I’ve just realised that I haven’t written a single post about Gavin’s teeth and I’m a dentist!  Or rather, was. 

Well, Gavin is now 1 year and 1 month old and he still only has two lower central incisors (they are the two front teeth on the bottom), although the two upper central incisors look like they are about to pop through his gums any day now.  His teeth are erupting a little on the slow side considering the average age of eruption for the central incisors are around 6-10 months for the lower and 8-12 months for the upper.  I had to memorise eruption dates in first year for an oral anatomy exam but heck if I can remember them all now.  I had to be told by my paediatrician that eruption of the first tooth can be as late as 18 months and that is still completely normal.

Well, there are benefits to having Gavin cut his teeth late - at least he has less teeth to bite me with when he’s nursing.  That said, I have a number of Mummy friends who’ve asked me about biting and nursing so I guess this is a common concern among mothers who intend to nurse their babies beyond six months.  Well, I was worried about it too and I asked my BFF - who had more experience than I (her son is soon to be turning two years old) - and she gave me this piece of advice:

When baby bites, just remove your nipple and tell him, “Ouch!  That hurt!  No more milk.”  He’ll soon get the message that he shouldn’t bite Mummy’s nipple. 

Gavin’s been quite good with the biting.  He hardly ever bites and when he does, it’s usually a gentle nibble.  Biting is also a sign that baby is playing and has either lost concentration for nursing or is only pacifying because in order to suckle, baby tongue thrusts forwards and that would mean that he would end up biting his own tongue.  So if baby is biting, he is no longer nursing.

When I was in dental school, we were taught to recommend to patients to bring their babies in for their first dental check up at about 6 months.  This is because the first tooth is expected to erupt about 6 months and it is a good time to advise parents about how to take care of their baby’s teeth.  It also ensures that baby’s first experience at the dentist is a positive one (which makes it easier for subsequent follow up appointments). 

I find that the number one reason why children are afraid of the dentist is because their first visit to the dentist is because they already have problems with their teeth.  A lot of people have the misconception that they only need to visit the dentist when their teeth hurt, but the problem is, when your teeth hurt, it usually means that the problem has escalated to something really big. 

It’s a catch 22 really.  Whenever a friend tells me about a dental problem they have, I’ll ask, “Why don’t you see a dentist?”  The reply inevitably will be, “I’m afraid to see the dentist because it’ll hurt.”  It really doesn’t make sense because their teeth is hurting now but they are afraid of going to see the dentist because it’ll hurt?  I’m sorry, I fail to comprehend the logic behind that statement.  The second point is that if you only visit the dentist when the pain has kicked in, it means the problem you have in your mouth is a big one and that means a big procedure will be necessary and big procedures, being more complex and more involved, can be painful (although I should add that in this day and age, most dental treatments can be done painlessly).  If you make regular trips to the dentist, your dentist will be able to fix the problems in your mouth while they are still little ones - these involve small procedures that are simple and painless.

I digress… I’m supposed to be talking about baby teeth.  Sorry.  I can’t help lecturing when I get on this topic… 

Cleaning Baby’s Teeth

You can get finger brushes that you can wear over your finger and use that to brush baby’s teeth.  It’s easier to use when compared to a toothbrush but it really depends on your child’s compliance.  In theory it sounds great but when I got one for Gavin, he refused to let me clean his teeth.  In the end, I ended up using a wet washcloth to rub his teeth, which he seemed to like.

Young children don’t need fluoride toothpaste, especially if you live in an area where the water is fluoridated.  Because of their small stature, it is easy for children to get too much fluoride which can cause a condition called fluorosis.  Mild fluorosis appears like small white spots on the teeth.  In severe fluorosis, the teeth can become brown and mottled - although there is nothing wrong with the teeth, it is aesthetically rather unpleasing.

When you start introducing fluoridated toothpaste to a child, make sure you use children’s toothpaste which usually only has about 500ppm of fluoride (compared to regular adult’s toothpaste which has 1000ppm of fluoride).  Make sure you put only a pea size amount on your child’s brush and mash it into the bristles so that your child doesn’t end up swallowing the toothpaste.  Young children have difficulties spitting so often they end up swallowing most of the toothpaste which increases their fluoride exposure.

