Thursday, May 28, 2009

Adequate hydration

Thanks for all the comments on the attachment issue. That is definitely what I thought would be a benefit to daycare: having multiple caregivers. She's adapting to it, though not as well as would be preferred.

A new assistant director started a few weeks ago. When I was dropping Julia off yesterday, the assistant director was talking to Jennifer. Julia just looked up at the lady and started screaming. Kinda like, "Stop talking to Jennifer! She's mine! GO AWAY!" The lady seriously looked terrified of Julia. She basically ran out and told me that Julia doesn't like her.

She's a baby! You can't let a baby control you like that, Lady!

I empathize with her though. Really. Julia screamed at me for the first 4 months. She screamed at everyone and everything. But after 4 months, she kinda got used to S and me. Kinda. And now, she practically LIKES us!

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We may have sippy cup success! She has been taking 2-3 ounces of water a day from sippy cups without valves. She's not fond of juice or formula from a sippy cup though. She just spits it out. Great, the baby who needs to gain the most enjoys water the most. I had high hopes of her reaching 18 pounds at her 1 year check-up, but I'm pretty sure she's not going to make it. Boo!

She's really tapering off the formula. I was going to try to hold off til the allergist appointment before trying to introduce whole milk (in case she's allergic), but I may sneak an ounce here or there into her bottle. Maybe she'll like it better? One can always hope.

For the past week, she's been drinking about 12-14 ounces of concentrated formula per day. That's equal to 15-17 ounces of "regular" formula. Plus the 2-3 ounces of water. She is eating more solids now - she never really liked baby food, but she's more eager to eat people/finger food. She was never a great pee-er (except when she was first born), but now it's getting bad. She doesn't seem dehydrated when looking at her, and she still drools plenty. Her body must be taking in every droplet.

So I'm trying the theory that Julia knows how much to eat. Tricking her by concentrating her formula as we've been doing for the last 5 months may just be causing her to drink less of it. Today I stopped concentrating her formula, and maybe she'll drink more fluid in order to get the same number of calories. More fluid = more pee, at least in theory

2 comments:

Leigh Ann said...

Yay on the sippy cups! I just did a blog this morning on Waylon's weight, etc. They suggested pediasure for him. Have you tried that for Miss J? It packs a 240 punch for 8 ounces!
Oh, and I am finding that Waylon likes a straw better than anything now! Now that I have 6 sippy cups in the cabinet...he has decided he prefers straws. How does Miss J do with a straw?

Wendy said...

Alas, she's onto you. YAY on sippy success. It takes time. And for "intolerant" kiddos, it takes more time. Mischa took to water right away, but took her over a month to take more than a sip or two of Neocate Splash. Now we are trying Rice Milk fortified with UltraCare and it will likely take over a month before she'll drink an ounce. We have hydration issues as well, and I've accepted that 3 - 4 diapers a day is the best we're going to get. I'll be interested in how the unconcentrated formula works with her fluid intake. I cheated when Mischa's intake went down and upped her nipple flow. It usually buys me a few more ounces a day.