Sugary Fun

The first project of summer vacation this year was sugar + water.

The first segment was to make hummingbird food for the hummingbird feeder I picked up from Dollar General (technically, it was my kids' Mother's Day present to me). I found many online resources, that most matched this one. The ratio is one part white sugar to 4 parts recently-boiled water (presumably to sterilize it). We followed the admonitions not to add food coloring, nor to change the proportions. I instructed my kids to measure how much the feeder would hold (then water the plants with the excess), and to calculate how much sugar to add to that much water. We then set that aside to cool overnight. I had them sample 1:4 sugar water for reference, and I was informed that hummingbirds are lucky because that's tasty.

If you wanted to continue on the hummingbird theme, here's a collection of hummingbird resources (maps, books, crafts).

The second segment was to make rock candy. The directions varied with the website, from as high as 3:1 down to a moderate 5:2. I went with the super-saturated note from Science Bob and stopped at 1:1 (possibly too low) when the sugar took much, much longer to dissolve in boiling water. I dipped popsicle sticks (made of untreated wood) in the solution, then rolled them in sugar, put clothespins above the sugar level, and placed the sticks in small (to the tall and narrow side) jars to wait for cooling and crystals. Next time, we might add flavors!

And now we wait impatiently for sugar crystals to grow ...

One piece of trivia from my college Optics class is (unverified) that sugar water circularly polarizes light, so you might be able to add on further science ...

The Battle of Chocolate Milk

There was an incident last month, between chocolate milk and gravity. Gravity won, of course; and I ended up with chocolate milk spattered far and wide. The Very First Step is to make sure no one is freaking out about this! A certain child was sure he was going to get into big trouble. I'm still trying to clean up the impact, but it clearly wasn't intentional, and these accidents aren't common. The hardest hit were a white teeshirt and my hardwood floor. (Of course the shirt was white. This can't be easy!)

After cleaning up the main splatter and the child, I ran cold water over the white shirt. This reduced the chocolate marks, but did not remove them. I tried soaking the shirt in water; no improvement. I tried soaking the shirt in salted water; no improvement. Salt acts as a water softener to make water-for-cleaning more effective, but this chocolate was more stubborn. Next I put the shirt in the washing machine and washed it in cold water with OxiClean White Revive Whitener. The stains might have been lighter, but were still present. So I did some research:

• How to Remove a Chocolate Milk Stain from Clothing
• How to remove chocolate milk stains from clothes - Laundry Advice
• Removing chocolate stains from clothing

Based on that research and availability, I tried soaking the formerly-white shirt in a solution of water, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda (I purchase the last two in large sizes because they're both so handy). Success!!!

I didn't try ammonia or an ezymatic cleaner or club soda (didn't have any); I figured the bubbles of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda could approximate the fizziness of club soda, assuming that's how it is effective. I didn't try cream or full-fat milk because I don't keep that around either. I have Borax; it's a component in my homemade laundry powder, so I figured it would be tested in the washing machine soon enough.

I've been known to forget what worked last time, so I'm sharing with everyone.

Flowers for Teacher Appreciation Week

It's Teacher Appreciation Week!

My children's school organizes themes for each day of the Teacher Appreciation work-Week, and today's suggestion was to bring fresh flowers to your teachers. Although cut flowers are lovely, they are also short-lived; I wanted a gift with more staying power. I also like DIY, crafts done with my kids, recycling, and gardening. (You can probably see where I'm going.) This year, like last year (I just didn't have a better idea for this year, but we did improve our technique), we put marigold starts in a self-irrigating planter; the planter was a recycled craft we made together.

These marigolds are a dwarf marigold (Tagetes patula), in French Gold (orange, not yellow). Marigolds are self-seeding annuals, which means they will come back year after year, but from seeds not roots (like perennials). The best way to prepare the seeds, according to my mother, is to let the seeds dry on the plant over winter. I recommend pulling up the plants on a dry day to gather the seed pods (where the blossoms were) once the entire plant is gray and has thoroughly dried out. Take care to gather all the seed pods that have fallen off during the drying process so you're not over-run the next year.