There are really only two major diseases that affect the teeth and gums - dental caries (tooth decay) and gum disease.  When you brush your teeth, the fluoride in your toothpaste protects your teeth from dental caries and the brushing action of your toothbrush protects your gums from gum disease.  It really is as simple as that.  The fluoride in toothpaste attaches itself to the tooth surface forming a new harder structure that is more resistance to dental caries.  The action of toothbrushing removes plaque bacteria that accumulate around the teeth and irritate the gums, causing gum disease. 

In Uni, one of my lecturers explained to us that for some reason currently unknown to us at that time, children have a natural protection against gum disease.  They are immune to gum disease - perhaps it is just mother nature’s way of protecting our children, who knows? Once they turn 6, they are no longer protected, because at 6 years, the first adult molars will erupt into the mouth. 

So when it comes to your baby’s teeth, all you really need to concern yourself with is dental caries.  Which leads me to another concern that I had earlier when I had decided I was going to try to continue nursing Gavin at least until he turns 2 (as recommended by WHO, 2002).  Since Gavin is so active during the day, he tends to nurse a lot at night and since the flow of saliva is reduced when we sleep, I was concerned that the milk sugars left in his mouth might lead to tooth decay.  During the day, the constant flow of saliva washing over the teeth helps to protect the teeth from decay.  Since it would be impractical to clean Gavin’s teeth after each time he nursed, I wasn’t sure what to do about it until I read the chapter on nursing toddlers in The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.

It appears that the milk sugars in breastmilk seem to have a lesser effect on causing tooth decay compared with formula milk and that “prolonged demand breast-feeding does not lead to a higher caries prevalence” (Weerheijm et al, 1998).  From the study, only 9% of the children who received prolonged demand breast feeding suffered from nursing caries and this was due to their low exposure to fluoridated toothpastes.  For mothers whose babies are more proned to tooth decay, it was recommended that they clean their toddlers’ teeth more frequently during the day time, especially if their toddlers are night nursers. 

Now I can continue nursing Gavin at night without feeling guilty…

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I’m spotting - does that mean my period is back?  Gavin’s ten months old.  I was sort of hoping my period wouldn’t come back until he was at least a year old.  Not having my period is another one of those additional benefits of breastfeeding - most women who do not breastfeed start menstruating again around two months post delivery, although this can vary between four weeks to six months.  I suppose ten months is still pretty good considering some women who breastfeed can still end up menstruating by six weeks post delivery.  The majority of women who breastfeed generally take longer, some even longer than a year and a half - I wish I were one of those women.  Well, it was nice while it lasted…

In terms of getting pregnant, pregnancy before menstruation has resumed is usually rare.  In most cases the first period is usually anovular (no egg is released), although the longer it takes for menstruation to resume, the more likely it is for ovulation to occur during the first period. 

When I first told the hubby I was spotting, he asked, “Are you pregnant?”  (In case you’re wondering, spotting can also be a sign of implantation, as in when the fertilised egg implants into the wall of the uterus - a sign I somehow missed when I first got pregnant thinking it was an irregular period)  Well, although I think it highly improbable, based on what I’ve just written, it looks like it could be possible.  Now that it’s dawning upon me just how much effort goes into raising a child, I don’t think I’m quite as gung ho about my original plan of having number two when Gavin turns one - try when Gavin turns two or three.

The plan for having two children in close succession was more for the benefit of the kids.  I’ve always thought it was nice growing up with an older brother who was relatively close in age to me.  And if you think number two is a great idea for keeping number one happy, I think the following cartoon that I received from my weekly Baby Center newsletter says it all…

Hope it brought a smile to your face like it did mine…

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On Sunday, I developed a blocked duct in my right breast and my breast became engorged.  At least I think it was a blocked duct because the last time I had one was when I first started nursing Gavin.  Back then, everything hurt so I guess I was more tolerant of the pain.  When I palpated my nipple, I could feel small lumps in the aveolar area - which are indicative of a block duct or three.  

It all started on Saturday night when I avoided nursing Gavin on the right breast because of a sore nipple (I think it was cracked).  Over the entire night, I kept giving Gavin the left breast - that was my first mistake.  On Sunday morning when I woke up, not only was my right nipple still sore it felt like I had rocks in my right breast. 

Realising the problem, I wasted no time putting Gavin on the right breast but it hurt so much my eyes were smarting from the pain.  It seemed that Gavin wasn’t really interested in the breast either because he kept pulling away, which hurt even more.  So I went through everything I remember from the books about engorgement (I tried to express the milk, I tried hot and cold compresses) and took a warm shower as suggested by my BFF.  They all worked to a limited extent but I would feel the ache coming back again after a while. 

