As many of you know, Galen has had some feeding issues that were starting to get worrying to me.  All my kiddos have been a little “late” to start solid foods, but as Galen hit twelve months and went beyond without any solids, I started getting a little concerned.

Galen didn’t just seem disinterested in solids – he seemed to be unable to swallow anything thicker than a liquid.  He had a lot of gagging, choking, throwing up if anything did get down.  He hadn’t gained weight in months and actually started losing some weight.

I decided to bring it up with the doctor and we took a bit of a “wait and see” approach.  Another month or so went by and Galen had lost weight.  He nursed constantly, but he’s incredibly active and just seemed to need more calories (though he didn’t seem to be hungry or very interested in food.)

We had a swallow study done at our local hospital, which showed that food is slow to clear Galen’s esophogus but no real problems.  The therapist said it’s pretty common and it will probably continue to get better as Galen gets older.

We were referred to the Pediatric Feeding Program in our hospital’s therapy department.  Galen has been going for a few weeks now and it has been a good experience for us.

Scott and I were worried at first about what they might want to feed Galen, since we try to follow a very traditional diet.  However, that has not been an issue at all. Our therapist and the entire team working for Galen have been incredibly respectful of our choices with Galen’s diet and with his continued nursing.

I make all of Galen’s food to bring into his appointments and that works very well for us.

Right now the goal is to get Galen’s intake up.  The therapist has been very helpful and has taught me a lot about getting Galen to eat – and to enjoy eating.  He’s eating completely pureed foods now (though he can eat scrambled eggs with gusto!) as we work on getting him eating more.

In general I just puree whatever we are eating for dinner.  Having a high-powered blender has turned out to be a real blessing.  We spoon feed Galen and he’s now really enjoying eating.  He looks forward to eating and taking bites.

He’s still nursing a lot and I’ve been proactively working to keep my milk supply high for him.

Galen has a weight check coming up soon and I’m actually looking forward to this one because he looks like he’s filled out some and he feels chunkier to me.

It has been really interesting having Galen’s feeding issues because the other kids pretty much just went from nursing to eating anything and everything put in front of them.  Galen is a special case, but its apparent even now that he has his siblings’ taste in food – he’ll eat anything and everything as long as it’s pureed!

Galen was having some constipation issues which I think were related to his feeding problems.  We started him on daily doses of an infant probiotic mix and that coupled with getting more food in seems to be working for his digestive system.  He’s regular again and seems a lot more comfortable.

I’m really enthusiastic about how Galen will do with eating in the coming months – he’s made a lot of progress just in the few weeks since we started going to the feeding clinic.

He’s happy, energetic little baby – he almost always has a smile and he’s always trying to climb into everything!  He also has perfect proportions and a beautiful face.  I’m pretty confident that with more calories he’ll bulk right up weight-wise.  We’re really blessed to have him, and the lessons he gives us

It’s sometimes hard to find a balance between living life and offering the potty.  For me the thing that has always worked the best is timing.  Just getting to know about how often my baby goes potty.

This past week I picked a day and jotted down when Galen went to the bathroom so I could get a feel for how often I should be offering potty opportunities.

He’s not peeing nearly as often as he did when he was a tiny baby   And since he’s crawling (and cruising!) he’s not on his belly, which seemed to cause him to pee very frequently.

Now I’m able to offer him the potty with longer stretches in between and he stays dry.  I usually still offer based on timing, or if he goes for one of his potties.  Even if he seems to only want to play with it, I still put him on it!

The most frustrating thing for me thus far has been mealtimes.  Even if I offer right before a meal he always seems to wet his undies while he’s in his highchair.  I need to teach him not to do that! :p

I mentioned last month that I wasn’t sure how to deal with the cold, EC’ing, and an older baby.  Well this month I’ve got it a bit more figured out.  Galen has one pair of wool split pants.  These pants are great – I slip those on him and they keep his legs cozy warm.  Then I pull on a pair of undies/trainers over them and he’s covered.  The wool wicks any moisture if we have a miss, and I notice misses right away so there’s never much chance at them getting wet.  If you’ve ever used a wool diaper cover or longies you know how this works.  I think I’ll probably get at least one more pair so if I need wash and air dry one pair I’ll have a backup pair.

So that system is working well, and timing things is working well.

