How I Introduced Solids to My Daughter via Baby-Led Weaning

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I knew I wanted the best possible nutrition for her. I knew I would breastfeed her for at least 2 years and I planned on making my own babyfood for her.

When my daughter was around 4 months old, I began reading and researching solid foods. I knew a baby’s primary nutrition in their first year of life should be breastmilk or formula and the more I thought about this, the more I felt concern over starting solids.

Marcella enjoying some green beans.

I have had a lot of people ask me about the way I introduced solids to my daughter. The approach we chose to use is called baby-led weaning and we really loved it! Today over at Mama Eve you can find my guest post on how we came to this decision as well as some information about the method.

Be sure to check out the rest of her site, too! She is one of my favorite bloggers and I’m sure you will soon see why as you check out her site. She makes appearances in my Sunday Surf’s often. You can start with some of my favorite posts at Mama Eve:

Five Playground Lessons I Didn’t Know I was Teaching

How I’m Learning to Let My Children Go

Attachment to an Open Mind

A Tale of Two Chickens

Birth Without Fear Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Be Scared

Epidurals, Fruit Juice and Household Toxins – Sunday Surf

Babies and Birth

And This is What It’s Like… – “I think it’s really important for those who have loved ones struggling with infertility to understand, at least on the surface, what it’s like.”

Ask Me About E’s Birth When You Have a Few Hours…. – “It is about the hours upon hours I sat with my midwives preparing mentally, physically and emotionally for his birth.  It is the almost 2 days I labored with him.  And yes, it is also the cesarean delivery.  And the triumph I felt afterwards. “

My (Birth) Partner: How I Know That Some Men DO Belong in a Primary Support Role – “…he was a fantastic doula. Top-notch. And we feel infinitely closer now, having shared that experience, having been together with my body in that way.”

Epidurals: A Feminist Issue – “At the risk of sounding outrageous, it is my belief that the way that we approach birth in our society–uninformed, relying on the experts, medicated, numbed, unable to walk, unable to feel our body’s urges and power, fearful, unsupported, and ultimately perhaps cut open–is a major contributor to the oppression of women today, and a powerful force in silencing our voices.”

Christianity

Where Were You, Jesus? – “And another voice whispered, ‘I understand. I too watched a Son suffer‘.”

Food

The Juicy Details About Fruit Juice – “Did you know that one glass of apple juice can contain as much sugar as fourteen Pixy Stix?!”

Cleaning

Nontoxic, Homemade Oven Cleaner – Will It Work? – “I’m 36 years old. Would you like to know how many times I’ve cleaned an oven? Never.”

Moving Away From Household Toxins – an Update – “As we’ve made these changes in the kitchen, I have been getting a little shocked at how much fake food we’ve consumed without question…it’s becoming quite disturbing to me.”

Parenting

Your Children are Listening – “Don’t be surprised if a child acts upon what they are exposed to. Because these ‘cool’ songs, make it seem like the ‘cool’ thing to do.”

Being Baby Led – Twin Style – “It can be very easy to lump them together as ‘the twins’. But they aren’t a pair. They are 2 seperate beings that just happened to inhabit my womb at the same time with their own needs and body clock.”

I Never Wanted to be “THAT” Mom – “The thing is, the mom I thought was so cooky actually has a few things going for her!  She is informed.  She doesn’t just blindly follow the pack doing what everyone else does because, well, that’s what everyone else does.”

Thank God For All I’ve Missed – “My time will come. It will, because I’m determined to reach my dreams. I have a fire in my soul and I have no doubt that I’ll one day share that with the world. But that time is not now. Now is my time to give to my family.”

Check out Adventures in Mommyhood, Authentic Parenting, Baby Dust Diaries, ChildOrganics,Cloth Diapering Mama, Fabulous Mama Chronicles, Hobo Mama, I Thought I Knew Mama, Mama and Baby Love, Mama Eve, Maman A Droit, Momma Jorje, Monkey Butt Junction, Motherhood Moments, My Inspired Baby, Navelgazing, and The Parent Vortex for more Sunday Surfing!

