Podcast

starting solids at 19 weeks

Starting solids at 19 weeks with Cassidy Mason | S2 Ep37

Starting solids at 19 weeks! That’s the spoiler alert for this week’s episode of Sense by Meg Faure. It’s a big milestone and this past week, Max started solids. The good news? He is loving exploring new flavours and textures. The bad news? It’s a MESS 🙂

Meg & Cass talk about the when, where, what & why of weaning based on the science-based research in the Weaning Sense and Allergy Sense books. Cass has made a personal decision to start Max on more bitter green veggies as first foods and discusses her choice with Meg. The mums also take a moment to explore the variety of recipes within Parent Sense app, some of which are a perfect fit for Cass’s choices.

Weaning on the go

They also talk about travelling and weaning. Cass & Alex are taking Max on his first ever holiday next week and Cass has some ideas of how she’s going to manage it all on the go. Meg also share some handy tips for travelling with a little one who’s weaning. She also shares with Cass that it’s a good time to start combining flavours with each other and the pace that new combinations and foods should be introduced to prevent or avoid allergies.

Cass also shares some of her concerns with Meg about Max displaying signs of reflux. She explains that he’s sick after every day milk feed and possets regularly until his next feed. She asks Meg about formula thickeners. Meg also warns moms against formula hopping & how best to use the thickener to prevent severe posseting.

Mom life!

Listen to the end to hear these mums get candid about the hard days, the long days & how to handle them. They share a laugh about the respite Cass is looking forward to when they travel to England so Max can meet his grandparents.

Listen for all of this and more on today’s episode.

Guests on this show

Cassidy Mason

Cassidy Mason

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Starting Solids at 19 weeks

Intro

Welcome to Sense by Meg Faure, the podcast that’s brought to you by Parent Sense the app that takes guesswork out of parenting. If you are a new parent, then you are a good company. Your host, Meg Faure is a well-known OT infant specialist and the author of eight parenting books. Each week, we are going to spend time with new moms and dads just like you to chat about the week’s wins, the challenges and the questions of the moment. Subscribe to the podcast, download the Parent Sense App and catch Meg here every week to make the most of that first year of your little one’s life. And now meet your host.

Meg: Welcome back moms and dads. This is your weekly dose of Sense by Meg Faure and each week, as you know, I’m joined by a mum and it is usually Cassidy. And we have been following Max’s journey from maternity, he was born just 19 weeks ago, and it has been an amazing journey. And I think for both Cass and I, one of the things that struck us has been how common many of the threads are that mums are feeling around each week. So we’ve been through the 17 week sleep progression. We’ve been through the very distractible feeding stage. We have been through the challenge over tummy time. We’ve been through sleep distractions and all sorts of feeding questions as well. And so here we are at 19 weeks and he’s kind of approaching where he will be starting solids. I think maybe even has started this week.

Cass: He has started this week. Yeah, he has. And actually from that side of things, the solid they’re going really well. He really enjoys feeding time. Two days ago, I think it was, his high chair arrived for us to start feeding him in. So he absolutely loves being able to sit in his high chair and he’s never had anything that he can sort of, you know, sit up right in and that’s all he’s wanted to do. So, yeah, he just loves it. And actually today he had…The second time we’d tried broccoli actually, and he had a full this time. I’ve now got a full bib that he wears with sleeves and everything, and it’s actually made it so much more enjoyable because I’m not worrying about anything. I’m just like, yep, it can go absolutely everywhere.

Meg: Absolutely.

Cass: He loves it. Absolutely loves it.

Meg: So when we last spoke, you said you were thinking about starting them on broccoli. Did you choose to start around broccoli on something else?

Cass: So, actually I ended up starting him on green beans just because it was the day before I was planning to do it. The options I had in this article that I’d read were green beans, spinach, broccoli, and something else. And I only had green beans, so I thought, oh, well, that’s what you’re starting with. And he actually loved green beans. Broccoli, the first time didn’t go so well, he didn’t seem to love that. Avocado, he didn’t seem to love avocado initially. We’re going to try that a second time. But the broccoli, the second time, he really loved him, like had his mouth open, waiting for more to come. And so, yeah, it’s a definitely prove, and to me that it’s really important if they reject possibly the first time that doesn’t mean they’re not going to like it. You just try again a few days later and it’s a completely different experience.

