Health – Page 7 – Mediocre Mum

Would you let someone else breastfeed your baby?

I do believe that breast feeding is best; however, I was unable to breastfeed Madame. This is not the issue I wanted to cover, as it has been done to exhaustion. The only thing I will say on the matter is that whatever someone decides to do, woman should support each other no matter what.

However, I read a tweet a while back and to be honest it made me very uncomfortable and I want you guys to help me through it. This is not an opportunity to call me names or say that I’m closed minded. If I was close minded I wouldn’t be asking the question. I can’t remember the tweet word for word but it was someone saying how happy they were that their friend, and adoptive mother, was able to breastfeed successfully. Initially, my mind boggled, so I quickly Googled it and learned that yes, in fact, there are drugs women can take to bring on lactation, fascinating stuff.

I would never want to deny an adoptive mother the opportunity to experience the bond with her child that a birth mother would through breastfeeding. However, there is something about taking drugs to bring on the process that makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m sure they’re safe but really can’t get my head around it. If I think about it a bit more, I drink milk, cows are fed hormones to produce milk which has measurable quantities of herbicides, pesticides, dioxins antibiotics blood, pus, faeces, bacteria and viruses and there is nothing natural about it so what’s my problem?

Then a few days later I read yet another tweet. It was from a childminder who was looking for a bit of advice. The woman that she worked for was unable to breastfeed and she was wondering if it would be appropriate if she offered to breast feed her child! I know she meant well, but I did tell her I would be extremely uncomfortable if someone asked me this. I know back in the day, people had wet nurses and the survival of children relied on other mothers to help out. But nowadays formulas are very extensive. As a mother I couldn’t sit and watch someone else feed my child it would break my heart.

Thoughts???

Clever so and so!

Do you ever wish that your child was slightly thick, just enough so you can pull the wool over their eyes? Madame has been showing flashes of genius lately, not Mensa level and it’s not consistent, but just enough to worry me. She definitely didn’t get this from her father.

Madame was a brilliant eater and like many children when she hit 2.5 this all changed. Many people warned me about this but honestly I didn’t believe them. She’d eat just about anything, including liver, that I put in front of her and her father and I are not picky eaters.

Anyhow, we are now struggling with meal times. But, I’m determined to not make it into a battle. We offer her one meal choice, if she doesn’t eat it we nonchalantly wrap it up, put it aside and serve it to her again the next time she says she’s hungry. I’m not going to be one of those mum’s who cooks several different meals each night. Then on our own terms we offer her toast just before bed, if we didn’t she’d wake up in the night hungry and we’d be the losers.

On the weekend, when we were eating as a family, which is a rare occurrence, she brought her Jessie doll to the table. I know this is a bad idea and we don’t normally allow toys at the table but in this case I just wanted to focus on one thing at a time. So, long story short, I said ‘if you don’t eat your dinner I’m putting Jessie in the loft’. She didn’t eat her dinner so I hid Jessie.

Bless her…I found her wandering around the landing at about 4am stressed looking for her Jessie doll and I’m not that mean so I gave it back to her. However, that’s not the clever bit.

The following night we all sat down to dinner again, she ate fairly well, but after dinner she hopped down and proceeded to rummage around in the cupboard under the stairs. I wondered what the hell she was doing…….then I worked it out. She’d hidden Jessie before we had dinner! The clever so and so…..

My Toothbrush

I have a little toothbrush
I hold it very tight
I brush my teeth each morning,
And then again at night

I wish this were true. I know my daughter is supposed to brush her teeth twice a day but too be honest we only usually do it once a day and sometimes we forget all together. I can only blame it on the mayhem that comes from having a 3 year old in the house. Some days getting her dressed is enough to get me sectioned. In my defence, they’re all going to fall out anyhow and maybe I can get a reduction from the Tooth Fairy for sub standard merchandise?

Joking aside, I’ve taken her to the dentist to have her teeth counted and to get her used to visiting the dentist. The dentist, who is also a very good friend, was happy with her oral hygiene. However, I do need to make more of an effort instilling regular dental hygiene habits.

We were sent a Hello Kitty Firefly Toothbrush, you press a button and the light flashes for 1 minute, which is the recommended time they spend brushing either their top or bottom teeth. As you will see in the video below, we still have a long way to go but it’s a start. I like how she uses her shirt as a flannel! Nice!

I think they only cost a couple of quid and would make great stocking stuffers and are available from Argos and Lloyds pharmacies.

PS. The reason she is brushing her teeth is because she had just had some chocolate. I’m sure you noticed it on her PJs!

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