easiest to avoid plastic altogether. I don't know if there's anything bad in silicone, but I'd rather just do stainless steel than have to be concerned about what they might discover about it 20 years from now. Fionnoula posted:Grab some demitasse spoons. I picked up a 6 pack of them from Ikea for like $2. This is an awesome idea. I'll definitely check that out.
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Feb 20, 2013 04:10
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What are you doing for bottles? Are you just doing lappy cup instead or is there something other than a silicone nipple?
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Feb 20, 2013 05:43
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Papercut posted:What are you doing for bottles? Are you just doing lappy cup instead or is there something other than a silicone nipple? I'm breastfeeding, so we only need bottles on the rare occasion that the husband and I go out without the baby. We use glass bottles, but we're still using the regular silicone nipples because it's just not possible to eliminate everything that I don't like. I only aim to reduce it as much as possible, and spoons are one of those things where it's usefulness isn't diminished if it's made out of another material. I'm trying to figure out if there's an alternative to plastic cups too, but I figure I'm probably going to have to deal with plastic cups until he gets the motor skills to use control a glass on his own. I have him drink water out of a regular glass when I feed him solids, but I don't see him learning to hold that on his own anytime soon.
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Feb 20, 2013 05:57
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You could get stainless steel cups instead of plastic, they're often sold as camping gear. You could also use metal water bottles, some of them have internal coatings but a lot of them don't.
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Feb 20, 2013 06:24
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So the 8 month old is still crawling backwards almost exclusively. She's so mad that she's not mobile. I know I need to start child-proofing soon, because she's already quick backwards, forwards is going to be a nightmare. I fed her her nighttime bottle with oatmeal in it about an hour before I rocked her to sleep and she only woke up crying once, and then woke up to eat about a half hour later. I'm thinking I may see if she wants some more baby food before the night time bottle to see if she's just not getting quite enough to make it through the night. The 4 year old was a dream last night. We just talked, played some games, watched The Princess Bride, and she went to bed with no issues. Here's hoping every night can start being that easy.
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Feb 20, 2013 15:47
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No Butt Stuff posted:I fed her her nighttime bottle with oatmeal in it about an hour before I rocked her to sleep and she only woke up crying once, and then woke up to eat about a half hour later. I'm thinking I may see if she wants some more baby food before the night time bottle to see if she's just not getting quite enough to make it through the night. It's a myth that solids help a baby sleep through the night. I'd recommend trying to up formula/breast milk consumption during the day, which should still be the primary source of her calories. Also, baby cereal in a bottle is a choking hazard and should be avoided.
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Feb 20, 2013 16:00
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Yeah, you should keep solid and liquid feeds separate, so your child doesn't start thinking all food, any form comes from a bottle. 8 months is a good time to do some yogurt, and maybe some cheese. Chris loved sharp cheddar at that age (so much that he turns his nose up at mild cheddar now). Also, he loved crunching on saltines (just not too many, babies have a really low sodium requirement). But my kid was always a big eater, I think I had him on three meals a day by 8 months (or else he would just be super cranky until he got solid food).
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Feb 20, 2013 16:21
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Oh man, I thought those tri-cut nipples were specifically for making the cereal bottles. Maybe I should just make her some oatmeal, then feed her a larger bottle then? How is it a choking hazard if it's mixed in? Genuine question, I want to learn.
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Feb 20, 2013 16:26
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Dittoing the focusing on milk/formula! Also, what kinds of foods does she like trying so far? My favorites were Greek yogurt (which I also appreciate because it's less drippy), and he'd self-feed berries, cheeses, toast, steamed chopped veggies (right out of the bag) chopped tomatoes, and bananas. We're just now getting on to doing 3 meals a day--before we did usually at least one, sometimes 2, and occasional snacks here and there.
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Feb 20, 2013 16:28
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All baby food of course: Sweet Potatoes Peas Bananas Blueberry Apples Corn and Sweet Potatoes Chicken Noodle She loves all of it. I let her hold the spoon some last night and she guided it to her mouth with a little bit of help. Messy, but cute. I'm not sure when she should be trying what kinds of solids, but I think the yogurt bites are going to happen tonight.
