Clarification

If I made myself sound like Mean Mom From Hell in my last post, I didn’t mean to. Let me clarify… Some of that post was written somewhat in jest. I was being a bit smart assy, trying to make fun of the situation. It’s not as terrible as I perhaps made it seem.

Ok, while I do agree that we need to let our babies take the lead somewhat and show us when they’re ready to do/eat/drink certain things, there does come a time when Mom has to take the reins and put some rules into place. If I let Ruby take the lead, she would drink from her bottle til she was 7 and would probably not eat anything more than yogurt and Mum Mum cookies until she was 18. If I don’t introduce new foods to her and reduce her bottles now, it is not going to get any easier for either of us. I was advised by her doctor who has two young children and has spent part of his career working in BC Children’s hospital, that if she doesn’t start reducing her milk and increasing her food, she will slowly stop developing.

To clarify, I’m not going cold turkey with her on the bottles. She still gets her bottle before bedtime, and one bottle during the day. That is plenty as far as I’m concerned. Just because it’s hard getting her to take milk from the sippy cup doesn’t mean that I should keep allowing her to take the bottle all the time. Keep in mind that other than a package of yogurt and some Cheerios in the morning, for the past 6 weeks or so milk has been her main source of calories in the day. It’s just time to change that.

There are going to be lots of things that are going to change in her life and she’s not going to like them all when they first happen (and likely nor will I). I don’t think I should give up on it until she thinks she’s ready because that may not be good for her health.

I know she’s been through a lot of changes lately and that is why I don’t mind that daycare gives her a bottle still and that she’s started sucking on her soother a bit during the day at daycare. I’m not all militant about everything. If she needs to revert backwards a bit, I don’t mind. I think that one sippy cup of milk a day is something that she needs to get used to and is reasonable for me to implement.

As for what she eats… she never did like baby food or purees. She’s always been into what I’m eating and I always give her a taste of what I’m eating. She always gets bits of our dinner, modified slightly for her. Some things she’ll nibble on, some things she throws. She throws a lot of food.

I was joking around about the wrap because wouldn’t you know it that she picked a time when I was STARVING to decide to eat what I was eating.

The girl is determined and stubborn. She has been running the show around our house for quite some time. There are going to be some battles while making some transitions that just need to be made.

Hope that all makes sense and clarifies some of the stuff I wrote in my last post without sounding snarky. Not meaning to sounds snarky at all, just wanted to clarify.

In other news… GOOD NEWS… Ruby had a really good eating day yesterday. Funny thing though, she will only eat East Indian food! My Indian girlfriend sent me some kichari (Indian dish with lentils, rice, peas, carrots) that her mother made and Ruby LOVES it. When we had our last eating strike a couple of months ago, it was the kichari that got her eating again so my girlfriend brought me another batch. Ruby eats and eats and eats it. She ate it at daycare yesterday and then was mad when it was gone! So “P” (daycare lady) gave her some of her daal and home made yogurt (P is also East Indian). It was a little bit spicy and in the end Ruby’s eyes were watering but she went nuts for it! P’s husband saw what she was eating and how much she loved it and asked P if one of Ruby’s parents was Indian! (The kid couldn’t be any whiter). We have decided that Ruby was an East Indian in her past life and we have started calling her Rubinder.

So it's not that she's not ready to eat. It's that she's fussy and we just need to persist and get her pallet used to different foods. For now, kichari will help get us through bottle weaning. One step backwards, two steps forward. Some progress is being made. I may spend the weekend cooking Indian food and get stocked up for my little Rubinder.