Jack vs. Food

This has been an ongoing battle with Jackson and food since umm....always. We know he's had some food allergies, but along with the allergies he seems to have some intolerances (not official allergies, won't come up on allergy testing but clearly, they don't sit well with the boy). I guess we can't be too surprised. Tom's mom and sister both have a lot of trouble with food and don't eat gluten, dairy and other foods that they have allergies to. Jack seems to be the "most Pepka" out of the 3 kids, so obviously, he would get the allergies from that side of the family.

So a brief (ish) back history. Jack was diagnosed with reflux at about 4 months old. No shocker, it's common with preemies. At 6 months old we started to give the twins food and Jack did not tolerate it well at all. It would take us another 3-4 months to get him to eat more than some very soft purees. He was getting mostly breastmilk so I cut dairy, nuts, and eggs out of my diet to help him. His reflux improved and everything seemed fine. As he started eating more, he started sleeping poorly, getting fussy, and turning into a wild child. He wasn't throwing up anymore though so we didn't think food was the problem. We thought the sleep was affecting his attitude, teething was affecting his sleep, and on and on. We got a stomach bug last July (13 months old) and we went to a bland diet. I noticed Jack had calmed down a lot but thought it was because he was sick, not food related. Then there were a few other colds and illnesses. Every time Jack went on a bland diet (bananas, rice, apples, toast...then we slowly add back easy foods like chicken, green beans, etc. No dairy, no fatty foods, lots of fruits and veggies, some protein, not the junk food stuff) his behavior would improve. His appetite also seemed to improve and so did his sleep. Well super!

But now WHAT EXACTLY makes Jack's stomach upset? Well we gave him dairy the other day for the first time in over a week. He slept terrible and was a hurricane the next morning. Clearly dairy is out.  Sugar also seems to trigger the wild behavior. I've read that processed foods can be a factor in things like ADHD (I'm not saying Jack has ADHD), so could the "kids food" junk he eats be a factor in his crazy behavior, bad sleeping, etc? I don't know, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

For awhile I've been looking for ways to lose weight, get more energy and feel better in general to keep up with my children, live longer with my children and raise them with good, healthy eating habits. It has been a struggle to balance foods that they'll eat, the obvious need for calories since they are so skinny, and getting in lots of fruits and veggies. I think this will be a challenge we'll face for some time. They're obviously not old enough to really pick out their meals, but they are certainly old enough to tell me what they don't like! I've really spent many many months working hard to figure out Jack's diet and what works for him. I've spent many sleepless nights and stressful days worrying about his weight, what he eats, how he feels, etc. I'm hoping by switching our entire family over to a diet with less processed foods and keep dairy and sugar away from Jack, that I can finally get Jackson to a happy place with food and myself at a happy place with my weight and eating habits.

I'd love for you to share any blogs, books, stories, etc. that you have! If you've experienced something similar, I'd love to hear your story and maybe how you coped with it! I'm really hoping to make long term lifestyle changes to our diet to make things healthier for all of us and make Jack a happier kid with no more tummy trouble. I've had some friends make similar lifestyle changes so hopefully we can all support each other! I've started a facebook page called How We Got Our Pep Back and I'd love for you to join and follow us along this journey!

Feeding Baby

We're at a weird place considering the twins, developmentally, fall anywhere from 6-10 months. Some tasks they do great for a 10 month old, some things, they barely pass the 6-7 month standards. So we have tried to adapt and work at their pace and try to hit all of their benchmarks as well to their actual age as we can. I'm not expecting miracles out of them, especially Jackson. Not that he can't do it, but he's had a bit of a tougher road with lots of health issues slowing him down.

Food has been the hardest. What do we feed them? Do we go by their actual age or their adjusted? The GI doctor says he wants them eating like a 1 year old when they're 1. That's less than 2 months away now. I feel like we have a lot to accomplish to be held to a 1 year old's standards in just 2 months!

So where are they?
Amelia is right on track. She realized somewhere around 7 or 8 months old that she loves food. When it clicked, nothing slowed her down. She eats pretty much anything in arms reach. No seriously, keep your plates away, she will grab a bite of whatever you have before you had the chance to blink. So we've been checking off the boxes with her pretty quickly and not letting her adjusted age slow us down.

I really liked the idea when I was pregnant of baby led weening. I thought it was up my alley. By 6 months actual age, they were no where close to be ready for such a feet. All of our doctors agreed though, we should start giving them some food by that point if they had any chance of catching up. They were just over 3 months adjusted so I was in no hurry to really rush, but purees and us feeding them were the only way it was going to work. We started slow, I only really introduced a few foods their first month or so of eating, and for the most part, they both hated it.

Essentially, we gave Jackson a break for a few months. He wasn't ready. He was gagging, choking and throwing everything up. That led us down the road that helped us eventually find out he has a milk allergy, so I guess it's a good thing we took some time with him, but it was frustrating to see him hating food.

Now at 10 months old, they both eat 2-3 meals of solids a day. Jackson's HAVE to be purees, he won't let anything else pass his lips. Amelia will eat chunks, take bites of foods, pick up foods with her thumb and pointer, and she will even feed herself with a spoon, under careful supervision and when I have the patience for a clean up of half the house that she's thrown food over.

We're working on sippy cups but that too has been a massive fail. So we started straws. After a few straw cups and stealing ideas from friends, we finally found cups that I think will work!

They've been a hit so far!

So a run down of food: They're drinking 4 bottles a day, 6-8oz of breastmilk or formula. Eating solids (anything from purees, to chunks, to puffs, to table food) 2-3 times a day. HOPEFULLY drinking from cups over the next few weeks. Bottle weening will commence at the 1 year point for Amelia, and hopefully for Jackson soon after, once we know he can get enough nutrition from solids.

I've made a big executive decision that I'm going to start weening them from breastmilk in June. At this point, I'm doing it more for a cost saver than for anyone's benefits. Amelia still nurses several times a day. Jackson just never got the hang of it so I've been pumping 4-5 times a day to get a chunk of his milk (which is a wonderful and much needed drop from the 8-10 times I was pumping the first 6 months). It's been a long 10 months though and I'm ready to hang up my pump and spend time focusing on my kids and not how much milk I can pump. I'm glad I've been able to feed both of my babies for so long but I'm just ready to be done. It's exhausting and stressful and an extra few hours I spend a day on pumping and cleaning and sanitizing that I want to be spending giving my munchkins 100% of my attention. I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing with Amelia as far as nursing, but my guess is she'll be ready to ween by then too.

So that's our life in food! I'm going to do a good update on their activities lately as soon as I can get some good video of them rolling and scooching around. It's sooo funny now that they're mobile :) but I'm running out of places to hide the dog bowls that they can't find. Baby gates are our on list of things to do SOON ;)