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Feb 20, 2013 16:55
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No Butt Stuff posted:So the 8 month old is still crawling backwards almost exclusively. She's so mad that she's not mobile. I know I need to start child-proofing soon, because she's already quick backwards, forwards is going to be a nightmare. My daughter is now 8.5 months and until yesterday she was getting around by crawling backwards. Yesterday she suddenly clicked with going forwards and that's it, she's into everything. Yesterday she got the dog food, the dog water, my ornaments from the fireplace and my laptop cables. That was just day one!! But on the bright side she's so ridiculously pleased with her new ability, it's hilarious. And suddenly she loves this toy because she can actually reach it when it rolls away in front of her: http://www.amazon.com/VTech-Move-Crawl-Electronic-Activity/dp/B000231EX2
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Feb 20, 2013 17:21
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Helanna posted:And suddenly she loves this toy because she can actually reach it when it rolls away in front of her: http://www.amazon.com/VTech-Move-Crawl-Electronic-Activity/dp/B000231EX2 My mother in law got my daughter one of those for Christmas and even though she's not crawling, she loves to sit with it on her lap so she can try and eat all the lights and beat it up. It's awesome to watch, can't wait until she can crawl after it.
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Feb 20, 2013 17:50
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Until yesterday she was less than interested in it. I thought it was doomed to be a dog toy (dog looooooves it). But now that it's fun to chase, she likes it!
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Feb 20, 2013 18:54
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No Butt Stuff posted:Oh man, I thought those tri-cut nipples were specifically for making the cereal bottles. Maybe I should just make her some oatmeal, then feed her a larger bottle then? Our former pediatrician suggested increasing all bottles during the day by 1 oz. and decreasing ones at night by the same to slowly encourage more consumption of breast milk/formula during the day instead of night. I believe the reason it's a choking hazard is because sucking thick liquid doesn't allow for the proper movement of it from the front of the mouth to the back to swallow. Either way, the AAP recommends against it: http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/feeding-nutrition/Pages/Switching-To-Solid-Foods.aspx
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Feb 20, 2013 19:51
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Those of you with kids in pre-school: What the hell do you do with all the artwork that comes home? Right now my daughter's only 2 so she doesn't care about what happens to it once she's done making it, but it feels wrong to toss it in the trash.
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Feb 20, 2013 20:52
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FordCQC posted:Those of you with kids in pre-school: After three kids I keep the very best but bin most of it. If I'd kept every single piece of artwork the nurseries and schools gave me we'd need a spare room to keep it in.
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Feb 20, 2013 21:00
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FordCQC posted:Those of you with kids in pre-school: If it is a reasonable size or can be folded, you could stick it in an album or binder sleeve or a Rubbermaid bin that you can store? She might like to look back on them when she is older even if she doesn't care now.
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Feb 20, 2013 21:01
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FordCQC posted:Those of you with kids in pre-school: Most of it gets tossed in the trash. If it's something she's particularly proud of, we hang it up in her room until there's too much and she picks what pictures to take down when she wants to put new ones up.
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Feb 20, 2013 21:02
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We scan it if we can and then throw it out. The stuff where you can tell what it is or isn't just scribbles may get saved.
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Feb 20, 2013 21:09
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FordCQC posted:Those of you with kids in pre-school: One suggestion I saw was to save it and use it as wrapping paper for gifts to extended family.
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Feb 20, 2013 21:09
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My favorite is the poo poo that's covered in glitter. And it's always the day after I vacuumed out the car.
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Feb 20, 2013 21:30
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We don't have that issue yet, but we're intending to scan the pictures and store digitally, except a few as keepsakes.
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Feb 20, 2013 22:14
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FordCQC posted:Those of you with kids in pre-school: I have a 4 y/o that brings home 2-3 pieces of art a week. His entire room is covered with his art, and when he gets new art, he chooses which art gets hung and which is ditched. There are specific pieces of art that I will never dispose of, but I came to the realization that not every piece of art is a keeper.
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Feb 20, 2013 23:23
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CrushedWill posted:I have a 4 y/o that brings home 2-3 pieces of art a week. His entire room is covered with his art, and when he gets new art, he chooses which art gets hung and which is ditched. I try to encourage my kids to keep working on existing works. Every so often something will be awesome and will get pulled for the permanent collection, but I save a lot of art paper by saying "ok, do you think _this_ quartet of stick figures representing your family is really done? is there anything you would like to add to the story?" So, rather than 10 quartets of stickfigures on ten pieces of paper, I'll eventually end up with two fairly heavily decorated and fully realized images.