Meg: Yeah. And you know he’s a social butterfly, as we know. And so he’s got quite a high threshold for sensory information. So he probably will take to things quite readily. So for him it was only two exposures, but for those moms who listening, who’ve got a slow to react little one, it can be up to 14 exposures. We talk about so everything from seeing and then smelling and then touching and then putting in their mouth and spitting out the then eventually only actually taking to eat it. And so it can really take time and moms doesn’t fear that I just keep exposing and they do eventually take to it.

Cass: Yeah, exactly. And I think as you sort of want that joyous experience, and then when you do have the thing where they look like they’re not enjoying it, you think, oh, maybe I should just…I can see how tempting it is to go to sort of fruits and things that,  sweeter fruits that maybe have a higher fructose level. I can’t remember one of the ones that had a higher…Obviously there’s a lot of the sweet potatoes and all of those sorts of things, which are perfect, but there’s one fruit, and I can’t remember, that everyone starts, that lots of people sort of, are in the old baby foods that…

Meg: Probably banana.

Cass: I’m not sure, but it’s very, very high fructose and obviously…

Meg: Or Apple, yeah.

Cass: And the joy that you have from your child having that is something I’ve often thought, oh, I just want to see him loving some sweet stuff. But, you know, I’ve sort of made my personal decision to go down this journey and we’ll see how it goes. I’ll probably give up after a few, but for now I’m trying.

Meg: So you haven’t done any squash or starchy type vegetables. You’ve only done the leafy green veggie?

Cass: I’ve done potato, but not sweet potato. He didn’t seem to love that. But I think that was a texture thing. I think I possibly should have added a little bit more breast milk to the potato. Plus the other thing actually that I think is interesting is when I did potato, I had less time, and one thing I have learned is I’ve got to just know that it’s going to be very messy and very long and not try and rush that. If that means I try and keep it consistent every day of the time, but I feel like it’s a little bit better to change the time so that I’ve got more time than to keep a consistent time. I don’t know if you would agree.

Meg: Yeah. So out of interest, what time of day are you feeding her?

Cass: So, about 12; between 12 and 1 o’clock depending on when his late morning feed was.

Meg: That’s excellent, yeah.

Cass: He usually eats about 11:30 and then I try and feed him say 12/12:30

Meg: That’s spot on. So that’s exactly the time we recommend babies have their first solids. And the reason for that is we want them to have it after they’ve had a milk feed and not first thing in the morning and not last thing at night. And you know, sometimes you’ll hear babies being advised or mum’s being advised to feed their babies supper as their single meal, because I don’t know it makes them sleeper at night or anything like that, but actually baby’s thresholds are so much lower at least part of the afternoon that actually, it usually doesn’t go well. So the time that you have chosen anywhere between 11 and 1 after the late morning feed is exactly spot on the right time. So that’s when to do it. You know, I think just going through the what, where and when, and the principles that we use in Weaning Sense. So, the when is exactly when you have done it, which is at about between 11 and 1 o’clock, and then, when they’re ready to take a second meal, we move up the morning meal, we move that meal to your breakfast meal and keep that meal going as well. So then you have a breakfast and lunch, and then later on you can introduce a supper. So that’s where we usually do it.

In terms of the where, in a high chair, spot on exactly what you’ve done and preferably in the kitchen for now, or in the dining room. So, you know, having a consistent space, and as you’ve said, it’s terribly messy. And so having something like a kind of a black bag or refuse bag, actually underneath the high chairs, also a really good idea, because it can get really, really messy.

Cass: Yeah, I’ve put a sheet underneath and he sits…I actually have him at the dining room table because I sit and have my lunch at the same time. So he’s seeing me eat at the same time.

Meg: Such a good idea, because then that’s your social eating coming in, which is really, really super. So that’s very clever that you’ve done that. And in the watch, in Weaning Sense, we actually do recommend the starchy veggies, which is butternut, sweet potato gem squash, courgette, which I think I mentioned last week.