Galen also shows a classic Cassidy sign that he needs to poop.  Cassidy, my oldest child, was also my first elimination communication baby.  I could always tell when she needed to poop because she’d get very still and her eyes would get red-rimmed.  Galen does the exact same thing.  He’s also pretty vocal and “grunt-y.”  I miss a poop every once in awhile but not often.

We’re still using diapers at night right now, and some days I still have Galen in diapers, though I offer the potty.  I’d like to have him out of diapers, soon, though, so I’ve been making a big effort the past couple of weeks to keep him in undies and offer the potty a lot.  Hopefully once he starts toddling he’ll be able to learn to sit on the potty himself, too.  He’s already super coordinated so I don’t see it being much trouble for him

Galen was chronicled on Natural Birth and Baby Care from start to finish (in fact, I started this blog because we were TTC him!) I thought I’d share some highlights:

We’re pregnant: a very faint positive at 10DPO (days post/past ovulation)!

My chart hits 18 days of high temps – a pretty certain sign of pregnancy! (Scroll to the bottom to see my chart)

We discover we’re expecting a son!

I do a marathon freezer cooking session to get ready for baby!  Talk about nesting.  This year I created a freezer meal plan for you based on that session

Scott and I use The Pink Kit to prepare for the birth (it’s excellent!) and I write down all the details for you.

Finally, finally, finally, our precious baby boy arrives – and Scott and I are the only ones to witness his debut!

And now today, one year later, our little man is growing strong.  He has been such an incredible joy and blessing to our family.  I’m delighted he decided to join us   I’ll leave with a parting shot of his first few minutes:

The issue is not, however, that Galen refuses food.  In fact, Galen seems to greatly enjoy some things.  My milk is the primary highlight to his diet, of course.  But Galen also really likes chicken stock and water.  If you’re giving Galen chicken stock or water from a spoon he looks like the baby in the photograph.

But the reason you haven’t seen many updates on “feeding Galen” since my first post is that feeding him has really not gone anywhere.  When we try and feed him anything with any sort of texture, Galen cannot swallow it.  There have been a few meals here and there where we’ve gotten tiny amounts into him.  When I say tiny I’m talking around 1/16th of a teaspoon.  TINY.  But mostly Galen just gags when solid foods get to his tongue.  And that means that anything that was in his belly comes back up.  Even his mama milk.

Initially I didn’t worry too much about his disinterest in solid foods.  And at this point I’m still trying not to worry.  Cassidy was also late starting solid foods.  The difference is that when Cassidy started she was already ready to go with finger foods.  She was happy feeding herself and she could get almost anything down.

Galen doesn’t put much in his mouth.  If we give him bits of finger foods he just moves them around on his tray.  He doesn’t put them in his mouth.  He chews on his fingers (and my hair, eww).  And that’s about it.

He can’t eat even pureed food.  So for right now his nutrition is coming 100% from nursing.  I’m working hard to make sure I’m eating well for him so he’s getting good, rich milk.  And we try with solids every few days to see if what seems to be a texture aversion is lessening.  I’ve gotten a lot of suggestions for things, and I’m researching around.  I’ve also talked it over with his doctor.  For a couple of weeks at least we’re in a “wait and see” mode.  But this is very different from what I experienced with the other kids.  There’s always so much to learn, and children always have such different needs.  Parenting is definitely the most challenging job out there

I began by laying a waterproof mat out on the bed, underneath where Galen and I sleep.  I put a light baby blanket over the mat because the mat’s material is kind of scratchy.  Then I put Galen in his little trainers.  I want him to have something on so our sheets don’t get wet

It’s just been recently that Galen has been sleeping without being swaddled.  I don’t think he sleeps as well at night without swaddling, but the weather is warm (most nights) and I just think it’s too warm for him to be swaddled.  I also felt it was too warm to be bundling him into a bulky diaper, which is what prompted going diaper free at night.

Most nights Galen will stay dry through the night.  I offer to potty him when we take him upstairs for the night (he sleeps downstairs near us until we go to bed).  Then he’ll often stay dry the rest of the night, but he pees almost immediately upon waking.  So if I don’t catch him quickly enough, he’ll wet.  Sometimes he wets in the night and I’ll just change him and our mat when that wakes me up.  I haven’t yet held him over the potty when that happens but I probably should, so he will come to understand that he can go potty at night too.

