No more paste for me!
I hate to have to say it, but even organic rice isn't good enough for my guy. It seemed alright at first. No rash, no obvious reaction. He had a little gas that night, but I thought nothing of it. But the next day, my sweet, mild-mannered little guy had mutated into a screaming, foul-tempered ogre. He fussed. He wouldn't settle to sleep. Well, it wasn't THAT bad, but it's all relative. He was in a bad mood for John, who's usually all smiles. I thought he might be getting Mike's cold, or maybe it was teething. Never occurred to me it could be the rice - after all, it's organic. Nothing in there but rice and iron, right? Nothing to bother him, right? So I gave him more. He gobbled it up, and seemed to be fine. That night, man did he scream! He had such terrible gas he couldn't sleep. He screamed with each toot, obviously in a lot of pain.
As an experiment, we skipped the rice the next night. Miraculously, by the next morning, my sweet little smiley guy was back. It was like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.
Now what? He's obviously ready for solids. He's got a good appetite and he eats with gusto, but this just wasn't working out. Perhaps it's normal, I thought; but if it is, he's never getting weaned. So, poor Doc West got yet another call from crazy-mom-who-doesn't-know-anything (that would be me.) I sure hope he can bill for calls from frantic new moms.
So, his phone diagnosis was "a very sensitive little gut." There are babies who can't handle the iron that's been added to baby cereal, he says, and it seems mine is one of them. The treatment is non-fortified cereal. They don't sell it in normal stores - I'll have to go to a healthfood store to get it, he says. He told me not to worry about his iron supply yet, just keep breastfeeding lots to prevent constipation, stick to plain, non-fortified cereal, and try the regular cereal in another month.
So, it seems every other baby John's age is gobbling down cereal laced with palm kernel oil, food addititves and artificial iron, and loving every bite, but my big, strapping, healthy baby needs special health food store food? Sheesh!
I hung up feeling a little weary. I'm growing quite a collection of little boxes filled with things John can't eat. The thought of hunting down yet another little box likely destined for the collection was frustrating. It took me a long time just to find the organic brand. Hunting down health-food store baby food could prove a challenge, especially in a city where healthy eating is considered choosing a Tim Horton's donut over a Krispy Kreme. To make things worse, we had a snowstorm brewing - we got eight inches of thick, wet, icy snow last night, but it had already started in the afternoon. People were sliding all over the place, and sirens were going almost non-stop, with police heading to accidents. Not a place I want to be, especially not with John.
So, I said to heck with the rice. The only thing he needed from it was the iron anyway, and he can't handle that. All that's left is paper mache paste, and there's nothing magic about starting with that. I know La Leche League says to start with meat, so I'm sure you can start with nearly anything.
As a result, John has skipped past rice and oats entirely, and has started with banana instead. It's sweet and mild, hypo-allergenic and easily prepared, and I happened to have a bunch of ripe brown spotty ones, perfect for mashing.
Wow. I thought he liked the rice! Banana's a hit! He didn't grimace at the taste once. In fact, after a few little bites, be kept pushing forward in his seat, and grabbed my hand with both of his to get the spoon in faster. I guess I still wasn't going fast enough, because at one point, he grabbed the whole bowl, and tried to stick his face into it. I had to mash a second helping, because he was lunging for more, eyes and mouth wide open. He ate a third of a banana, threw up, and still wanted more. At that point, I stopped - I think he was actually full, and just going after the taste.
So far, so good. After one very large serving, he has no rash, no fussies and only a couple of little, painless farts, which is pretty typical for him anyway. This morning he was all smiles, just like normal, and went down for his nap without a hitch. It looks promising so far. I have a few days worth of spotty bananas, so we'll press on, and hope it's a keeper. Just think, I'll finally be able to add something to the John Tested, John Approved list in the sidebar.
I'm so glad I don't have to bottle-feed him. Can you imagine? If he turns into a miserable, gassy grump with just one teensy teaspoon of fortified cereal, can you imagine what he'd be like on formula, which is all iron fortified as well? I'd probably be one of those deranged, sleep-deprived parents, with a miserable, colicky baby on my hands.
Anyway, wish the bananas luck. Any suggestions for what we should try next?
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