One month to go~

Children do grow faster than you think. Before you know it, they've already graduated from college and got married and started to have their own children. We as parents getting older by the day and did not realise how time flew soo fast and still wondering how we got there in the first place and how it turn out to be that way. Well in my case my darling daughter will start on solid food in one months time. It seems like it was yesterday she was born.

At the age of 4 months old Sofeah has already discovered her hands, fingers and foot. She'll put any of those in her mouth and suck them whenever she gets the chance to. Sometimes her toys or our hands will end up in her mouth too. By the time she reached 4 months and 2 weeks old, everytime she sees me or her ayah eat she will imitate us chew our food and drool. I pity her at times but I know her stomach, intestines and kidneys are not ready for solid foods yet until she reaches 6 months old. This is because she is exclusively breastfeeding, unlike babies that drink formula milk their intestines are more mature to accept solid foods as early as 4 months old. Babies that drinks formula milk, their intestines works twice as hard to process the formula milk compared to babies being breastfed. Breast milk substances are finer compared to formula milk. So until then we can not feed her any solids.

Now, Sofeah has turned 5 months old. Still drooling whenever we ate our dinner. This is what I always say to her each time "only one month to go, be patient OK. I'll feed you plain porridge and some apple puree"(yes, i do speak in English to her. We're practicing OPOL- one parent one language). Only one month to go I'm so hyped to give Sofeah solids. I've collected some recipes from the net for me to cook for her and I've also learnt how to store them like EBM. Since babies only eat 1-2 spoon of solids per feeding as an introductory to solids, I can't be cooking just 1-2 spoon of food only can I. So I'll need to organize it and store it in the freezer. Even though hubby suggests that we can just go out and buy those baby food in the jar to make things easier for me of course but I still think it's healthier this way. We don't know how the bottle foods are processed do we plus we can save a lot.

Below are some basic guidelines for me in feeding Sofeah. Courtesy of mama_miya susuibu.com(It's in bahasa so I've translated it to English)

Servings according to their age

For 6-7 months old baby;

1) drink at least 4 bottles of 5-6oz of breast milk per day
2) servings:
~ 1-3 spoon(sudu besar) of carbohidrate grains (rice, oats, sweet potatoes) = 2 times a day
OR
~ 2-3 spoon of vegetables = 2 times a day
OR
~ 2-3 spoon or 2oz of fruit juice
OR
~ 1-2 spoon of meat or meat alternatives (mashed peas/tofu/beans/anchovies)

Around 3 meals per day

Example:

a) breakfast at 7.30am 1 spoon of oats, 2 spoons of fruit puree
b) lunch 12noon 1 spoons of oat/potato/pasta/rice, 2 spoons of vegetables
c) dinner at 6pm 2 spoons of oats/rice, with tofu/beans/fruit juice

For 8-9 months babies the servings will increase 2-3 spoon for each type of food and drink 6-9oz of milk 3 times a day.

For 9-10 months babies the servings will increase 2-3 spoon from 8-9month old servings and they should drink 9oz of milk three times a day.

For babies 1 year and above:
1) carbohydate grains - 4 spoon, 3 times a day
2) 9oz of milk per day
3) 3-4 spoon of vegetables, 3 times a day
4) 3-4 spoon of fruits, 2 times a day/5oz of juice twice a day
5) 1-2 spoon of meat or meat alternatives, twice a day.

These are only basic guidelines. Some may do it differently.

Besides looking out for baby food recipes I've also looked up the things I need to buy, like the utensils and also the containers that will be used to store her food in the freezer. This is my list;
1) food grinder
2) dadih containers or little containers (since I'll be putting one 1-2 spoon of food in each container, so 1 container per feeding)
3) feeding spoon(maybe rubber base so that it would not injure her gum)