Easter, Babies, and Sleep – Sunday Surf

Babies and Birth

My Beautiful, Peaceful Birth Space –“It’s hard to explain in words what it means to walk into this space to give birth instead of into a hospital room.”

Is Fear in Pregnancy (and Birthing) Inevitable? – “…it seems pretty unhealthy to be so scared of such a normal and natural process, doesn’t it?”

Getting a Baby on a Schedule – “The problem can come in when someone tells us that we HAVE TO get our babies on a schedule from the get-go or the entire world will crumble apart.”

The Power of Women…The Power of Community – “...I think I got so into it because I was just so impressed with seeing all those women in person who really knew and felt the importance of supporting women in birth.”

Really, My Breastmilk is Turning to Water!? – “The transition from exclusive breastfeeding to full use of family foods is a very vulnerable period.”

The Curious Case of the Crying Baby – “Just as I would never outright ignore someone who was speaking to me, especially someone I care about, I will never ignore Annabelle’s cries, but I am starting to view them differently.”

Bedsharing Rewards – “The morning begins with a babble rather than cries, and my baby lays next to me babbling and smiling until I decide I am ready to face the day.”

When You Have Tried for a Year – “Not only are you now in a the new category of ‘infertile’, you have to deal with people telling you that you are doing something wrong and need to try their method.”

Four Lies Sleep Trainers Tell You (and One Truth They Won’t!) – “How many adults fall asleep being rocked? How many still co-sleep with their parents? Not everyone was sleep trained, so obviously the child does decide to sleep on his/her own eventually.”

Parenting

Verses to Parent By: Part 2 – “When I was yelling at my kids, constantly criticizing, withholding love because of my disapproval of their actions or spanking my children, those actions were not showing them my love.  They were showing them my authority, my ego and conditional love.”

As Easy as Falling Off a Log: Advertising to Children (Part Two) – “A half hour spent on Nickolodeon was a half hour of “I want that!” “I need that!” as commercial after commercial advertised directly to my daughter…”

Proceed with Caution – “Each child is unique and develops at a different pace, focusing on different aspects of growth.”

Laughing All the Way to the Breastmilk Bank – “I boo the toy industry for including a bottle with every baby doll. It’s one way bottle feeding is normalized when it should be the exception.”

You Let Your Daughter Play with THAT? – “I find it so ironic that in a society that’s so entrenched with sex and sexuality that parents choose to get their blood boiling over a doll that mimics natural feeding.”

Easter

Healthy and Homemade Easter and Ostara Basket Ideas (with Tutorial Links) – “For families who would like to avoid Easter and Ostara baskets full of sugary, processed foods (think Peeps and Cadbury Creme Eggs) and cheap plastic toys…”

Get Your Egg On: Eco-Eggs Coloring Kit – “The dyes are made from plant, fruit, and vegetable extracts (rather than arsenic and unicorn tears or whatever is usually in that stuff).”

Easter Basket Gift Ideas – “But if you eschew all that plastic crap and you don’t particularly want your kids to have all that processed sugar what do you?”

Food

Food Schizophrenia: Living in the “Real World” – “I kept my thoughts of ‘Would you like Blue Dye Number 1 for Attention Deficit Disorder, or Red #40 for anaphylactic shock?’ to myself. Instead I said, ‘Blue Gatorade or Purple?'”

Check out Adventures in Mommyhood, Authentic Parenting, Baby Dust Diaries, ChildOrganics,Cloth Diapering Mama, Fabulous Mama Chronicles, Hobo Mama, I Thought I Knew Mama, Mama and Baby Love, Mama Eve, Maman A Droit, Momma Jorje, Monkey Butt Junction, Motherhood Moments, My Inspired Baby, Navelgazing, and The Parent Vortex for more Sunday Surfing!

Great Stuff I Read for Week of March 13

Here’s a quick list of the great stuff I read this week!

