Guide to Baby Pajamas

The temperatures are starting to dip in most places outside the tropics (in the Northern Hemisphere). If you have a baby or infant, you have probably gone out to buy or began to think about buying pajamas to keep your little one warm at night.  My son Clark was born in the Spring and we live in Vegas. Until very recently the temperature ranged from frying pan to the fire.  Clark rarely wore anything besides short sleeve onesies, even to sleep.  With Christmas fast approaching, the temperature in the desert has dropped significantly, especially at night.  So, now we put Clark to sleep in warm comfy jammies.

We've learned that not all pajamas are alike. Some are far more friendly to you as a parent than others.  Besides warmth, your biggest concern will be access.  When your baby wakes up in the darkest hours of the night and needs changing, you want the process to be as easy as possible.  So it is important to look for pajamas with easy access to the diaper.  This usually entails snaps/buttons that run at least from each of the the legs to the crotch. With that you can remove the offending diaper, wipe the butt, and put on the new diaper with as little hassle as possible.  Pajamas that force you to unzip the entire garment, then pull the legs out, mean you may have a cold baby while you're doing diaper management. You want quick access and minimum exposure to nighttime temperatures.  Lastly, get that baby back to sleep before he starts getting ideas about staying awake.

There are plenty of very cute pajamas with zippers or with snaps/buttons that only go up one leg.  They are mighty cute, but in the wee ours of the morning with a crying baby, you'll appreciate form over function.  This also works in reverse, if there is someone you don't like, buy cute pajamas for their kid with a convoluted design.  They'll think of you in their moment of despair.  I'm just kidding, don't do that.

     - Clark's Dad

Reverse Infant Separation Anxiety

The baby books say that parents should expect their children to begin showing signs of separation anxiety between 6 and 9 months old. When a child is left in the care of someone who is not their parent, even for a short amount of time, she may cry intensely fearing her parents may never return.  It's irrational to you as an adult, for the baby it's completely natural and rational.  The child is still developing an understanding of object permanence (think peekaboo and hide-and-seek) and parental attachment.

When leaving your child at daycare or with the sitter is the most likely time to notice this behavior.  This time of year, no one has more experience with it than mall Santas.   My son Clark is eight months old and a little different.  Fortunately or unfortunately, he hasn't really told me yet how he feels about it, I'm with my son nearly all his waking hours.  In the car, at home, play group, doctor's office, etc., daddy is rarely out of site while he's awake.  Perhaps he is starting to think, "hey, dad maybe you and I should try this separation thing out."

He loves strangers, perhaps a little too much.  The little ladies man, especially loves the ladies.  On the inconsistent days when I make it to the gym for MMA classes, I leave him with the ladies at the childcare facility there.  He loves it. (Bye, dad, I'm good!). No tears (yet) when I drop him off. In fact he seems to relish the attention.  He only cries when I come to pick him up and go home (Oh no, not him again!) He loves lunch at mommy's job, when he gets stolen away from us by the ladies there.  No complaints or anxiety (yet) from him, just blushing and cooing.   This month he has even been a good boy when it came to sitting on the Fat Man with the White Beard and Red Suit's lap. No tears, not even a funny look like, "Who's this guy, dad?!" 

Perhaps, I should just enjoy it while it lasts, knowing separation anxiety is on its way.  Or should I be concerned at how comfortable my son is with strangers (Reverse Separation Anxiety?).  No sense of stranger danger instinct.  Maybe he's sure that daddy will protect him from harm.  I'll let you know if and when separation anxiety kicks in.

    - Clark's Dad

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Product Review: Cosco Flat Fold High Chair - a Surpise Value

With all the co-pays and other costs adding up, as well as the thought of saving for college, my spending behavior has been quite parsimonious of late.  That's a fancy way or saying frugal, which is a fancy way of saying cheap or unwilling to spend money.

Once my son Clark was old enough for solids, I knew I would need a high chair, eventually.  However, I tried to fight it.  First, I tried feeding him in his Bumbo Baby Seat.  He would lean forward, instead of sitting up and back when eating.  So that didn't work.  I then tried feeding him in his child seat (not car seat).  Things went a little better, but I still felt I needed a tool designed for the job.  I needed a high chair but didn't want too spend much money on one.

I went to BRU, and thought I was looking at prices for thrones, instead of plastic chairs with trays designed for feeding babies.  Prices ranged from about $75 to $200.  Frustrated, I visited America's favorite big box store (it's also the most hated).  They carried many of the same models as BRU, maybe a little cheaper.  There was one that caught my eye, well, its price did. $30 (regular price) for a model from Cosco, not to be confused with Costco.

I don't think said big box store was too proud to offer this model, because the display model was hidden behind the others.  I took the effort to fight my way back there and pulled it out, placing it on the ground.  I compared it to the other models on display and my impression was that it did not feel sturdy, and not something I would feel safe putting my child in.  The construction felt like someone had repurposed an ironing board.

Getting the Toughest Baby to Take His Medicine

Unfortunately, my little boy, Clark, has had a reoccurring anal abscess (or butt bump) over the past three months. Each occurrence meant another 10 day round of antibiotics. With each round my son has become less of a good sport about taking his medicine. He's also becoming stronger and smarter as time goes on. He literally fights taking his medicine. Getting him to take his medicine is mission-critical turned mission: impossible.

So I've run the gambit of techniques and tricks to get an infant to take his medicine. Admittedly, Clark is a worst case scenario, so many of the techniques that did not work for him may work for other infants. Here's a run-down of the various techniques and tools I have come across and what worked on my little worst case scenario (if you have a code red medicine refuser too, feel free to skip to #6).

Techniques:

1. Put it in Milk:  I've had people recommend that I put Clark's medicine in 2 oz. of milk. The assumption is he won't notice the taste of the medicine in that much liquid. Perhaps, my lil guy is a future chef and has a highly developed palette (for an infant). I added his dose (1 tsp) of medicine to a bottle of milk (4 oz.).  He noticed it on the first sip. You could see the look of disgust on his face. He then refused to drink the rest of the milk. So we lost a dose of medicine and a bottle of breast milk. This works for most babies though.

2. Mix it in Food: If your child has already moved on to solid foods, you could mix his medicine in with his food. The pharmacist recommended mixing the antibiotic with rice cereal. The pink color (of the medicine, not cereal) would make it easy to see if your child had finished all the medicine. Unfortunately, making the rice cereal with (breast) milk, meant that mixing in the medicine, meant a waste of all three when Clark refused to eat it. My son had the same response as he did with medicine mixed in with his milk. He was displeased.