It's 11:37 PM. Rachel has fallen asleep in our bed, with minimal fussing. We're letting her stay there for a while to more fully solidify her sleeping state. Then we'll move her, crossing our fingers that she'll stay asleep all night.
As a special Halloween treat, Rachel went to Andrew's parents' house. I'm not sure who it was a treat for. Rachel, for getting spoiled at grandma and grandpa's; us, for getting a few hours to ourselves; or Andrew's family, for getting some quality Rachel time in. It's probably a toss up.
She's been so fussy lately that it was nice to have her be gone for a while. I never thought I would say that, but holy moly! she's been having a grumpy time lately. I did miss her though and kept badgering Andrew to go and get her.
I fed her a half hour before she left and we shipped her off with nothing but a bottle of apple juice (and all her normal baby hud). I was worried that she was going to be overly grumpy at Andrew's parents, that she wouldn't drink her juice (she'd never tried it before), and that she would miss me terribly, too.
As it turns out, she was grumpy, LOVED the juice, and missed her mama.
Apparently she liked the juice so much that she gulped it down so fast she choked on it.
We're excited that she likes it because now it will be easier for me to do spur of the moment things leaving Andrew in charge. Pumping takes a little more planning than diluting apple juice. Plus, Andrew can dilute apple juice himself.
When we bought it at the store, I told Andrew, "We can't just give it to her straight, you know."
"Oh," he said.
"You have to dilute it." I continued.
"I know," he said.
"You do?" I asked, impressed that he was so knowledgeable about feeding babies apple juice.
"Well, you just said that we can't give it to her straight--that means you have to dilute it."
Right. I just like to repeat myself. I just like to repeat myself, but Andrew isn't always quite so quick to grasp concepts as he was with the diluting thing.
We were driving home from his parents' house with Rachel today and he asks,
"So, does apple juice give her any nutrients?"
"Maybe you can answer that question yourself," I prompted.
"No, I mean, is it kind of like water for her, or does it count as food?"
"Honey, seriously?" I asked.
"Like, is it just empty calories, or does it help her grow? Is it healthy?"
"Yes, honey. It's healthy for her. Milk is best for her right now, but juice is okay. She still needs lots and lots of milk to grow strong but juice every once in a while is fine. And water isn't 'empty calories.' It doesn't really have calories. Candy is empty calories."
"So, it's really good for her. It fills her up and..."
"Andrew." I interrupted sternly, "If you were starving to death and had the choice between milk, juice, or water, what would you choose?"
After sarcastically choosing water, I made him guess again.
"Milk," he said.
"Right, because milk [as disgusting as it is], is heavy. It has lots of calories and fills you up." (I didn't really say "as disgusting as it is"...but I thought it).
"What about juice?"
"Honey."
"Okay, so milk and then juice and then water? So, it does fill her up and..."
Why are we still going over this? Most food comes with a nutrition label--just read that. It's the same as for babies as it does for adults. A calorie is a calorie is a calorie.
I'm still not sure if he really gets it. This is the same person who keeps sneaking outside to steal candy from the trick-or-treat dish that our neighbours left outside their door. I'm not sure he'll ever really get the concept of food.
Interesting... I've always heard that juice is bad for babies, considering that it is just (albeit natural) sugar and water. I found this website backing me up http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1108138601269_103547801?s_name=&no_ads=, but it did take a couple different search words, so if there aren't more articles about it, so you can judge for yourself.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm pretty sensitive to the issue because my body can't handle sugar... I'm to the point where I see people eating candy, or giving it to their kids, and I think "don't they know that's just pure sugar?!" And then I remember that it doesn't affect everyone like it does me... but still, it's sugar... (see, sugar has an evil connotation in my mind, there's just no getting away from it right now! Maybe someday...)
Well back in the day, giving babies apple juice was pretty normal. Since I worked when Nancy was a baby, and I was breast feeding, she drank only apple juice while at the baby sitters, and she turned out to be a pretty nice person, so I think that apple juice is probably okay. Mind you, as a steady diet it would probably not be a good idea, but "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" so why not a few ounces of apple juice? And if you live long enough, you learn that you can't always trust the experts...usually there are a few experts who don't agree with each other!
ReplyDeleteYeah, most of what I've read out there says to limit juice intake to 4 ounces a day. Breast milk, of course, is best, but apple juice every once in a while won't hurt.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it's better for her than water because it does give her body something to break down, some energy, etc. That's what she's looking for when she eats.
As fascinating as the apple juice controversy is, I was just going to comment that I think most husbands or other people unfamiliar with babies have funny questions like this. When I was pregnant with Karen I remember Joe asking me if wipes were really necessary...and just recently the husband of one of my friends asked me exactly how much money does it cost to have a baby? My reply of it depending on how much you have to spend on the kid didn't really satisfy-so Joe being the nice guy that he is tried to break it down for them into an 'easy to understand' spreadsheet... Funny how he can do that when I'm the one that actually does all the shopping!
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