I was feeling desperate enough to take painkillers, but I’m glad I held off.  I waited until I knew Gavin would be eager for a feed before putting him on the breast.  He managed to drain most of the breast except for one lump at the top.  I’m sure he would have drained that one, too, if it weren’t for the Dad who was singing to his daughter in the baby room that I was trying to feed Gavin in.  My keipo (read: nosey) boy kept pulling off to see where the voice was coming from. 

For the rest of the day, I would nurse Gavin twice on the right side for every nursing on the left.  By Sunday night, my right breast was returning to some semblance of normality.  By Monday morning, me, my breasts and I were all hunky dory.

My take-out from this experience:

• If I ever have a cracked or sore nipple again, I will persist with feeding baby.  If I had forgotten how good Bepanthen is fantastic for helping the healing process for cracked/sore nipples, I certainly remember now (and I’m not saying this because I used to work for Roche - Bepanthen is now manufactured by Bayer anyway).

• Nothing beats baby when it comes to resolving a blocked duct and an engorged breast.
• If I am ever in charge of building a shopping mall, I will design a baby room with sound-proof nursing cubicles.

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What’s the association? 

Recently, I’ve frequently been having letdowns in the shower or just straight after.  I wonder what that means?  Perhaps it is a misconception on my part to assume that after ten months of breastfeeding, spontaneous letdowns shouldn’t really be happening any more. 

Just an odd observation that had me somewhat perplexed.

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If only we had these in Malaysia…

You push the button and the door automatically opens for you.  Very handy if you’re a Mum trying to handle a pram and a wriggly baby.  I didn’t get a picture of the inside but it is like a lounge with changing stations, a toilet and cubicles for mothers who want more privacy while breastfeeding.  Nearly all the nursing rooms I saw in Australia had automatic doors, private nursing cubicles, and changing stations with special diaper bins.

That said, I paid a visit to the new development at Midvalley Megamall today and the nursing room in Isetan is quite impressive.  Let’s see how nice it stays after about six months or so…

A real let down was the nursing room at the new Parkson in the Pavilion.  After doing so much to improve their image (and I might add that I was very impressed with their new store and the hubby even equated it to David Jones in Australia), it was extremely disappointing to see the nursing room they had set up.  With only one changing station and one chair for breastfeeding, only one family can use the room at a time. 

So far, the nicest nursing rooms I’ve seen in Malaysia are:

• the one in the Curve
• the one in the new Isetan at Midvalley

Shopping complexes in Klang Valley with nursing rooms that I am aware of:

• The Curve - on Level 1 near the baby shops.
• Ikano - there are two in Ikea, and one on ground, Level 1 and Level 2 at the end opposite to Ikea near the toilets. 
• Isetan at Midvalley - on Level 2.
• KLCC - Isetan Level 2, and Parkson Level 2.
• Bangsar Village - Level 1, old wing.  I’m surprised they never made one in the new wing.
• Great Eastern Mall - Ground floor.  The inconvenience is that they occasionally lock the door and you have to get the keys from the information desk.  If you’re unlucky, the person at information will be on a break somewhere and no one will be able to locate the keys.  Other than that, I think it is one of the better thought out nursing rooms.
• 1Utama - recently added a screen to seal off a section of the ladies toilets.  Personally, I don’t like the idea of a nursing room in the toilets so I never use these.  It is one of the worst efforts at creating a nursing room I have seen.  I’m also rather surprised that there is no nursing room in Parkson.
• The Alpha Angle - inside Jaya Jusco department store on Level 1 near the baby section.

The biggest surprise is Bangsar Shopping Complex which doesn’t have a nursing room at all.

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It really gets me riled up whenever I hear the propogation of the myth that some mothers just don’t have any breastmilk and therefore cannot breastfeed their babies, especially when it comes from the mouth of a person who has never breastfed a baby or even had a baby!  Infant formula is a human convenience.  If insufficient breastmilk was as common a problem in the wild as it appears to be among human mothers, we’d have a lot of extinct animals by now.

There is nothing more remarkable than the human body.  The way that a mother’s body adapts to her infant is one of the most amazing natural phenomena you will ever witness.  The sound of her baby crying triggers the release of hormones that kick start the milk production cycle.  Milk moves to the front of the breast in readiness for baby to suckle.