All-in-all it’s going well.  We’re using the same setup at naptime and he’s dry through naps

In other elimination communication news things are going very well.  Galen’s little “potty strike” appears to be over in that he’s pooping on the pot again.  He’s going several days between poops right now, though, which makes me a little nervous.  He’s working on getting solids in, nursing tons, and peeing a lot though, so I’m trying to assure myself that maybe he’s just using so many nutrients right now there’s not a lot coming out!

When I’m holding Galen I still catch almost all of his pees.  However, when he goes down on the floor I get a lot of misses.  I’ve noticed that putting Galen on his belly is generally the perfect way to get wet trainers!  If I put him on his back, he rolls to his belly and pees!  It’s a little frustrating but I really think it’s the pressure on his bladder.  He’s not crawling yet – just getting up on his knees and rocking.  I’m hoping when he actually gets crawling down and spends less time on his belly maybe he’ll wet less when he’s on the floor. If not, though, I don’t mind too much because I can easily change his little trainers.

He’s in trainers pretty exclusively at home now, and still diapered when we go out – though I have started taking walks with the children with Galen just in trainers.

All in all EC’ing is still going well, and still pleasing all around.  I feel more confident this month than I did last month.  It’s really an enjoyable thing to know that I’m helping Galen maintain awareness, and that I can cut down on our laundry and diaper use

None of my little ones have seemed too enthused over solid foods at first (you would never guess this from the way my big kids pack food away now.) Galen seems no different.

As I’ve talked about before, our family follows traditional food recommendations from groups like the Weston A. Price Foundation and the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation. There are talks in those groups about how no traditional culture delayed solids past 6 months. But I think even if they introduced solids starting around six months, not all babies took to the with great gusto straight away.

I am, however, trying to offer to Galen pretty consistently, and I’m being very choosy about what he gets. Galen’s first official food was a spoon of baked sweet potato covered in butter. He seemed to like that.

Most of his meals thus far have been egg yolk, however. Egg yolk and then egg yolk with a little bit of liver grated in to them. (In case you are wondering, it’s the egg white that is usually allergenic and should be delayed until baby is a year. I feel comfortable giving my baby egg yolk – I did wait several days after his first taste before giving anything else to watch for reaction.)

Some evenings he has attacked his egg yolk and liver with gusto. Other nights, not so much. He’s also had a taste of homemade chicken broth – he was unsure of exactly how to proceed with getting that off the spoon. And he greatly enjoys banging a chicken drumstick bone (all attached small bones/slivers picked off) around, but hasn’t really yet managed to the bone to his mouth.

The best starting foods for babies are not, as we’re told most of the time now, grain cereals. Cereals are really hard for babies to digest. Because Scott has a hard time digesting grains we’re planning to delay giving Galen any grains until he is 2 years old. But for all babies grains are hard to digest – the digestive enzymes for grains begin to develop in the second and third years of life. Even rice cereal is not easy to break down – and it’s also pretty worthless nutritionally.

Nutrient rich foods are the best thing to start your baby on. I always wait until six months to introduce solids though some people still like to introduce at four months. But after six months you can give your baby egg yolk (I soft boil Galen’s), tiny amounts of grated liver, butter, and broths. Babies need a lot of fat I also feel pretty comfortable with giving sweet potato, avocado, and squashes to babies around the 7-8 month mark.

I am excited about starting Galen on solids and I’ll continue to share our adventures. Enjoy the above picture from one of Galen’s first solid meals… it’s also a rare shot of him without a hat Sorry it’s grainy – it was taken with our video camera!

For more information on feeding babies check on my review on the book Healing Our Children.

So I’ll give an update on how things went over the past month. Galen’s fifth month started much like the rest of his early months, with EC’ing going pretty routinely. However, it ended much differently.

Galen began to enjoy being on the floor more, and got really proficient at rolling from his back to his tummy. It seems like I’d put him down on the floor, he’d roll onto his belly, and immediately pee.

Now that got frustrating! It seems to be whenever that pressure is on his belly, or whenever he decides he’s done with being on the floor and starts fussing, that he just lets go and pees.  It was a bit discouraging for me because I’m used to catching most of his pees throughout the day.

