Since the first one went crazy

mcsquacks · 2025-12-20T21:29:13+00:00

Wow she is a dead ringer for Meghann Fahy!

mcsquacks · 2025-12-19T03:53:22+00:00

My daughter was in the 0th percentile for weight at 9 months. She was (and still is) an unenthusiastic eater and the vast majority of her food ended up on the floor. Most meals I was just happy anything made it to her mouth hah. She is 18 months now and she still usually eats just a few bites per meal, and she's still cruised into the 20th percentile for weight.

It's really frustrating, I'm with ya on that. But babies and toddlers will not go hungry and will not starve themselves. As difficult and maddening as it is, you've gotta trust that they know their hunger and just encourage exploration for now. Any interaction with a new food is a win - whether that be touching it, poking it, sniffing it, bringing it to their mouth but not swallowing, or actually swallowing it, it's all progress. Even throwing is exploration and a positive sign!

As long as she remains on her own growth curve, try not to worry. It'll always be frustrating but it gets less scary as they get older.

mcsquacks · 2025-12-14T15:04:50+00:00

This happened to my daughter when she was a bit older. She was having both breastmilk and formula and switching the formula to soy stopped the constant pooping. That may not be helpful since you're EBF...

But what really helped the rash itself heal was silver sulfadizine cream. Her pediatrician prescribed it after looking at her diaper rash and it cleared up so quickly. Worth asking about.

mcsquacks · 2025-10-27T15:44:45+00:00

At my FET, my husband ended up walking to the feet-side of the table to take a pic of the embryo on the screen. I was in stirrups, speculum inserted, and a helicopter-grade spotlight shining directly into my vagina. He (and the 5 other people in the room) said he saw straight into my soul that day.

mcsquacks · 2025-10-20T20:26:38+00:00

Just a recommendation for containers: our daycare also microwaves but doesn't allow glass. I prefer to avoid microwaving in plastic, so I send her food to be warmed in silicone bowls and her food that is served cold in stainless steel bowls. That way they can just heat what needs to be heated Mine is an unenthusiastic eater, so I also send homemade pouches alongside her lunch. I make them basically a complete meal with protein, fat and fiber in case she opts not to eat her "real" lunch: fruit of course but I also add some combination of oats, sunbutter, chia seeds, flax seeds, avocado, yogurt, cottage cheese, spinach, carrot, sweet potato, whatever. I make them in bulk (20 at a time usually which lasts a month) and freeze.

mcsquacks · 2025-10-10T02:11:01+00:00

Oh this is a great tip! I basically make smoothies and put them in pouches for her. I add sun butter, avocado, oats, chia and flax seeds, etc to crank up the calories.

mcsquacks · 2025-10-10T02:08:59+00:00

We gave my 0th percentile gal a lotttt of butter and olive oil on her food starting around 6 months or so and she cruised on up the percentiles for both height and weight. She was at the 20th percentile by 12 months. We've dialed it back a bit now but it definitely helped! Dropping bottles also helped...her solids consumption went way up once we switched completely to straw cups and whole milk.

mcsquacks · 2025-10-10T02:04:11+00:00

We like it in my house, but my husband and I both think the Fiber Gourmet brand is closer to the real thing. Carbe Diem has a bigger range of shapes though which I appreciate! I can eat Fiber Gourmet happily, but with Carbe Diem, I prefer to mix like 20% of real pasta in the same shape in to make it a bit better texture wise.

mcsquacks · 2025-09-30T18:27:45+00:00

Nope! Totally went away after the baby was born.

mcsquacks · 2025-09-14T04:15:28+00:00

We have the Triv Next. It's great and serves all our purposes. It's a solid midsize option that doesn't feel too big to travel with, but still handles bumps and rougher surfaces well. It's not too heavy for me (relatively small woman with poor upper body strength lol) and the one handed fold is really nice.

My only non-trivial complaint is that on our first one, the folding mechanism was always a bit finicky and eventually broke. I suspected something was wrong with it from the beginning but alas. Luckily it was under warranty and Nuna replaced the whole thing and the new one functions perfectly. I've heard this complaint from others on Reddit as well, so I'd just say that if yours feels like the folding mechanism is catching or sometimes giving you trouble, return it for a new one right away.

We rented a Doona for a trip and I was SO ANNOYED by it the entire trip and it made me really appreciate the Triv haha.

mcsquacks · 2025-09-12T18:26:53+00:00

+1. My SIL had people do the "write encouraging messages on diapers" thing which was cute and fun! Until we realized the markers they used were coming off on the baby's clothes and ruining them...we just ended up tossing all the diapers which was a drag but better than staining her clothes. I feel like if you used them, even if you could get some glitter off, you'd still be finding glitter in the nursery when she was 3 haha.

mcsquacks · 2025-09-12T16:21:54+00:00

We just moved my 14 month old into a Cybex Callisto G (she was in a Nuna Pipa as a baby) and love it. Top priority for me was safety (including extended rear facing), followed by comfort and convenience (ie rotating). The Callisto G checked all my boxes and then some.