I often hear stories about mothers who didn’t breastfeed their babies because they had no milk.  A question my cousin had was, “How do you know you don’t have milk?”  Indeed.  So who is it that decides a mother has no milk?  The doctor, the mother, or the “well-meaning” friends and relatives?

In the first few days of a baby’s life, a mother only produces colostrum.  This can continue for as many as five days.  I remember reading in the book that it takes about three to four days before a mother starts producing matured milk.  When mine hadn’t started by the fifth day, I’ll admit that even I started to panic and thoughts of “no milk” clouded my mind.

A common mistake is that often occurs with new parents in these early days is the introduction of formula.  Well-meaning relatives worry that baby is getting hungry with no milk to drink and three to five days is a long time to wait for food.  Goodness, baby must be starving - no wonder he’s crying all the time.  “Why not give baby formula until Mummy’s milk arrives?” They suggest.  It sounds like very practical advice, but in fact this advice is detrimental to Mummy’s milk supply.

Milk production is triggered by the suckling action of baby’s mouth on Mummy’s nipple, therefore the more baby suckles, the more milk is produced.  If baby is too busy taking milk from a bottle, there is no stimulation to Mummy’s breast to trigger the production of milk. 

The other downside to introducing a bottle this early is that most bottles leak milk.  Baby doesn’t have to work very hard to get the milk out.  Baby gets lazy and start refusing Mummy’s breast.  Babies are smart and they’re lazy.  Why should they work so hard to get milk from Mummy’s breast when the milk flows readily into their mouths from a bottle without any effort from baby? This kicks starts a vicious cycle which seals Mummy’s fate of having no milk.  Then our well-intentioned relatives will say, “See, you’ve got no milk!  Isn’t it lucky we started the baby on formula?”

It is important to remember that baby will not starve.  On the first day, baby is still full from nutrients received through the placenta.  It is also important to remember that a baby’s stomach is the size of a grape.  10ml of colostrum is enough to fill baby’s tummy.  Any more and baby will be overeating.

With the concern that baby is hungry at bay, the best thing you can concentrate on is to get your matured milk production going.  The best way to do that in the three to five days after birth is to let baby suckle more. 

The other killer for milk production is stress.  If you are really determined to breastfeed your baby, surround yourself with people who know what their talking about - a good lactation consultant or other nursing mothers who can show you the ropes.  The early days of breastfeeding can be some of the toughest days a mother can go through after the birth of her baby.  She needs all the support she can get - which excludes all the negative advice from relatives who know nothing about breastfeeding. 

If you have relatives who insist on offering their two cents worth, assign hubby or someone who supports your decision to breastfeed to handle them.  The early days of being a mother is filled with uncertainty and the hormones don’t help either.  The last thing you need is to be bombarded with useless advice from negative relatives, no matter how well intended that advice is.

My parents were from a generation that was taught that formula was superior to breastmilk.  My mother has no idea how to breastfeed, let alone understand the mechanics of how breastfeeding works.  For me to listen to her advice on breastfeeding would be like the blind leading the blind. When I made it known that it was my intention to exclusively breastfeed Gavin, I was met with a lot of concern and skepticism.  I had relatives telling me to prepare formula in the event that I had no milk or not enough milk.

They questioned the wisdom of my decision and I’m sure some of them were also convinced I would end up supplementing Gavin with formula.  Well, I didn’t and now I have some of the toughest breastfeeding converts around me.  After looking at how chubby and healthy Gavin was on a diet consisting solely of breastmilk, I guess they were convinced.

Below: Gavin at about four months.

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When I was in school, my Physics teacher commented that the problem with me was that whenever I discovered my answers were different to another student’s, I would instinctively ask, “Where did I go wrong?”  If my teacher found his answers were different from another person, his instinct would have been to ask the other person, “Where did you go wrong?”

So I have a habit of assuming that me mistake is automatically mine and such was what happened recently…

Earlier today, the hubby and I were shopping at 1Utama with Gavin.  As the hubby was carrying Gavin in his arms and I was walking beside him pushing our empty pram, we observed all the other children sitting peacefully in their prams, content to remain as they were.

“Now why doesn’t Gavin sit in his pram like that?”  The hubby asked absently.

Feeling a little defensive, I asked, “Do you really think I spoilt him?”

The hubby answered, “Yes.”

