need help feeding babe!

[nisha]

Hi Macro friends,

My 13 month old baby has learned the word no and is using it often. She is refusing to eat her brown rice cereal and almost all her veggies. I have given her some fruit, rice cakes with almond butter, nori bits and sweet veggies which she is accepting.

My husband, who is not macro (any suggestions on living with and raising your child with a meat eating/coke drinking partner would be appreciated) gave her a good size fruit smoothy while I was away at school tonight and I just fear that she is not eating a very balanced diet. She has had a stuffy nose for a few days now.

I would love suggestions and feedback.

Thanks,
N

[Bruce Paine]

Nisha,

At what age does a infanthood end?

Your daughter is already on solids at 13 months?

I assume that she has stopped nursing.

When did she stop?

Michio Kushi suggests that children breastfeed until at least 18 months.

I wonder if a rushed maturity of a infant into childhood and then a child towards adulthood does not strongly contribute to that rebellion that some of our society's teens go through.

I imagine that children that bond well with their mothers while they are infants, develop into children that listen to their parents and achieve many successes on their way towards adulthood.

What do you think?"

To counterbalance such an early development maybe one could slow down a little, hmm?

Anyway you asked about feeding this young one.

Get a copy of Cynthia Lair's Feeding the Whole Family: Whole Foods Recipies for Babies, Young Children and Their Parents
( http://www.feedingfamily.com/ ).

With Dad, one could go in several different directions from being a sneaky organic cook who sticks more and more whole foods into his diet (unnoticed) until he is finally eating a vegan/vegetarian/macro diet with no complaints to the other extreme ...where you both go on a 10 day camping trip where the only thing to eat are whole grain and vegetables with all the vegan/macro extras like sea weeds and fermented foods.

Camp where it's cold at night so that one has a hearty appetite during the early morning and soon, your hubby will love eating whole foods

I imagine that there are a good number of approaches one can take besides those but they might work for starters.

By the way, are you a stay at home mom, have a part or full time job?

Mother's activity lifestyle largely affect her and her family's dietary direction and eating habits.

I hope I've answered at least part of your question and given you food for thought, without sounding too judgemental.

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

Originally Posted by nisha

Hi Macro friends,

My 13 month old baby has learned the word no and is using it often. She is refusing to eat her brown rice cereal and almost all her veggies. I have given her some fruit, rice cakes with almond butter, nori bits and sweet veggies which she is accepting.

My husband, who is not macro (any suggestions on living with and raising your child with a meat eating/coke drinking partner would be appreciated) gave her a good size fruit smoothy while I was away at school tonight and I just fear that she is not eating a very balanced diet. She has had a stuffy nose for a few days now.

I would love suggestions and feedback.

Thanks,
N

[nisha]

Bruce,

I wish it was that easy.

I am still a full-time breastfeeding mom. My daughter is a joyful, loving and kind little girl. She is simply going through a stage of testing limits and experimenting with flavors. Our dinner table interaction is still fun, I am just trying to find foods that she will enjoy and that will be of benefit to her health. I guess I was also hoping to hear how other parents led their little ones along.

N

[Bruce Paine]

Nisha,

I have found that many longtime macrobiotic practitioners, including women who got involved in macrobiotics either before, during, or after immediately after pregnancy, have not yet accessed the Internet.

So it seems that the feedback that you seek in this environment might come primarily from second-hand sources.

While surfing for macrobiotic sources on breastfeeding, I found another thread here at Cybermacro where we had a similar conversation and Elizabeth Sunderland who got involved in macrobiotics a year or two before having her first baby.

I recommend you exchange e-mail with her as she doesn't appear to come to this forum often and may be missing out on your and other new mom's queries.

Other longtime macrobiotic moms that you might be able to get macrobiotic breastfeeding information through the Internet through their husbands might be Cynthia Briscoe through David Briscoe at Macrobiotics America ( http://www.macroamerica.com/ ), and Julia Ferre' through Carl Ferre' at the George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation ( http://gomf.macrobiotic.net/ ).

When I was living in the Boston macrobiotic community back in the mid 1970s there were lots of women having children but there does not seem to be that kind of community happening (at least in the continental United States).

There is a community of long time macros in Alaska called Ionia, Inc ( http://www.ionia.org/index.html ) that has many children, and you might contact them as well.

Please don't limit your looking for macrobiotic information to these forums.

What part of the world are you located in?

You might be able to find local people for macrobiotic support for your locale from the nternational Macrobiotic Directory
$12.00 ([$10.00 plus $2.00 s&h], (year 2003) 1050 40th Street, Oakland, CA 94608. 510-601-1763, fax: 510-652-0298, e-mail: Robert Mattson intermac@earthlink.net , Useful names, addresses, and telephone numbers of macrobiotic people, mb restaurants, and mb food suppliers (including food stores and related businesses) from around the world.

Do you have [Michio Kushi's Macrobiotic Pregnancy and Care of the Newborn which is out of print but available from Bookfinder ( http://www.bookfinder.com/ ), Macrobiotic Pregnancy by Alice Feinberg, or Raising Healthy Kids:A Wholistic Approach to the Physical & Psychological Care of Your Childby Michio Kushi and Aveline Kushi with Edward Esko, Wendy Esko, and Dr. Benjamin Spock, M.D. ( http://gomf.macrobiotic.net/Books_Family.htm )?

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine


[quote=nisha]Bruce,

I wish it was that easy.

I am still a full-time breastfeeding mom. My daughter is a joyful, loving and kind little girl. She is simply going through a stage of testing limits and experimenting with flavors. Our dinner table interaction is still fun, I am just trying to find foods that she will enjoy and that will be of benefit to her health. I guess I was also hoping to hear how other parents led their little ones along.

[nisha]

thanks Bruce,

you have given me lots to go on. i appreciate it.

Nisha