Baby Care Questions

[Al]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Wow, Al recommended a vitamin!

Hahahaha..easy now.

But yea I believe in normal vitamin/mineral supplements and actually take Garlic, and fish oil.

O.K...back on topic

 

[copperlocks1]

Congratulations on your new arrival
1) Your choice will depend on what your wife wants to put up with;and ultimate cost..most disposable diapers now are made with Biodegradable plastic..and actually keeps baby drier..whatever method you use remember to give the baby daily diaper breaks...a few hours out of the diaper so that his/her skin can breathe.. for those times; put the baby on a moisture absorbing bed pad ...most times they poop a few minutes after feeding..my wife would time it and hold them over the toilet.. if your wife breastfeeds the baby will poop more..(breast milk has a laxative effect ) but does not stink as formula..

2) I did both..I prefer to use the grocery bags and put a days worth and take out at night..much simpler..if you have dogs make sure it is out of their reach..they love to eat the diaper contents..to keep the smell down use Oil of Wintergreen..or clove oil and use ONE drop no more..in the container/bag

3) if your wife cannot breast feed then go with the SOY formulations first..they are much easier for the baby to digest..if she does breast feed limit cabbage broccoli family,garlic,because it makes the milk less palatable for baby

4) My wife is Asian and that 1 month postpartum period is called confinement is has to do with the YIN/YANG(hot/cold) theory...when a woman is pregnant she is in the yang condition(hot)..after giving birth she goes into the YIN condition(cold)..soups made with yang type qualities are given at this time to rebuild lost yang energy...MY wife mom made a soup/concoction of sweet black rice vinegar, pigs feet/knuckles,ginger,boiled eggs,star anise
..for western practice it is to bond with baby..with little outside interference..and help from maternal mom if present...friends would take turn bringing food over on a daily basis to help lessen her/husbands work load

4) this saved us the most...battery operated rocker...bundle baby up tight..put them in and rock on

 

[greenjp]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
... we went to a breastfeeding class, I learned you can save $3000/year on breastfeeding instead of using formula.

This number is a minimum of 2x higher than the reality.

As for soy vs. milk based formula - if your baby is fine on the regular stuff (ie milk based) there's no digestion-related reason to use the soy based.

jeff

 

[dwcopple]

I would guess more like 5x. Figure $22 a week for a year. A tub of Enfamil lasted us a week or more. At 10 months we went half milk half formula. At 12 months, it became milk only. She gave up the bottle at 13 months and now at 16 months (13th of Dec), she only drinks milk from a straw cup, hates it from a sippy style.

 

[stranger706]

Congratulations! We have a 5 month old boy. I was in shock the first 1 or 2 months. Now, we're having a blast and I love every minute of it. We already want more...

Brands we settled on:

Pampers
Diaper Genie
Similac
Gerber for baby food

You'll just have to figure out what brands you and the baby like. We pretty much tried them all and settled on the ones above. Everyone will have their opinion, even the hospital, but in the end your baby will tell you what they do and do not like.

Don't worry about the delivery. Your adrenaline will kick in and you won't pass out. You may even want to cut the cord.

Enjoy!

 

[MNgopher]

As everyone said, congrats. You'll find out soon enough that everyone has an opinion, and of course, theirs is right! Reality is there are many ways to the same end, a healthy baby, so I'll just here is what's worked for us, feel free to disagree.

We went the disposable route on diapers. Between two different daycare options and other travel needs, we decided this was the best route for ourselves. We use huggies or pampers, whatever is on sale or better coupon. Helpful tip: when they start blowing them out, its likely time to step up a size.

For the trash, we have a diaper champ in the nursery. Uses a regular trash bag, and has done a decent enough job that it can usually be left until its full without stinking the place up. On the main level, the main trash goes out once a day, and we haven't had any issues throwing them out that way.

We didn't do any formula for baby #1 or #2. Baby #1 breastfed until after she was 2 years old (amazed the wife made it that far ), and #2 is only a few months along. This was our preference, and it worked well for us. When we started adding solid foods, we processed our own foods in the food processor for baby #1, and it worked well.

As for recovery, whatever works for you. You will likely fall back on your comfort foods because life has changed big time, and at least in our case with the breastfeeding, the wife was starving!

Most of all, figure out whats agreeable to you and your family, and don't worry about what works for everyone else, since that doesn't matter.

 

[crinkles]

do whatever works out. don't beat yourself up if you can't be the treehugger type with nappies etc. You gotta get though it, not save the world.

 

[The_Jeff]

My kids are 2 and 4.

Diapers, we chose cloth. No pins, though: They have these grippy things I call "spiders" that are a rubber "T" with a long top, the tops grab the sides of the diapers and the middle part the crotch. Then a nylon cover goes on top. Or you can get nylon stuffable diapers that take cloth inserts. Cloth is cheaper especially if you can hang your laundry outside.