I think I should rewind a little and recount some of the events over the past week.  Although Gavin’s always been a really good baby, content to observe his environment and generally quite quiet, I’ve noticed that recently, he’s becoming a lot more demanding in various ways.  For instance, there were a couple of nights in the past week where he just refused to sleep alone and he would either be permanently glued to my breast or using my chest as a pillow.  He howls the instant I try to lie him on his back to change his diaper or clothes.  He screams in frustration when I take him out of the bath tub.  In fact, he’s been displaying quite a nasty temper whenever things aren’t going his way.

I confess I started to waver in my resolve that when a baby cries or fusses, I should pick him up, calm him down, offer him the breast, rock him or do whatever else is necessary to stop the crying or fussing.  I started to wonder if perhaps I was spoiling him by responding to his demands and now that he was so used to it that he was taking advantage of it.  I had made him dependent on my breast so much so that he had turned me into a human pacifier.

Deciding that I was going to change things, I chose to work on helping Gavin sleep through the night without using me as a human pacifier as my first step to “unspoiling” him.  Recalling the “Baby Sleep Book” by Sears, I went to MPH to browse through its contents.  After flicking through a few pages, I remembered the sleep article that C emailed me some time back that was also written by Sears.  It was titled “8 Infant Sleep Facts Parents Should Know“.

One of the comments that Sears made was: “An important fact for you to remember is that your baby’s sleep habits are more a reflection of your baby’s temperament rather than your style of nighttime parenting.”  Sears also believed that frequent stirring at night and nightwaking are the result of frequent phases of REM sleep that a baby goes through.  REM sleep forms an important part of baby’s development and Sears discourages the idea that babies should be taught to sleep more deeply from an early age because:

“Sleep researchers… theorize that light sleep helps the brain develop because the brain doesn’t rest during REM sleep. In fact, blood flow to the brain nearly doubles during REM sleep… During REM sleep the body increases its manufacture of certain nerve proteins, the building blocks of the brain. Learning is also thought to occur during the active stage of sleep. The brain may use this time to process information acquired while awake, storing what is beneficial to the individual and discarding what is not. Some sleep researchers believe that REM sleeps acts to auto-stimulate the developing brain, providing beneficial imagery that promotes mental development. It is possible that during this stage of rapid brain growth (babies’ brains grow to nearly seventy percent of adult volume during the first two years) the brain needs to continue functioning during sleep in order to develop.”

After reading some more, it appeared that a lot of the things I had been doing instinctively were in keeping with Sears parenting philosophies.  My concern about Gavin’s all night feeding was also unfounded as I discovered when I read an article about
“night weaning”:

“Wear your baby in a sling and give your baby more touch time during the day. It’s easy when babies get older to greatly decrease the amount of touching time without realizing it. All-night nursing can sometimes be a baby’s signal reminding mothers not to rush their baby into dependence. In developing a healthy independence, a child leaves and comes back; lets go and clings, step by step until she is going out more than she is coming back. Many mothers have noted that babies and toddlers show an increased need for nursing and holding time right before undertaking a new stage of development, such as crawling or walking.”

As it happens, Gavin has been working on his crawling and even trying to walk a few steps when I hold him in the standing position which he seems to favour over sitting of late.

I also found an article about “high needs babies” that stated: “In some ways all babies are high need babies, and most babies have high needs in at least one area of their life. Some have more high need areas than others. The neediness of the baby is often in the mind of the parent. Some experienced parents of children have widened their expectations of what babies are “normally” like, and they adapt more easily to a baby with high needs; new parents often are not so realistic.”

That said, there are a handful of parents who are have been blessed with “angel babies”, and as my cousin once said, “Parents of angel babies have no idea what it’s like to have a spirited baby.”

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Poor Gavin picked up a sniffle recently.  Having a stuffy nose, my MIL assumed he would reject the breast so she suggested I feed him more solids - I think she is still afraid he will waste away.  It is understandable that some babies might reject breastfeeding when they are ill because a blocked nose makes it hard to suckle, additionally, most people generally lose their appetite when they aren’t well.  Ironically, I have noticed that although Gavin displays less enthusiasm for eating his solid meals (he eats only a quarter of what he could eat on a good day), he still takes to the breast like a fish to water.

