Now that I'm wrapping up my "breastfeeding career," I just found a great resource for data about drug entry into human milk. Oh well, better late than never, plus I can pass the information on to those of you just starting or in the midst of your milk maid profession. There's a researcher at the medical school in Lubbock doing extensive research on drug entry and toxicity in breastmilk, including alcohol. Really fascinating stuff. He has a rating system (L1-L5) and a hotline you can call to discuss the effects of prescribed (or otherwise) drugs. I recently used it with a prescription I had some concerns about using even though ob/gyn assured me it was okay. I ended going with a another option to clear up my issue....
Anyway, before I go "TMI" on you, here are some links to Dr. Hale's work and the Infant Risk Center:
http://www.infantrisk.com/
http://www.infantrisk.com/content/drug-entry-human-milk
http://www.infantrisk.com/content/alcohol-and-breastfeeding
I also ran across LactMed Search while researching Dr. Hale and his work. If you're a chemistry buff, you'll love it.
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?LACT
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Little Chompers
So, now that Isaac has a few little teeth I am worrying about fluoride, xylitol, sodium lauryl sulfate, etc. I have looked for an infant toothpaste that does not contain any of these ingredients but am having no luck. Even Tom's and Jasons - two brands I thought for sure would work - have at least one of these ingredients in their children's toothpaste. When I turned to the internet to figure out what to do, I also read that using tap water to make bottles can lead to fluorosis... What's a mother to do? Every time I turn around I am faced with another choice between the lesser of two evils. Guess I'll switch to bottled water for the last month of formula and hope that the damage isn't already done.
Right now we are brushing Isaac's teeth with a wet toothbrush (wet with fluorinated tap water of course), which I think will do the trick. Anyone have other suggestions? Has anyone tried baking soda and water? This issue is on my list of questions for Isaac's 1 year check up. Stay tuned for "answers" if you are curious too.
Right now we are brushing Isaac's teeth with a wet toothbrush (wet with fluorinated tap water of course), which I think will do the trick. Anyone have other suggestions? Has anyone tried baking soda and water? This issue is on my list of questions for Isaac's 1 year check up. Stay tuned for "answers" if you are curious too.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Finger lickin' good
Thanks to Sharon for the post title :-)
We are fully in the finger foods stage at our house now. Isaac has to be able to feed himself something or meal time is a total disaster. Here are the finger food staples at our house right now:
1. Cut up cheese of any kind - he takes after his mother :-)
2. Cut up avocado
3. Diced Applegate Farms roasted turkey
4. Pasta cooked until it's really soft
5. Veggie burgers - these have a load of salt in them so until I can find a low sodium brand he doesn't get very much or get them very often but he loves them.
6. Steamed carrots
7. We've tried other steamed veggies but he mostly spits them out. I think if I can find a way to sweeten them up some he'll eat them.
8. Baked sweet potato - I just bake it and spoon it out and he eats it up.
9. Cooked ground turkey, chicken and ostrich - he likes the ostrich meat :-)
10. I've tried cut up fruit but he doesn't like the texture. I think once he gets a few more teeth that will change.
I would love more ideas and as we find other finger foods he likes I will add to the list.
We are fully in the finger foods stage at our house now. Isaac has to be able to feed himself something or meal time is a total disaster. Here are the finger food staples at our house right now:
1. Cut up cheese of any kind - he takes after his mother :-)
2. Cut up avocado
3. Diced Applegate Farms roasted turkey
4. Pasta cooked until it's really soft
5. Veggie burgers - these have a load of salt in them so until I can find a low sodium brand he doesn't get very much or get them very often but he loves them.
6. Steamed carrots
7. We've tried other steamed veggies but he mostly spits them out. I think if I can find a way to sweeten them up some he'll eat them.
