10 Months Old
After such a fantastic month 9 where Rosie was really getting to grips with everything, this month she got ill. When babies get ill they lose their appetites really quickly and it can take them some time to recover it. Having been so used to her eating everything and anything this month it has been hard to see her reject the things she would normally enjoy.
Rosie was diagnosed with a viral infection but having a weakness (inherited from my side of the family) in the lungs she has been very wheezy with a nasty cough. She sounds like she smokes 20 a day!!! As you can imagine sleep has been extremely disturbed. After finally getting her to sleep through the night I have really struggled with the lack of sleep and the number of breast feeds she’s wanted.
You may notice if your baby gets ill that they tend to eat lots of fruit and increase their need for milk feeds. This is perfectly normal so try not to worry. They may drop a little weight but again that is quite normal. It can take babies a few weeks to recover their appetite after being ill.
Aside from the illness we have still had a number of outings including our annual baby led weaning picnic plus a visit to the local pub for a meal out. It was quite amazing to see how Rosie ate her pub meal so nicely from her bowl compared to her older brother who still prefers to make the biggest mess ever when he eats. One of the down sides (if the only) is that children will prefer to use their hands to eat for quite some time!!!!
Since being ill Rosie’s milk have increased to around 4 a day. Sometimes she wakes early and so I give her a milk feed then (say around 5am) and then she is still getting a mid morning, mid afternoon and a bedtime feed. As her food intake starts to increase again I’ve not doubt that the milk feed will drop back to three a day or even less as she approaches 11 months old.
Up until now I have always put Rosie’s food a little at a time on her tray and then let her feed herself from there. Recently I’ve started introducing a plate or bowl of food for to help herself. The majority of the time she is pretty good with this but as you can imagine there are many occasions where the bowl or plate is turned upside down or thrown over the side. She thinks it’s a great game and will hang over the side of her high chair as if to say “look what I’ve done”!!
At the moment, after recovering from illness, Rosie’s favourite foods are fruit, (preferably cold), yoghurt, porridge and flavoured rice cakes. These are all easy for her to manage.
Rosie still has the same 6 teeth so no further progress there as yet!! It is great that she has her pincer grip though as there really is no limit of what she can manage! As soon as she is fully recovered I fully expect her to seriously stock up!!!
There’s only a couple of more posts to come before I knuckle down and write my Baby Led Weaning book. Time is going so fast, before I know it she will be 1 year old.
Best Wishes,
Julie x
If you need help with baby led weaning, why not join one of our courses. See Spring Nutrition for more information.