Demographic

[ailbhe]

It's odd how many recently or hugely pregnant people I know, suddenly - I never did before I was pregnant myself. It's all a big conspiracy!

One by one, my family are asking me "What, you're not still breastfeeding her, are you? Why?" It's an effort to tell the truth - "Why not?" rather than come up with rational justifications along the lines of "WHO guidelines... NHS guidelines... The global average is over 3 years you know..." and, worst of all, "Because of her dairy intolerance." What am I doing, justifying myself like this? Feeding my baby is normal. Formula feeders don't have to suddenly justify why they haven't changed to something else at 9 months. Why is formula feeding more "grown up"? Why is breastfeeding only for young babies? What's wrong here?

Hi, choir.

Comments

Re: Oh no - breastfeeding at five months! And: who is Philip, anyway?

[ailbhe]

I remember Stella being less than enthusiastic about the doctor's recommendation, at a routine checkup about six weeks ago, where the doctor strongly recommended introducing solid foods at four and a half months -- and added that she should buy little glasses of carrots rather than preparing them herself due to the levels of pesticides and other chemicals in "normal" food, whereas manufacturers of baby food control this more carefully. But she also said that a week or two after introducing carrots, she could introduce potatoes, which she could just buy, cook, and mash... though don't potatoes and carrots grow in pretty much the same soil? So they should be both equally pesticide-laden. *shrugs* So yes, she'll be introducing steak and chips first thing tomorrow morning.

Linnea got solids at about 16 weeks - up to a millilitre of mashed banana! She wanted it. I imagine Stella will know when Amy wants solids, too, and introduce non-allergenic foods gradually. We're working on introducing gluten now, but it makes me very nervous.

Pesticides - I use organic-certified food, and when we're out, we use organic pre-bottled babyfood, because I can't pack it in as sterile an environment, and the jars are useful if I'm going to be going from hot to old to hot to cold, on and off buses and in and out of shops. And I consider fruit skins to be a sanitary wrapping, too.

Stalker - heh. Who put her diary on the internet?

A.