The most discouraging thing would be when I’d offer him the potty and he wouldn’t go – then I’d put him down and he’d pee almost immediately.

I felt conflicted because on the one hand, I don’t want to get stressed or convey any stress about pottying to him – he’s just a baby.  But on the other hand we’d been “catching” most pees and I didn’t really want to give that up.

In the end I’ve decided just to be more vigilant about offering to potty him.  We ordered a couple of new potty bowls (BabyBjörn Little Potties), one for the van and one so we have a nice potty bowl in both the office and the family room.  As you can see from the picture, my oldest child Cassidy can help Galen to sit on the Little Potty!  That’s very helpful to me and both of them seem to enjoy it.

We had our first dirty diapers since Galen’s newborn week.  One was at our CSA farm… a complete blowout diaper.  I felt so bad.  The other was right after Cassidy and Asher’s Japanese lesson.  I was strapping Galen into the car seat and heard him start – by that point I had the new Little Potty in the van so I pulled him out of the seat, pulled off his pants, and sat him right down on the potty.  I squeezed into the van so I could shut the sliding door and give him some privacy while I helped him sit on the pot   That diaper only got a little in it since I got him over the potty as soon as he started.

I’ve decided I probably need to plan time to offer him the potty when we go somewhere.  I really don’t want him to have to have dirty diapers and he has such a clear preference for pooping in the potty.  I don’t want him to lose that preference.

So this month was a little frustrating as far as elmination communication goes – but also a good reminder.  He’s getting bigger, and things are changing for him and so they’ll change with EC’ing too.

One of my goals for the next couple of months is to get him more trainers made so he can be used to wearing the trainers full time, and having them taken off to go potty.  I have 5 pairs made now, bringing our total to 8 pairs.  I’m working on 7 more pairs (two different styles to see which I like best).  I’m debating if I want to switch to trainers for going out and about or stick with diapers.  It’s something I’ll have to think over!

I think it’s because we’ve been taught that babies are not supposed to have any bladder control or any ability to do anything but soil themselves until they’re well over two years old… but Galen’s expressions just amuse me endlessly.

When I cue him to pee or poop he just has this relaxed, matter-of-fact look on his face.  As if it’s completely natural (and isn’t it??)  And sometimes a “well, yeah, what did you think I was going to do?” kind of look.  I just love it.  And I am 100% sure that it is completely natural and that the “experts” are completely wrong about baby ability to control bladder/bowels.

I don’t of course think that everyone needs to use elimination communication with their babies.  It’s a matter of personal choice.  I take EC’ing over poopy diapers any day though :p  We do still use diapers, just not all the time.

Galen has crankier days where we have a lot more misses and on those days I’ll use diapers more.  And when we were all sick a couple of weeks back, I kept a diaper on him full time.  I still checked it frequently and offered potty opportunities to him, but I kept the diaper on him so I didn’t have to worry while I was feeling bad and tending to the other children.

I do think that Galen has come to associate having cloth against his bottom as being “ok” to wet.  Of course I want him to wet if he absolutely needs to, but I’d also like to be able to put little trainers on him without him wetting those.  I tend to let him go diaper free/trainer free mostly around the house.  So I think I’m going to start keeping trainers on him and offering the potty a lot so he’ll get used to the trainers being on but still pottying in the potty.

He’s got three types of trainers now – the little ones I made him and I bought him two different types to try: Shi Shi Nix and EcaPants.  I really can’t decide which ones I like best out of the Shi Shi Nix and the EcaPants.  The ones I made him are not waterproofed at all.  They just stop the “fountain effect.”  The Shi Shi Nix are partly waterproof – eventually the ribbing will get damp but they protect whatever baby is on from pees.  The EcaPants are fully waterproof and have a PUL outer cover.  They also have a soft little belt that goes around the baby, so you can unfasten the front of the EcaPants and pull it out of the way for pottying.

I like the EcaPants because they are completely waterproof and they work well with split pants for quick and easy pottying.  But I also find myself reaching for the Shi Shi Nix often because I can just slip them on Galen quickly.  They work really well over legwarmers because I just slide them up and down to offer potty times.  I’ll also slide them on over split pants and that goes nicely too.