8. Baked sweet potato - I just bake it and spoon it out and he eats it up.
9. Cooked ground turkey, chicken and ostrich - he likes the ostrich meat :-)
10. I've tried cut up fruit but he doesn't like the texture. I think once he gets a few more teeth that will change.
I would love more ideas and as we find other finger foods he likes I will add to the list.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Mushy Goodness
A couple of the mashed recipes that Isaac loves. Most of these you could blend to a complete paste or leave some texture depending on your kiddo.
1. Baby Guacamole - 1/2 avocado, 1 cucumber (scoop the seeds out and shred with cheese grater), 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of cumin. Isaac loves this.
2. Apple cinnamon oatmeal - this is a staple at our house - 1/2 cup instant oats, 3/4 cups water (cook in microwave for 90 sec), 1/4 cup'ish (the individual serving sizes work great) of cinnamon applesauce. Just mix it together after you cook the oatmeal and serve.
3. Green beans and potatoes - steam together and blend - Isaac loves this. I started adding olive oil or butter when he was 8 months old.
4. bananas + pumpkin, equal parts with a little bit of nutmeg.
5. Arborio rich and pumpkin with nutmeg. I don't remember the proportions of each but just cook the rice according to instructions and then mix with enough pumpkin to get the right consistency.
6. Sweet potatoes and ground chicken or turkey. I cook the ground chicken or turkey with water, steam the sweet potato or yam then blend. At ~9 months I added brown rice pasta to the mix too.
7. Cottage cheese + mashed fruit (peaches, pears, mangos etc.) We started dairy at ~ 8 months and Isaac loves cottage cheese. Sometimes I mix it with peas and let him eat it with his hands. Messy but he loves it.
8. Yogurt/fruit smoothie - organic, whole milk yogurt with any combination of fruit, banana, peaches, mango, blueberries, pears, etc.
9. Jasmine rice, coconut milk and apricots. I cooked 1 cup of rice then added enough coconut milk to blend it easily. I boiled 1/2 cup of dried apricots for ~ 10 minutes until they were soft enough to blend then mixed with the rice. Isaac loves this and I ate some for lunch when I made it because I didn't have enough containers to put it in, yummy! You could do this with mango too I think.
10. Brown rice and red lentils (1 part each) cooked in vegetable stock (I made homemade without salt but I think you could buy low sodium). Blend and add a little bit of curry powder.
I'm looking forward to others recipes!! Finger foods coming next.
1. Baby Guacamole - 1/2 avocado, 1 cucumber (scoop the seeds out and shred with cheese grater), 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of cumin. Isaac loves this.
2. Apple cinnamon oatmeal - this is a staple at our house - 1/2 cup instant oats, 3/4 cups water (cook in microwave for 90 sec), 1/4 cup'ish (the individual serving sizes work great) of cinnamon applesauce. Just mix it together after you cook the oatmeal and serve.
3. Green beans and potatoes - steam together and blend - Isaac loves this. I started adding olive oil or butter when he was 8 months old.
4. bananas + pumpkin, equal parts with a little bit of nutmeg.
5. Arborio rich and pumpkin with nutmeg. I don't remember the proportions of each but just cook the rice according to instructions and then mix with enough pumpkin to get the right consistency.
6. Sweet potatoes and ground chicken or turkey. I cook the ground chicken or turkey with water, steam the sweet potato or yam then blend. At ~9 months I added brown rice pasta to the mix too.
7. Cottage cheese + mashed fruit (peaches, pears, mangos etc.) We started dairy at ~ 8 months and Isaac loves cottage cheese. Sometimes I mix it with peas and let him eat it with his hands. Messy but he loves it.
8. Yogurt/fruit smoothie - organic, whole milk yogurt with any combination of fruit, banana, peaches, mango, blueberries, pears, etc.
9. Jasmine rice, coconut milk and apricots. I cooked 1 cup of rice then added enough coconut milk to blend it easily. I boiled 1/2 cup of dried apricots for ~ 10 minutes until they were soft enough to blend then mixed with the rice. Isaac loves this and I ate some for lunch when I made it because I didn't have enough containers to put it in, yummy! You could do this with mango too I think.