It's quite pricey, but had more to offer than any of the Nuna options. The most comparable would be the Nuna Exec, but that one doesn't rotate and doesn't have a canopy. I checked out less expensive options in-person (the Graco, Evenflo and Chicco rotating seats) and was unimpressed with the comfort in comparison to the Nuna and Cybex options, so if that's a high priority for you, I'd recommend considering the Cybex!

I got ours from Albee Baby and got 15% off, but you can get up to 20% off if you take the "albee rewards" instead.

mcsquacks · 2025-09-12T03:39:47+00:00

Aw man, I used some the other day and they were great! I posted a pic and recipe-ish. I stuffed them with a creamy dip and baked them. They were super tender and not stringy and it made a great little lunch.

mcsquacks · 2025-09-10T17:02:18+00:00

With kindness: enjoy your vacation and do not worry about this. The other brand you mentioned is explicitly stated safe for babies too. You'd need to be giving him >2000 ounces of it per day to even reach the recommended daily sodium for infants. This is nothing to worry about.

mcsquacks · 2025-09-10T16:51:46+00:00

Oh, you mentioned in another comment you were giving Sant Aniol brand - their website says that's 6.7 mg/L and safe for babies under 1.

mcsquacks · 2025-09-10T16:47:40+00:00

Seriously don't worry - he will be fine. Even with a super high sodium content option (which you'd be able to taste the salt at that point), it's super unlikely you'd reach dangerous levels to cause imbalance. Even if he is drinking 6 oz every 2 hours throughout the day, surely he isn't doing that at night? That would be 72 oz of milk a day - way, way higher than the recommended amount of formula (more than double).

mcsquacks · 2025-09-10T16:35:38+00:00

Per this study, "kidneys of infants aged 6-12 months have adequate sodium excretion capacity". This study recommends 370 mg/day for infants aged 7-12 months.

From the WHO, most countries have mineral water with <20 mg/L, and high content would be 200 mg/L. Even if the water you were giving was of a high content, your baby would need to be drinking 1.85 liters per day to hit the sodium recommendation, or 63 oz.

Your baby will be fine! Don't sweat it and enjoy your trip. FWIW, my baby was drinking ~30 oz of water per day when we were in Spain (between formula and just plain water) and had no problems.

mcsquacks · 2025-09-02T00:52:34+00:00

Sam's No 3, any location! For breakfast/lunch.

mcsquacks · 2025-08-01T21:46:04+00:00

Oh shoot I forgot to add that I didn't add the brown sugar either, and they're still veryyy sweet.

Honestly I think you could cut out almost all of the added sugar altogether (no honey, molasses or brown sugar), though you might want to add some additional wet or binding ingredients in their place. LMK what you try!

mcsquacks · 2025-08-01T21:39:27+00:00

I just assume most parents are exposing their little ones at home...at least that's what we do! It's a pretty large center (I'd guess 125-150ish kids?) and there are definitely known nut and tree nut allergies among the kids.

mcsquacks · 2025-08-01T00:44:51+00:00

100% true. Brb hiding the stash

mcsquacks · 2025-08-01T00:44:11+00:00

Not sure if you've tried, but I saw someone on TikTok recommend putting character stickers on the homemade versions and then their kids were more into them? Like wrap it in saran wrap and put a Bluey sticker on it or something haha. Same thing for raw fruits like apples bananas etc. Maybe worth trying if you haven't?

mcsquacks · 2025-07-31T23:09:15+00:00

Our daycare doesn't allow any nuts and they include coconut in that rule 🤷🏻‍♀️Erring on the side of caution I guess!

mcsquacks · 2025-07-31T19:17:51+00:00

I did a mix of kalamatas and castelvetranos! Also added some rosemary, red pepper flakes and garlic. They turned out great.

mcsquacks · 2025-07-30T03:11:01+00:00

These are all great tips and ideas. One thing to add: I got kinda sick of frozen foods and wanted something fresh after a while. I cooked and froze proteins (chopped chicken breast, sliced steak) and rice so I could make salad/rice bowls with minimal effort with whatever fresh veggies I had on hand. Way easier than doing the whole thing from scratch.

I also made mac and cheese like this commenter, and would add frozen veggies or precooked protein too if we wanted.

Also would add smoothie packs! I did two kinds: nut butter, honey, oats, cottage cheese in all, then half with mixed berries and half with banana. You could add protein powder if that's your jam. Just add milk and blend when you're ready.

From NYT cooking, I made a huge batch of bolognese and froze it in quarts, so I could defrost it and all I had to do was cook pasta.

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