Need help with our daily routine

After a visit to the health nurse last week left me feeling like crap :shakehead: I thought I'd post up our routine and see what you thought ie changes I need to make. She told me he should be having only 3 BF's a day and I wasn't giving him enough iron (I have since re-introduced iron enriched cereal)..

Most days we dont manage to fit in all meals because he takes forever to go to sleep (any tips? lol) most naps and I run out of time. So a good day goes like this...


Between 5 and 6 am - wake up, BF, short play, then try and get him back to sleep (so I can get a bit more too lol)

8:30ish wake up, get up have breaky - cereal- at the moment we have Rafferty's organic banana porridge(he loves it) and diluted prune juice, then a play until 8 :30 ish and back to bed.

9:30ish - wake up, have half a banana or some vegemite/ promite/ avocardo on bread, play back to bed about 11:30 for a 30 min nap

12 -12:30 ish lunch - about 4 or 5 small peices of veg (ie mixture of pumpkin/ zuchini/ potato/ broccoli etc) or maybe a sandwich if he didn't have one earlier, diluted prune juice + maybe a mum-mum if he wants it. Then a play until bed @ 2 - 2:30

3:30ish - wake up have arvo tea mum-mum's or fruit or sandwich, play.

5ish - have dinner - 5-6 pieces veg (ie mixture of pumpkin/ zuchini/ potato/ broccoli etc, maybe some pasta) + some fruit if he wants it.

Then bedtime routine - bath, brush teeth, book, bf for a couple of hours then into bed already asleep at about 8:30/ 9:00.

Then I get to eat my dinner. lol

Most days though we either miss arvo tea or morning tea or both because he's being impossible to get to sleep and either wants to play or screams and wont let me rock him and wont self settle.

I pretty much have to BF him to sleep every nap. He's probably meant to have less naps too but he cant take it. He gets WAY too tired and grumpy if I keep him up longer than 2 hours. I've noticed since introducing the morning and arvo tea's that he's much less interested in BFing (which makes perfect sense, of course) and is making it near impossible to get him to sleep because he wont feed. :wall:

We're pretty limited on what to feed him cause were poor lol and I only have very basic cooking skills :redface:
Plus in all of that ^ when am I meant to cook?! It feels like I only sit down for 10 mins a day.

ETA: I'm pretty flexible with the routine and just follow his cues re sleep etc, but this is the way it seems to go most days, as I'm trying to fit in everything he's "meant" to be doing.

DF is vegetarian and I hate handling raw meat, so only eat it when it's cooked for me.

How is his weight gains? wet and dirty nappies? from what you are describing I am assuming it would all be normal to good?


I followed a very similar routine to you, I don't think I was able to fit in morning or afternoon tea either and really at thier age I don't think it is necessary. My DS was also BF and he was fed to sleep and he fed like this too.

To me it sounds like you are a wonderful mum, you are following your DS cues, feeding him nutricious (sp?) food. I don't think I would go back to feeding him the fortified iron cereal cause it isn't in a form that is easily digested and often just binds them up. Are you feeding him meat/steak just cooked through? you could give him thin strips to chew suck on and that is a much better source of iron then the cereal (I know you said that $$ are tight but one peice of meat would feed him for 3 or 4 days + depending on the size once a day) Brocoli is also a great source of iron and he would be getting iron via your breastmilk.

Can't really help with the sleep thing while we don't feed to sleep anymore (and haven't since about 11 mnths) he still wakes overnight at least once or twice to feed.

DD still gets at least 4 bottles a day :hide: plus morning tea (yoghurt & fruit or cereal), lunch (sandwich or leftovers from night before) and dinner (vegies/sometimes meat and fruit), sometimes a rusk stick for a snack.

TBH if you are happy with your routine and Isaac is happy and growing then I wouldn't mess too much with your routine...

Sounds like a pretty good routine to me and a good range of food. My DS really only gets breakfast, lunch and dinner, and then a few snacks when we're out in the pram (crackers, fruit etc) which I guess kinda make up morning or afternoon tea. He's currently having 5 BF's a day. At this age milk is still their most important source of nutrition, so I think if your DS is happy just keep going with the flow.

We also have heaps of trouble with naps. Most of the time DS will only sleep for 30 mins. I usually try and rock him back to sleep if he wakes up after 30 mins and maybe half the time succeed in getting him to another 30 mins (sometimes more if I'm lucky).

I'm finding that he's becoming quite a fussy eater now and from a bit of the reading I've done it has suggested that it could be because he is overtired so I am trying harder to get him to have more sleep during the day.

