Grind Rice

For those who prefer to give baby brown rice as one of the starter foods, you'll realise that even after boiling for awhile, the "nutty" brown rice is still not as soft as white rice porridge. It's best to have it broken up abit before cooking.


You'll find that a normal chopper will not do. Instead, a blender with a grinder attachment is better. The grinder can handle dry items and churn out powdered stuff. I prefer the porridge not to be too powdery, so would just run it in the grinder for 5 to 8 seconds. You can experiment with it. And I liked to buy organic short-grain brown rice.

Healthy Eating

Moderation is the key. Too much healthy foods, too much fibre and too little fat is not good for children.

Very interesting article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article3856699.ece
Too much healthy eating is as bad for children as too much junk

Ba-Ba

That's the limit of his vocal ability. Almost everything is "Baa". *haha* Butterfly, bird, banana, bus... although thankfully, the variation comes in "Ma-ma-my" and "merk". and he can say "Hi".

The "kan-cheong" baby couldn't wait. Banana still in it's skin and he still chomps on it!


I'm so often hungry these days, so sharing a banana with him is such a perfect snack. Clean, doesn't need to be cooked, nutritious, and somewhat filling. ;-)

Trip to Bank

As part of this morning's "entertainment", JR followed me to the Bank. Along the way, he saw the Tasmanian Devil & Bob the Builder. I'm not sure why he's so fascinated with their faces.





We changed his car seat yesterday (yeah, he's 11mths old...time to upgrade). So far, he's been fairly happy. The new car seat offers him a much better view of his surroundings, and the view outside the car. He just LOVES seeing buses! And yes, he LOVES to study books.

I love this Maxi-Cosi carseat. It has very thoughtfully-placed clips at the side of the seat for us to hang the baby's toys. Ah, and I succumbed to buying that small hungry caterpillar (Eric Carle) book sometime back bc JR simply LOVES it!

After dropping by the bank, we went to the supermarket and visited loads of apples. Gee, there were South African APPLES (yeah, the word "APPLES" are so clearly printed on the packages), Fiji Apples, Japanese Apples, and I don't know whatever other country. Hey, it's sure cosmopolitan in that supermart! PINK apples...ever seen them? Actually their colouration is more like Rainbow Mangoes. I'm so unexciting. I simply grabbed a tray of organic Gala Apples.

Organic Apples are really tasty, and these were so soft that all I needed to do was cut them into smaller sizes and JR could chew them up himself. He's got 8 teeth and another 2 more on the way. Hai, I didn't even realise he was teething until he went around biting every one of us this afternoon, then I pried his mouth apart to check. *haha*.

Grater

Ah...following from yesterday, I made more grated food.

Organic Pumpkin


Organic Zucchini


All in the 2oz containers and steamed in microwave for 90seconds - fast since they are already grated. So simple.

These tasters went with JR's porridge today, for him to have some separately for taste before we mix it together with the rest of the porridge.

All fresh - just enough for today. None of these will be frozen/stored since there's only that little.

Wasabi

A wasabi grater is super for quickly doing up a small amount of food for baby!

(from: Daiso)

Baby already had his bowl of pureed porridge for dinner ready, but as I had a Zucchini that I wanted to have for dinner, I thought to let baby try some. I used this to grate a small section of the zucchini, put it in this little container(tiny container with lid also from Daiso), and then put this tiny container in my small microwave steamer for about 1min only since the zuchini was all minced already.

Just only about 2 teaspoons for the baby to try. I let him have it before giving him the rest of his dinner - the porridge that I'd earlier done, lah!

Ah, if not for this grater, it would be so troublesome just to prepare a tiny bit of food for baby. Maybe I'll do the same with the pumpkin that I have for tomorrow's dinner. ;-)

I used to do big batches of baby food & mince to freeze in cube-sizes, but Baby JR doesn't like the taste of frozen foods somehow. ;( So it's freshly-prepared food always for him.

