Weekend & Family Friday: Lucky Iron Fish
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My biggest “power struggle” with my son is about food. He’s generally good as far as quantity is concerned but is so averse to trying new foods, and there’s only a handful of things I can give him for dinner that I know I won’t have to fight with him about. I am following a lot of toddler feeding Instagrams, which I am actually finding really helpful and informative. An interesting product one of the accounts recommended is this Iron Fish that you boil to add iron to food. When I googled the product, there was a scientific study that came up that said it does actually work, though I didn’t do quite a deep dive and I’m certainly not a scientist. (You can find information at luckyironfish.com.) If your child doesn’t love meat or iron-rich foods (or I’m sure I can even use this for myself), it’s worth checking out. It’s $30 at Amazon. Lucky Iron Fish
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Can I just hang it on the wall? It’s so adorable.
How/when have people with kids on the spectrum told the child him/herself? My twins are 2, boy has ASD. He is very high functioning but not very self-aware. Girl twin knows that BT goes to the “special doctor” (ST/OT) to help him learn to talk better, and she knows that sometimes he has trouble saying what he means, but we haven’t labeled it with her. We watched our first Sesame Street with Julia yesterday, and that seems like a good opener as he gets more aware, but any strategies/wording for incorporating it into the general knowledge of the family versus making a big announcement would be helpful!
Thoughts on how to talk about your pregnancy at work? Now that it’s common knowledge, people keep asking me about how it’s going. If I say all is fine, they’re like “wow, sounds like you’re having a really easy pregnancy!” which makes me feel weird, because no, but I don’t want to mention too many complaints either.
Tips for calming anxious toddlers at the doctor? DD is 2.5 and has a rare genetic condition, so we see a number of specialists every few months. Lately she’s been getting more anxious/crazy at specialist visits (even if they involve minimal poking or prodding) and we have one next week that I’m already nervous for. Any tips that help your kids?
Why not just give a multivitamin? A picky kid is going to be deficient in more than just iron. And I’d be hesitant to use a product designed for developing countries – I can imagine that people in rural Cambodia need iron supplementation far in excess of what even the pickiest American needs. Our breads and cereals are iron-fortified, unlike in developing countries. Too much iron can be really toxic so adding iron into the diet is something you have to do fairly carefully.
I work and my kids go to school (and then stay at at-school after-school, which has about 40 kids in it, most younger than my kids). A lot of kids go home (SAHMs, nannies, babysitters, WFH parent) after school.
I feel like coordinate one play date per week per kid is ideal, but just never happens. It’s like a lot of legwork to work out 1-2 per month per kid (I have 2). How can I be better at this? And how long until kids run their own social lives (or are we always involved b/c unless you can walk next door, a grownup will need to take you until maybe far along in middle school if not high school)?
I feel bad for my kids b/c not only did I go home after school (teacher mom) but I could wander around my 3-street neighborhood and find a million kids to do something with spontaneously. We only have a couple of kids in our ‘hood (a lot of babies, so will be good when mine are old enough to babysit / be mothers’ helpers, and a bunch of high schoolers).
I feel like I need more skillz and don’t know how to get more >:-|
For the mom who posted yesterday about being overtired in the evening: I feel your pain. How old is your older child? If he is reading, I’d suggest having him get in bed at 8:00 when his younger sibling does, then letting him keep his light on and read until 8:30. This will give you a half-hour of decompression time. At 8:30 you can just pop your head in and tell him it’s lights-out time, and you will already be mostly prepared to fall asleep yourself. We instituted a similar policy with our kid when she wanted a later bedtime than I could handle (also an early morning exerciser), and it has been working well.
I also find that evenings go more smoothly when I have some caffeine around 2:00 and a snack later in the afternoon, and when I leave the office exactly on time.
Learning towers or similar structures – do you have one? Are they worth it?
My son is getting more and more interested in watching what is going on in the kitchen – he’s only 15 months so is probably a little young, but I’m thinking ahead and really looking forward to him being able to participate.
Is there any kind of NYC apartment equivalent? All of the ones I see on Amazon or Etsy seem like they have a massive footprint. Is the need for this type of thing wildly overblown and I should just be finding a stepstool and not worrying about whether he steps off of it?
Is selling clothes at a garage sale less wasteful than donating them to Goodwill or something like that? We have hundreds and hundreds of baby clothes, some of which were never worn. We have a neighborhood garage sale and I was thinking of selling them there. My husband feels that the money we’re going to get isn’t going to cover our time, and that donating them to Goodwill is just as good from an environmental/waste perspective. I think he’s almost certainly right on the first point, but am not sure about the second. I feel like a lot of what gets donated to Goodwill ends up in a landfill, whereas someone who buys our clothes at a garage sale would presumably use them for a while. I guess they would be in a landfill eventually but it feels less wasteful if I know someone else is actually getting use out of them.
What type of newborn onesie do I get for a baby that will be born in July in the Bay Area? A close friend is due in July and a onesie I want to get her as part of her shower gift comes in a few different configurations – sleeveless onesie (no legs), long sleeved onesie (no legs), long sleeved onesie with legs and feet. I don’t have kids and am not sure how you dress a newborn, and don’t live in the area to know how the weather can be at that time of year. This particular onesie only comes in newborn and 1-3 month sizing. Thanks for your help!
I’m not in the Bay area, but I’m partial to newborn clothes with legs and feet and long sleeves. Even in the summer, inside has air-conditioning and outside you want to keep the sun off of them. My area has sweltering summers, and my summer baby wore lightweight, long-sleeve sleep and plays (zip or snap-up one-piece outfits) almost all the time.
Ideas for a birthday gift around $10-15 that I can buy at Target during my lunch break? Birthday girl is turning 5, and she’s into My Little Pony.
Ugh, having a day… Can I start one of those threads where we share something positive related to our kids?
My 10 mo has started talking to her stuffed animals in her crib before she goes to sleep and for a few minutes after she wakes up. It melts my heart :)