Hi ladies - sorry for the late replies, was without internet connection today, some problem with the router at home maybe.
JustMe: I'm heading back to work in July but for now, I'm home with my bb
I haven't started feeding my baby porridge just yet. Thought I might start that around 9 months or so. Will we need a slow cooker for porridge? Hmmm...I will read up abt this and may consider getting one, just so there is a dedicated cooking appliance for her food.
Playnest - My bb attends the Mandarin Playnest at JG, it's 3 times a week, 1.5 hrs each time. We go to JG because as far as I know, it's the only Mandarin-based programme in Singapore for bbs as young as her. The cost is $960 per term of 10 weeks which works out to $20 an hour. She started only recently when she turned 7 months old, but they accept bbs/toddlers from 6 mnths - 18 mnths. Very very good programme and the Chinese teacher, Chen Lao Shi, is hands-down the best instructor at any of the enrichment programmes we've attended - so enthusiastic, engaging and energetic!
BenMum: One of the July mums told me that we shouldn't start porridge until a little bit later. I think the problem with feeding 6 month old bbs porridge only (as some of the older generation used to do) is that bbs of that age need iron quickly as they have depleted their iron stores by then. Best way to get this is thru iron-fortified rice cereals or iron-rich foods (eg: certain vege purees). So I think if you can encourage your mum to do some of these, that'd be good. BTW, thanks for the tip re the dream feed - will give that a try!
Totoro: I haven't used any tin cereals just yet as they are not organic and HB and I are trying to go organic (as far as possible) for Ems' food for now until her digestive system matures a bit more. But one of the July Mums uses FrisoCream and says her bb loves it! The thing about rice cereal is that not all babies like it. I started with Healthy Times brown rice cereal and my bb didn't like it. Tried other organic brands (eg Heinz, Bellamys etc) but she didn't like them. Eventually, we found one cereal - the Healthy Times barley cereal which she loved and we're sticking to that, while trying to slowly get her to take some rice cereal as well. So you just gotta experiment with different brands and see which one suits your baby, I guess.
Fau: No problem! Wow, got file saved? Wah, I'm honoured
Dodo: I've seen the book at a few places, but I think I bght my copy from Borders. Have you tried Kinokuniya? You can call them up beforehand to check if they're carrying the title. Re large quantities - I usually buy the smallest quantity I can find. Taking carrots as an example, this works out to about 8-10 carrots in a pack? We then puree all the carrots and freeze the purees. Then we slowly work our way thru the cubes, defrosting one cube per meal or per two meals (bbs eat less when you first start). No wastage that way.
ecookie: Ziplock makes a certain kind of bag called "Freezer bags" - they come in the usual sizes (eg: sandwich, gallon etc). I used to think that any old Ziplock bag wld be fine but my HB tells me that we shld try to use freezer bags for this purpose. I'm not sure why tho. Let me ask him and let you know later.
Fitty Nut: You can definitely spoon the mixture in but we've found it easier to pipe the stuff in - somehow there's less wastage and you may find it more difficult to squeeze in a spoon into the small cubes. Depends on my mood lah, sometimes I just whack it in with a spoon, but HB is more fastidious!
Angel: Thanks for the tips! Great seeing you here! Will definitely try to gradually cut back on the dream feed.
Bena: Yah my whole day revolves around her. Thankfully she's starting to sleep more and more in the evenings so I hv a bit of time to myself.