JR also prefers his foods as natural as it comes! Like this:

He'll eat the banana if it come straight from its jacket, but will not touch it if I mash it up in a bowl for him, or mix it with his oatmeal.

He also likes eating sweet potato, freshly scooped from the potato itself!

New Tastes

Sucking on the pineapple. And he's lucky it's those honey pineapple!

Hunger Pangs

6-month/7-month milestone: Not sure if it's because the baby is demanding more milk now.....but I'm just about always hungry these days! Just about 30mins after a nice full meal, and I'd be all hungry again. And if I dont' fill my tum, I start getting the low-blood sugar feeling. Quite inconvenient, I must say. And those of you in the same situation as me? I'm sure you can sooooooooo identify.

One of my quick "snacks" is sweet potato. And....Yup, this was what I was sharing with babe in this earlier post. *haha*

It's really delicious!

Breakfast

Sharing my breakfast with baby.

Avocados have always been a favourite of mine, even when I was little. I personally like to make up a batch of mashed avocados with chopped onions and cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes keep the avocado from oxidising and turning black/brown. Like this! So yummy!

Nevertheless, I'm quite happy jusy scooping out thin slices and layering it with lettuce or alfafa sprouts as a sandwich too. Keeping it simple like that means I can easily share with baby. Today, I just mashed it all up though, and scooped up some for the baby.

The baby's portion was mixed with some expressed breastmilk to keep it fresh and lessen the chance of it oxidising - hopefully. JR usually eats this mixed with his Oatmeal cereal.

.... and some for me!


TIP:
Putting breastmilk on foods does help prevent them from oxidising or "turn brown"!

Dirty Fella

The Dirty Fella...thanks to SPP..

He loves sharing our foods, and we do - if it is suitable for baby to try.

Baby seems to like more "real" foods, so we didn't blend & grind them up as much now. Here's an example of his lunch. Rice with peas & carrots.

Sitting

At the Grand Ole Age of 6 months, the little boy still can't sit independently. ;( His elder sis & bro could sit by 6mths, just about. And his 二哥 (small big bro) could sit by himself at 4 months!

Nevertheless, when we were offered the baby high chair at our fave roti prata place, we tried.

Well, he can sit for awhile.....but he asked to be carried not long after! Mom's lap is probably still his preferred! Oh well... still have to eat with difficulty outside! Not something I relish.

Semi-Solids

JR turned 6 months old a week ago. He was down with a slight cough then, so we decided to hold off the introduction of solids . No hurry!

We started off with an instant brown rice ceral, Healthy Times single-grain. 1 tablespoon of dry cereal. He was so excited. It was all finished!

Single-foods are given at a time so that we can more easiliy watch for allergies to any single food.

I Want!

He's at that age when whatever we eat or drink, he wants!

Reunion

We succumbed to having dinner out. Had to plan it early in the evening, starting at 530pm so that we could be done and back home while it was not too late. The baby just starts fussing big-time if we are not at home after 7+pm. He just seems to have some internal clock.





I wore baby in a lovely magenta red silk sling (hey, I think it's one of those that one of you customers rejected!), and a Mandy Wrap top in Red.

Tummy Filler

As a breastfeeding mother, I get hungry often, and with an in-arms 2mth-old (ah - JR just turned 3 mths-old yesterday!), it's not always possible to get a more decent snack in between meals.

I've found an oatmeal drink to be a quick & easy tummy filler. Just a few spoons of instant oatmeal mixed with a little hot water, and when oatmeal is well-mixed, I add in chilled soymilk from the fridge. I did say it's to be a quick to prepare item, right? That's why it has to be "instant" oatmeal and not rolled oats (to be cooked), and soymilk is the ready-to-drink kind from tetrapacks or pre-prepared.

Oh, and another good thing about oatmeal? It is good for your milk supply!

Keeping Hydrated

As a breastfeeding mother, you might find yourself thirstier than normal. Probably hungrier than normal too! It is important to eat & drink to your demand too, just like baby needs his milky when he's hungry.

