help Archives - Munchies and Munchkins

Tonight I sat down to write a post about my eldest daughter approaching her 4th birthday and found I couldn’t.

Like lots of you I have seen some photos the last few days that I wish I hadn’t. Photos of families, of sorrow and of death. One photo in particular of a child who will never see his 4th birthday.

That small child, alone and cold who left this world in such a tragic way.

I don’t watch or read the news very often. You see I’m the type of person who seems to absorb things too much and a horrifying story ( particularly any which affect children) can play on my mind for months. As a form of self preservation I guess I just avoid it.

Sometimes it’s unavoidable. Like this week. I almost closed the browser window when the image popped up as I knew I would not want to read what had happened. I forced myself to look. To read.

It’s important that we do not look away when it comes to this.

This is happening. Around of us. It’s part of our lives now. We need to learn as much as we can about it and decide for ourselves. To find out how we can help. To know the unspeakable terror and sadness these poor, poor people must be feeling right now.

The sorrow of a father who lost his children and wife whilst trying to find freedom. For him then to see his sons lifeless body on every newspaper and TV channel. To know this has happened to someone else is overwhelming in itself. To feel the sadness and tears creep onto your face for a child you did not know. Imagine it was you. Imagine it was your child.

To be so scared of where you are and what may happen to your family that you are willing to risk all of your lives in a little dinghy on a rough, open sea.

I can’t imagine that kind of fear.

My children tucked warm in bed I hope will never know that kind of fear.

So instead of writing the post I shed some tears for an innocent boy called Aylan and the many others who have lost their lives and I wrote this.

I also did what a lot of you have probably done today and looked for ways to help, this article from The Guardian is full of ideas, click here.

The last few weeks I have eavesdropped on a few twitter/playgroup conversations about what people are feeding their babies/toddlers. There seems to be a major feeling of guilt amongst a lot of us parents over just what we feed our children. It’s a bit of a battle for me. I constantly wonder if she’s hungry or if I’m feeding her too little or not enough or just not the right food. I definitely think more advice on this is needed. I don’t mean recipe books although they are great I mean how do we know just what to do? I know when I am hungry and I know what I like to eat but with Izzy it’s a whole new big scary world for me (and for her of course)

Izzy with sweet potato chips when she was unwell

I decided to keep a diary of what she eats. I then promptly forgot. I blame the old baby brain if I’m allowed I still blame that now that she is 14 months. So I didn’t keep a diary but this is more or less a typical day:

Between 6-7am : 6oz of milk – she’s not yet on cows milk which is something I kick myself daily about. Hoping this changes soon?

Between 8-9.30am : a fruit pot/piece of fruit and a slice of toast (sometimes with peanut butter which she loves..marmite not so much) as a special treat she occasionally has a croissant.

Mid morning: some snacks perhaps including raisins, cubed cheese, toddler crisps/biscuits or similar

Lunch 12-2pm : this differs more than most meals depending on where we are, if we are out and about I will mostly take a pouch but at home she loves pasta dishes, a mini chicken dinner, spag Bol or cottage pie. A lot of the times it’s what we (me and OH) eat the night before and I save her a serving. She normally has a little biscuit or bit of fruit afterwards. It used to be yogurts but they don’t seem to agree with her anymore.

Around this time she will also have a 4oz bottle and some snacks of carrot sticks etc in the afternoon

Tea 4-5pm: on most days this will be something like scrambled eggs/omelette with some baked beans. She also like carrot and potato waffles from asda or perhaps some fish or chicken. I do find that when she has more protein in this meal she sleeps better.

Scrambled eggs with tomatoes and spinach

Supper 6.30-7pm : porridge every night. She loves her nightly porridge and its a big part of her bedtime routine as she has it watching in the night garden and getting sleepy.

Bedtime 7.30pm : 6oz of milk which she feeds herself in bed then puts herself to sleep. This is a new but miraculous development and we normally go in her room a little later and put the bottle away.

That’s just a standard day for us. What do you do? Is it rude to ask for your daily diary? I’d love to compare.

What foods do your children enjoy? I seem to have (at the moment) an adventurous eater and she will eat pretty much everything we try. Gnocchi and polenta are just two new dishes to add to her favourites list. She also has a very cute new habit of pointing at food that she likes and saying mmmmm unfortunately this means that my dad who is a sucker for a cute baba always wants to give her cake! I figure I am pretty strict with her sugar intake normally so I let him spoil her occasionally.

I hope to hear from you all soon!

Gnocchi and sweet potato bake- a herby one for Izzy and a spicy one for us

Don’t Look Away

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