Cass: He loved courgettet. He absolutely loved courgette.

Meg: Oh, courgette is a great starter food. And, you know, it’s interesting that you said you’ve introduced Avo, which by the way, and I imagine mentioned last week has the closest replication to breast milk of any food, because it’s got, it’s got fats as well as proteins and carbohydrates, which for instance, there’s no other vegetable that you’ve given him so far that has fats in it. So what quite a nice idea to do with Avo is to actually start meshing some ever into any, whatever vegetables you give him, because what you’re doing then is that you’re combining the other flavor with the vegetable and the, and then you are also getting the fats into carbohydrates. So it’s a really nice mix. So that is something I recommend.

And then, yeah, I think not being fastidious about having to keep flavors completely separate. I know that there’s some theories that say keep flavor separate, but actually we recommend starting to mix it up quite early. And that’s one of the ways that we get fruit in because you know, fruit obviously do want to get it in, but I think what you’re trying to avoid in what you’re talking about is that, you know, that they won’t take vegetables because they only lack the sweetness of fruit. So starting to bring fruit in, into the vegetable meals as well is quite a nice idea as well.

Cass: Yeah. So we’re actually, we’re going to England next week. So, that’s going to be an interesting new challenge is doing all of this out of the comfort of our home and on the move and that sort of thing. But so, I’ve ordered some to my parents in-law’s house, I’ve ordered some ice cube tray holders with lids, so that when I arrive, I can actually make a batch of things. And then just take those if I’m on the go. So, just put in a frozen one in the in the bag, map a bag and that will defrost while we’re out and about. But one of the things I am going to just start mixing; the different vegetables or fruits and flavors and things like that, and to start introducing some combos as well.

Meg: Quite a nice idea to do with that is actually make a batch of…And I’m not talking about when you’re travelling , but just in general, on a Sunday of whatever you’re making up for the week, so make it in bulk. So make butternuts, or green beans, whatever you’ve got into one of your ice trays, and then when you pop those out, just put them in as a Ziploc bag, freeze and just say, you know, whatever date it was and then to actually start mixing those up together, because then you’ve actually got batches that last you for long term. So, I mean, instead of doing very small quantities of butternut, you have a whole butternut being done, and start to mix them that way, which is quite a nice idea.

Cass: Yeah, I really like the Ziploc bag actually, because that’s exactly it. I’ve made quite large quantities, but I didn’t, maybe it’s my brain being a baby brain, I didn’t even think about taking them out of the ice cube and putting them in the Ziploc bag and then reuse. I was like, oh, I have to finish these ice cube chase and make…

Meg: No, no.

Cass: …another one, which of course, would never have been too difficult for my brain to work out.

Meg: Well, that is a really good idea. And the other thing, if you’re on the go, I mean, we all have to have emergency foods for when we’re on the go. Quite a nice emergency combo, if you are like in a mad rush and you’re not going to be anywhere near a microwave or being able to kind of melt or heat up any food is to take a banana and an avocado. And the combination of banana and avocado is absolutely fabulous. First of all, babies do love it. And second of all, it’s got just the most incredible nutrients in it as a combination. And of course it’s in a skin, so you don’t have to worry about having it protected. So, you know, just quickly grabbing an Avo and a banana or a great identity, just mashing them with a fork in the restaurant where you are. And then also just taking…I used to take little cubes of cream cheese with me so that if I wanted to get some protein into the vegetables, which I know you haven’t have proteins and dairy going in, but in the next month or so you will have. And then, you can actually just kind of take up cream cheeses and you unpeel of foil or whatever, and just pop it into your veggies. And again, like cream cheese and courgette was one of my kid’s favorite.

Cass: Lovely, yeah.

Meg: Have you had a look at the recipes inside the app out of interest?

Cass: What I’ve meant to do and previously, in fact, I’m going to get the app now. I used to get a popup saying, have you started solids?  But that hasn’t come up yet. So

Meg: I go to your solid screen, let’s take you through it. So if you go to the feed screen, at the top of the feed screen, you’ll see a little toggle, currently it’ll say milk, and if you toggle across, it will go bright green and say solids.

