Homemade Applesauce

Can we get personal for a minute? My baby isn't a big pooper. He never has been. But since we've started dabbling with food, he's down to pooping about once every four days. Thankfully, this is still considered normal for babies, but I think he'd be more... comfortable if it was happening just a little more often. I asked some fellow mamas for ideas, and one of their recommendations was applesauce. We try to always have apples at home, so I decided to try whipping up some homemade applesauce. 

Making applesauce is pretty much the easiest thing ever, once you've peeled and cored your apples. Simmer (covered) on the stove with a little water for about 30 minutes or until they're nice and squishy, then blend until you're happy with the consistency. 

Looks good, right?

I probably would've thrown in a little cinnamon or apple pie spice if I wasn't making it for the baby. 

The 5 Fuji apples and 1/2 cup of water I used made almost 2 cups of applesauce, which is more than enough for one non-poopy baby. Look for recipes for using extra applesauce in the future, and in the meantime, enjoy!

Teething Troubles

My little Nugget is currently working on his first two top teeth and is quite put out by the whole experience.

According to this meta-analysis of teething studies, Nugget is going to be a total smarty-pants. Maybe. The authors quote an old wives' tale about a baby's first tooth's "precocious eruption as a sign of great intelligence" and my little guy popped his first tooth at the ripe old age of 3 months and 3 weeks. I guess that would make up for all those times he's chomped down while breastfeeding. Maybe.

I have to say, I'm so glad we live now and not 100 years ago, when doctors would cut an X into a baby's gums to help get teeth through. Or before that when leeches were put on the gums and just generally used for treating everything. Yay for modern science!

Although there's still a lot of disagreement about teething.

Some studies say that teething can cause "general irritability, disturbed sleep, gum inflammation, drooling, loss of appetite, diarrhea, circumoral rash, intra-oral ulcers, an increase in body temperature, increased biting, gum-rubbing, sucking, wakefulness, and ear-rubbing" while other studies disagree. Nugget is experiencing 7 of those 14 symptoms, so I'm going to go with yes.

What is teething? Supposedly, it's the "4 days before, the day of, and 3 days after emergence of the tooth," however they follow that up that symptoms "cannot predict the emergence of tooth" in literally the same sentence. So Nugget might have another 6 days of waking up cranky at 6am. Or he might not. Super.

When it comes to treating teething pain, the only recommendation that doesn't come with risks is applying pressure to the gums... except the authors warn that gel-filled teething toys could explode toxic goo all over your baby.

And molars are supposed to be even worse.