Current mood: contemplative
Mia has always had a good way of letting me know when she likes or doesn't like something. This is especially evident when its meal time. If you feed her something she really likes, for example fresh blueberries, she kicks, dances with her arms, and makes this grunting noise in her high chair to let me know she wants more. Its the complete opposite when she doesn't like something, for example watermelon. She will throw her head back, or shake her head no, and just play with the food rather than eat it.
Recently I have noticed she has started refusing to drink her formula. She will drink alittle bit then either hand the bottle back to me, or throw it at me. Yes I get covered in formula all the time. Over the past few months, I noticed her formula intake become less and less as time went on. Before she would be able to throw back a 10 oz bottle like nothing.. then it became 8oz, 6 oz, then 4 and now it takes two meals with the same bottle (of course refridgerated inbetween) and she still can't even finish a 2oz bottle! I was alittle concerned about this but then I realized.... maybe she is getting what she needs and is full from the food I feed her?
I realized that when I started her on baby food more consistantly, her bottle intake changed and stopped increasing and once I transitioned her fully to table food her bottle intake became practically nill and she is eating a whole lot more.
For anyone know whos me, knows how obessed I am with feeding her good healthy food. She NEVER eats sweets or junk food, and I keep her "processed food" intake to a bare minimum. Though I don't live by the 4 food group chart myself (though I really should) I make sure Mia does. Here is her daily menu to give you an example...
Morning/Breakfast:
a medium bowl of Wheat Oatmeal (grains)
Half a banana (fruit)
A small cup of organic plain sugar/fat-free yogart mixed with fresh strawberries (dairy)
and a 2 oz bottle of formula (that she no longer finishes)
Lunch:
Homemade boiled beans (Salt-free), with organic pasta, and dash of cheese (Iron, Calcium, Carbs. and Dairy) (She eats this everday unless its her "egg/green bean day")
1 scrambled egg* (no oil used to cook the egg) (*she gets the egg only 1 a week)
A handful of steamed fresh green beans* (*once a week when she eats her egg)
A cup of fresh bluberries (Fruit)
-OR-
A cup of blended fresh strawberries (Fruit)
-OR-
A whole fresh mango (fruit)
I offer her the rest of her breakfast bottle if she didn't finish it but shes not even finishing it the second time around either!
Dinner:
Blended Boiled chicken, mixed with boiled carrots and green pepper* (if I can make it to the store to get some)
-OR-
Veggie soup made from chicken stock (I have frozen in the freezer from the previous time I cooked chicken) with carrots, pasta noddles, tomato, onion and potatoes.
-OR-
Homemade baked sweet potato fries (I bake the fries with olive oil, a dash of ginger and cinnimon)
-OR-
Mac and Cheese (baby food jar, which is the only baby food I give her unless we are away from home during meal time)
1 whole avocado (straight from the husk) (fruit)
The second half of the banana (from the morning) (fruit)
and depending on what kind of fruit she had for lunch I will give her a different kind either a cup of strawberries, or bluberries, or mango (fruit)
She drinks almost 8oz of water throughout the day from her sippy cup. And in very special and rare occasions she will have a juice box drink, which she sort of likes but isn't a fan of juice.
So now I know why she isn't drinking her formula. At first I was worried since she wasn't drinking it maybe she wasn't getting the vitamins or stuff she needed, but Adrian and others that I consulted with said she is getting far more than enough from her daily meals that it was not a big deal that she didn't drink her formula.
So with her dwindling formula intake, coupled with the fact Mia has been using a sippy since she was 6 months old and has no comfort attachment to the bottle. And the fact that last night was the first night in Mia history she didn't have a night time (before bed) bottle, I am seriously thinking of retiring her bottle altogether.
She will be 1 this Saturday so she is old enough to toss the bottle away anyways... she is already doing that since she throws it at me now and races to her sippy cup of water haha
The new challenge is what about whole milk? I have been thinking about that alot. She is at the age where she can transition to milk now but I am not sure how to do it. I am thinking that since I have graduated her to a bigger sippy cup (8oz) I will probably use the old 4 oz sippy as her "milk" cup so she can associate the big one with water and little one with milk. I think that is the best way, since introducing her to milk in a bottle might not go so well since she doesn't care for her bottle anymore. Transitioning to full sippy just might be good timing for transitioning to whole milk too. I will have to see about that. What concerned me is what if she didn't drink alot of milk? I mean when she uses her sippy, unless she is really thirsty, she doesn't chug it to much. She drinks alittle here and there just to quench her thirsty. With water that is fine, it can be left out all day, but milk can't. It spoils fast.... which is why I think I should stick with the smaller sippy and give it to her after meals while she is in the high chair, or maybe feed it to her by a straw (a new thing she now does). I don't know we will see how it goes...
So ya, I think its time we say bye-bye to her bottle. Its another sad thing for me, only because thats the last thing she uses that she used as a baby newborn other than her crib and changing table. It is almost as sad as when I finally had to stop breastfeeding (her choice not mine... another thing she self weened haha) She is growing up so fast I just can't believe it. Sigh..... anyways I will keep everyone posted on how it goes. In my opinion if I take away the bottle now, I seriously doubt Mia will miss it, she will probably not even notice its gone! haha