Cass: Oh yes. Okay, it’s started with solids.

Meg: There you go. And then you can start, you actually plug in his date and what’s quite nice about it, it’s very, very scientifically worked out. The algorithm basically is worked out according to what Kat Macgol, who’s the pediatric dietician who advises on the app and the allergist who wrote Allergy Sense, is really according to what we say should happen in terms of how quick introduction should be. And so we actually go through the varieties of food at the right pace to prevent allergies. And so if you go through and if you have a look in today, you’ll probably see there’s already two meals in there for him if you’ve put in the correct date of when you started.

Cass: Oh, just to work out which date I started. Oh, I have no idea what day it is even maybe.

Meg: I think you started on about the 27th.

Cass: Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right.

Interlude
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Meg: So if you plug on that, then you’ll be able to actually pick up exactly what recipes you’ll be ready to eat. And then all the recipes are in there when you tap on one. So how many recipes do you see for today, Cass?

Cass: One.

Meg: One. So he’s still on one. So, and the reason for that, so that’s quite cool because one it’s showing you is that because you started earlier with him, so started 17 weeks, we introduc the solids quite slowly. And if a mom has introduced solids at let’s say 23 weeks, her introduction will be much more rapid. And so we actually work at that for you. The app actually works in that for you is how many meals and then actually what combinations and you’ll see in yours, you’ve probably got some carrot there. You’ve probably got some butternuts, you may even have some sweet potato recipes in there. Oh,

Cass: Oh, there’s a green veggie mix with avocado there.

Meg: Yes, exactly. That’s such a super one. I believe that that one’s got the green veggie mix, got avocado and courgette, or something.

Cass: Yes, it does.

Meg: What are the ingredients that, that one’s got in it.

Cass: That one’s got potato, avocado, courgette, and peas or beans.

Meg: Lovely. So that’s a really yummy combo. That’s he probably already love already. Yeah. In fact, it’s everything you’ve done individually. We do believe in introducing combos quite early on and not sticking to single varieties, just in terms of exposure. I’m sure I’ve told you before that you get a window period in which exposure is readily accepted and it closes at about nine months. It just is at nine months they can become a little bit more stuck in their ways, and so that’s why we try and get in as many varieties as possible in the early days. So between now and nine months, we we’d want to get everything in.

Cass: Yeah. That’s actually really good to know because sometimes that will help encourage me to not be lazy. And when I’m feeling a bit tired, think, oh, it’s fine, he had broccoli yesterday, but he can have it against today because I don’t want to do that. And it’s nice to have a reason, to know why.

Meg: Yeah. Well of course, if you’ve frozen some broccoli from…You know, if you did big [inaudible 15:05] broccoli yesterday, you don’t need to use it today because if you had that courgette and it sweet potato down from a few days ago, then you can just make up what we’ve got on the recipe today. So the other thing that you can do on there is you can add all the ingredients into your shopping list for the week as well.

Cass: Yeah. I saw that. That’s amazing. And the images are beautiful. They’re so lovely.

Meg: Yes. So the images were taken by Donna Crous. She’s a very well-known food photographer actually in the UK.

Cass: I have recipe book.

Meg: Do you have a recipe book? I’m actually going to have her on the podcast, that’s A Healthier Family for Life. I think it’s called Jar. And it’s just a fabulous recipe book looking at all the healthiest ways to feed your families. And so she’s a food photographer who took all those gorgeous pictures for me, which is really cool.

Cass: Yeah. So, but interestingly talking of the feeding, solids have been fine, but particularly in the last 48 hours, I’m really, really struggling with…Not that he’s refusing milk because I know you mentioned that that might happen. He’s actually being really sick. But just on his milk feeds and as though reflux is in play only during the day, at night, he’s not sick at all. And he will quite often do a very big sick straight after I’ve fed him, and then he will consistently posit quite acidic, smelling sick until his next feed almost. And that is becoming…

Meg: That’s new.