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Feb 20, 2013 23:42
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I strung a clothesline in the hallway for art (actually it's 2 clotheslines, one a bit above eye-level and one below that) and put everything up on it with clothespins. When he brings new things home, I pull something off the clothesline and replace it with the new stuff. When anything comes off the slothesline, I offer it to grandparents to keep. If they don't want it, I decide then if it's worth actually keeping it myself or if I'm binning it. I've only kept a few things on a permanent basis, they go in a cardboard art portfolio which currently looks like it will last quite a while, space-wise.
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Feb 21, 2013 00:38
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Slo-Tek posted:I try to encourage my kids to keep working on existing works. Every so often something will be awesome and will get pulled for the permanent collection, but I save a lot of art paper by saying "ok, do you think _this_ quartet of stick figures representing your family is really done? is there anything you would like to add to the story?" So, rather than 10 quartets of stickfigures on ten pieces of paper, I'll eventually end up with two fairly heavily decorated and fully realized images. That sounds like a great idea as well. I'm not sure I would want to do that with his paint based artwork (we live in an apartment, no room for that), but it would work really well with his crayon/pencil/pen drawings.
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Feb 21, 2013 00:56
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Thanks for the ideas, everyone. Most of it isn't applicable yet, but I'm going to use a lot of them in the next decade or so, I'm sure.
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Feb 21, 2013 18:42
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What are y'alls thoughts on places like Little Gym, My Gym, Gymboree and Music Together? Music Together seems the most promising but I wanted to get some feedback. She just turned 7 months. I'm starting up story time at our local library this week. I've been overly paranoid about limiting her exposure to the flu and other nasty germs.  Edit: Also when was the time that y'all started making regular trips to places like the zoo and aquarium? She liked the aquarium - or at least the first fifteen minutes of the trip she was awake. ghost story fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Feb 22, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 06:03
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ghost story posted:What are y'alls thoughts on places like Little Gym, My Gym, Gymboree and Music Together? Music Together seems the most promising but I wanted to get some feedback. She just turned 7 months. We definitely get more sick during Music Together seasons but it's still worth it.  I tried Kindermusik and Music Together and much prefer Music Together. The music itself sounds better to me. Our local group has a class at night and I love that the whole family can go and sing and dance and play music together.
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Feb 22, 2013 06:10
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ghost story posted:What are y'alls thoughts on places like Little Gym, My Gym, Gymboree and Music Together? Music Together seems the most promising but I wanted to get some feedback. She just turned 7 months. We started going to the local arboretum at something like 4 months old with my first. He'd sit in the carrier and I'd let him grab leaves and sticks, then we'd picnic near the geese and hang out. Around 6 months old we started doing various indoor playplaces, based on whatever Groupons and stuff I could find. He didn't much like the zoo, since there's really no interaction with the animals, but he tolerated (and mostly napped) in museums. When he was a little older than 1-year old we started incorporating outdoor playgrounds into the mix. These days (he's 2) we do a mix of all of them, and try to get out of the house at least 3 times a week on playdates and various adventures. My second kid, now 7-weeks old, is along for the ride everywhere we go. FWIW I think my son caught the chickenpox from a MyGym class when he was about 8 months old, though no other parents came forward to say their kids were infected. That was one of the downsides of socializing him so much at such an early age.
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Feb 22, 2013 07:27
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FordCQC posted:Those of you with kids in pre-school: When we walk in the door, I take a picture of my kids holding their art pieces, and then I also take a picture of the art piece..though now I am going to scan them in instead, I like that idea better. It's nice though just having the pictures of the kids in there just natural every day home from school outfits. I keep a few of the best pieces that I like and have them stored in a drawer. Even at home we accumulate a lot of "work" because my kids just love stickers, that we do stickers on construction paper like every single day...and pretty much all of that goes into the trash. Next time I go to JoAnn's I plan on picking up some blank journals/bound drawing books, and I'm going to give one to each kid for all the stickers, that way I'm at least not throwing all my money away. I get all the stickers from the dollar aisles at Joanns/Target or the dollar store.
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Feb 22, 2013 07:27
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Rathina posted:Even at home we accumulate a lot of "work" because my kids just love stickers, that we do stickers on construction paper like every single day...and pretty much all of that goes into the trash. Next time I go to JoAnn's I plan on picking up some blank journals/bound drawing books, and I'm going to give one to each kid for all the stickers, that way I'm at least not throwing all my money away. I get all the stickers from the dollar aisles at Joanns/Target or the dollar store. I just have a 3 ring binder. I 3-hole punch printer paper and all his stickers go in there. I started it when he was just an infant with all the stickers from doctor/therapy appointments. He's got millions - he gets one at every therapy appointment and that's 3x per week, plus all his doctors and specialists. The stickers are out of control and I figured if I started that tradition before he was old enough to really have opinions on it, he'd just sort of accept that that's where stickers go, rather than wanting to stick them all over the house and car. So far it's worked out for us!