Inquisition Monday: Attachment

Guest Post: Tex-Mex Enchiladas

Buying a Pram or Pushchair

Change, Growth, Loss and the Transformation of Babies

Disposables, Wet Wipes and Baby Food: Who Needs Them 

Breakfast Bentos and Green Smoothies

Cloth Diapering Papa

Bake Your Own Bread

Judging a Mama by Her Kid’s Behavior

Little Things That Help with HG Survival

Check out Authentic Parenting, Baby Dust Diaries, ChildOrganics, Hobo Mama, I Thought I Knew Mama, Mama and Baby Love, Mama Eve, Maman A Droit, Momma Jorje, Monkey Butt Junction, Motherhood Moments, My Inspired Baby, Navelgazing, and The Parent Vortex for more Sunday Surfing!

Related Articles

• Around the Internet: Links for February 6 (wifemomandmore.wordpress.com)
• Link Love for week of February 13 (wifemomandmore.wordpress.com)
• Sunday Links for week of January 30 (wifemomandmore.wordpress.com)
• Super Sunday Surf for week of March 6 (wifemomandmore.wordpress.com)

10 Parenting Scriptures (via Dulce De Leche)

Natural Parents Network’s Carnival of Natural Parenting’s theme this month is Top 10 Lists. I have been loving all of them! I’ll probably end up linking up on Sunday to my favorites. This one, in particular, stuck out to me because it falls right in line with the series I have been doing on bible verses and children. For that reason, I wanted to share it with all of you. I hope it is a blessing to you as it was to me. (And if you want to check out my other posts in the series: “…Like a Father with his Children…”, “Let the Children Come to Me…” and What’s Your Super Power? (verses for nursing mothers).

via Flickr user abcdz2000

One of my deepest desires is to integrate my faith into every aspect of my life.  To be authentic in my spirituality.  Being a mom has caused me to re-examine many beliefs I had taken for granted and to be much more purposeful about how I live out my faith with my children.  These are 10 Bible passages that always inspire me and help me to breathe in grace…

Read More

via Dulce de Leche

How I Cloth Diaper (Part 1)

bumGenius in action

I get asked from time to time how I cloth diaper so I thought I’d create a post detailing what I do. My disclaimer is there are SO many different ways to cloth diaper that may be cheaper/easier/better for you and your family. This is what I decided on and what works great for us! We love our cloth diapers and have never looked back once we started.

My main reason for cloth diapering was honestly the economic factor. I remember the first time I bought a pack of disposable diapers for a baby shower gift I was appalled at how much they cost. I probably made my decision then and there that I would at least investigate cloth diapers. I just couldn’t imagine shelling out that much money on a regular basis once I had a baby. I also had some friends online that used them and that made it not seem so completely foreign to me. I was intimidated by the learning curve, but, since I had never changed a diaper period, I was going to have a learning curve no matter what.

Cloth diapers, of course, have many other benefits besides just saving you tons of money. Many of these benefits I wasn’t even aware of until I started using them myself. We started out with disposables just because I was nervous about all of the new things I was already going to be learning being a new mom. The diapers I chose also started at 8 lbs or so and I knew my little one was most likely going to be under that. Because of this, I did have a very brief experience with disposables so I was able to compare using each type. Cloth was just a MUCH better experience for me personally than disposables. I have to admit, this really shocked me. I had no idea how much better using cloth would be.

I felt for us the best choice was to go with one-size pocket diapers. The brands we registered for and purchased were bumGenius One Size Pocket Diapers, FuzziBunz One Size Pocket Diapers and Blueberry One Size Pocket Diapers. (The actual diapers we bought have now been replaced by these companies with improved versions.) Having a one-size diaper basically means you only have to buy, you guessed it, one size and it grows with your baby. These diapers have a pocket where you stuff an insert. The insert is very absorbent while the part that comes in contact with your child’s skin wicks away moisture and is soft. I liked the pockets because you can add more absorbent inserts or double up if you have a heavy wetter or for night time. The FuzziBunz diapers came with a small and large liner for each diaper and the bumGenius diapers came with a doubler (which just means it is a thinner liner you can double up with the regular liner) and an adjustable liner. The Blueberry diapers came with one liner that was half hemp and is also adjustable. (Hemp is fantastic because it is very absorbent but very thin at the same time.) The FuzziBunz diapers have snaps while the bumGenius has velcro. (Now you can order the bumGenius in snaps though.) The Blueberry diapers come in both snaps and velcro; we have some of each.

