Hello there,
How are you doing? Hope your babies are doing fine.

I have replied to you both on the board, 'What to feed for a 9 month old baby?'
Since I didn't see any of your response am wondering whether you guys got a chance to read that message.
Just checking/reminding!
Whatever thread you choose Let's stay in touch! Girija replied. Hi Sujatha,
Good to see your message. I know you will be busy getting ready for your big trip. OR may be you are reading this message from India! : )
Whatever it's have a blast at your daughter's Birthday celebrations!

I am also from Chennai and we are planning on going to India during November end thru december. (hoping that we will be able to get vacation at work without any problem.) I used only Lufthansa so far to fly back and forth to India. If they are not going to give bassinet, then definitely I need to check the other Airlines. My son will be completing a year this month and he will be 1 1/4 yrs old when we travel and I am not sure what else I need to look and check for while I travel.

Anyhow, Have a very nice trip and I will try to contact you thru the emails! Bye : ) Sujatha replied. Hi Girija,
Wow, It is so good to hear about your son's activities. Kids! They grow really fast and amuse us in many ways. How long your MIL is going to stay with you? What are you going to do after that? What kind of job do you do? Part-time or Full-time?

I use the playyard if I want some things to get done where I won't be able to see her for more than 5 minutes, example, taking a shower. I use it in the mornings as well. I have a crib toy which I have tied in it and she plays with it or just lie down in the play yard. It is kinda like a quiet time for her. I also have the step and play piano and I used to put her in the seat and get many things done. But now that she is standing up, she doesn't want to use the seat and so it is getting harder for me nowadays. Try to get your son used to being alone and playing alone. Start with a few minutes and then increase it. Ofcourse you will have to have an eye on him while he is playing. Just leave him with his favorite toy and just walk off. Watch him from a distance and if he is looking at you, don't look straight in his eye. As I said, a few minutes in a day like this won't hurt him and he will learn to play without company. He will also discover many new things that way.

I have been really busy packing and preparing for my trip to India. The diaper bag now has more stuff than I can ever imagine. I bought a Cantini Backpack and Oh my God, it can hold a lot of things. I am taking some organic jar food as my daughter likes only those and gags for Gerber veges. I don't want to give her fruit as the sugar may cause her to be hyperactive. It's just my theory.

I am going through Singapore Airlines as they are the only ones giving a bassinett for a 10 month old. I tried Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa etc. but none of them offered bassinett. They only offer it upto 6 months old, it seems. I don't know whether this is a recent change. You can also try and ask them when you are going. You may have some luck then. This is a very bad season to go as the rates are really high. I am going now as I will be celebrating her first birthday in India. I have heard that Singapore airlines is really a better choice as the stewardesses take care of you and the baby very well. The total journey is going to be for 40 hrs including layover and I have to manage her all alone. I have a feeling that I can manage. I will let you know how it goes and what to look for. BTW, I come from Chennai. Where are you from (in India as well as here in US)?

I will definitely be accessing the internet. But may be my messages won't be this long. You can probably contact me by email momofshreya at yahoo dot com

Keep on sharing. Girija replied. Hi Sujatha,
forgot to ask you something....
Where are you from? I mean, in India? Which Airlines are you using?

I am also planning to go to India towards end of this year. (sometime around Nov-Dec). Need to start planning for that.
Girija replied. So, you are getting ready to go on a India trip, for 2 months - good for you!. Will you be able to access internet while you are there?! Otherwise I will be missing the conversation till you come back!
Anyway, Have a great trip and enjoy as much as you can. : )

Now, coming back to our baby discussion, my son is not a 10 month old baby anymore, he has become 11 month old now!. Soon he will be a year old boy! I don't want to miss the 'baby' feelings with him you know.

Yeah, I too heard about the self-weaning process some babies start. That's what I was told that my baby might be doing when he first started his nursing strike by the ped.
But thank god, atleaset he learnt to drink from the bottle to some extent. But these days my milk suppy is very very low. I just feed him once in early morning and just for a very few minutes before his bedtime. In fact the bed time feeding has become a 'lullaby' or using pacifier to sooth him to go to sleep. I am afraid how he is going to manage to go to sleep after I stop completely the breast feeding. These days when I pump (at work) I hardly get few ozs. In fact my MIL saying it's ok, I tried and fed him for a long time and here after I can wean him completely now. But I just don't want to stop from my end, since I think I will miss the bonding/wonderful feeling I get while feeding him. (even if it's only 3-4 minuts!) Anyway, by seeing the way how my baby is reacting he is going to stop in few weeks/Or days by himself.

OK, Enough with my emotional statements. Thanks for your compliments on managing family and work. yes, it's kind of difficult at times , but with the elderly person who came to visit and stay with us for some time I am managing to do this.

My baby does these following, other than cruising.
1. He waves 'bye-bye' - this he learnt a long time back, but it used to be a slight waving towards his legs and fast. But starting from June beginning, he brings his hand towards his chest/neck area and waves bye slowly for a long time.

