Monday, December 15, 2008

Our Little Food Processor

Sara Beth has gotten much better at processing food into a smelly brown mess.  Since she started on baby food to supplement her milk consumption,   her dirty diapers have decreased in frequency to about one every other day.  Initially, we worried that she was getting constipated, so we upped the prunes in her diet.  Then we had our first major blowout.  Sara Beth was a smelly mess from her hair down to her knees.   Sara Beth did this when I was not at home, so I have only Heather's description to go on, but it sounded rather horrific.  

So, to rectify the problem, I put the camera by the changing table and told Heather to take pictures next time Sara Beth had a bowel movement.  Heather insists that the diapers held out better in this second event, which occurred two days later:

I got to help with the third occurrence this evening.  It was fully contained in her diaper, but  smelled awful.  I have a sinking suspicion that the stink free diapers are now a thing of the past.  But it is all worth it to see her eat real food.  

Typically, Sara Beth will shove anything in her mouth that she can grab a hold of ... except food.   If you are holding on to her hand, there is a good chance that she will try gumming your fingers.  If she has her favorite rattle, she will show it affection by sticking it in her mouth.  Her toy elephant will get its trunk sucked on like a large straw.  But we have little cereal things that dissolve in the mouth and when we place them before Sara Beth, she moves them all around on her tray, picks them up, and then forgets about them.  My current hypothesis is that they are too small; and she either does not consider them a real food source or not worth the effort to bring them to her mouth.  I think it might be the second because when she does want to eat one of them, she will currently stare at us or lean forward and start grunting until we pick one up and put it in her mouth for her.  Once in her mouth, she does suck on it, and as soon as she swallows it, she will lean forward and grunt for more, so we know she likes them.  We might have to do some tough parenting and make her put them in her own mouth.


We have found that  Sara Beth definitely likes sweet potatoes better than prunes or oatmeal.  I had some trouble feeding her a full meal of oatmeal, so I added some sweet potato to the slurry and she became much more receptive to eating it again.  Heather is planning on going to the store tomorrow to get some more sweet potatoes baby food as she has gone through our current stash.  She will still make faces when we start to feed her, but as soon as she gets a mouthful of her sweet potatoes, she will begin sucking and licking the spoon clean.  Feeding her is a slightly less messy affair when sweet potatoes are involved; both she and I are in agreement that they are much better in her stomach than on her bib.

Since she is growing so quickly, we try putting her in all her Christmas regalia just in case she out grows it before the holiday actually comes.  Plus, she looks real cute in it.  And she enjoys chewing on the faux fur collar.

3 comments:

Melissa said...

I cannot believe she has grown so much! She is a doll. Be careful about the color orange in the food, she will turn that color....it's true! I fed Hannah carrots one time cause she like them so much...she turned orange...it was funny!

Siewert Family said...

We have a picture of Heather as a baby with an orange nose because she ate so many carrots.

Melissa said...

LOL, that is funny!! Heather, so now you have proof.