Polliwogged || Category || Nutrition

When expecting, try the unexpected

Yes, I read What to Expect When You’re Expecting while pregnant with all four children. While I think it's a great resource (I loved the other What to Expect books as well), sometimes it’s nice to break from the norm and try something new.

Pea in a Pod: Your Complete Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth & Beyond is a fairly new book on the pregnancy shelf, but it is worthy of note.

Author Linda Goldberg, a childbirth educator and lactation consultant, has packed Pea in a Pod with a wealth of information you find in any pregnancy book - from birth plans and nutrition guides to detailed sections on labor and delivery. But Goldberg also covers alternative techniques like acupressure, visualization, and touch relaxation, and offers fun info such as the Navajo concept of a birth circle. Along with chapters on newborn care and breastfeeding you'll find a balanced discussion of co-sleeping and bed sharing, plus helpful hints for the father-to-be. (Trust me, they need them!) Pea in a Pod also has more than 300 photos, illustrations and graphics, a glossary, trimester checklists and resource guide.

You can purchase Pea in a Pod: Your Complete Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth & Beyond for $12 from Amazon.com. - Emily H.

Pea in a Pod: Your Complete Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth & Beyond

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Safe and sugar free baby finger foods

We’re delving into the world of finger foods here at my house lately. Because my baby has a very obvious, and already very frustrating sweet tooth, my husband and I are desperate for finger foods that are sugar-free.

First off, bring on the Cheerios! Once we got past that obvious idea, we had to get creative. The Gerber Puffs are tempting, but they are not cheap and they have a fair amount of sugar in them. Here are some other options we’ve come up with:

Adult unsalted, unflavored rice cakes broken into roughly 1/8 pie wedges. My son adores these.

Whole wheat pasta that has been diced into tiny bits, or run through our new totally awesome ricer. [Seconded. A great tool for babyhood and beyond. - Ed.]

Unsalted saltines. I know, it's an oxymoron. But they exist, and my kid loves them.

Kamut Puffs. Nature’s Path makes a line of four types of organic puffed grain cereals. I intend to try out all four (Kamut, Corn, Millet, and Rice). Right now we are doing Kamut, and the kid digs them. Ounce for ounce, they are an inexpensive puffed snack.

Firm, yet cooked, veggies that can run through the ricer. This means stuff like steamed sweet potato and steamed carrots.

Cooked peas that have been mashed flat with a fork. [Or squished through a ricer. Sorry. - Ed.]

Cottage cheese. Apparently, this is not only delicious, but also good for your scalp. Or so it would seem by the way my son likes to eat it.

Thin whole wheat bagel slices, lightly toasted.

What healthy finger foods have you discovered for your baby? - Leigh G.

Photo by yogi, shared via Flickr.

How to decrease breast pump part washing at work

If you use a breast pump, you know that the parts need to be kept scrupulously clean. Sometimes, especially in an office setting, the cleaning routine is sort of awkward, kind of embarrassing, or just plain impossible without a decent sink and countertop. Here are two alternatives you might want to consider.

Calculate how many times you pump per day and buy two times that number of bottles and “horns” (for left and right sides, of course). That will let you pump and store milk without the washing routine - just take it all home at the end of the day and clean it there. Depending on your pump, there may be a valve that is much easier to clean before milk dries, but this part alone might be easy to take to the kitchen or bathroom for a quick rinse.

If you really don’t need that many bottles, you can save money and cleaning by pumping directly into the storage baggie. You can affix the clean baggy around and below the outlet for the milk using a standard clothespin, metal twist tie, or another strong clasping-type device. You’ll still need enough “horns” to last you through the day, but you’ll save money on bottles, do less cleaning, and even eliminate one potential source of contamination (stubborn bacteria clinging to the plastic bottle). - Leigh G.

Your little BRATs!

Starting solids might be daunting for you, but imagine how daunting it is for your baby’s digestive tract.

Depending on the kid, whether or not they are breastfed, formula-fed, or both, and who knows what other factors, your kid might quickly either develop diarrhea or constipation when introduced to the new diet. A bit of knowledge about food types will allow you to calibrate the baby’s intake to help ease the transition, and thus avoid a trip to the pediatrician, buying medicines, or buying other supplements.

Foods that slow down and thicken up (called the BRAT diet by medical professionals):
Bananas, Rice cereal, Applesauce, Toast (breads)

Foods that thin down and loosen up (this has no fun acronym):
Apricots, Peaches, Plums, Prune juice, Pears, Oatmeal cereal, Carrots, Breastmilk, Extra water

My son spent a few weeks at the start of eating solids having a really hard time with his bowel movements. His little body was so used to only eliminating solid waste every seven or eight days (pretty average for a breastfed six-month-old) that it must have been a huge shock to have all that fruit and starch in there. At the advice of a friend who is in a pediatric residency program, we completely eliminated all the BRAT foods and began starting his days with a nice big bowl of oatmeal cereal made with diluted prune juice. He loves his morning oatmeal and hasn’t had a problem since, even as we've slowly re-introduced the BRATs over time. - Leigh G.

Breakfast of baby champions

Frozen breast milk storage made simple and compact

If organization is not your thing and you have more than a few ounces of breastmilk to store, the many baggies in your freezer can come to dominate the space. You can buy milk organizing kits at many major retailers, but to save money all you really need is a cardboard box.

Just follow these easy steps:

Freeze the milk in a flat position- just laying it on a small piece of cardboard in the freezer will accomplish this. The slightly nicer bags (with ziplock style closures) make this easier, but they do cost a little bit more. Personally, I think the few extra cents per bag is worth it.

Label each bag consistently (date, ounces) to avoid confusion by you, your partner, or your baby's other caregivers.

Find or make a cardboard box that you can use to “catalog” the frozen milk in the upright position. It should be long and thin- a Kleenex box with the top cut off was recommended to me, although I personally use the carrying box for milk three-packs that we buy at Costco.

When you have a new bag to freeze, move the new frozen one to the front or back of the box, and train caregivers so they know which end to pull from. Whichever you choose, consistency will keep everyone using the oldest milk first, a good best practice for storing your breast milk.

It's that easy!

- Leigh G.

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