2.he says 'amma', 'avva', 'atha', 'tha tha'

3. These days (in the last 1.5 weeks) he says, 'Enna'.

4. he tries to climb on the stairs with crawling technique and he has done to only one step so far and he doesn't know to get down. I haven't got a safety gate yet, which I should soon I think.

5. In the last 1 week, the new thing he learnt is, showing his index finger as if he is teaching me discipline. What happened was I did that when he was trying to pull my hair and added, 'No pulling hair'. From then, he started moving the index finger like that and even he added 'aa..hh' yesterday.

6. He doesn't shows much interest in reading books. When I start to read a book, even before I go to the 3rd, 4th page, he pulls the book from me and turns all the way to the end and throw that and laughs!

7. He learnt to play ball , I have 4-5 small plastic light weight balls which he throws with his left hand and smiles. And then he expects us to throw that back to him.

8. He can play and exlopre, crawl. do everything by himself. BUT one person needs to be sitting next to him all the time. The second you think of getting up and moving, he immediately leaves all the toys and starts to follow you!! - so basically he needs COMPANY.

In fact I started worrying , how am I going to take care of him after his Grandma leaves. Since nowadays she is the one sits with him and we both get ready to go to work. I am infact debating whether to buy a play yard or anything of that kind. Do you have any of these? How do you/your daughter like that?

Let's keep on sharing..... Girija replied. Hi Sujatha,
I posted a message for you on the other board too. Hope everything is going well.

regarding trying out the pulav. No I just tried the veggies from the pulav only. Since he liked it I am thinking of trying veggies cooked in the same way. Saw the methods you use to cook the veggies for your daughter. Thanks so much for sharing the tecniques. I will try them when I find time!

You said for the lunch you steam cook veggies with salt. For dinner you give veg.puree (steam cook with out salt and spices) Why you don't add salt only at the dinner time , but add at the lunch time? Is there any reason for doing that. And BTW, when you said puree you grind those steam cooked veggie, RIght?!

I tried the Chappathi soaked in dal , but he vomitted : (

So I decided to wait on that for a while. He shows interest in eating fresh friuts though. The other day I fed him a little piece (mashed first wiht my fingers) apple and he liked it. How do you give the fresh fruits to your baby. Can I just beat a little in the mixie to smash it and spoon feed? Pls. let me know. I have been giving only Gerber Friuts (2nd foods) so far and he likes almost all the fruits except the Fruit Medley (tropical flavor). I haven't tried any combination food (like blueberry with apple..etc). worrying that he may not like it. But now I decided this is the time to start introducing them to see how he reacts to them. I have tried the Stawberry with banana several times though which he likes it.

His nap has also reduced to one for a long time now ( I mean for the last 2 months). He has started crusing but walks only to the forward direction though. But he crawls everywhere all the time almost on a 20/7 schedule!!. With that I can see already his knees turned into balck color and even it's little rough to touch and feel.

I am kind of sad for this though I feel very happy to see him crawling and being active, playful. Any tips for that. Earlier I used to put him full sleeve outfits which I can't now as it's summer and he himself may feel very sultry. Share your ideas regarding this. How you are managing you daughter? Does she crawl a lot too?!

Allright, I will stop here and we will continue later. Bye now. Girija replied. Cheerios which I tried over the weekend was a blast. My son loved it. He even learnt to pick it up and put that in his mouth. What I did was, first I just put 2 cheerios at a time on his high chair tray and he picked both of it using his both the hands! and tried putting one in his mouth and it went under his shirt and down on the floor and he succeeded few times by keeping that in his mouth. The whole thing was so cute to watch. Then in between I gave him few more cheerios and he really liked the taste of it. thanks a bunch, sujatha.

THe Gerber finger food (flower shape) is really good. I tasted one : ) and it's easy to eat too. Since your daughter is eating cheerios I am sure she will like it. Go ahead and try it. Per the Veggie wheel you are right. It's kind of big for theri mouth if they happen to put the hole thing in mouth like my son did!. It's good if they know to hold on to it and eat it. I am also going to wait a while before continuing on that one.

I will try the Chappathi soaked in dal idea when I get a chance. Since I had to manage home and work, I am finding it so hard these days to cook something new everyday at home. Y'day I made peas & carrot pulav and while we were all eating our lunch my baby showed interest in tasting it, so I let him taste the carrot and peas from it and he liked it. The pulav I made was without any chilly powder in it. All it had is some seasoning made with cumin seeds, cinnamon sticks, gloves and Garam masala. since he liked the taste of it I thought I will cook the Carrot and peas even beans with little spices like this and feed him. Now a days I am feeding him only the Gerber foods (veggie and friuts comes in jars) available in market.

I believe you have started her on home cooked veggies. When did you start? And how do you cook? Do you add chilli/powder in any of her food?! I don't know when should I start giving him the real spicy things. I definitely I won't give it now and just wanted to know your idea of when to start later. Please let me know the answers for these Questions.