At this point, rather than feed Gavin more solids, since he is still willing to breastfeed, I believe we should continue encouraging him to take more breastmilk because:

• he has just starting taking solids so his current repertoire of foods are insufficient to provide him the full compliment of nutrients for healthy living
• solid feeding at this point is more for taste rather than nourishment, babies still need their milk to provide them with the nutrients they need for a complete diet
• I have the same germs so my body makes antibodies which are passed to him through the breastmilk

I guess Gavin still has the right idea preferring his breastmilk to his solids…

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I thought it might be worthwhile adding this note from Dr Lam for mothers who want to wean their six month olds and mothers who want to continue breastfeeding:

Breastmilk can remain the staple beverage for babies if you intend to continue breasfeeding baby beyond six months.  There is no need to offer water, juices or any other beverage so long as the baby is adequately hydrated with breastmilk.  For the old wives tales that if you don’t start offering other beverages baby will only want to drink breastmilk later, this is apparently not true.

If it is your intention to wean baby, then substituting water and juices can help wean baby from breastmilk.

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I am finally able to answer some questions on breastfeeding that I posed quite some time back…

After a few different discussions with other breastfeeding Mummies, I was prompted to investigate a little about weaning an older child and tandem breastfeeding.  It turns out that I had the answers under my nose all this time in the LLL book The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.  I didn’t realise it because I skipped the chapter on “weaning with love” when I first read the book since I had no plans to wean Gavin until he hit two years.

Anyway, this is what I discovered:

We know that the constituents of breastmilk is constantly changing to meet the needs of our growing babies.  So in answer to the question I posed regarding what happens to the milk quality when a new baby is born, it seems that the milk reverts back to colostrum after baby is born if you are still breastfeeding an older child through your pregnancy.  I guess mother nature has wisely decided that the new baby needs the milk more than the older child.

As for whether it is possible to continue breastfeeding an older child while you are pregnant, yet it is, although Mummy’s diet becomes even more critical to ensure that both Mummy and new baby get sufficient nutrients.  The book also quotes a study that reported 67% of mothers found that the older child self-weaned halfway through the pregnancy.  This is believed to be due to the changes in the taste of breastmilk and some children are particularly sensitive to it.  Some children will self-wean around about the fourth month of pregnancy because of the drop in milk production that follows.  The more tenacious kids will self-wean during the time of separation when Mummy is in hospital recovering from the deliver.

That said, there are a few mothers who managed to continue breastfeeding their older child in tandem with the newborn - hence the term tandem breastfeeding.  Usually, in such cases, it is important to meet the needs of the newborn before the older child.  The benefit of tandem breastfeeding is that it helps the older child cope with the arrival of a new baby and it encourages the child’s acceptance of the new addition to the family.

So what about the theory that nipple stimulation during the pregnancy can trigger miscarriages or pre-term labour?  It appears that the studies disagree that this is the case.  It is perfectly safe to continue breastfeeding an older child (given that they still want to continue breastfeeding despite the changes) all the way through pregnancy.

After a comment from a friend that she thought she would be able to just stop breastfeeding but found that it wasn’t quite as simple as that since her daughter refused to give up the breast, it got me thinking.  I realised that I had also made the same assumption but since I wasn’t intending on weaning Gavin until he was ready or until he reached two years, I hadn’t arrived at this discovery on my own as yet. 

The chapter on “weaning with love” talks a lot about the need to supplement your child’s emotional needs through other methods when weaning because breastfeeding not only offers nourishment for your child but it is also your child’s bonding time with Mummy.  It is recommended that you start by dropping on one breastfeeding session at a time and replace it with one-to-one quality time spent with your child, such as reading a book together, going for a walk, or playing in the park.  Even if your child is ready for other food sources, he may still cling to you for his emotional nourishment.

I found this last point particularly interesting because ever since I introduced Gavin to solids, I have noticed that he has become a lot more clingy.  I had initially attributed it to his separation anxiety since he has just turned six months, but that didn’t really explain his increased frequency of stirring in the night.  I also found it was much harder to sneak away after putting him to bed because he could sense I was leaving and start to cry in his sleep.  The moment I cuddled him, he would fall back to sleep.  It was as if he was trying to find a way to claim back his lost cuddle time since I had replaced one of his breastfeeding sessions with a solid feeding session.

Although it never really occurred to me, the introduction of solids is like partially weaning your child even if you still continue to breastfeed on the side.  So I guess I’ll start offering Gavin more cuddle time during the day and see if it helps reduce his night time stirring…

Below: Gavin at dinner time tasting his first serve of sweet potato.

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