The first year, I planted the six seeds from a 10¢ pack on a drizzly February 12, 2012; just casually scattered under the mailbox before I escaped back to the warm dry. All of the seeds germinated, and the one closest to the road with the most space grew particularly tall; almost two feet tall and nearly as wide! (Dwarf? Ha!) The next two years, I gathered the seeds (and passed them on), and let the ones that fell and germinated on their own grow with minimal thinning; those that grew outside the rock border around my mailbox were mowed without compunction. With lateral competition, the plants did not grow as tall, but I still had an amazing number of blooms all summer until the first hard frost. This year, I plan to thin the mailbox marigolds much more to see if they grow like the first year. I carefully pulled up the largest starts for this year's teacher appreciation marigolds; marigolds are fairly sturdy so they should survive this transplanting. I have more marigold seeds now than I know what to do with! In 2012, I thought 6 seeds for 10¢ was a bit steep, but in one year I had a hundred-fold increase and I think that dime has gone a long way now.

The Parts List:

• empty water or soda bottles, with their caps, to recycle; you need as many bottles as you want to make planters
• cotton twine, or any cord made of uncoated natural material that will wick water (including strips of cotton tee shirts)
• duct tape
• aluminum foil, or any opaque flexible material to cover the roots for root health

The Tools List:

• drill and two bits, maybe 1/16" and 1/8" (size isn't critical, just "small" and "about the size of the cord bundle"; careful adults only)
• utility knife (careful adults only)
• scissors
• a towel that can get gardening-dirty

The Resources List:

• Wisconsin Fast Plants on making this planter from recycled plastic bottles
• Seattle Sundries on making this planter, and especially the comments
• web search for self irrigating planter DIY

Based on what I learned last year, here is how we made the self-irrigating planters from recycled water bottles this year:

1. I drilled several small holes around the shoulder of the water bottles that were empty and to be recycled.
2. I drilled a larger hole in the bottle cap.
3. For the last "careful adult" step, I used a utility knife to cut the bottle roughly in half (a bit more on the top, a bit shorter on the bottom; see how one looks, and adjust the others).
4. The remaining steps were done by my eager children. First we cut two sections of twine, and put a big knot in the middle. Then we threaded the twine through the bottle cap; holding the bottle cap like a cup, it should have octopus-style legs of twine and the knot should be large enough to keep the cord from pulling through the hole. We sealed the cap back on the top of the water bottle.
5. We lined the inside top of the water bottle with aluminum foil to protect the plant's roots from light. You could instead wrap the entire planter at the end to do that, and to minimize algae growth. I chose to leave the bottom section visible so it's obvious when to add water, but that does allow algae growth.
6. If the cut edge of the water bottle top is sharper than you'd like, use duct tape folded over that edge to hold the aluminum foil in place, and to cover the sharp edge itself.
7. We carefully scooped potting mix inside the foil inside the top of the water bottle, shaping as we went.
8. We placed the water bottle tops inside the water bottle bottoms, and watered. The goal is for the potting soil to be thoroughly moistened, so we ended up pouring out some water from the bottoms.
9. We dried the bottles as needed before wrapping them with duct tape to hold the upside-down top to the bottom.
10. Add a few seeds or one small plant, and you are ready to gift or tend this!

All parts came from the recycling bin or the dollar store, so this is a low-cost project. I raided the recycling bin at work because I'm opposed to bottled water.

If you leave out the aluminum foil, the plant will not be as healthy in the long term, but your children can observe the later stages of root growth.

Most plants need as much room for roots underground as they occupy aboveground, so clearly this self-irrigating water bottle planter should not be the final home for most plants. However, a group should be sufficient for a small (windowsill?) herb garden. You can also adapt this technique to larger recycled containers.

There you go! It's surprisingly easy!

TIL: Tube Wraps

I looked at these reindeer printable wraps for tp tubes for a minute before running to the bathroom to test my idea. (That's where I could find an empty tp tube, of course!) I measured it, then tested against another brand that of course had slightly different measurements so your mileage may vary.

You do need to be lucky on the intersection of paper sizes (US Letter in my case) and tube sizes, but today I learned you can get four tp tube wraps on a single sheet of paper! I'm thinking of printing some faces, and letting my young artist color to his heart's content! Then my young builder can assemble the village, and peace will reign while they are happily decorating.

Self-Irrigating Planter

This weekend, we made self-irrigating planters from recycled water bottles, and planted marigold seeds that I hope will germinate in time for Teacher Appreciation Week.

The Wisconsin Fast Plants program covers the basics of making this planter from recycled plastic bottles. I incorporated the helpful comments on Seattle Sundries, too. Those directions are really useful.

I started with my drill, and made many small holes on the shoulder of the water bottles. I put one larger hole in the shoulder of the water bottles and in the bottle cap. Next I used my utility knife to separate the top of the bottle from the base. I experimented with where to cut until I found what looked good to me. This completed the "adult only" portion of the craft; happily, they enjoyed watching.