Thought I like to share/write more, I got to go now. Will discuss more about the weight, activities later.........

Girija replied. Hi, I forgot to answer your Q about the Juice intake. It's the same thing happened with my son too.

He used to take 2-3 oz of juice earlier mixed with water of course. But these days atleast for a month now he doesn't like juice instead he takes water fine. So I am not worrying much. They say anyway the juices are nothing but sugar right. Instead give him more water and I think that should be fine. This is my guessing. Update me, if you find/hear anything different from this. : ) Bye now. Girija replied. Hi Sujatha,
I checked the message you updated only today. Yes, I gave him few times the puffed rice few weeks back and also I got the Gerber's finger food which looks like a small flower size. He was fine taking those but when I tried the veggie wheel shaped one, the first one he ate good but while eating the second he tried to put the whole thing in his mouth and almost got choked. I was so scared and immediately removed it from his mouth.

My son shows much interest like you daughter while we are eating our food. He chews his mouth with out anything : )

I feel so bad that I cann't give him the regular food yet. But when I think of giving the chapathi and stuff like that I am scared for the same reason - choking!

But I am giving him Idli which I immerse in water first so that it becomes softer to swallow. Also I have dried dosa the same way- only a little. I haven't tried any cheeses yet. Don't they say that you need to wait till the baby becomes 1 year old for that?! Anyway I have tried a little bit of Egg yolk - only one day and he liked it.

Then he got sick in the last 2 weeks (cold, fever, ear infection) which made him not eating any food properly.
So I am waiting for him to get recovered and then I will start giving him some of the above items. Also I will try Cheerious over the weekend, since you said it's safe to use as a finger food and let you know how that goes.

OK, Sujatha. Got to go. Catch you later. Let's stay in touch. Sujatha replied. Hi gals,
Looks like you haven't read my post yet. Anyways, I just had a couple of thoughts to add. So here it is.

About giving yogurt just after milk, my mom used to say the same thing as your MIL, girija. Never take them both together. She used to say even for us. I don't know the scientific reason to this but I just follow it. My girl doesn't like Yobaby for whatever reason she has. She just takes plain whole milk yogurt.

Ritu, May I ask why you concentrate your breastmilk with similac? Is there any particular reason? What are the Pediatrician's thoughts on this?

Shreya doesn't like juice at all. Is this okay? I give her 4 oz of water a day. Earlier I used to give 2 oz of water and 2 oz of juice but now she doesn't like any juice. How about your babies?

Keep sharing.
Sujatha replied. Sorry, Girija, I didn't see your response earlier. I live in Bothell, WA. How about you? Which part of India are you from?

My baby girl is doing fine (She will be 9 mos in 2 weeks) I can't believe the time is running like anything. She is learning new stuff and very mobile nowadays. She moves around the house and even climbs the stairs. she is pulling herself up using the chairs, toys, anything for that matter. She has fallen face down once on the hardwood floor and bruised her forehead. Ouch! I try my best to keep her in the carpetted area but she wants to explore more around the house. what to do. Things like this happens. Only then, she will learn better. We have been babyproofing the house a lot.

She is becoming a very picky eater and also wants to feed by herself. Cheerios are the best finger food to begin with. If you are worried about choking, then train him with puffed rice first and then give cheerios. My baby loves cheerios. The only problem now is that she picks up the cheerios on the floor and tries to put it in her mouth. She loves cheese, yogurt. Even if she moves away for other foods (even cheerios), she opens wide for cheese and yogurt. I have given her american and swiss cheese and yet to give her cheddar.
Her schedule is changing very much though.

8:00 - 8:15am 3 tabsp of multi-grain cereal mixed with rice and barley cereal. 2 tbsp of fruit at the most. half a slice or lesser of cheese .

11:30-12:00 - breastfeed (she won't take bottle or cup for formula. She drinks water using the sippy cup though)

2:00pm - spoon-mashed rice with toor dal and a little ghee. 1 mashed potato with very little butter or mashed carrots or yam. I try to give lunch with my hand instead of the spoon, so that she can get used to both hand-feeding and spoon-feeding. Finally, 2-3 tbsp of yogurt.

5:00-5:30pm breastfeeding again. Sometimes she is interested and sometimes not. It depends on how well she took her lunch and how much activity she had that day.

7:00-7:30pm pureed vegetables (may be 3 cubes) mixed with some avocados. I make the vege really thick and then when I mix them I add water. May be it is equivalent to 1 1/2 stage 2 jar.

11:00-11:30pm breastfeeding

3:30 - 4:00am breastfeeding (yeah, she still wakes up once a night)

In her sleep, she gets up twice (once around 11pm and the other around 4am). She normally wakes up, nurses and goes to sleep again. I don't know whether this is okay. I know it is going to be tough weaning her.

I am yet to start on ragi. I give her hardboiled eggs (yolks only) 2 to 3 times a week.

What else is new at your end? Share more....Stay in touch. Probably this is the best thread to keep in touch.