Cass: …really hard work and quite tough. In fact, that was an amusing moment in hindsight this morning when he’d consistently been sick pretty much every time you move. So even if he’s sitting up, if I then put him lying down or if he’s lying down, I pick him up or if I want to do row, row, row your boat or anything like that, it’s sort of I’m getting to the point where I think I want to avoid it because it makes, he seems to be sick with any movement. And this morning I sat him up after his late morning feed and he was really sick and I just burst out crying because I was like, oh my God, can’t I feed my baby. I just want him, especially as we’ve had this weight issue. And he just looked at me and laughed as I cried.

Meg: So Cass, that’s quite unusual. I mean a couple of things; his weight gain has really improved, hasn’t it?

Cass: It has. So we saw the pediatrician yesterday. They didn’t weigh him again because he’d only been weighed a week ago. And she said that weighing too regularly can give incorrect sort of concerns.

Meg: Yes. I agree. Completely agree with that.

Cass: Yeah. So we’re weighing him again at the beginning of March. So months after he was last weighed, but the last time he was weighed, he had put on 400 grams in just over a week.

Meg: Yeah. So that was a lot, that’s an enormous amount for his age that you wouldn’t normally put on that much. So, yeah I think I would potentially just follow up with your doctor just around the positing because I think if it’s really that extreme, it’s very interesting that suddenly come up.

Cass: Yeah. I mentioned it to the pediatrician and she sort of…I think this is my frustration at the moment and I’m sure possibly a lot of mums who have had bigger babies feel this; that you look at him and he looks a really healthy baby and I’ve had so many doctors and he’s so smiley. We’ve had the doctors always say, oh, he’s really happy, he’s got chunky thighs, there’s nothing to worry about. And my mother gut is telling me there is something not quite right, because he is not being able to keep down a feed in the day. Interestingly, he is at night, nights are much better, but we have done a couple of things. We’ve changed, his feed is now before his bath, the majority of his feed, and so he is only having a tiny, tiny couple of ounces after bath, before bed only really because he’s used to having something before bed. So, that’s the only reason we’re giving him anything, otherwise it would all be before the bath.

Meg: And he doesn’t posit it in the bath, he doesn’t posit on that feed?

Cass: Nope, he doesn’t.

Cass: Interesting.

Cass: And then he is going down, he wakes a little bit, but now, completely self-settles, no dummy, which is the last week we were talking about the dummy. And he doesn’t need the dummy. One evening I went in and did a resettle, walked out the room, no cuddle, sort of cuddle and cry type method. And since then, we haven’t used the dummy now for three nights in a row. And then he’s doing a sleeping through till one or two and doing a feed then, and then sleeping all the way through till the morning. Although, we do hear him at five o’clock having a play for half an hour in his cot, and then he goes back to sleep for an hour.

Meg: Well, trust, so this is a huge thing. And this is a huge thing because as I told you last week that all the research points to five to seven months is when we’ve got to get them self-settling and he’s heading in that direction, which is awesome, absolutely brilliant.

Cass: Yeah. So, and the other thing we’ve actually, the other change we’ve made that dramatically improved and this is why I think it might be reflux is we’ve raised the top legs of his cot. So there’s two books under the back of his cot, it seemed very coincidental that after we did that, he started having great nights. Yeah, it does mean we do find him in the morning, across the bottom of the cot, and he’s really struggling to…He can’t roll onto his tummy anymore, which he used to love doing because he’s kind of uphill, but he is sleeping better. But it’s just in the day, and I keep him upright for 40 minutes after a feed. I’m trying to keep things as gentle as possible after a feed and trying everything.

Meg: Is he still on expressed breast milk?

Cass: He’s on a combination now.

Meg: Of expressed and formula, but he’s still on bottles. You’re not breastfeeding him, right?

Cass: Yeah, on bottles.

Meg: Yeah. So you could try a thickner, but again, you would actually need to speak to your Ped, I think, and you know, thickness can work really, really nicely for co-moms who are bottle feeding. It just thickens it up a little bit and keeps it down, not coming up. And I think it might be worth looking at with your doctor.