I knotted two sections of cotton twine in the middle, and we poked the knot through the hole in the cap with a toothpick. The outside of the cap had four "legs" while the inside had a knot to keep from pulling through. Then the boys screwed the cap on the top of the bottle. Next we placed the top, cap down, into the bottom of the former water bottle. I handed out narrow strips of aluminum foil for the boys to line the planter. One of the comments was that roots don't like sunlight, so unless the plant is to be transplanted, the roots need to shielded. Aluminum foil was the suggestion I remembered, and, well, it's fun to shape! They put a straw over the foil and through the larger hole in the top, and used cotton twine and a small piece of duct tape to fasten the straw securely to the side. Then I scooped in potting mix. We soaked the potting mix with water, and poured out the excess water from the base. Next I cut sections of duct tape, and the boys wrapped all the way around to tape the tops to the bottoms. They put 4 seeds in each planter. To finish this (later), we will wrap the outside of the planter to minimize algae growth in the water (see last item on Fast Plants page).

I don't know how well it will work, but I added the straw to refill the water in the base so the plants can continue to self-irrigate by wicking up the cotton twine indefinitely.

Groundhog's Day Craft

So my idea for a Groundhog's Day craft was to print a groundhog (see groundhog coloring pages where I like the first one), have the kids color their groundhogs, cut them out, glue them on craft sticks, and then have the groundhogs peek out of a toilet paper tube burrow to check for shadows.

There is a fancier, three-dimensional groundhog to print and optionally color at the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability.

And since there's always someone on the Internet who had that idea first, here's another pop-up groundhog craft in a cup instead of a tube.

Pillow Pal

Karston said he wanted a ladybug pillow pet, but we just don't see buying more toys so soon after Christmas. So I said I would make one with him. I read the pattern PDF from Twelve Crafts til Christmas, looked at Jen Goode's bed bugs, and also Dollar Store Crafts.

What I learned from the pattern PDF was to appliqué all the decorations on the top piece of red felt. So I started with two large red felt squares, using the felt selvedge on the "head" end of both red squares. I appliquéd on four spots and four feet (verisimilitude not required) from black felt. I cut out the spots by cutting around a cup with a scalpel; I cut out the four black feet by cutting around a bowl with a scalpel and cutting it into quarters, and two more red circle from the same bowl for the head. I did freehand cutting of black felt for two eyes, nose, and a smile.

I made two wide red strips, added black velcro, and sewed the strips into tubes (straps without loose ends). I put the straps and the appliqué side to the inside, and sewed most of the red squares together, leaving a reinforced 3 inches open in the middle of the selvedge (head) side. Turn right side out, stuff, hand-sew the opening shut.

Appliqué face, tuck antennae and appliqué to the inside while sewing front to back, leaving a 2 inch opening between the antennae. Turn right side out, stuff, hand-sew the opening shut (optionally catching some yarn to make loops of "hair"). So far, about an hour of sewing.

Now to attach the head to the body ... time to finish, not blog!

Easy Mickey Mouse Costume

My kindergartener was so good on Saturday (we didn't go anywhere, he spent the day with his Legos, and we think he needed the time to decompress because he was especially angelic) that I prepared a special present for him: a Mickey Mouse costume! It was surprisingly simple, once I thought about it.

• hat with Mickey ears (we already had this, $15 souvenir from the Magic Kingdom)
• white child gloves ($2.50 from Oriental Trading Company); you may add those three lines with a permanent marker
• black long-sleeved shirt ($3.50 Garanimals)
• red pants ($3.50 Garanimals)
• yellow felt (under $1 per sheet at craft stores that sell by the sheet, and some are adhesive-backed already; I used Quilt Basting Spray to make my scrap piece of yellow felt be sticky)

Only the Mickey Mouse hat and the white gloves were "special" purchases; we had the other items. And the hat was a souvenir, not a special purchase for this costume.

You can also find puffy yellow Mickey slippers for "shoes" at the theme parks (and some costume stores) to be thorough, but my kids didn’t complain. The theme parks also have white puffy gloves with the classic three metacarpal stripes, but that also seemed overkill for my kids who prefer dexterity to authenticity.

I used this template:

Directions: Cut out two ovals (about 1.5” by 1.1”) of yellow felt. Attach to the front of the red pants, centered to either side below the waistband. Voilà, Mickey pants! Now dress your small child in Mickey hat, black shirt, white gloves, and these red pants.

