The Long Promised Victory Post (and other news too)

That’s right, we haven’t talked about poop for a long time, and I’m sure you’re all dying to know what’s been happening. As promised way back in July, here is the post to celebrate victory over constipation.

How did we do it you ask? Honestly, who the hell knows. Maybe it is because she is drinking a little less formula. Maybe it is because she is now eating a more well-rounded diet. Maybe it is because she is constantly teething, which often gives kids the runs. Maybe she has just settled in. Maybe she hates the medicine so much she is actually willing herself to poop. Really, we can’t take much of the credit, I think.

That said, in case there are others out there struggling with the same issue, I will give you a list of the things we believe are doing the trick and you can try them at home.

The key elements of Charlotte’s diet are:
- 2oz of prune juice/day (diluted with 4 oz of water). This seems to be more effective than the stewed prunes.
- one container of either or blueberries or applesauce (she usually eats 1/2 at breakfast and 1/2 at dinner)
- as much olive oil as I can sneak into her pasta without her noticing
- grapes (skin on)
- kiwi
....and as many other fruits we can jam into her. (but grapes and kiwi seem to have the desired effect)
- broccoli and green beans – she loves them both dearly and has to be restrained from stuffing her mouth too full.

So that’s it – the secret of our success. Now that I’ve posted this there will likely be problems next week!

In Other News……

Charlotte is DETERMINED to feed herself, and the latest twist is that she MUST use cutlery. For the last month feeding her has required three spoons: 2 for her (one for each hand) and one for the ‘feeder.’ And to her credit, she is actually pretty good at getting the food into her mouth. She wouldn’t actually get a full meal or anything, but you gotta give her points for trying.

Her latest love is the fork. What she really wants is a good, solid, big kid kinda fork. If we let her, she would absolutely be using one just like her big sister. Instead we’ve given her one of those kid safety forks, which she begrudgingly tolerates.

Everything must be eaten with a fork. There are happy moments when she is eating logical things: cantaloupe, pasta, green beans. Then there are sad moments. It is really, really hard to eat Cheerios with a fork. Ditto for crackers of any sort. And boy does she get pissed. Screaming, screeching, jamming the fork into her tray. Refusing help of any sort, naturally.


Her other love is massaging her food into her hair. Often she uses her hands, but hell, the cutlery works well too. She’s a funny, funny, funny little girl.

I’ll leave you with some parting photos of everyone’s favourite game in the evening, tickle monster. The game goes something like this: Daddy chases the girls, they run away, screeching. He catches them and tickles them, they worm away. More running, more squeals of laughter. Life is good.