Eating Plans and Crawling

Hey everyone,
I have 2 topics which i would like to get more information on from you......
*Eating Plans
*Crawling

Eating plans
Just for example.... what is your kids eating plans/menus during each day.
Do you have any interesting foods that you give to your girls/boys?
Do you prepare their foods yourself or buy Olli's and Purities?
Cutting down on milk around 9 months - the Pead said from 9 months my kids should not get more than 600mils of milk anymore.


My girls get
*milk (175ml) when they wake up in the morning at 5:30,
*breakfast around 9 consisting of porridge(Celestum) plus a fruit followed by 100ml milk,
*lunch around 12h30 consisting of vegetables, yogart and fruit (or vegetables and something meaty and fruit) and 100ml milk
*dinner around 4:30 consisting of vegetables and protein (yogart or meaty something) and 100 ml milk
*before going to bed at 7 they get 175ml milk again.

I prepare all the vegetables myself and banana's buy and squash, but the other fruits they get is Purity/Olli, and the meaty stuff is usually a Purity mix thing with chicken, lamb or beef (although they don't like the lamb and beef at all - prefer the chicken or pasta dishes)

I was thinking of cutting down on the 100ml milk they get after each main meal and reduce it to 75ml. That way they will get 550 ml a day.
And maybe later start incorporating the dinner and last feed as one.

In-between snacks has been a problem for me up to now. I have some rooibostee/juice mix which i give to them sometimes in-between but they just drink 2 sips and then loose interest... i tried to give them each half a banana yesterday which worked ok... and occasionally i give those teething biscuits but not so very often.
What does your kids snack on?

Crawling
My one girls is very strong and have been very keen to lie on her tummy since being very small. So she has very strong arms and started maneuver-ing herself everywhere already..
The other one never liked to lie on her stomach, and she is not keen to even try shuffling on the bum or getting to toys out of reach. I know i shouldn't worry, but i think its worse with twins when you see the one moving much quicker than the other one.
So i was thinking if one can do some exercises with her to strengthen her arm muscles and back muscles so that she can start supporting her body on her arms.... and exercises to help her "move"
My nanny wants me to get a walking wheel - and i don't want to get one for my own reasons ... so what is your opinion about walking rings/wheels?

Thanx my friends....

Hi Page

Good topic! Always helps to see what other moms do!

Firstly my paed said the same re milk - 600ml per day now.

Mine is one now, although they are still on the small size (8.6 and 8.85kg).
Their menu looks like this:
They have dropped the morning bottle, so they get their breakfast at 7 to 7:30, consisting of about 5 tablespoons of cooked porridge - oats/mealie/maltabele/tastee wheat ect, or cerelac (over weekends when I am "on duty"!)
Then they get 150ml at 9 am, when they go for their first nap.
When they wake up - snack (fruit, small pieces of vienna) and water
Lunch at 12h30 - cooked food including meat (chicken/mince/fish) , veggies (mixed whatever) and starch (rice/cous cous/pasta).
Then milk again 200ml at 1pm and a nap.
Snack at 4pm - same as before, perhaps a biscuit (but sooo messy) or sometimes flings for a treat
Supper at 5pm - same type of thing as lunch, sometimes with a little custard and jellie
Last bottle at 6:30 (250ml) then bed

My nanny cooks all their food, mine don't get Purity for that reason. Miss D had a lot of Purity and I struggled to get her to eat "real" food. She is still very fussy, whilst the twins eat everything. Thanks to my nanny!

Fruit - I also do the banana thing, or Olli/Purity fruit. My nanny gicves them pieces which freaks me out, but they cope perfectly well.

re crawling, mine stared pulling forward with their arms at 8 months (corr 6.5), and Olivia started crawling properly a month later. Rachel only started crawling properly at 11 months. I spoke to an OT who recommended me putting her on her tummy then picking up her stomach into the crawling position, that helped a lot. But you have to do it often. re walking rings, we are against the use of them, because firstly, it supposedly hampers the walking development, and secondly, the danger of injury.

Hi Page

I think our babies are similar ages. Mine are 9.5 months now and this is where they are at. Physically they are very different and at different stages. Michael is physically very advanced . I have him on 3 bottles a day. Grace is still tiny and only just sitting now - so I have her on 5 small bottles a day.

6.30am milk (M = 150ml, G = 120ml)
8am : porridge (Cerelac) mixed with purity prunes (for constipation!)
10am - or whenever they wake up from morning nap: Grace has milk (120ml) Michael has juice
12pm: Lunch of pureed veggies & cous cous / potato / rice (have now started introducing chicken at lunch as well), followed by yoghourt
2pm: Milk (G = 120ml, M = 150ml)
4pm: snack of biscuit or bits of fruit if they want (chopped banana)
5pm: Dinner: fish / mince/pasta/chicken with starch & veggies
6.30pm: Milk (M = 210ml, G = 120ML)
9PM: Milk for Grace (100ml)

I make all their food (apart from the purity prunes) myself. We recently went away and I took a couple of jars of purity meat mixes but they weren't keen! Re snacks - mini cheddar biscuits, sticks of biltong to gnaw on, pieces of fruit (mainly banana / grapes), yoghourt, rusk (v messy)

Re crawling - Michael is crawling ALL OVER THE PLACE! He has been since Christmas. More of a leopard crawl where he pulls himself around but he is VERY mobile. He is now pulling himself up to standing position as well! Came into their room this morning and he was standing up hin his cot! Grace has just learnt to sit. But she is only around 7kg, whereas I think Michael must be nearly 10kg. We have not used walking rings as I heard they weren't great for development.