Cass: Yeah. So, because actually it’s funny. Say I was on Google looking at thickeners just before I came onto the podcast because the pediatrician did mention it, say, oh, you could do this. But it was just mentioned in passing. And I noticed when I was the type of formula he has, they offer a thickener, a anti-reflux one, but it does say with medical guidance or something like that. But she mentioned, oh, you could try thickener in passing. I don’t know, do I need to go and see the GP, let them know we are going to try this or is her saying you could try a thickener in passing sufficient from a pediatrician?

Meg: Yeah, I think it’s fine. I think if she said it, as long as she said it to you. I wouldn’t recommend this is the whole thing with formula hoping and I really do discourage moms from formula hoping because it becomes a vicious cycle because as you get onto one formula, you know, maybe you change onto thick formula, the next week he’s constipated, and so now then you’ve got to stop with sticking formula and you’ve got to put him on something else. And you know, you can get into this kind of cycle of just formula hoping all the time. That’s why we like to do it with medical advice, a pediatrician or dietician’s advice. The fact that she’s recommended it, you could probably go with it. He’s not likely to become constipated or anything like that, but it just is, you know, it’s almost like always said like, and I’m not in Pandora’s box, you know, you stop moving from one thing to the next, but he only ever has been on one formula. And so this would be one single change. So, I think you could try it.

Cass: I think I’ll try the same brand, not changing brand, that sort of thing. I just want to know would you therefore…And maybe, I don’t know if this is again a pediatrician conversation, but if he’s not being sick at night,  do you stick to thicker for every feed or…?

Meg: No, not for every feed. I would just do the ones where he’s reacting. I would actually choose one that just has formula in it and see if that one makes a difference. So not in a combination when we mixed breast and formula, and just see like choose a classically bad feed where he really does do more positive than usual. Just out of interest Cass, before we talk about that and conclusively, what’s your space between feeds now and the day?

Cass: Four hours.

Meg: Okay. Yeah, that’s fine. Then I would try it, because the only reason I ask is if he was on three hourly feeds, it could be that he’s actually taking in so much that that’s why he’s positing, which does happen.

Cass: Yeah, and actually the last couple of days, he was doing sort of seven ounces of feed and he’s not really done more than five and a half the last few feeds. And I spoke to the pediatrician because the other thing I think I found really difficult is to find out for his weight. I understood for his age, how much he should be having, but that’s quite, there’s a range for every age between…I think on the app as well. And it says between five to seven ounces and you think, well, is he seven or is he five? And it was very, very difficult to work out because over a day, that’s quite a big difference.

Interlude
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Meg: It is a big difference, but the reason we make it quite a wide range is specifically to decrease anxiety in mums because some babies actually just stick to five ounces for every single feed. And if you go and have a look at the back of a formula tin, it’ll say if your baby weighs 12 kilograms, they should be on seven ounces, or whatever it is. And it makes you panic because now he’s not doing seven answers, he’s doing five. And so the idea between having a wide range actually to reduce anxiety and to rather watch the baby thrives rather than actually watching the mills on the bottle, or the ounces on the bottle. I probably would always make up on the high end first, so seven. And then if he’s consistently doing five, move it to six, but the minute he finishes a full six, then you move it back up to seven. So you always just do one serving of formula more than what he’s typically taking. So I would have him on six ounce of formula for every feed now. And he probably will take between five and six.

Cass: Yeah, he is sort of doing that and he is thriving. The interesting thing that the pediatrician also said is his head and length haven’t dropped at all in cut on the curves, but his weight has. And that’s the only thing that is, I think she sort of was saying, it would be less of a concern if they’d all dropped together, but his weight’s dropping but length and head not, but she said that and then said, but I’m not worried, I don’t need to see you again. Yeah. So

Meg: I wouldn’t be worried. I actually wouldn’t be worried. You know, I think also, and this is something that technical speaks about quite a bit and it might actually be worth having Kathryn on with you, maybe in a week or two’s time. But she always talks about the track that babies weight actually regulates itself. So you can get a baby who’s born quite small, and they actually do quite a bit of catch up over the course of the first year. And a little one like max, who was actually born quite big, you know, his birth weight was very good and he’s maybe just readjusting himself. There’s nobody in your family that is really big anyway, you all lean. And so, I think it is important to recognize that maybe he’s just adjusting to where he should be.

