Shanghai Mama

Since my last post I have kept up the BLW in a pretty relaxed way.
Theo seems well and really active and think he is def getting enough nourishment from my milk so I’ll continue feeding on demand and keep enjoying my trips to Paul (the yummy bakery in Xintiandi).
Yesterday I tried offering two veg, broccoli and pumpkin. He wasn’t interested at all, think he was too tired so didn’t really mind. I did “help” him put it in his mouth once just to see but he took a bite and spat it out and looked really unimpressed so that was that.
Later in the day I steamed a carrot and gave it to him, he was enjoying munching on that and by the time he was done with it, the carrot looked like a little mouse had been biting away at it. Today I found carrot in the nappy. I never found any broccoli from the other day… When is he actually going to start digesting things? Need to read more.

Today I decided to let him try a pear. I first gave him a quarter and then half. He seemed to enjoy getting the juice out of it and was making really fun biting-crunching noises. As it was pretty slippery business I had to keep picking pieced up off the floor (covered by my sneaky shower curtain ; )). He seemed to chew quite a bit but the contents of his mouth did regularly fall out on the bib. Later on in the day when I was eating a pear myself I just held it in front of his mouth and he took a bite, followed by a pretty funny face. I think I will try avocado again tomorrow.

Slowly demolishing my pumpkin

Originally uploaded by Bettina Dormalini

Theo turned 6 months on the 17th of this month and after giving it some tought we made a family decision to try BLW (baby led weaning). There are quite a few good blogs out there talking about this subject, and I’ve been really enjoying reading this one. For those who know nothing about it there is a good intro here.
I wasn’t in too much of a rush to start Theo on solids as I find breasfeeding really convenient and easy. Having said that I must admit that at the time of writing this Theo has been feeding a lot and I’m feeling pretty exhausted and keep craving sweets and cake.
As I seem to have little time to myself at the moment I hadn’t fully researched BLW beforehand but have a friend started with it and had read up on the basics a while back. Now I tend to refer to blogs and online info as I go along and have doubts and questions about the whole process. I think BLW is a great idea but one needs patience and has to have a high threshold for coping with mess.

This is what I used and a brief report on what has happened up to now:
EQUIPMENT: Vegetables (Up to now I’ve used broccoli, carrots, pumpkin, avocado), ANTILOP High Chair from Ikea (199 rmb)- I need to add that although I am not a big fan of plastic this super plasticy chair is good because it’s really easy to clean-, shower curtain (cheap one from Ikea) to cover the floor under the High Chair- Just added this today-. Bibs (the ones that cover the arms too) found a cute one in toweling from Puan lu but will need more (15 rmb), Bamboo steamer.

Day 1- Morning- Steamed carrot sticks.
Theo was interested in the sticks, took a bite off one and just played about with it. The problem was that I made the sticks too small and were quite hard for him to hold on to. I panicked a bit and mashed a few sticks then spoon fed him a spoon full, then gave thim the spoon to play with. I also gave him water from a beaker for the first time, he had a tiny bit.

I know he ate something as I found some carrot bits in his poo the next day… Guess it was a success.

Day 2-
Morning- Big steamed carrot sticks
Again I didn’t get the sticks quite right, good size but too soft and so there was carrot EVERYWHERE! He did try to put the carrot in his mouth and played about and then I gave him some on a spoon and the spoon to play with. Not bad for a second try.
We were excited so we tried again at dinner time.
Late afternoon- Avocado
This was really hard to get hold of even for me, soooooooo slippery.. anyhow he did managed to get it in his mouth and then play with it and get it caked all over his clothes. I cheated again and put some on the spoon and then just gave him the spoon. It never appeared in the poo the next day so not quite sure what happened to it, think he did eat some, maybe it’s easier to digest?

Day 3-
Morning and Lunch- Pumpkin slice, steamed
I think this was the most successful attempt as it’s really easy for Theo to hold (due to the curved shape of the slice) and seemed to chew it quite a bit, even though a lot of the times he would chew then open his mouth and let the pumpkin goo fall out. Both attempts (breakfast and lunch) seemed to go well and he was really into it. I should add that by this time having read a bit more about it online and getting loads of support from my hub I was more relaxed about the whole thing and didn’t even have a spoon at hand, I think this method is great and hope I have enough patience to keep going!

Day 4- Today! Steamed broccoli
This was a success at breakfast as he really was interested in the whole thing and put the piece I offered in his mouth, bit and chewed at the stem and generally played about. He did loose interest after not so long and I didn’t push it. The second attempt at dinner time (5 o’clock) was a big mistake, should have just not bothered, he was tired and didn’t even pick the broccoli up, just hit his fist on it and threw it on the ground. He did the same when I handed it back to him twice. He was just tired and wanted a good feed the traditional way. Had a real struggle getting him in his nappy and pjs tonight but all he fell asleep during his last feed as usual.
I’ll try to be better at posting as I had a few tough days recently and feel that writing might just help me keep my sense of humour about motherhood.

A while back during a check up, our Dr. at World Link (who by the way we like a lot) suggested we do a heart echo to follow up on a slight heart murmur she heard while listening to little Theo’s heart beat. I wasn’t too worried as I heard it’s pretty common but thought the echo might be a good idea. We made an appointment at the recommended hospital, i.e. Pudongs Children’s Hospital and got there bright and early. I had heard from our Dr. and from friends who had been for a heart echo before that the nurses generally prefer to sedate the babies for this procedure. I was pretty horrified at the idea but was reassured that it wouldn’t be necessary and that if Theo was well behaved the Doctor at the hospital would not have a problem with him being awake. As soon as we registered at the desk, after spending about 15 mins driving around the grounds of the hospital because noone seemed to know where the place was, we were asked to hand over Theo for weight check and sedation. Of course no Theo was handed over and we started discussing and saying that it wasn’t necessary and that our Dr. had told us it was fine not to blah blah blah, basically they said that there was no way they would do it with him awake. So we got our money back and left. I have to add that all this happened without Theo even making one sound as he was pretty well behaved that morning ; )))

After that nice waste of time I called spoke to our Dr. at World Link and she was very surprised about the whole thing, saying this had never happened and suggested we try Fudan Children’s Hospital. After trying to book the echo through world link and finding out that still he would have to be sedated unless he was sleeping I decided not to go ahead with it and to do it back in Italy at Xmas.
To the Dr. suggestion however we went to get a second opinion on the heart murmur and made an appointment to see Dr. Liu, a cardiologist at Fudan Children’s Hospital.
She was a very nice lady and said that we shouldn’t worry and that it’s something which he’ll grow out of in a few years! SO all is good but I do find the whole sedating thing really disturbing, it just seems so over the top.

Anyways here comes the reason for title to this post, on the way to the Foreigners VIP section or whatever it’s called, we were horrified to see that there is McDonalds on the grounds of the hospital, can you believe it? And if this wasn’t enough there were McDonalds sponsored posters, not sure if they were actual ads inside the waiting room. Clearly mcnuggets and health go hand in hand in some people’s opinion…

This hospital is recommend by World Link as of the if not the best here in Shanghai. If you have an emergency and call World Linnk after work hours they ask you to go there and arrange a Dr. to meet you directly at the hospital. If you have a big emergency just make your way there with your precious one and they will know how to help.
Address:
复旦大学附属儿科医院. 枫林路183号 近斜土路
Fudan University Children’s Hospital, 183 Fenglin Lu near Xietu Lu