Thanks Paulae and Wendy.
My girls turned 9 months yesterday. Nica is very strong and also pulling herself up against everything and crawling around (but not yet everywhere) - she is still keeping to a radius of 3 meters... But her territory might expand by the day now.
Last night she woke up (probably a bad dream) around 11, and as i walked into her room i found her sitting up in the corner!! with all the blankies wrapped around her. So i just laid her down again and she fell asleep .

On the cooked food.... where do i get recipes of foods with the meat in. I have done the veggies now since the beginning, but that part is easy. But how do you prepare the chicken , beef etc to have a texture for them to eat...

Oh, and a HUGE BIG happy birthday to Olivia and Rachel!!

My clinic sister gave me some recipes - I could e Mail to you if you like - send me your e mail address. But mostly I just make them up myself (I like cooking). The chicken I poach in stock, steam the veggies & potato in the microwave and then I use a hand blender to blend to correct consistency. Same for the fish (I buy the I&J hake fillets). The mince I pan fry in some olive oil with an onion, boil up some pasta and steam some carrots. Often I add a spoonfull of tinned butter beans which I think are meant to be very nutritious - and cream cheese and a little bit of cheddar to melt in.

My hand blender gets used a lot! You can puree it fine or course - depending on the age of the baby.

I know you are meant to try and give babies what you eat, but we like to eat quite spicy food which I don't think is suitable at that age.

Nice topic indeed.

The milk intake is spot on but I still give 3x210ml bottles a day otherwise they don't sleep well and they are teething and eating very poorly at this stage but this is our menu


They get a bottle of 210ml milk around 7 and they sip on that up until they nap at around 9
8:00 porridge and over weekends cerelac
After nap around 11 125ml juice - prune, pear, peach or mixed with litchi, strawberry (purity ones on 200ml boxes)
12:30 cooked lunch - veggies, starch(mash) and meat
nap (well not for Montinique anymore) with 210ml milk
15:00 yohurt or a bisciut and 125ml tea
17:30 dinner - same as lunch or avo with biltong or cottage pie. Every night I give them a bowl with small pieces of chicken vienna or peas or stamp or corn so that they can eat a bit on their own and they love it.
18:00 - 18:30 bath
Then 210ml bottle for bed.

If they wake during the night and cry for their "tietie" I will give tea or water

Over weekends we treat them a bit more - will give them fruit pieces to eat on their own - they love papaya, mangos, watermelon and the banana I cut in half and they eat it on their own now.
Also they get flings don't like cheesecurls at all or a bisciut or ice cream and a cone( they love the cone part)
I only mash the food with a fork now, meat I cut into small peices and also the paste but don't puree the food at all and they are fine with the texture

Crawling:

Montinique started to crawl properly in december and Montiné Teusday but they still like to do it like little froggies and push on the arms and push their body forward with their toes, they have been doing that from 7 months.
They pull themself up against everything now and also walk against it and Montinique wants to stand alone put is still a bit affraid to do so. Montiné is moving against the things very slowly - she is the more cautions one of the two!

Page you can try Annabel Karmel's books and website - they are very good.

You get these tiny pasta flowers and tiny sticks which is nice, also biltong powder that you can use in porrige and veggies.

Thanks Page! Rachel started giving steps yesterday, we are very excited!

HI

ladies my feeding is a bit of a mess but I will try

at 6:30 they get maize porridge with some olli fruit (I am not going to sit and peel numerous friuts).
after they get a slice of fruit to chew
100ml formula at 8:30 for thier nap
10:00 snak/lunch what ever veggies I have cooked. somtimes some chicken
also some rooibos tea or water
12:00 100ml formula nap time
2:00 some of their left over lunch
4:30 Dinner same as lunch.
6:00 100ml milk

during the night they polish off sometimes 400ml of milk
No yogurt as they get very windy on it and it wakes them at night so also no wheat yet.

Oh I just found in baby city lovely snack food. It is little puffed rings that melt in their mouths they love it. I cant remember what it is called but it comes in a large cylinder with a green or yellow lid.

Also yesterday I gave them chicken from my plate just broken into bite size and they loved it.


Crawling; they are keen but don't know how to get on thier knees although Connor is starting to so it is a matter of time.

I have walking rings, which i did not buy, but was given and they love them. I know they shouldn't but there are times when they are tired and I need to keep them busy. or when I am making food. They adore them they now run everywhere and have learnt that the ring at the bottom stops them hurting themselves if they crash so they go full tilt into stuff. I block them off to where I can watch them and stuff is baby proof. It does not seem to have stopped them trying to crawl. They are 9 months, corrected 8 months. They have also worked out that they can run and then lift thier feet up and coast!! hahaha too cute. they also follow each other round shrieking