On a side note, I've found that sausages are a great way of getting my DS to eat meat. He loves them, they're cheap and easy to prepare. I know what you mean with finding the time to cook. I keep searching for ideas on other things to give him, but everything is these time consuming recipes. He's so fussy at the moment that I find it really frustrating when I spend all this time and $$ only to make something that won't get eaten.

forgot to mention before that we're vego's so meat isn't an option.

RE: milk being most important, that's what I thought too but the MCHN made it sound like food was way more important. I had thought it was more of an activity until they are about a year old?
I'm not a 100% sure on his weight gains as he seems to have been around 9kgs or just under for the last month or so, but then again I haven't always weighed him at the same place so IDK?

His nappies seem to be fine. Since giving him the cereal and prune juice his poo's have been alot darker almost black. Which I assume is the extra iron, but wouldn't that mean he's not absorbing it and therefore doesn't need it?

He is probably crawling and a lot more active now and so it is fairly normal for the wieght to plateau at this stage but you probably notice he is still getting longer etc... which is all indication of good growth. I know my DS was a chubbabubba and he did plateau around the same age but kept getting taller. Wet nappies are also a good indication.

Being vego you probably know the foods that have are a good source of iron so I would maybe make sure he is getting lot's of that but as you said his poos are now darker and yes that would say to me he isn't absorbing it from his food.

I think there is too much of a focus on variety and while I know we want to encourage our children to be open to eating lot's of food I think that if they are eating good food then it doesn't really matter if they eat it all the time cause to them it is all new and they don't get bored if that makes sense?

Miss E my DS went through a fussy stage around the same age - he decided he didn't like the texture of potatoe, pumpkin and sweet potatoe (still isn't a huge fan) so it could be a texture thing too. Keep persisting but only tastes I remember reading somewhere that it can take 100 + taste before they decide they actually like it and acquire the taste.

Goodluck ladies :hug:

Grr to that health nurse too it is because of people like that that I stopped going cause it made me feel like crap everytime and the truth was DS was and is thriving.

Check out the ABA website and yes food definitely is FUN UNTIL 1. Obviously there is a gradual process that goes from the emphasis on milk to food but that is different for each child.

Thanks Kelebek, not sure what it is, mind you he is teething at the moment so maybe that's it...

Heva I think a lot of the MCHN's have slightly outdated ideas... The ABA definately promotes BF as the most important thing till they're one and lets face it the WHO doesn't recommend BF'ding till 2 for no reason. By the sounds of things you're doing a great job!

PS. We miss hearing about you and Isaac in the Baby Buddies thread, would love an update if you get a chance x

Ahh yes I forgot about teething, that would always cause DS to go off his food for a week or so (depending on how stubborn the tooth is) and considering thier gums hurt it is hardly surprising. If you are really worried you could rub some teething gel on their teeth say 10 mins or so before hand. I personally didn't bother but it's an option.

Kelebek - he's just started crawling in the last week, but had been rocking on his knee's for a while before that, I guess that could have contributed. He's turned a major developmental corner this month physically and mentally :yeah: so maybe that's it. Before that he just seemed to be getting nowhere for months. I was really begining to worry. Lol
i probably should know a bit about nutrition but I dont really :redface: for some reason retaining that particular info is proving to be quite the challenge, on matter how many times I try to read up on it. In one eye and out the other lol :wall:
i'll have a look at the ABA site thanks :)
I definately wont be going back to her. So far every one I've been to has been the same. Just about ready to give up on them too.

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Ahh yes I forgot about teething, that would always cause DS to go off his food for a week or so (depending on how stubborn the tooth is) and considering thier gums hurt it is hardly surprising. If you are really worried you could rub some teething gel on their teeth say 10 mins or so before hand. I personally didn't bother but it's an option.

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DId you find he would still eat his favourite foods when he was teething? Tonight the only part of dinner that DS would eat was a few pieces of broccoli. After about 30 mins of mucking around I offered him some pear which he ate half of and then a tub of yoghurt... Not sure if I'm doing the wrong thing by offering that sort of stuff when he doesn't eat, but then I normally do that after dinner when he does eat what I give him...

Sorry to hijack your thread Heva.

Miss E - that's ok, :) sharing is caring, besides I do it to other people lol.
Isaac went through a fussy stage when he was getting his first teeth. He wouldn't eat anything and had minimal BFs. It could be that A enjoys those foods so much he's willing to eat them anyway? Or maybe the texture doesn't hurt so much? I've noticed lately that Isaac likes to choose what he eats ie I offer him a few different vege's and he picks which he wants. Maybe he is asserting a little independance?
I would think it wouldn't matter too much what you give him at what time. So long as it doesn't keep him up too late on a sugar high it should be fine.
(Have you tried mum-mum's? Isaac loves the vegetable ones, the packet says 12 months plus but they melt really quickly in the mouth, I still supervise him closely with it just in case but we've never had a problem.)
Re baby buddies: I forced myself to take a step back as I was spending more time on BB and FB than I was with Isaac! It was getting really bad. Lol. i keep meaning to, but because it's been so long I feel like a bit of am outsider. I'll try and get back in sometime in the next week.

