Liquids vs. Solids: How Much & When?

A repost from www.playthisway.com.

Figuring out exactly the right amount of milk/formula intake for a who's starting solids (and when that curiosity kicks in!) can be challenging. An 8-month-old baby is well into solid soft foods and probably will start pincer-grasp self-feeding within a short period of time. A baby at this age may start “weaning” herself from a more liquid diet to a more solid one, which is a natural part of development. Every step babies take in the eating category is a step toward more independence. Further, the fine-motor skills she's learning will lead to self-feeding.

Here’s Dr. Jen's handy way to think about volume of liquid nutrition for a child who has started solids:

Do’s and Don’ts of Properly Storing Breast Milk

A repost from www.playthisway.com!

The thought of a freezer overflowing with breast milk sounds like a dream come true to a new mom. Having nursed two sets of twins myself, I’ve been there—double time! If you’re fortunate enough to be facing this embarrassment of breast milk riches, you should definitely know the 5 Do’s (and Don’ts) of proper storage. So here goes:

1. Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness When handling breast milk, make sure you are working in a clean area and wash your hands (well). Also make sure that you are using clean containers/bags for expressed milk storage. If you’re storing your milk in re-usable nursing storage bottles, pick one of these options: use a microwave steam sterilizer, wash with hot soapy water, or run them through the dishwasher. 
2. Forget About Those Ice Cube Trays Use hard plastic bottles specifically designed for storing breast milk, with a screw cap or tight fitting lid; or use heavy plastic bags designed for breast-milk storage. Store milk in amounts that make sense for your baby’s age and the amount he or she may drink in one session. For example, you may want to store 4 ounces per container for your 2 month-old, but 6 - 8 ounce s per container for your 4 month-old. 
3. Chill Out In the fridge, breast is BEST within 24 hours of refrigerated storage. If you refrigerated your milk more than 72 hours ago, throw it out. 
4. Freeze Ease If your freezer is attached to a refrigerator (the kind most of us have in our homes), milk is good there for one month. If you have a deep freezer (am I dating myself here to say like the kind in Sam’s Butcher Shop on the Brady Bunch?), you can store breast milk up to six months - but it’s best to use it within 3 months. Make sure to keep milk at the back of the freezer where the temperature is coldest.
5. Quick Thaw McGraw To thaw for frozen milk in advance, put in the fridge for up to 24 hours. For immediate usage, you should place frozen milk in a bowl of lukewarm water. Never (ever!) use a microwave to defrost or heat breast milk or formula, as heating is uneven and may result in scalding your baby’s mouth. Once milk is frozen and defrosted, do not refreeze it.

Dr. Jen’s (Grandma’s) Chicken

In my last couple posts, I mentioned how much my family loves my chicken, so I thought I would share the recipe with you!

Ingredients

• 1 roasting chicken (4 to 6 pounds) preferably with a pop-up thermometer! 
• Salt & pepper 
• Fresh thyme (bunch) 
• Two soft lemons cut in half 
• 1 head of garlic 
• 10-15 whole carrots, peeled with stems cut off
• Large sweet potatoes or yams peeled 

Baby's First Foods

These are some fun initial foods for baby, some may surprise you! Remember please (please!) that these foods should be pureed—super duper pureed—soft MUSH.

From More Mush to Mostly Mush!

From the age of 6-9 months to 9-12 months, your baby will go from just starting solids to feeding mostly solids and hopefully a well-rounded diet with plenty of colorful options. Your baby’s breast milk or formula intake will decrease over this time period to about 3 or 4 8-ounce bottles (or nursing feeds) a day. One Sassy Doctor’s favorite feeding game was the good old fashioned airplane with a splash of train tunnel and race car for my little boys. Making meal time fun is a great start to healthy family eating habits!

Wet To Mush: The Transition Period From Liquid Intake to First Foods

One Sassy Doctor (aka me, Dr. Jen!) loves Twitter. Over 30,000 tweepies follow me (which I think is pretty miraculous considering I can’t get my husband to listen to a full sentence I say most days). So, I decided to survey my followers on favorite first foods:

• @Staceysmoments Stacey says: My kids all like sweet potatoes.
  
• @AffirmationBox Chrissy says: Bananas, definitely! :) 

Breastfeeding

I’m going to share some personal information here, maybe TMI (too MUCH information) for some readers, but I want you to feel comfortable that I’m no white coat perfectionist doctor—I’m a normal(ish) parent like you, realistic and sassy. (Get it?)

Overview of Baby’s First Year: What Goes IN

We’ll save “What Comes Out” for a later blog posting—right now I’m too pooped to write about that (ha ha). Pardon me.

So what happens during that magical first year of life—where baby goes from complete reliance on mom’s body during pregnancy to self-feeding by the age of one?

It’s a magical—and sometimes messy—transition! We’re setting baby up for healthy lifetime eating habits during this first year, and One Sassy Doctor has some research for you to back this up!

Dr. Jen’s Sassy Foods: Sweet Potatoes

Let’s get this out of the way early on in my blogging: I love to cook. I am a great cook (as opposed to being a “great” singer), but I don’t measure. I am not a professional chef, and I use some silly words to describe what I do in the kitchen.

I’m going to share some of “Dr. Jen’s Sassy Foods” on this blog. This means:
     Simple
     Adaptable – for baby (over 6 months!) & parent(s)
     Super Healthy
     Super Affordable
     Yummy

One super duper SASSY food is sweet potatoes! This is a great first food for baby and a fabulous nutritious and easy food for mom & dad. For older kids, think healthy sweet potato baked fries!