Mixed Feeding

It’s almost two in the morning and still I can’t sleep probably because of what happened few hours ago. It’s not of a big deal actually but I was just confounded of how my little girl found her way out of her playpen. I was busy giving my little boy a bath in our room and my little girl was watching tv inside their room inside her playpen and left the door open so I can hear her while watching tv. She was gigging as usual and can even hear her muttering few words from the dvd she was watching and suddenly when I went inside their room I found her outside of the playpen standing in front of the tv and her hand was almost touching the e.fan! She was dancing to her newfound favorite teletubbies show. The worse possible thing that would happen is that she might fall down from 13 steps of stairs for leaving their door open! Honestly, I didn’t see it coming that left me unguarded. I felt like a terrible mom for not being too cautious.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about her journey to mixed feeding. My little girl to date is now 17 months old. Time flies so fast that I didn’t know I have been breastfeeding her for 17 months already and still breastfeed as long as she likes. Last month we went to her new Pedia for her vaccine appointment. The new pedia suggested to have her on mix feeding since she is small for her age. But the pedia was surprised to know that despite the weight and height proportion, her head circumference was normal. She asked about her appetite and was surprised to know how she eats and hyperactive she was. Now I don't know what happens to all the food I feed her.

Dinner at McDonald's she tried to drink the barbeque sauce

left : One whole banana which she finished by 90 seconds, right : A whole plate of sardine spaghetti which she patiently ate per strand of pasta

A lot of my mommy friends have been telling me to start mix feeding at 6 months but during that time my little girl has just started to finally enjoy her solid foods and I still have enough milk supply for her. I don’t want to go through the moment when she will get confused with bottle and breastfeeding and I still want to breastfeed her exclusively.

But last month I think it was really time to start her on mix feeding and finally conform to her pedia’s advice as I was also having problems with her teeth rubbing against my areola. It hurts that sometimes it feels sore the entire day. So I gave the formula milk a shot. Her Pedia recommended Pedia Sure from Abott. I completely forgot that she was on exclusive bf that I gave her a bottle of milk without trying to get her taste buds get used to it first. The first bottle went to waste after few sips and her facial expression instantly turned into a sour looking face as if trying to figure out what I was giving her. It took me two weeks to finally give her a bottle that she can finish in one sitting.

After finishing two cans of formula milk she developed rashes all over her face and I thought it was due to her sleeping position (she covers her face with her pillow when she sleeps). But I completely forgot that the formula milk prescribed by her new pedia was a non hypoallergenic so I immediately switched her to NAN HW (hypoallergenic formula of Nestle) and gave her anti-histamine medicine.

Up to now she still breastfeeds from me if she feels like she wanted to wrestle me and when she got bored from watching cartoons and wants to play with me. But when you are an exclusive breastfeeding mom it won’t be a breeze on finally switching your child to formula feeding. These are some few helpful tips you can do to introduce formula to your child.

Mix the formula powder with all her food. (Oatmeal, mashed fruits and etc)

Try to give them formula milk when they got thirsty.

Mix the formula milk with choco powder. (This one is pretty effective for me).

How about you? How were you able to mix feed your child?