I’d say that I’m still going mostly based on timing with taking Galen to pee.  He will squirm and fuss sometimes and I offer then (I’m often sorry if I don’t!), but a lot of it is based on timing.  I have started to note a lot of intuitive feelings – if I think that I ought to try and potty him then I try do it right then because more often than not he needs to go!

Galen has fussy days every now and then where he decides to have what I call mini potty-strikes.  He’ll just fuss and grump most of the day and he won’t really be interested in going potty.  He goes right back to being fine with it the next day, though, so I don’t know if he’s just having an “off” day on those days or what.  He tends to be fussy overall so maybe those are just grumpy days.

One last thing I’m trying to work on is offering Galen the potty whenever we go out.  He likes his little potty bowls here but I want him to be comfortable going wherever we go.  This is harder for me because I’m also much more comfortable with his potty bowls.  But I’m trying to make a point to hold him over the toilet and the sink more so he’ll be used to that, and hopefully ok with using a toilet and sink while we’re out.  I don’t want him to only be willing to potty at home – we had that come up with Brennan and it was hard for awhile there because well… you just can’t always be home!!

Do you have questions about infant potty training/elimination communication?  We have a Q&A session coming up and want your questions – get more details here!

(Galen is modeling wool split pants in the picture above – prefold between his legs for modesty! These pants are Re-Ewes from ECWear.com and we love them!)

Galen has had some fussy days lately, and along with fussiness he’s been resistant to use the potty some. 

He’d fuss and fuss and we’d take him off the potty bowl or move him from the sink and diaper him.  Then just a few minutes later he’d soak the diaper.  He kept using the potty for all poops. 

Thankfully the past couple of days have gone much more smoothly – he’s back to peacefully and happily peeing over the potty.

It’s sometimes frustrating when I can tell he really needs to go (or it has been hours since he went last, which was often the case!) but he just wants to fuss.  I don’t want to hold him over the potty if he doesn’t want to be there. 

If possible I try to let him lay on his lambskin with a couple of prefolds underneath him.  Sometimes he enjoys kicking around and I’ll pick him back up after a few minutes and he’ll go.  Other times I can wrap a prefold around him and nurse him to calm him, then he’ll go.  But if I need to be up and moving around I usually diaper him and he uses the diaper.  Not the end of the world of course, but I don’t like him having to be wet!

Most of the time Galen is cue-ing he needs to go by fussing.  It’s either fussing or I just offer the potty to him because it’s been awhile since he’s gone.  I also usually know when a poop is coming because he’ll start passing a lot of gas or leave little streaks on the diaper I have him on (unless he’s wearing his trainers I always have a prefold under his bum).  Sometimes I’ll feel little bubbles/air in his belly and I usually offer if I feel that because it sometimes means a poop is coming.

He still goes over the sink for Scott better than he will for me.  Maybe he associates Scott with the sink and me with the potty bowl?

I’ve gotten one little pair of trainers done for him and I’m almost done with another pair (that’s what he’s wearing in the pictures!)  They fit him really well.  I’m going to modify the pattern a little and make some more for him.  A friend sent me another pattern I may try working with it as well to see which I like best.  The one thing I don’t like is stretching the elastic while I sew.  That’s a complete pain!

I also think I’m going to try some of the work at home mom designed trainers made for families using elimination communication.  I’ve been debating with myself for days about which ones I want to try and I think I’ve finally made up my mind   I definitely want some waterproof ones and they can complement my own non-waterproof design.  And someone else deals with the hassle of the elastic on those! I’ll be sure to update with pictures and a review when they come in. For now, another parting shot of Galen in his “mama-made” trainers!

I love it that when Galen wakes up and sees me now, he just breaks out in this huge grin. It makes me feel so nice that he likes to see me. He’s such a good sweet little baby.  With the exception of bedtime (he doesn’t like bedtime!) he has moved into our family routine very well.  I can hardly believe 3 months have passed since his birth, and that I don’t have a newborn anymore!

He’s starting to push himself up with his arms, and he’s rolled over once, though it may have been a fluke!  Elimination Communication is going well as I’ve written about in our EC updates.  Nursing is going well too – Galen is a champion nurser and I have plenty of milk

Having Galen here is wonderful.  I really enjoy watching the kids with him… and I adore watching Scott with him (Scott is such a wonderful daddy – and hubby!)