On hot days, I like to have something other than water to drink, and I find chilled roasted barley tea to be really refreshing. And it's so easy to make. These are usually easily bought from supermarkets that stock Japanese foodstuff. This tea can simply be put into a tumbler and filled with room temperature water and left in the fridge to chill and would be all ready to drink as & when you feel like it.

Another one of my current faves while out (yeah, I get thirsty so often!) is papaya soymilk freeze/shake! The one from Jollibean is Icy Cold with frozen papaya and ice-cubes all blended into a frothy coolant. The Mr Bean version is creamy and filling. Both are tasty, high in vitamin C, and....some mothers claim that it is great for their milk supply. For me, well, I don't see a significant difference in my milk supply since I nurse baby so frequently, and don't often express breastmilk, but it's a wonderful beverage that I love!

Sashimi Pig-Out

Public Holiday! Dh & I went to Ikoi and gorged on sashimi and all our other faves. The different types of fish soup, the fish-head, the rolls, and the tempura.

Dh had toyed with the idea of bringing the carseat. Thankfully I decided against it. I was hoping to get a floor-seated table, but alas, being a public holiday, the place was so crowded although we had a nice, albeit small corner table. But it would not make sense to put a carseat on the floor in such a crowded place. Even a stroller would be at risk here!

JR was cosy in his sling, charming those at the next table for a while and fell asleep for the rest of the meal and all the way home, nursing off & on. Whew!!!! We managed to eat. And JR had delicious fishy milk after. *haha*

It's useful to wear nursing clothes with empire-waistline nursing access when nursing baby in the sling. This day, I wore a Liana Top - another of my favourites as this top is shapely and really flatters.

And for all those sashimi lovers out there - yes, it's ok to for breastfeeding mothers. The main danger is mother getting food poisoning from raw fish. If this happens, this usually stays localised in the gastrointestinal tract and does not pass into breastmilk. Mom might feel mighty terrible though! So do keep to established restaurants for clean sashimi.

Dining out with Babe

Certainly we'd like to have baby fit our lifestyle instead of the other way around. The only way to do this is just to bring breastfeeding baby with us. Practice makes perfect.

Here are some moms who show how they've done it! Nursing in public during meals out.

I love this photo. It's so natural.


Claudine with nursing baby at a wedding dinner, no less!


With young baby on a mothers' lunch-out at Thai Express.


Dining at Fish&Co, during a World Breastfeeding Week Event.



And that's me, nursing baby ... in a Selina Top & Sateen Sling .....

.............. while enjoying a refreshing dessert!

Confinement Food

Having a full household, and being an experienced mother, we didn't need a confinement nanny this time around. I explored the options for confinement catering. There's really not all that many choices. I narrowed my choices down to Natal Essentials & NewBaby.

I toyed with the idea of ordering a week's food from each, but well, NewBaby's menu is just not what I'm used to. So it was Natal Essentials for 14days.

Natal Essentials - some hits & some misses. On the whole, acceptable. Food usually on time at 11am for lunch and 4 - 5pm for dinner. Food enough for 2 persons.

Here's one of my favourites: Red Wine Chicken


That day's lunch.


We had our own Red Dates Tea boiled for drinking the whole day, and some evenings I'd have my Quick Tonic. I am so dreaming of the Chicken "XO" Essence Tonic that my confinement nanny did for me last time. Maybe I'll try it one of these days now that the confinement catering has ended.

Here's some interesting Confinement Food Sites I found:
Yummy Confinement Foods
Chinese Confinement Foods
Chicken Rice Wine Recipe

Quick Tonic

An easy tonic for energy & blood circulation.

Simply have a little DOM heated up so that the alcoholic spirit evaporates, then add in a bottle of Chicken Essence. Then just "kan-pei!".

More Confinement Recipes at:
http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/confinementrecipes.html