Foods and Book Recommendations

In the first year of life, you have to focus on the basics: eat, sleep, and poop. Today's post is a collection of the thoughts on the first of those: food.

As our LO gets older, we have started introducing him to new foods in pureed form since he's still toothless. Going into parenting, I had the impression that there would be a very specific order we had to follow rigorously to avoid food allergies.

After a little bit of research, it seems the whole idea of a specific order is out the window. The two main articles I read were: here and here.

Basically, it seems like as long as we introduce foods slowly and watch for signs of allergic reactions, we're good.

Along the same line, I just finished by Bee Wilson, First Bite.  I recommend reading this book if you are worried about food pickiness.

In it, she discusses how we learn to eat and like different foods. The best tip I got from this book was a method of introducing foods to picky eaters. In one case, she describes a woman who had one of those 4 food diets: chips, ketchup sandwiches, etc. The conflict arose when the woman got an offer to teach in Asia. The woman used a this gradual introduction method in order to expand her list of acceptable foods.

The other book was French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Billon. It's also worth a read, but its is much more focused on the French way of doing things and about Ms. Billon's family. Entertaining, but if you chose one, chose First Bite.

Another book I've added to my list from the articles above is: Hungry Monkey: A Food Loving Father's Quest to Raise and Adventurous Eater.

Floor Beds and Babyproofing

We have a floor bed for our LO, which has worked out really well for us. I wont go into the philosophy behind this, but "How We Montessori" has a good article: Here. Another blogger has THIS article with a few more examples of Montessori child rooms.

Now, we have a bit of a problem. Our guy started turning over. The other night he rolled off the bed and he has rolled himself into the corner. Don't worry, no harm done.

However, we are going to have to baby proof his room this weekend, so I've collected a few articles to help us prepare. They are posted at the bottom.

There are a lot more articles than I posted. The most important stuff is covered in the ones I did post. The trouble I'm having is the babyproofing articles are based around fear. Fear that your child is going to end up in the emergency room, or worse. I posted an article on not babyproofing as a counter point. The Montessori articles tend towards a more growth centered approach.

I think it's important to rely on principles when you do anything. First, the prime principle of parenting is to raise an independent life loving adult. To do this, the child has to survive into adulthood AND needs to learn to understand his environment. So the balance is: at our child's age, what is he capable of learning to contend with and what might get him into serious trouble.

Any parents out there with additional thoughts?

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Joyful Abode has an article titled 10 Tips for Foolproof Babyproofing. This was helpful, particularly in creating a list of most important items. (I don't like the item titled: dont be stupid. It could be relabeled, prioritize.)

This Baby Center article, Childproofing Around the House, was a little more complete. It think it is helpful, but is seems to have an checklist.
undertone of fear behind it. YMMV. They also have a

Here is a food for thought item. The Decision Not To Babyproof.

And another on the Montessori Infant Home.

How to Install a Carseat without a base

This video was very helpful. I'm putting it here for future reference.

Traveling With A Kiddo

We just got back from a week long vacation with our seven-month-old in tow. Here are a few things we learned.
 
Airlines

We flew on Southwest. Their open seating policy is still a bit of a mystery to me. Fortunately, my wife knows the ins and outs. Getting "A" boarding is important if you can pull it off. If you can’t, they’ll let you board between A and B if you have a child under 7. This was a big score for us. 

We flew with our son on our lap. It would have been nice to have the extra seat, so we’ll likely purchase a seat for him in the future. Another plus of Southwest’s open seating policy is that most people don’t want to sit next to a baby, so on one leg, there was a single vacant seat on the plane, and we ended up with that vacant seat next to us.

The airlines gate checked our stroller and accompanying car seat. It was great to be able to have the stroller with us while we were waiting for the flight to board and during our layover. Note: During our layover, there was a deluge at the airport and the car seat was soaked, so we pulled out a diaper and put it face down in the seat to soak up some of the wetness. We now understand why some people put their seats in plastic bags.

 Airports

 

If you are doing formula, people are very good about giving you hot water to make a bottle. Changing tables in the restrooms were hit or miss, and sometimes, an empty gate on the floor was a better option. The bathrooms are definitely not a place to wash bottles, you may have to get creative.

Security

Getting through security is even more of a hassle with a little one. 

To make it easier we did a few things. First, we decided to check our luggage (at the curb no less), which is not our normal practice. It was a lot easier than hauling any luggage around, but we had to be strategic about what our LO might need during the flight. Diapers, formula, etc. Second, we made sure to have the easy-to-remove shoes. I know this is kind of a given, but it's a good reminder. Last, we gave ourselves tons of time before our flight. 

Tips for next time: 

1. I would not have brought the laptop. I didn't end up using it much and it takes that one extra step during TSA. 

2. I would make sure to have enough clean bottles. 

3. Remember to put the car seat face down through the x-ray machine.

Hotels

 

My Thoughts: 

• They provided us with a PackN Play. Since our little guy was uncomfortable, he slept between us on the king sized bed.
• The hotel had hot water for tea readily available. This was great, except that it tasted a little like coffee due to an incomplete rinse. 
• Our room had a fridge and microwave. This was a definite plus for baby food and some snacks for us. 

We would might have opted for a nicer hotel in retrospect. Our LO spends lots of time on the floor at home and we didn’t like putting him on the carpet in the Choice Inn. They only provided two large towels and no extra bedding, so we didn’t have great options for letting him have some time alone on the floor.

The Buy It There (BIT) List

I got this idea from Tim Ferriss, author of the Four Hour Work Week. We packed what we needed for the first day or two and created a list of stuff to buy at the local grocery or general merchandise store.

Here was our initial list:

1. Diapers (roughly 10 per day, and we used far less)

2. Formula

3. Baby food

4. Beaudreaux's Buttpaste

5. Bottled Water

6. Bottle Brush

This was a great idea and we will repeat this again when we travel next.  

Final Thoughts

This was a successful trip. The hardest part was dealing with jet lag for both us and the LO. If you have any tips, comments are welcome.

I plan to use this a a resource for any time we travel, so I'll be updating this. Bookmark this if you want the updates.  

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Update 1: My wife consulted this website as part of our prep:
Have Baby Will Travel