But we aren't cloth nazis, we use disposables overnight because they hold about a gallon and a half of pee it seems. Also on the go.

Definitely breast feed. It was no big deal for me to make a bottle from frozen or fresh milk; just nuke half a coffee cup of water then dump the whole made bottle (with liner system) in that, stir it around, feel it for warmth.

You don't have to go nuts child proofing the house, as Junior won't be moving around for many months.

 

[PandaBear]

Thanks everyone.

Diaper:

Wife said disposable only, because she is concerned about pathogen in cloth diaper services (shared fabric, washed), and due to her wrist injury from work she will not want to wash diapers. I see plastic disposable diapers and 6000 produce bags in rolls in my future.


Postnatal care:

The postnatal care from the East that I was talking about really depends on the local culture (all over the place even within China). My mom had 30 days of "no shower" to avoid catching a cold when there were no hot shower back in the ancient days. She said she had a whole chicken in soup per day for 30 days and gained 30 lbs in the end (but quickly lost that afterward), and her metabolism went from feeling cold all the time to being a super woman that can do housework for 10 hours a day non stop. One of my friend didn't get any care after giving birth, and she is now feeling cold all the time, seizure, and have many hormone imbalance related issues.

In Canton there were the pig knuckle and egg boiled in ginger and rice vinegar. In Taiwan there will be pork liver soup (for the iron), red kidney bean and date soup with unrefined brown sugar, chicken soup with sesame oil and rice wine reduction (3 to 1), in Northern China it would be sweet rice and read bean porridge, carp fish soup, etc.



In the area we live there are lots of choices, taste testing of the menu, etc we can try. The commonality is as others said the food that keep your metabolism up, anti inflammatory, balance the hormone, regulate the bleeding, breast milk production, etc. These kind of food is on the mild to super yang side of the scale and can give normally high metabolic people nose bleed, blister, thirst, etc. You heard about chicken soup warming your heart, it is the same theory.

One of the vendor I've tried out:

http://www.liu-mama.com/?lang=en

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: copperlocks1
..if she does breast feed limit cabbage broccoli family,garlic,because it makes the milk less palatable for baby

Part of the point of breast feeding is that the milk has a different flavour depending on the mother's diet, so the baby doesn't get used to monoflavour, and become a toddler that only eats potatoe mash (or similar).

I wouldn't put soy anywhere near a newborn, IMO it's the same as starting them on solids at day 1..soy is a solid., just as pureed carrot is.

 

[cbear]

My great aunt pulled me aside at my wedding and said "I have one piece of advice, disposable diapers". She had 11 kids, so I listened.

My daughter is 14 months now, and #2 will be here in April.

We have the Muchkin Arm & Hammer diaper pail, and it works great. The only compaint would be the price of the refill bags.

We were/will be buying Similac powder at Sam's club. Many will say start stocking up, but if you run in to an issue with sensitivity, then you'll have to replace your stockpile.

Good nutrition, no matter what the method will be beneficial for recovery. Many women will continue to take their prenatal vitamins the first month after giving birth.

 

[Silk]

My wife and I were teenagers in the '70's - so we are hippies through and through. It was homebirths,breast feeding and washing cloth nappies for 4 kids. One major concession was getting an automatic washing machine after using a wringer job for our first born - but then the next 2 were babies on a rain water tank, so water conservation was a way of life. After that it was homeschooling for the 4 of them. The hard option always seems to be our first choice.

 

[buickman50401]

Spend money on the name brand diapers for the "overnight" style. Use whatever generic house brand works best for all other times of day. Buy a couple of small packages of different house brand diapers to find what works best/doesn't cause a rash. My son can't wear the Walmart ones, but does fine with Target's and our regional grocery chain's house brand (HyVee) works best.

Get a diaper champ. Empty it every other day and you'll have no odor issues.

And finally as for the post partum special recovery meals.

My opinion of Eastern "medicine" is very low compared against actual science based medicine. Regardless, do whatever will give you and your wife warm fuzzy feelings, but remember if she's breast feeding whatever she's eating, the baby is going to be getting a dose of it too, so don't go too hog-wild with ginseng, potions, and the Colonels 11 secret herbs & spices.


From the site you posted of one of the vendors you're considering.
http://www.liu-mama.com/?page_id=1117&lang=en#3

Quote:

3. Why are you so expensive?

We are not expensive. $1688 gets you 3 meals a day for 30 days. That’s 90 meals! That’s less than $19 per meal!


I can think of a lot better ways to put to use $1700 when having a newborn especially since that $1700 is going to be blown just on 30 days of meals for mommy.

 

[greenjp]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Wife said disposable only, because she is concerned about pathogen in cloth diaper services (shared fabric, washed), and due to her wrist injury from work she will not want to wash diapers. I see plastic disposable diapers and 6000 produce bags in rolls in my future.