Craftitunity

On The Simpsons, Homer uses the neologism crisitunity. I spent so much prep time gathering kid-friendly crafts for our trip to Atlantic Beach that I see craftitunity at every turn. The kids got "leaf buddies" last week, just colorful maple leaves with happy faces drawn on. Cale carried his around (for a couple days), and needed me to repair the stem with a little tape. The rest of that day was all Mommy fix my leaf buddy. With tape! I think the tape was very exciting.

Travel Toys

I just printed one of the cars at PaperToys.com to try my hand at the assembly. If it's not too bad, I think this is probably a great way to bring toy cars on a trip! (Like we're about to take, so we're packing toys that are fun, but not so precious that there will be tears if any one is left behind.) Just think about, first a kid colors the car, then (older kids than mine, or parent) cuts it out and assembles, and then plays with the car! I'm glad you can find anything on the web nowadays.

Recycled into a Child's Shirt

Kid's shirts can be so inexpensive as to make this not-as-useful, but I made Karston a long-sleeved shirt from one of my old tee-shirts and a "rag" tee-shirt. He really liked the unique print on the front of my old tee-shirt that I didn't wear anymore, so this project was worth my time. I finished it in a week, just working on it a few minutes most days.

1. trace an existing long-sleeved shirt that fits well onto large-enough paper (like a paper grocery bag sliced open)
2. cut pattern
3. cut pieces from inside-out shirt
4. pin shoulders
5. thread serger
6. serge shoulders
7. serge neckline
8. pin sleeves to shoulders, matching sleeve top to new shoulder seam
9. serge sleeves to shoulders, but leave sides open
10. pin sleeves and sides
11. start at cuff, and serge from sleeve to side
12. serge bottom of shirt
13. pin hem
14. iron hem in place
15. switch from serger to sewing machine, thread sewing machine
16. stitch hem using a stitch with some stretch (zig-zag typically, but I used a wave to go with the shells)
17. pin fold-over elastic around neckline
18. stitch foe at neck with zig-zag
19. using a small crochet hook, catch all serger ends underneath closest serged seam

Voilà, one long-sleeved kid's shirt, made an adult's shirt! Easier to do than I expected too -- sergers really are fast!

The Stroller Bag

Not that stroller bags are expensive or hard to find, but I made one. In the scraps, I had a loudly-patterned tunic with a fringed hem. The tunic was a bit tight in the arms for me, and not very fitted (some curves but no darts).

I turned the tunic inside out, cut across between the underarms, and then marked straight vertical lines on the sides (one vertical line on one side, the other on the flip side -- explained later). I kept the fringes safe with masking tape (no fringes getting caught in the side seams!). I decided I might want attachment points on this bag, so I pinned D-rings where the side seams would go. At first I tried nylon webbing, but it was more than my serger wants to cut doubled over, so I used some sturdy grosgrain ribbon to attach one D-ring to each side. I threaded my serger up in matching colors, and serged each side from bottom to top so I could make sure that the bottom fringes were perfectly aligned. To see the straight lines while serging, I needed the marks to be drawn on the right side with the fabric facing up, so that's why the side seams were marked on opposite sides: so I could serge bottom to top for both sides. After the side seams, I went around the top with the serger finishing the edges for me. End of Day 1 (as much break as the children allowed me).

Now I turned this bag right-side out. Next I measured the right length of zipper tape and pinned it in place. I switched to my sewing machine with the zipper foot and stitched down the zipper. The serged edge is a nice accent without bulk, and it's less loud than the pattern (yikes!). Then I stitched straight across the bottom with a straight stitch. To finish it off, I used small sections of the ribbon to prevent the zipper pull from going too far by covering the two ends. Some of this I had to sew by hand, but it makes the zipper less likely to fail! End of Day 2 (I finished the hand sewing after they went to bed!), and almost done!

I added two ribbon straps, one left and one right, with a box stitch just below the zipper on one face. The boys loved the next step: I put two buttonholes on each ribbon, one close to the bag for a small loop that just fit around the handle, and one near the end of the ribbon for a larger loop (to allow me to hook on various places on our double stroller). My sewing machine has an automatic buttonholer (I don't like making buttonholes, so I looked for this feature!), so I let the boys push the 'start' button to make the buttonholes! Such fun! I stitched down two ribbon "pads" on the matching face to strengthen the buttons. Then the kids joined me on the couch, and I sewed on two buttons, one on each pad. Initially I stopped here, three days to a stroller bag with kids helping me serge and sew.