FuzziBunz

The next thing to consider is what you are wiping your baby with. Using disposable wipes with cloth diapers is a big pain because you have to dispose of them in 2 different places. Besides, if you are doing cloth diapers, it makes sense that you probably want to do cloth wipes, too. These you can totally make yourself with minimal effort. However, apparently I’m lazy because I didn’t. :) I registered for and purchased some from online. I know lots of WAHM’s out there make these to purchase as well. I reviewed the brands I have here on the blog so you can check that out if you’re interested.

There are lots of ways to use these wipes. Some families just use them dry, others use just plain old water and some parents make their own wipe solution. For me, I buy Baby Bits. They last a really long time. (For reference, I am just now going to be purchased my 3rd bag and my daughter is almost 2.) They smell delightful, too! I plan on doing a review of these soon here on the blog so I’ll link this post to that once I do. I store mine in an old disposables container from my earlier days and it works well. Some people store theirs in a wipe warmer.

That’s it for Part 1. Part 2 will discuss what to do with the poop, how to store and launder your diapers, cloth diapering on the go and night time cloth diapering. I’ll also give you a list of everything you need and approximate pricing.

Sunday Surf for week of November 14

Anniversary Giveaway: CaughtREDhanded Jewelry Only one entry so far so your chances of winning are high!

Brains vs. Batteries over at Momlogic

Green Gift Monday is the New Black Friday over at Treehugger

Breastfeeding a Toddlby: the Myths and the Reality and Looking Forward over at Grumbles and Grunts

 Social Media vs. SEO: My Approach over at Problogger

As I Lay Her Down to Sleep and I Heart My Perineum over at Inexplicable Ways

Oxytocin More than Mere ‘Love Hormone’ over at WebMD

What Do You Think of Instant Rice? over at The World’s Healthiest Foods

The Emotional Age Issue over at Answers in Genesis

Top 10 Movie Plot Holes You Probably Never Noticed Before over at Geekdad

Braiding Native American Heritage Month with Thanksgiving: A Native American Mother’s Perspective  over at  All Things Mothering

God Lovingly Pursues Us When We Fail: Peter…Again over at My Journey to Lean

Parenting Podcasts and a Giveaway!

I love listening to podcasts about parenting and other baby stuff! You can even see on the righthand side, I list some of my favorites. I was recently asked to review a new podcast here on my blog so I thought it would be a great opportunity to review a couple others as well.

I also am excited to announce my first giveaway! Peds in a Podcast has given me a  free podcast (a $10-$18 value) for five of my readers! How cool is that? All you have to do to win one is comment on this post. (ETA: I have 3 more to give away! Just comment and I’ll send you a code!)

I’ll start with a free podcast I discovered when I was pregnant called Pregtastic. It is such a fun and informative podcast to listen to while pregnant and commiserate with other soon-to-be mom’s. The show always starts with the podcasters (other pregnant mom’s) giving to 2 ups and 2 downs of their pregnancy. Then they discuss various pregnancy/baby/parenting topics either with an expert guest or amongst themselves. I really enjoyed listening while pregnant and learning about all sorts of topics along with the other podcasters. They also usually have the podcasters come back and give their birth story which I loved, too.

Some of the topics they have covered include breastfeeding (as well as having a sister show hosted by a lactation consultant, Mommy’s Milk and More), Epidurals, Hypnobirthing, Maternity Clothes, and Baby Bargains, just to name a few. As far as their website, I like that if you hear about something on the show (like a book, CD or website) that you want to check out later, they include show notes as well as have a store that sells anything mentioned on the show. I don’t have to try to scribble down a website while driving down the road. :) Also, they have forums so you can talk with the other podcasters and other listeners. The podcast is free but if you want to contribute, you can donate on the site.