10. Brown rice and red lentils (1 part each) cooked in vegetable stock (I made homemade without salt but I think you could buy low sodium). Blend and add a little bit of curry powder.
I'm looking forward to others recipes!! Finger foods coming next.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Ucky, nasty croup
I had the best of intentions to spend part of the weekend writing down all the "recipes" I have tried but instead I spent most of the weekend coughing up the linings of my lungs! Ugh. Isaac had croup last week, which he promptly passed to me in the form of laryngitis.
So instead of recipes you get my thoughts on croup:
1. Humidity, humidity, humidity! This was the only thing that relaxed the poor babe's throat and kept his cough at bay in the night. We ran the humidifier in our room but every time the heater came on the humidity dropped to <30% and Isaac started coughing. I would then get up and run the shower, bring the humidity back up to 50% or so and he would fall back asleep until the heater cycled on again.
2. Just say no to steroids - unless you can't control the coughing with humidity. We gave Isaac steroids one day and he was so restless that night. I'm not 100% sure it was the steroids, he could have been hungry - more on that below, but I will definitely wait a little longer next time.
3. I recently told the pediatrician "if Isaac stops eating I'm going straight to the emergency room". I'm not kidding, he eats no matter how bad he feels. I'm pretty sure he was starving last week. He wasn't eating as much solid food because his throat hurt. I was nursing him a bunch (every 2 hours or so) but my milk supply couldn't keep up. It finally dawned on me to give him a bottle of formula the third night into his croup and he slept like a champ that night - OOPS!!
4. Ibuprofen for more than fever. I'm not a fan administering drugs for every little discomfort but when my normally happy, cheerful, smiley boy wanted nothing but to be in my arms and was still whimpering I knew something was wrong. Since he can't tell me what, I was thinking he might have a headache so I would give him ibuprofen and voila he would feel better. Well know that I have lived with this stupid virus I know that the ibuprofen was relieving his sore throat.
So instead of recipes you get my thoughts on croup:
1. Humidity, humidity, humidity! This was the only thing that relaxed the poor babe's throat and kept his cough at bay in the night. We ran the humidifier in our room but every time the heater came on the humidity dropped to <30% and Isaac started coughing. I would then get up and run the shower, bring the humidity back up to 50% or so and he would fall back asleep until the heater cycled on again.
2. Just say no to steroids - unless you can't control the coughing with humidity. We gave Isaac steroids one day and he was so restless that night. I'm not 100% sure it was the steroids, he could have been hungry - more on that below, but I will definitely wait a little longer next time.
3. I recently told the pediatrician "if Isaac stops eating I'm going straight to the emergency room". I'm not kidding, he eats no matter how bad he feels. I'm pretty sure he was starving last week. He wasn't eating as much solid food because his throat hurt. I was nursing him a bunch (every 2 hours or so) but my milk supply couldn't keep up. It finally dawned on me to give him a bottle of formula the third night into his croup and he slept like a champ that night - OOPS!!
4. Ibuprofen for more than fever. I'm not a fan administering drugs for every little discomfort but when my normally happy, cheerful, smiley boy wanted nothing but to be in my arms and was still whimpering I knew something was wrong. Since he can't tell me what, I was thinking he might have a headache so I would give him ibuprofen and voila he would feel better. Well know that I have lived with this stupid virus I know that the ibuprofen was relieving his sore throat.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Never thought I would be a blogger :-)
I really thought I would never be a blogger. However, here I am, blogging. I hesitate to call myself a blogger yet because I was never able to commit to writing in a diary so this may not last.
My motivation for keeping this blog is to document the triumphs and tribulations of raising my first child. These first months have been so hectic that I fear I will never remember what worked and what didn't when the second child comes along (which won't be for a while!). I also want to have somewhere other than Facebook to share my thoughts with the other mothers (and fathers!) in my life circle. I have a sneaking feeling that my non-child rearing friends don't want to read the details of my son's latest tooth or other mini-milestone on a daily basis.
First topic: baby food---stay tuned!
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