But then we went to Disney World, on and off the bus with that folding stroller, and the bag going on and off. So when I came home, I grabbed a sleeve (originally I was going to use the sleeves for the button straps, but the linen-like fabric wasn't as sturdy as the grosgrain ribbon) and cut out a five-inch section that I squared up. I had a section of thin batting left over from another project that I stuffed inside this pocket. I made two thin straps, one for each end, and with those in place, I made the sleeve section square. (This will make more sense in a minute, I hope.) The final result was a rectangular pad (in fabric matching the stroller bag) with two straps across parallel edges. I sewed two buttons in the middle of the pad. What I can do now is put each long ribbon from the stroller bag under a pad strap and button it in the middle. Now the original stroller bag converts to a shoulder bag with a padded strap! Just one more day of sewing, and I expect this padded addition to make hopping on and off a bus with a folded stroller and two children somewhat easier. The fewer things I have to hold with my hands at those times, the better.

This stroller bag wasn't hard to make, but I didn't know where I would end up when I started. I'm pleased with the final result, though. And, as a result of the loud print, our stroller is easy to pick out in a crowd.

Highlights High Five Magazine

The Highlights High Five magazine is a funny thing ... we gave it Karston as a Christmas present when he was three and a half. At first, he just liked getting something colorful in the mail, but he didn't care about the content. About three months later, it clicked. All of sudden, when his magazine arrived, he was very excited to get to read it and play with it. (Each issue includes an activity to cut out, and Karston is an expert with his safety scissors!) For about six months, it was the best! Then the phone calls to renew started (ugh) at the same time that Karston started plowing through an issue in about five minutes. He can do the puzzles, like find the hidden picture, quickly. He cuts out the activity, but that's also the most fun he has with it. It was worth it for the three months on either side of his fourth birthday, but since the renewal solicitations take more time than he spends with the magazine, we're not going to renew. It was fun while it lasted!

Sidetracked

I was multi-tasking searching the web for two topics, looking for GFCF recipes and looking for possible causes of Karston's abdominal pain.

From the GFCF recipe search, I ran across mention of a low oxalate diet (LOD) helping severe pediatric abdominal pain! Interesting! So I went looking for LOD and quickly got to the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) (with recipes). Those might be worth trying, but it's so hard to get Karston to eat anything that I shudder to think about trying to get him to eat from an approved list. On the other hand, maybe tracking his diet for oxalates and carbs while tracking how he feels ...

I found this doctor, and he's not that far away either. Hmm, a specialist ... wouldn't be the first one, but we haven't gotten anywhere yet either.

I suspect either intestinal allergies (sadly, there's no test for these T-cell-mediated allergies, so you just have to associate symptoms with diet) or colitis. Since Cale was diagnosed with colitis and it can run in the family, I think it needs to be considered for Karston. Unfortunately, it looks like differential diagnosis is a current research topic, explaining why it's tough to get medical traction.

So, flipping through Pediatric Gastroenterology, I read up on Colitis and Short Stature. We already tested for Celiac Disease although he hadn't had any wheat that week (should be able test for any wheat in past six weeks, though). I read Cholecystitis, which is interesting since we were worried about possible bilirubin earlier this month (but we think it was artificial color from lollipops). I read Colic, linked to milk protein allergy, and found the differential diagnosis of soy protein intolerance interesting. However, colic weight gain is typical, which doesn't cover Karston falling off the weight charts at 6 months. I read about Crohn Disease (often considered with colitis) and other Malabsorption Syndromes. Protein Intolerance was interesting: "cow's milk proteins are most frequently implicated as a cause of food intolerance during infancy," "only a few of these [intolerances] have a clear allergic immunoglobulin E (IgE)–mediated pathogenesis" and "in children, GI symptoms are generally most common, with a frequency ranging from 50-80%, followed by cutaneous symptoms (20-40%), and respiratory symptoms (4-25%)." Constitutional Growth Delay mentions falling off the growth charts at 3-6 months of age, then resuming growth on the right slope but below the curve. Where have I seen that??? Silver-Russell Syndrome usually starts with low birthweight, which didn't happen. Oh, and your word of the day is borborygmus: tummy rumbles!; can be caused by "incomplete digestion of carbohydrate-containing foods including milk, gluten, fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, and high-fiber whole grains."

Reflux and Sleep

At some level, I think we always knew this, but hadn't codified it. Last night at bedtime, Karston said, Tummy still hurting. I don't want to fall asleep. Just like that, he strung together his poor eating with his poor sleeping. I asked a few more questions, and Karston said he didn't want to fall asleep while his tummy was hurting because then he has bad dreams. I'm impressed that he figured out that connection on his own just a few weeks shy of 3.5 years old. This makes me more confident in what was previously just my intuition: fix his eating first, then see if we still need to fix his sleeping.

