Back to Work

I saw a new mom the other day with a 7 month old at home. This was a 
follow up visit and we had an opportunity to talk about some new 
strategies she tried recently to help her juggle all the demands on 
her time.  Her husband is now on his 3rd deployment in Iraq.  She 
works in a hair salon 4 days a week.  She's thankful that her mom can 
help out with child care, because it's so expensive. Earlier, she told 
me how she gets up, gets the bottles ready for her mom and leaves 
extra cans of powdered formula at her mom's house.  Though she has a 
separate supply of all the bottles, nipples, formula, baby food, rice 
cereal, bowls, bibs, spoons and everything else that a baby could 
possibly need, she worries that her mom might need something that is 
sitting back home in the kitchen. She told me that keeping all of it 
straight made her feel scattered.

She had made lists, but because she was planning to continue 
introducing new foods, it got complicated.  We talked about making a 
calendar with notes and reminders about which foods were started on 
which day and which ones she was planning to start.  Even though we 
get excited about introducing new foods to our babies, it's important 
to wait at 3-4 days after introducing a new food to make sure the baby 
tolerates it, before introducing another new food. Some of the signs 
to look for are diarrhea, signs of skin irritation, like reddened 
cheeks, itchy rashes inside the elbows and knees or constipation.

  She liked the idea of a calendar because she could do it on her 
computer and print up a separate copy for her mom.  It also helps her 
pack up the foods for the baby each morning and stock up the baby 
foods both at home and at her mom's for the future.  She thought it 
was like the school lunch calendars that she remembered.  When I saw 
her to follow up on some other issues, she was happy to report that 
the calendar was working. She has had to make a few adjustments 
because her daughter had a little reaction to peaches, so she put that 
on the list of foods to avoid for a few months.

I'd really like to hear from you about the systems that work for you.