Cass: Yeah. And I think I absolutely agree and I would be so relaxed. I just seeing him be sick all the time and hit this smelling, this acidic smell of the sick, and it smells, it’s not like baby sick anymore. It smells like adult.

Meg: And how many days has it been?

Cass: He has been doing this for a couple of weeks on and off.

Meg: And it’s just got worse and worse and he hasn’t had a cold?

Cass: No, but the interesting thing is some days will be worse and then the it’ll be he’ll be fine. He’ll barely be sick. And then he’ll have a few days of being really sick. I don’t know if that when he feeds with the nanny, sometimes he’s not sick at all, but yesterday he was quite sick with the nanny, and then today with me, he’s being really sick. So,  yeah, I don’t know, and he’s done two poo. I’m not worried about him being constipated because he’s done two poos before lunchtime today.

Meg: Okay. Yeah. So he’s doing well.

Cass: So yeah, but it is. I mean, today I have to say one of the things I really felt I just had to do was pouring with rain and it’s a typical English day where it’s gray and drizzly and horrible, but I just felt, I just can’t do this. I have to get out. And I walked for over an hour in full water, poops in the rain. I fell over on my way out the house and I looked ridiculous with all my layers and everything. But I just thought though, I’m having one of those days, which all mums have. My son has already laughed at me crying. Let’s just go, get out and walk the streets. And of course that’s good for him as well because he day-sleeps in his cot he’s still not doing more than 40 minutes, but in the pram he’ll do two hours. So that was another reason to get out. But getting out and getting some fresh air does a huge amount for your mental health, even in the pouring rain.

Meg: Absolutely. Well, very good point in the podcast, and that’s exactly what we should be doing, getting out when you need to getting some exercise, getting through the tough days. I mean, it’s incredible how many tough questions come up each week with him, even though he’s a smooth sailing, thriving little boy, but always a question.

Cass: I absolutely have the utmost respect and admiration for mums who have…

Meg: Real challenges.

Cass: Yeah, because I find some of the days when Alex walks through the door, I just think I find myself desperate in the last half an hour. Sometimes thinking, my God, this has been such a tough day and I don’t have a very difficult baby at all.

Meg:  I know. No I remember that feeling very well. And then when Philip got home, 15 minutes late, I was ready to slap him. I’ve only prepped myself to get to half past five, not quarter to six.

Cass: Exactly we have…It sounds awful, but we have that find my friends. I regularly at about five o’clock start tracking Alex.

Meg: Oh my word. And you know, Cass it doesn’t end unfortunately, you know. When you’ve got a two-year-old; I can remember two years old every Friday evening, even though I don’t believe in the food one little bit, but I used to take the kids down to McDonald’s because I couldn’t…It was the end of the week, and I didn’t know how to actually piece together the rest of the week if I didn’t actually get them out of the house and get myself out of the house. So, I mean you’re in good company.

Cass: Yeah.

Meg: But, Cass, thank you so much for the chat today, very interesting, all around feeding and yeah, it was good to chat. So we’ll catch up again next week.

Cass: Yes. When we chat next week, we will be in the middle of our first ever holiday   with Max, so…

Meg: And I’m sure his grandparents on the other side are going to be super excited to meet him properly.

Cass: Yes. I can’t wait. They’ll want loads of cuddles and lots of time with him.

Meg: Give you a little bit of respite, wonderful.

Cass: All right. Thanks very much, Meg.

Meg: Thanks very much, Cass. Have a good week. Bye

Outro
Thanks to everyone who joined us, we will see you the same time next week. Until then,   download the Parent Sense App, and take the guesswork out of parenting.

 

 

Meg faure

Meg Faure

Hi, I’m Meg Faure. I am an Occupational Therapist and the founder of Parent Sense. My ‘why’ is to support parents like you and help you to make the most of your parenting journey. Over the last 25 years, I’ve worked with thousands of babies, and I’ve come to understand that what works for fussy babies works just as well for all babies, worldwide.