Storm - thanks :) I will stick to our original routine I think, much less stressfull than trying to squeeze everything in. Lol

OMG 3 BF's a day? And he's not even one? Gee I thinks thats really harsh. Do you feel that the amount of BF's he's having is an issue to you? If not, I'd just continue with what you are doing. The morning and afternoon tea is overkill I think, Jazz still doesn't handle MT or AT because its just too much! She feeds twice a day too, and she's 20 months so...

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, unless YOU think any of this is an issue (feeding to sleep, amount of breastfeeds etc) then I wouldn't bother stressing yourself out about it all.
When Jazz was 4 months I went to a MCHN, and she told me Jazz should NOT have been feeding to sleep anymore. Over the next month we stressed ourselves out trying to rock/pat etc her to sleep, only to realise that it really WASN'T an issue for us, so just went back to feeding to sleep. She has stopped that now.

Oh and there are some really good tips on giving kids more iron in foods... let me find a thread...

Leasha - I was surprised too. I don't understand how they can think that is right? I wonder how many of them are parents themselves, and if they are, do they follow thier own advice?

oh yeah Leash reminded me to say that I still feed DS approx 4 - 5 times a day and he is just over 2 ;) and at that age he would have been feeding at least 8 - 10 times so 3 times a day would not have worked here :lol:

Miss E I don't think at this age there is such thing as 'wrong' but for me I never gave fruit and yoghurt after he ate his veges so when I was also getting in the habit of giving DS either a sandwhich and or yoghurt when I thought he hadn't eat enough of his vegies etc... (and let's face it yoghurt is soo much nicer then veges when your gums hurt) but when I realised it was becoming an everyday upto twice a day thing I wanted to cut back because his fussiness usually only lasted for a week or so and he was eating some of his veges and drinking lot's. He was also a chubbabubba and I had a 3 day rule that if he was really not eating for 3 days then I would take him to the dr's etc... and never once had to. In saying this you need to look at your DS and listen to his cues and like you said you aren't really changing your routine he just isn't eating a certain part of it.

3 BF a day? :o geez, i'd like to see my DS stay happy with that :lol:

just wanted to jump in & say things are quite similar here - DS has prob 5 or 6 BFs a day & that's not counting the 4-6 feeds-back-to-sleep overnight. plus 3 meals & snacks.

i know in my mother's group there's a eide range of how many bfs the babies are having & they're all the same age.

and fwiw, my mchn is also a LC (and is a mum who fed her babies to sleep) & she has absolutely no issue with the number of feeds i offer DS so i reckon we use her advice as a guide :lol:

eta - i second miss e - please come back to our baby buddies thread!

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(Have you tried mum-mum's? Isaac loves the vegetable ones, the packet says 12 months plus but they melt really quickly in the mouth, I still supervise him closely with it just in case but we've never had a problem.)

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Ash looooves his Mum Mum's - they're his favourite pram snack. I think most bubs do, cos most of the time when I go to the supermarket they're sold out. When they have them I buy like 4 boxes to make sure we never run out LOL

Heva, I agree with the others - in a nutshell, if it ain't broke, don't mess with it ;) & it doesn't sound like a problem for you really, just your MCHN.

FWIW Arlea still has 3-5 bottles through the day PLUS one or two overnight.
She is off her food atm with a tooth coming through but is usually pretty good, she has breakfast lunch & dinner & occasional snacks.

And what are Mum mums? :confused:

Mum-mum's are rice crackers... I'm terrible at explaining things anyone else? Lol or google them? Isaac loves them (and so do I, lol I'm always nicking them).

I bought a box of those today Heather and DD had some after her vegies tonight - she loved them!! I think they are a keeper in this house :D I'd seen them before but hadn't considered getting them just yet because of the 12 month + thing..I don't know why they're rated that though, they arent much different to rusk sticks? Actually they're a bit more like a cruskit..they just melt in their mouth pretty much.

Fleur- look in the section where all the rusk sticks are, they are in quite a large box.

:) yay! I'm glad she likes them. I think it's because pieces could break off and they may choke. I just make sure Isaac is always supervised with it. We've never had an issue though.
Oh and I thought I'd mention, I limit him to one pack (so 2 surfboards) a day because there's a bit of sugar in them, but most times he wont eat that much in one sitting anyway.
ETA: thanks to everyone for your responses I feel so much better :)