When the molars come marching in...

The front teeth arrived with minimal fanfare which is why we were taken off-guard when the pesky molars made their appearance. Or didn't. For many, many days of pain.

We are on our second round now and the routine seems to be fairly consistent. We start with baby going off her solid food. Then she goes off her milk. Then she goes off drinking anything full stop. All the while she is extremely sensitive and needs to be carried a lot. Any little thing (like another kid touching her) can result in minor melt-down!! Usually there is a fever (normally at night) and disrupted sleep especially when the motrin or tylenol starts to wear off. The most worrying part is that each time the teeth/tooth seems to take at least 7-10 days to come through. While the fever usually breaks after a couple of days she refuses to eat/drink normally until the pain has stopped, which takes longer. I have resorted to some crazy tactics to get her to eat or drink something, here are some tips if you find yourself in the same boat with a teething baby who is refusing to eat!

- Yoghurt. Always try the yoghurt. Its cold, its familiar, it has plenty of fat in it to sustain the little one. My girl will usually eat some yoghurt.

- Snack foods. Ironically enough, she will eat some (harder, crunchier) snack foods when out and about during the teething season. I.e. when she is in stroller and distracted by the world going by. If we put her in the high chair and offer her small pieces of food and snacks during the teething, they are usually thrown swiftly off the tray.

- Strawberries cut into small pieces and offered to her in a small cup as a snack.

- She will normally eat more around breakfast time and then the food intake reduces through the day.

- She will sometime be more inclined to drink through a straw.

- If all else fails and I am beginning to worry about her liquids, we have been known to feed her water with a syringe!!! Time consuming but worth it when you start to become worried about hydration

Anyway, good luck with yours!

Breastfeeding when sick

This post is something that I should have written a long time ago but at the time I forgot so here it is now, I thought it might be helpful for those who might find themselves in the same situation!

When my baby girl was about 9 months old I caught a stomach virus and was really ill for a couple of days. Due to being ill I didn't feel like breastfeeding too much (so my husband used the frozen milk in the freezer) and also I was pretty dehydrated so the milk volume became really low. BAD idea. After a few days it looked like my milk was about to dry up!

So, my advice for this situation (which I wish someone had told me!):

- If you get sick, you can still breastfeed. Apparently it gives the baby the immunity to whatever you might have anyway so there is no 'risk'... just make sure you wash your hands plenty and stay away from breathing all over the baby all the time

- Make the effort to breastfeed regularly even if you are exhausted and feel like nothing is coming out. By leaving longer periods between feeding/pumping you are signalling to your body that it doesn't need to make so much milk.....

- IF the supply dips, like mine did, you need to start an agressive pumping/feeding schedule to get back to normal. It took me about 1 and a 1/2 weeks to do this. I also had to try and drink more liquids than normal and beef myself up with more food!!!

- The frozen bags are great and were a life saver. BUT...I paid for that afterwards...so try not to stay off the breastfeeding for too long.

- Sleep, drink, pump....