I just wish I knew where to start! At Cale's 9-month well-child-checkup yesterday, the pediatrician said we can try Zantac with Prevacid. She also gave us a prescription for Nexium to try next, to tide us over with ideas until Karston's specialist appointment on February 25th. Everything we've tried so far gets less and less effective over the course of one month, and it's very disheartening. He's still on Prevacid because it's holding ground to a little better than where he was before treatment; without it, he crashes to new lows.

Mom Lesson: Night Terrors

Karston had night terrors once (at least once: we think most of his night-time all-or-mostly-asleep screaming is because his tummy hurts), and it was a disconcerting experience. The rule of thumb is that if when the child wakes up, the parents are more upset, it's night terrors. If the child is still scared, it was a nightmare. However, I learned a valuable secret to avoiding night terrors from Daddy's cousin Kathy whose son has more frequent night terrors. The secret is an earlier bedtime! Sure enough, Karston's night terror was when we were at a family gathering and stayed up very late (midnight!) with everyone else.

Book Review: Backpacking With Babies and Small Children

I read the book Backpacking with Babies and Small ChildrenBackpacking With Babies and Small Children recently. I can't say I learned anything that wasn't common sense, but this would be a gentle place to start if I wanted to hike with my kids and were worried about getting started. The same things that matter for adults also matter for children:

• wear appropriate layers of comfortable clothing
• be prepared for potty needs (and please don't leave dirty diapers out there!)
• be prepared to eat and drink
• have reasonable expectations for distance and time
• be prepared to change your plans with the circumstances

In addition, you do need to think about entertaining children on the trail, and how to carry them (or otherwise take a break) when they say they're tired of walking (that could just mean boredom).

There's historical perspective on what you had to do before REI had several product lines for these needs that should appeal to DIY-ers.

This morning, I had a conversation with the manager in the office next to mine, and he said it is important to go outside with your children. His children have grown up before he blinked, and he realizes that he has raised two indoor children although that was never his intention and not his upbringing. I can see how I would fall into that trap myself (I just want to squeeze in a little more work, since we're swamped), so I thanked him for the reminder to work for a better Big Picture. No excuses! Get outside with the kids!

Researching GERD

I did some research on GERD to see what we can do to help Karston.

Gastroesophageal reflux in infants

• 15 - 40% improve on a milk-free diet, have casein allergy
• casein allergy tends to go away at 1 year of age
• PPI generally more effective than H2 blocker

We saw delayed weight gain (is it "delayed" when he's 3 years old and still smaller than the 2-year-olds at his preschool?), projectile vomiting when he was an infant, and he was hungry all the time (day and night).

However, don't be too fast to medicate. Don't be too slow either, or you'll be in our boat with a small child used cuddles all night and food whenever he wants!

Gastroesophageal reflux disease in children and adolescents

• raise head of bed
• avoid chocolate, peppermint, and acidic juices like OJ
• PPIs more effective

Karston often complains that his tummy hurts, he pounds his chest at odd times, and he really likes a firm adult hand on his tummy (think Napoleon's ulcer pose).

Poor weight gain in infants and children

• eat often: 3 meals and 3 snacks, about every 2-3 hours

During catch-up growth, the amount of calories and protein that a child eats is more important than the variety of foods eaten. For example, if a child is willing to eat chicken nuggets and pizza, but refuses all vegetables, this is acceptable. At meal and snack time, solid foods should be offered before liquids. Fruit juice should be limited to four to eight ounces of 100 percent juice per day.

You Know You're Tired When ...

You know you're tired when you wake up wondering how long your baby has been crying. I'm a very light sleeper, and usually wake up to the least sound, so I was astounded when I woke up Thursday night wondering how long Cale had been crying. Friday night was Allergic Watch for Karston (I was sure he was OK, but not so sure that I wasn't worried).

Saturday night was almost as notable for the depths of sleep deprivation. I woke up at Cale's first cry, tossed the sheet off ... and had no idea who or where I was. More importantly, I had no idea where to go to rescue the crying baby until I remembered that Cale's room is just across the hall. I did at least know I was supposed to soothe the baby.

We don't know why Karston cried so loudly and so often last night, but Cale woke up for that and I had to keep nursing him back to sleep. Hopefully the kids will sleep better soon, before their parents collapse. We don't get naps on weekdays!