Mommy Fail #6

I have been excited about feeding Oliver real food since he was two months old.  If nothing else, the promise of him “sleeping through the night,” m ade me giddy with excitement. When I couldn’t take it anymore, at 3 months and one week I put a tablespoon of rice cereal in his night bottle and settled in for what I thought was going to be my best night sleep since even before pregnancy!  Well, not so freaking much! He was up every three hours that night ravenous.  Stubborn I tried the same routing two more nights in row, still no sleeping through the night.  At that point I gave up and went back to just nursing him, and hoped that month four, when I could introduce solid foods, would bring me more luck…

When we took Oliver in for his 4-month well baby check up I could hardly wait to ask if he was teething and could we give him real food.  I was delighted when we got a yes to both questions.  Our pediatrician said give him organic veggies first and handed me a sheet with instructions on what to feed, when and how much.  I slipped that sheet in the diaper bag and off we went to the store for organic veggies.

Hubs and I decided that we (hubs) would try to make all of Oliver’s food so we could control exactly what was in his baby food.  However for his first few feedings we thought we would try the new flavors out on him before making big batches that we may have to throw away.  We picked up peas, carrots, squash and pears- all rated organic and four months+. 

Without further adieu, I will just list all of my screw-ups over the last two days.

  1. Not COMPLETELY reading the sheet the doctor gave us before feeding Oliver.  Had I read it, I would have stooped feeding him WAY before I did.  It was my mother in-law watching through Skype who said, “you may want to stop feeding him the peas now. You need to see how he is going to digest it.”  My friends the thought never crossed my mind.  My little guy loved the peas, why should I stop him? 

Oliver had one tablespoon too much on his first feeding. He screamed with gas pain for an hour after and didn’t poop for 24 hours.  EPIC FAIL!

  1. I gave him peas… peas give gas.  It was MY mother this time that told me that peas are probably not the best first choice.  She said to give him green beans because they produce much less gas. Thanks Mom, where were you before his first feeding! And why didn’t the doctor say that?  There should be a standard first food that is best to test on their digestive system. Other than rice cereal.

  1. The sheet from the doctor said feed baby twice a day at first and work up to three times a day.  So the next morning, still unaware of the peas not being the best first choice or knowing he was stopped up, I got the jar of peas out again.

(Oh, a side note apparently you are supposed to stick to the same food for the first few days to test for allergy and digestion.)

Back to the peas- He was not at all interested this time. He locked his lips and that was that! I thought ok, “you don’t like re heated peas.  I’ll just put them a side and get you some rice cereal.”

  1. The best fail of them all… Not reading the instructions FOR A SECOND TIME! I thought the rice cereal preparations required 3-4 ounces of breast milk to 1 tablespoon of rice cereal. I think this is a perfect example of how sleep deprived I am.  The hubs comes strolling out of bed, looks at the cereal concoction I’ve just made and said, “that doesn’t look right.”  He grabs the box and informs me its 3-4 tablespoons of milk not 3-4 ounces.  I just grab the box back, dump more in and head for Oliver. EPIC FAIL!


PLEASE!!!  Learn from me. When it comes to feeding your baby, slow down, read the instructions and start off slow.  Your baby has the rest of their life to eat.  

Two confused parents=One amused baby Hopelessly we are trying raise a baby who is clearly smarter than both of us. April is an award-winning writer and blogger. Her work has been published in over ten countries and four languages. From books to newspapers, to print/online magazines and everything in between, you can find her work. For more on April, Visit AprilMcCormick.com