The Queen's Rambles

I have heard of Amalah, the blogger, before. Of course I have. Bethany reminded me of her existence, and put forth the theory(fact?) that she lives somewhere near us. I have some kind of ingrained resistance to reading big name bloggers with the exception of Julie and Julia (two ladies of infertility fame, not the cooking blog).

But now I have a laptop! And I need things to read one-handed. I clicked my feed reader’s recommendation button and Amalah’s Alphamom Advice Smackdown came up.

I fear I’m hooked. Totally hooked. I don’t want to be hooked, but I am sitting here reading everything, even posts about bridal shower etiquette and the pros and cons of having children attend your wedding. Do you have any idea how much I HATE the name Alphamom for a site? I won’t even look at it, just on princicple.

And here I am. And Amalah gives excellent advice. Basically, she gives the exact same advice I would give, only words it in a nicer way that makes it feel warm and loving instead of “oh my god, you are so stupid.”

Now I need some smackdown advice. Am I really going to e-mail her? I’m giddy with the thought!

But not really. I doubt I will e-mail her, but I do have an issue that is concerning me and her posts about what 8 and 9 months old eat is making me even more concerned.

Elsa will hardly eat solids. Amalah is recommending things like pieces of well cooked pasta, little bits of shredded meat, bread spread with fruit puree, waffles, and so forth. I’m nodding my head going “yes, that’s what I was feeding Erik at this stage” and I have even tried some of these things with Elsa, but it won’t go down the hatch. She is more than happy to pick anything up and gum it around, but everything gags her and she spits it out. The only things she’ll actually swallow, and that only is very literal, is jarred applesauce and a few varieties of the thinner jarred mixes of applesauce and fruit purees.

I never even considered this until reading some of the posts, but there could be a sensory issue at work. I have considered that her tonsils might be too big. I don’t know. I asked at the six month check-up and the PA was not at all concerned and said by the time I came in for the ninth month check-up I’d be saying that she was eating everything in sight.

Yeah. Gotta schedule that nine month check-up. For next week! So I’m thinking there is a reason to be concerned.

One of my friends was over here today (she bought the baby swing! Yay! Also: she’s pregnant! Yay! She’s been working the past two years because her husband told her she could either go back to work or have another baby and she opted to work. I love her and her kids and her kids love me and Erik and Erik loves them so it will be great to get to spend more time with them. As it is, we usually manage to eek out a visit every couple of weeks.) and we were talking about it. She knows a couple of people who have had children with eating disorders that sound the same as Elsa and they had to have food therapy. Luckily we live in a county with an excellent Infant and Toddler’s program so I think the problem, if there is one, will be addressed swiftly and with great professionalism. I don’t want to say it will be taken care of easily. Who knows where a sensory issue might lead? Heck, in some ways I would say I have sensory issues, though they don’t impact the quality of my life.

I hope the doctor has some answers for me at our check-up next week. I think I’ll see if I can get a sitter for Erik so I can really concentrate and not have him interfering/listening in. Elsa obviously takes after my side of the family and we have big tonsils, so I’m hoping it is more a matter of them being in the way than sensory issues. Of course, I’m really hoping I’m being a crazy nut-ball worry wart and nothing is wrong (I wouldn’t say I’m worried. More watchfully concerned. )

I’ve always said that if I had a child with serious issues I would change peds. I think our peds are adequate for small things, but I don’t have a lot of confidence that they would capably handle something big. I hope I don’t have to put it to the test!

Maybe I’ll be sending in a question to the advice smackdown after all.