Category: Spawn

Inigo’s Iron levels came back today (from a test taken on the 15th of January), and it’s normal.

The paediatrician is concerned about his iron levels because I refuse to feed him any beef. No lamb! Not even chicken. And not a skerrick of fish!!!!!

Of course, the kid eats a bucket load of lentils, heaps of spinach, and has fruit five times a day. So he gets non-heam iron followed by vitamin c three times a day, he probably has higher iron levels than most omnivores, because I pay attention to his diet, and I work hard at making sure he is developing a taste for healthy food.

Score one for the vegetarian diet!

Since dad’s been helping out every week, we’ve often been going to the Taj vegetarian Indian in Harris Park for lunch. One of the lovely waitresses there has taken quite a shine to the youngster, and once took him out of his high chair and out the back to the kitchen. Where I know there is a back door.

Dad quipped “at least they are vegetarian”. Charming.

He’s quite the adventurous eater, and will give anything a go, especially if he sees me eating it. Even curries and samosas that I think are quite hot (and I have a high tolerance for chilli), and he is becoming a bit of a tourist attraction by the water cooler.

Anyway, our waitress friend has noted that Inigo likes Mango Lassi, I have been buying one to share with him, but lately he’s been drinking more and more. He managed to use a straw without issue!

So on Thursday, our waitress friend brought one extra lassi – a freebee for her special friend, all to himself.

Was he happy?

You bet he was!

healthdirect Australia is a 24-hour telephone health advice line staffed by Registered Nurses to provide expert health advice. It is currently available to residents of the Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. healthdirect will be made progressively available to residents of New South Wales and Tasmania. healthdirect is scheduled to be a fully national service by 2011.

1800 022 222

Inigo had his 6 month vaccinations today. The paediatrician said that it was a good idea to give it to him as well as the antibiotics, to help his immunity – just in case he has got the bug.

He got the shot at about midday, and at 7pm his temperature was 37.7. By 8pm, it was 39.3.

I rang Westmead Hospital, who put me through to healthdirect. I spoke to a registered nurse who took our details, and then gave me clear, detailed advice about what to do, when to do it, and when to start tearing my hair out and run around the room screaming.

What is incredible about this service, is that I have never heard of it. Even the website says that it isn’t yet available in NSW.

So, I’ll still miss Emily terribly when she leaves next week, but I still have a medical professional on call 😉

Worshiping his noodly appendage

Thanks to Jenny for the cameraphone pic – we ran into her at the shops that I fled to when I couldn’t bear to stay at home entertaining the kid. I figured that a shopping center was a fairly benign (and cool) place to be.

Inigo, bless him, took two naps of nearly 2hours each. Love that kid!

I should also mention that this pic was taken at Tokyo Ramen, Hornsby. Ever since I left Japan, I’ve had a thing for ramen, and Tokyo Ramen is one of my two favourites in Sydney. The other one is Goshu Ramen in the city – but that one is much harder to get to.

And recently, both places have been named in a Japanese magazine as in the top 15 Ramen places in Sydney. Grab Your Fork has the full list!

Just came across this blog, written by the executive director of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. She writes “since I’m reading all the research related to raising happy children anyway, I thought we might as well make it USEABLE to parents. We hope this is a valuable counterpoint to some of the more opinion-based parenting advice platforms that are out there, especially because sorting out fact from fiction can be confusing when it comes to parenting”.

I’ve been through the wringer a bit lately, swinging from theory to theory in a search for an answer to Inigo’s sleep issues. And though the attachment parenting theory feels right to me, I can’t make it work for my child.

This blog has loads of information that quotes actual, real science. Somebody has done experiments with live human children, and someone else has paraphrased the results to make them accessible to the sleep deprived.

For example, eating dinner with your children five times a week helps widen their vocabulary, reduces eating disorders, reduces drug addiction, connects kids to their family history, teaches good manners, and reduces depression and anxiety.

There’s heaps of material there, and I haven’t come across anything that solves all Inigo’s sleep issues yet, but I am happy to have found such a great resource. Books are great, but since I only get to read about a page a night before I crash, this will probably work better for me 🙂

We’re back from Pearl Beach, and slowly getting into the swing of things.

Inigo screamed from 1am till 4am this morning, with a nap of about 1 hour in between.

This made me retch. And not in a good way.

Go read it – but make sure your sound is turned off.

I’ll leave it to those more eloquent than me to count the ways this attitude makes me want to pluck out my eyeballs and curse.

This morning we picked up our new baby carrier, and used it a few times to great effect. Including a trip to Bronte Beach for a special birthday picnic!