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Feb 22, 2013 07:56
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ghost story posted:What are y'alls thoughts on places like Little Gym, My Gym, Gymboree and Music Together? Music Together seems the most promising but I wanted to get some feedback. She just turned 7 months. Music Together is really great. I mean, I'm sure the quality and mood of each class depend on the teacher, but I absolutely love the program. On one level it's very serious about music pedagogy and child development, but it's also just plain fun. I also love that it focuses so much on parental involvement--it's not one of those things where half the parents are sitting in the corner chatting. Andrias Scheuchzeri fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Feb 22, 2013 |
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Feb 22, 2013 12:04
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We are super far away from the drawings and things phase, but we've decided that a lot of them will go on our fridge- which for some crazy-rear end reason has a screen on it that you can plug a USB stick into and make a slideshow. To play. On the fridge. It's weird techno-genius.
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Feb 22, 2013 18:37
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Cathis posted:We are super far away from the drawings and things phase, but we've decided that a lot of them will go on our fridge- which for some crazy-rear end reason has a screen on it that you can plug a USB stick into and make a slideshow. To play. On the fridge. It's weird techno-genius. The plan is to buy a house in a couple years with enough saved up to do any renovations and buy new appliances and now that I know that fridges like that even exist I waaaant one. :O Anyhow, have an appointment with the children's hospital near the end of April. At Briar's 6 month appointment the doctor thought her head might be a bit asymmetrically flat in the back of her head, but it was a bit hard to tell because she has so much neck fat in the back. Fingers crossed that there is a helmetless solution that'll correct this. :/
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Feb 22, 2013 19:13
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Well, Amelia's started walking. Amazing how quickly they take to it once they take their first few steps. She's meant to be having a nap at the moment, but I can see her on the monitor standing at the end of her cot (she likes to mess around with curtains). Just been in there twice to lay her down after she's lost her dummy - each time after I leave she's straight up at the frigging curtains again. So annoying. She should just give in and fall asleep soon, though. No Butt Stuff posted:The 4 year old was a dream last night. We just talked, played some games, watched The Princess Bride, and she went to bed with no issues. Here's hoping every night can start being that easy. I'm looking forward to watching The Princess Bride (among other stuff) with mine. 4 seems young though - was she scared much? Did she enjoy it?
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Feb 24, 2013 16:05
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My one-year-old threw up once on Friday morning, once on Friday late night (all over me), and once on Saturday night. He had diarrhea once yesterday, once today. Other than those symptoms he's perfectly normal - he had regular poops, he's acting happy, no fever, he's eating (BRAT diet obvi), talking etc. Anyway my wife thinks it's a brain tumor, how can I convince her it's nothing?
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Feb 24, 2013 19:22
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NevergirlsOFFICIAL posted:My one-year-old threw up once on Friday morning, once on Friday late night (all over me), and once on Saturday night. He had diarrhea once yesterday, once today. Other than those symptoms he's perfectly normal - he had regular poops, he's acting happy, no fever, he's eating (BRAT diet obvi), talking etc. Anyway my wife thinks it's a brain tumor, how can I convince her it's nothing? That seems like a huge logical leap. In my area (NorCal), there have been a whole round of nasty stomach viruses. We've had two in the last month. That said, we went through the whole neurological work-up for unexplained vomiting that occurred for six weeks and our pediatrician said that diarrhea being present basically guarantees that it's a virus of some kind.
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Feb 24, 2013 19:26
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Welp, I spent 34 hours awake and 20 hours in two ERs (while my wife was across the country at a conference), getting the range on young Robbie's kidney stones. Amazing how serial vomiting and rolling around on the ground clutching your lower-right quadrant only ever happens after the urgent care is closed. Gus crawled into the gurney with Rob for pretty much the entire duration.  IMAG0347 by RReiheld, on Flickr As long as one of them is on a morphine drip, my children get along very well. Also learned that there is no point in going to the local ER, because they will hear his medical history and turf him to Childrens anyway. Out the cost of two admissions and an ambulance ride figuring that out. Slo-Tek fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Feb 24, 2013 |
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Feb 24, 2013 19:50
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