When it comes to feeding Zayden, I have had a few obsessions in the past year.
My first obsession was breastfeeding. I was fortunate to have a baby with a good latch and a good milk supply—sometimes too good. Sometimes my letdowns would come so fast and furious that Zayden practically drowned every time he ate. I would experiment with different positions to try to minimize the milk flow and make things less overwhelming for him. Between feedings I would analyze how the latest position had worked and try to decide if I should use it again at the next feeding or try something new. On top of that I had the same internal dialogue that all moms new to nursing have: Am I nursing him too often? Not enough? How much milk is he actually getting? Do I have enough milk to pump some and save it for later?
By the time we introduced solid foods, I had learned to take the ups and downs of breastfeeding in stride. But when we introduced solids, I developed a new obsession: Zayden’s iron intake. I read labels and learned the iron content of many foods. Any day that he rejected meat I would worry that he was going to be anemic. But soon these worries past and I began to trust that as long as I offered him a variety of foods and he ate well most days of the week, we were probably covered in the iron department.
Now that I have completely weaned him, I am obsessed with his milk intake once again, but this time I am counting the ounces of whole milk he drinks each day. According to my sources, he is supposed to drink about 16oz. a day, but I’m lucky, most days, if he’ll drink 10. But I am trying to resist the urge to begin obsessing and fretting again. My new mantra is, “Whatever he won’t drink, he can eat” and we give him yogurt and cheese a lot for snacks to make up for what he lacks in milk.