Really, if you have a diaper champ/genie/etc it's unnecessary to put every diaper into it's own produce bag. The diapers themselves can be rolled up tight and sealed with their own little sticky tabs (you'll figure it out), with ones that are just wet this is pretty much enough to allow them to go into the regular trash. The rest just throw into the genie and empty on trash day.

As for the diet, my guess is that those Eastern blends of various things came about back in a time when food was more scarce and less diverse than it is nowadays. And they didn't have vitamins (as somebody else said, your wife should continue taking her pregnancy vitamins). Do whatever works for you guys but take the claims with a grain of salt.

jeff

 

[SteveSRT8]

Panda, one thing we never do here is scoff at Traditional Chinese medicine. Any thing that's been around that long has credibility just based on sheer time!

Your wife will have to do what works best for her and your baby.

Good luck!

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: greenjp

As for the diet, my guess is that those Eastern blends of various things came about back in a time when food was more scarce and less diverse than it is nowadays. And they didn't have vitamins (as somebody else said, your wife should continue taking her pregnancy vitamins). Do whatever works for you guys but take the claims with a grain of salt.

jeff


Also there were no dairy for calcium or hot shower back in the ancient days where we keep ourselves from catching cold.

She'll still take multi vitamin, D3, lots of milk, etc on top of these meal thingy. The main reason is the bone soup that they make seems to taste good to my wife and I am not very good at making bone soup that wife likes (she's a horrible eater during pregnancy). I don't know what these caterer do but they seems to have way of suppressing or bring out flavors that didn't turn bitter to my wife. She no longer eats rice and about 2/3 of all carb that she used to eat simply because they now taste very funny.

There are some extreme caterer that are primarily herbal doctors and pharmacy that do it the old school way (i.e. the no-shower, no cold-drinks, everything follow the medicine diet ones), but that's too hard core even for us. We'll just go with a more foodie oriented diet mainly to get her enough nutrients.

 

[PandaBear]

Other questions prenatal:

5) Has anyone's wife got a "bitterness" whenever eating carb? or certain kind of carb? Any way to eliminate it? She can no longer eat rice, squash, onion, bell pepper, sugar drinks, some bread (pizza, whole wheat bread, etc).

6) She has some neck and upper back problem that makes her uncomfortable sleeping on her side, but her lower back feel pain if she doesn't sleep on the side, any recommendation?

7) When to buy baby girl clothes and how many sets? How do we know what size to get?

 

[buickman50401]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Other questions prenatal:

5) Has anyone's wife got a "bitterness" whenever eating carb? or certain kind of carb? Any way to eliminate it? She can no longer eat rice, squash, onion, bell pepper, sugar drinks, some bread (pizza, whole wheat bread, etc).

Not much you can do other than not eat it. My wife is 11 weeks along with our second kid and just like the first, the smell of pork products and some fish make her want to retch.

Quote:

7) When to buy baby girl clothes and how many sets? How do we know what size to get?

Buy second hand for the first 6 to 12 months. Garage sales, consignment stores, Goodwill, http://www.onceuponachild.com/ , etc. They grow so fast buying new is a waste particularly for the onesies and other undergarments.

Tip for in the future. I'm not sure how it is with girls clothes, but the vast majority of mass market boy's infants and particularly toddlers clothes are apparently made for fat kids. My son who is 2 1/2 has had problems with clothes fitting since he hit 18 months. He's in the 25th percentile for weight and head size (he only weighs 30lbs), but the 85 percentile for height meaning he's very tall and very skinny (and often mistaken for a 4 year old because of his height, lack of "baby fat" and that he isn't sporting a melon that looks too big for his body).

If your kid runs on the skinny side look into Carter's brand clothes as they run on the tall skinny side. Baby Gap also runs on the slim side. http://www.carters.com/ JcPenny's and Younkers carry them. http://www.childrensplace.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/home_10001_10001_-1 is also another good place for cheap clothes when they have their sales.

Also when purchasing pants look for ones with adjustable waists. The problem we run into right now is our son is in a 3T length but a 2T waist size. The adjustable one's are the only ones that fit as the regular 3Ts fall off of him. Target is starting to carry more adjustable pants and Levi's are now almost always adjustable along with Carters and Baby Gap.

 

[copperlocks1]

I agree that a variety of foods are important..but from OUR experience ..those were the foods that made our babies bloated with flatus and very fussy..trust me... our family eats All plants and animals available for consumption with no exceptions...SOY formula is recommended for hyper allergenic babies..the proteins are easier to assimilate than milk proteins..Have you ever dealt with a pre-mature baby??

 

[The_Jeff]

Don't get much 0-3 or even 3-6 month; kids grow out of those sizes so fast. They're stretchy but that only goes so far. Also you will be given "cute" small sizes by everyone under the sun then fending for yourselves when the kid is slightly older.