Michelle Tant

A Western Lowlands Gorilla baby was born at the weekend and apparently Mummy hasn't yet put him or her down, consequently the zoo keepers don't yet know the sex. www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0330/breaking24.html I've already seen it said online that we could take parenting lessons from this Gorilla Mama and while I enjoy the sentiment, the fact remains that she doesn't have house, husband,other demanding children with equally demanding social lives, meals to cook, not to mention another paid job to be shoe horned into the mix. As a parent in the real world, I took my babymoons where I could, I accepted help where I could and I avoid articles that start me feeling that I am a second rate parent in comparison to a primate. I'm one of the first unfortunately to say ignore the 'experts' who regiment parenting into unattainable routines but the more I've immersed myself in babyled culture, the more I see 'experts' on the oth...

Your new baby never seems to stop feeding and people seem to be giving conflicting advice. Some say baby feeds so often because you don't have enough milk - baby is hungry so best to think about topping up... But consider this. What if, your baby was a human being with feelings, moods, preferences and social needs as well as physiological needs? Think for a moment about when you eat and drink. Is every time simply about nutritional value? No! We sit and eat together, we go out for coffees together. It's often a social part of our lives. Babies are social beings with social needs. Sometimes we just would like a chocolate bar... why? Just because. Take a piece of paper and give it a couple if headings; 'Time', 'food/drink consumed' and 'Duration'. Now think about a 24 hour period in a normal day according to you. Then note down every single thing that passes your lips, it may look a little like this. 6.45am - Coffee - 3 mins 8am - cereal and frui...

There has been a bit of a revival around this subject over the last few years. However its not a new topic by any means. Before breastfeeding books and gurus, new mothers had to rely on their instincts and on the women around them. Women and girls would have seen breastfeeding happening all the time, it was perfectly natural and to be blunt, there was no other choice. Babies who were not breastfed, either by their own mother or by another lactating woman in the group, would die. Choice was not a luxury of the pre modern woman. So back to instincts. Suzanne Colson wrote about biological nurturing and the principle of breastfeeding being a continuation of the baby being in the womb (source: Womb to World, A Metabolic Perspective in Midwifery Today, 2002) and I've long found the idea that a baby is born with all the 'tools' it needs to breastfeed truly fascinating. Mothers have historically misread the signs of a newborn baby. Where thrashing hands and feet are seen, ...

When I was pregnant I had a vision in my head of our new daughters first Christmas. She would be nearly 7 months old and by that point she would have tried a few tastes of pureed vegetables and fruits, certainly enough to make up to a Christmas meal. I decided that I would puree them separately so she had a variety of tastes then for dessert perhaps some stewed apple and raisins for a festive finish. That was also other peoples expectations of her Christmas meal and in fact any of her meals, I frequently feel like I'm being watched. My Nan came out with it the other day... "isn't she a bit young for that?" when I handed her a rice cake with a slice of cheese and apple. I was at that point a bit fed up of constantly explaining our choice to allow our daughter to lead her own journey to weaning. So I just said "watch her!". So she did. And was amazed to see her happily eat the lot, barring obviously the little bits that get tucked in unexpected plac...

A friend of mine gave me a delicious recipe for gravy and it completed this meal for my family. Bear with me as I do this, I haven't written down a recipe before but I'm 'trying something new' today. Hope you enjoy this take on a mash-up of a couple of traditional British meals as much as we do! (pretty cheap to make too!) For your weaning infant, just remove the sausages from the mini toad. Only use unsalted stock for babys gravy. Mini Toads, mashed potato and red onion gravy Preheat the oven to 200'c. You'll need: for the mini toads... 12 space muffin tin 9 sausages Olive oil 4 oz plain flour 2 eggs 200ml milk for the mashed potato... potatoes as desired, I usually allow 2 per person plus one! butter for the red onion gravy... 1 red onion chopped into half rings 200 mls vegetable stock (depending on how organised I am, this is either from a cube or frozen stock from a previous meal!) Juices from cooked sausages 2 heaped ts...

Yesterday we went to a Christmas party and I took with me a small tub of chopped veggies and rice crackers. At least I thought I did because when the time came, turns out I'd left it on the counter at home. Bad mummy. I was naturally dubious about feeding my 6.5 month old daughter party food but in the end she munched her way through some boiled egg, cucumber sticks, bread sticks and some cheese & tomato pizza cut into small finger slices. The thing that got me this time was the way she was picking up one thing and chewing on that for a while, then catching sight of something else presumably more interesting, then discarding what was in her hand and picking the other thing up. She was picking and choosing her food and having a great time. One challenge is convincing my boys not to put food on her tray. They see her eating normal food and obviously don't know the thought that goes on behind the choices so think its ok to give her food. Not all of which is appropriat...

When we started this babyled weaning onto solids journey, my only clear aim was that I wanted to follow Daisys instincts and to go at her pace and I have been surprised daily with her progress and at how well she has done. She is really eating as part of the family now, joining in our roast dinner on Sunday and showing us how much she enjoys it with her beautiful smiles and giggles. Watching my lovely bonny breastfed baby, I've become convinced that if she is left to her own devices as with how she controls her breastfeeding habits, then she will find her own way so I have been following her lead. If she looks interested in something I have then I've been letting her give it a go (salt and sugary foods excepted) and that's how she came to try the corn on the cob and loved every gummed morsel. It has been with some debate then that I considered using a spoon at all. Inevitably though I figured that cutlery will ultimately form part of her eating habits so I gave her...

The surprise was that she tried it! I had it in my hand, she took it off me and started chewing it like she'd been eating forever. I've noticed that when I try to give her something directly into her mouth, like I gave her a bit of mashed banana once and some yoghurt and it came back out pushed by her tongue. When she puts something to her mouth himself, it generally goes in and stays in. She instinctively works her mouth in harmony with her hands and its working! I'm amazed! I still attribute it to breastfeeding, it rocks! Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9