But for me, Sofia has been a fairly good and trouble free baby to care for until she hit the 8-9 month mark. Then my struggles and frustrations began. I guess I just wasn't used to the sudden change with just about EVERYTHING that used to be a breeze to deal with. It was like I hit a wall and wasn't quite prepared on how to deal with it. The crux of my troubles came during the hottest week in July. Even prior to that, Sofia was refusing to drink milk in the daytime and only wanted to eat anything carb-related. Then when the heat came, the sweat came and the pee disappeared. She refused milk from a cup/bottle but was drinking water so I had to give her whatever she would drink. I also started feeding her in the evening because that seem to be the only time she would drink. She started waking up at 3am so that became the BEST TIME to get milk in her body. I also started feeding her to sleep because she seem to drink more. Talk about regression!
Oh how I hated breastfeeding her during that week and having her drenched in sweat by the time we finished. I vowed to cut her off my milk for good but worried and knowing her personality, I wasn't sure I would win this battle and get her drinking milk from a bottle full time.
I didn't know what to do. I consulted websites, called the Le Leche helpline and sought help from my doctor and in the end, a few lessons learned:
1. Feed them what they will take. Children will not starve themselves (they may lose weight in the meantime). Do not force food/milk on them.
2. Patience. Their food du jour changes moment to moment. Some kids just are not big eaters and would rather spend time doing other things. Keep mealtime fun and interesting for your little one.
3. There will be times where more food is on the ground than in their little tummies. It's ok. Babies are messy, especially ones that like to smear food all over their hair, push food out with her tongue and purposely drop things and peer over to see where it landed. It's their time to discover but boy was this one a hard one for mommy to get used to.
The good news is since the heat wave, Sofia's back to drinking milk again but we have cut down to 3 feeds daily which is working well so far. She's eating 2-3 meals again and the best of all, she's back to sleeping through the night! (quite worried about that last one). I also think that during this time, she was practicing her developmental milestones (cruising, pulling herself up and learning to get back down) so now that those are accomplished, she can go back to eating.
I've picked up a few tricks and methods in dealing with Sofia when she's a fussy eater and it's working so far. The funny thing is she seems to eat great when we are at restaurants. I think she's so distracted by people around her that she doesn't notice what we stick in her mouth =P
I became that worried OCD first-time mom. However, if I didn't feel that way, I wouldn't learn that it is all a very normal situation that parents go through and it's ok, the child(parent) will get though this.
My little flowergirl:
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