My next review is Peds in a Podcast, a fee-based podcast where the prices range from $10-$18 a podcast, depending on the topic. The basic gist is a pediatrician (Dr. Bill Satterwhite, to be exact, out of Winston-Salem, NC) discusses his thoughts on various childcare topics that can be confusing to new parents and his suggestions for how to deal with them. My first thoughts on coming to the site were how cute the logo was and that the site was easy to navigate and overall aesthetically pleasing. I could easily find out about the Dr. behind the podcasts and enjoyed the video intro as well. It’s always nice to see the person you are listening to after all. :)

There is one free podcast, Sleep: Birth to 2 months, and this was the first one I listened to. I found Dr. Satterwhite easy to listen to and friendly. I felt like I was sitting in his office with him. He presents the different sides of the sleep debate and then gives his own advice from his experiences as a pediatrician. I felt it was fair and didn’t feel offended even though his conclusions are different from the ones I personally hold. I will say I didn’t like that he had some faulty information about co-sleeping. (Co-sleeping done safely actually has a lower SIDS risk than crib sleeping because the baby spends less time in deep sleep and thus arouses more easily and also is next to mom who can hear if her baby’s breathing patterns change or cease altogether and can take action.)  He also presents the history behind the back-to-sleep campaign and I enjoyed that as I had not heard that before.

The second podcast I listened to was provided to me by Peds in a Podcast, Sleep: 6-12 months. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a lot I personally agreed with for me in this one but I’m sure it would be beneficial to moms who take a different approach to sleep than I do. It’s definitely worth checking out and I even have a 25% off coupon code for my readers to do just that! Just type in “wifemom&more” when you go to order a podcast.

The last podcast I am going to review is a free podcast called Babies and Moms: Birth and Beyond. Listening to this podcast is like hanging out with your girlfriends that are moms. It is a group of other mom’s in various stages of parenthood and they have a range of topics they cover. Sometimes they will have an expert guest and sometimes they will just discuss amongst themselves. They discuss babies as well as older kids and other family matters. I have learned a lot from these other moms and their guests and always enjoy hearing their different perspectives. They all seem to respect each other even though they might parent differently which I really like.

The website has a tips and tricks section with product recommendations and links to their latest shows. They have a broad range of topics including Children’s Toys, Bonding with Dad, Babywearing, and  Organizing Your Pantry.

What are some of your favorite podcasts? Leave me a comment and let me know so I can check them out! Also, don’t forget to leave a comment if you would like a FREE podcast from Peds in a Podcast! I have 5 to giveaway.(ETA: I have 3 more to give away! Just comment and I’ll send you a code!) You can also get 25% off as a reader of my blog if you enter “wifemom&more” at checkout.

Product Review – Fisher Price Rainforest Booster Seat

This is a product we registered for and got at one of our baby showers and have just recently started using. Our daughter, Marcella, is 7 ( almost 8 ) months old and we started solids shortly after she turned 7 months old. We are using a baby-led approach (maybe I’ll talk about that next with a book review) so we offer her true solids, no purees.

The Rainforest Booster Seat in action. Marcella enjoys some green beans.

Anyway, we had been using the Bumbo when we went to restaurants but she is getting to active for that (and too big) so we needed something else. Enter the Fisher Price Rainforest Booster Seat. This thing is perfect! It folds up somewhat and has a carrying strap making it easy to carry in with you.  (There is a handle, too.) The seat just straps to the chair (and is fully adjustable.) It has a three-point harness to strap your child in and has a little tray that we can put her food on. It also has 3 adjustments to make it taller or shorter. And, when she isn’t eating, there is a fun little play tray that snaps on top of the feeding tray. Very cool! We have really enjoyed using it. It also can be used as just a booster seat when your child is older. (The tray and back come off very easily.) I love products that you can use for more than just one stage of your baby’s life.

Check out this product demo.