One for the Parenting Books

When you are a new parent you read all kinds of parenting books hoping to glean helpful information. You want to do everything the "right" way according to what the experts say. Then a few years down the road and five kids later you realize a few things. First, throw out the parenting and baby books, the experts do not know anything more than you do. Second, there are no "typical" children. Each one is unique and has their own needs and wants, and not to mention opinions! I think I would like to write a parenting book about what having kids is really like along with some advice that is actually useful! I would have to include a chapter, perhaps several, on getting your children to eat. Every parent knows that sleeping and eating pretty much rule your world when you have a baby. All of our children have been good nursers and we have had relatively few problems. In fact, I have never had thrush, mastitis, clogged ducts or anything else, I feel very grateful for that! However, I am not a major milk producer. We have tried to have all of our kids take a bottle of pumped milk when needed. Keith enjoys feeding them and it really helps out if I need to be somewhere during feeding time. This has worked pretty well for us. None of the kids have been overly excited or taken the bottle easily, but they would take it with coaxing. That is until Naomi came along. Like all the others we tried to get her to drink a bottle. She would have nothing to do with it! She wouldn't get mad or anything, she just would not suck it. We were worried about her not getting enough fluids so we kept trying the bottle to no avail. We tried sippy cups and straws, again no luck! Since necessity is the mother of invention, we decided to put it into her mouth with a straw and us blowing lightly on the other end to have it come out. She loved it, go figure! I don't think you will find this method in any of the parenting books, but if it works and your baby is happy, then go with it!

Keith giving Naomi her milk.