Monday, June 06, 2005

Got a tip on black market prunes?

I have been on a mad hunt for Gerber prunes. There were no prunes stocked during my last two trips to the grocery store. And Noah has been having some unfortunate difficulties that may be alleviated by the digestion of said prunes. Poor little guy just strains and strains, his face turning purplish red and looking like it might explode. He’s putting in a lot of effort with very little pay off. So this weekend we checked three other stores for baby food prunes – and nada! It’s like the great prune conspiracy or something. So I called the Gerber Parent Resource Center and asked “Is there some sort of prune shortage?” And lo and behold there is. It seems that the meager prune growing season coupled with the overwhelming demand for Gerber’s new plastic two packs have made prunes very hard to come by. Her suggestion was to just keep checking the shelves. I wanted to convince her of the urgency of my situation - to urge her to ship me some on the sly. We needed to score and we needed it bad. But I just thanked her for the info. When I see those damn prunes in stock I’m buying every damn package they have.

Dehydration could be part of Noah’s issue so I wanted to give him a little apple juice diluted with water. Except I was still having the problem with him rejecting the damn bottle. Through much trial and error we discovered he will take a bottle – but only laying flat on his back. I guess he just hates the reclined sitting position that you typically use when bottle feeding. Who knew? Now that the bottle obstacle may be overcome I might have to run out and see if I can find some prune juice. Although apparently giving your kid juice is now a cardinal sin. At Noah's six month check-up the handout sheet the pediatrician gave us with age appropriate tips said don't feed your baby juice - it's empty calories and forms poor eating habits. But good lord - this kid needs to poop and I'm willing to help him by any means necessary. At this rate I'm near considering giving him some of my coffee since it's the only thing that keeps me regular. Think I should call the pediatrician and say "I know I'm not supposed to give him juice because of the sugar, but how about black coffee?"

I had been looking forward to Saturday – it was the Northern Liberties Music Festival at Liberty Lands Park. Mark and I have always enjoyed spending the day at the park, listening to music, drinking some beer and watching the hipsters with their dogs and the crunchy couples with their babies. At last years festival we wondered what it would be like to be there with our own baby. So it was anticipated for a whole year. However Saturday morning was so grey and sticky – I was hoping they would reschedule and when they didn’t I considered bagging it. But we decided to just go and if we were uncomfortable we could just come back home. Nothing ventured - nothing gained, right?

It was an excellent afternoon. We got there at 3 pm and staked out our shade tree despite the fact there was no sun. We hunkered down, set Noah up to play and opened a bottle of wine. The sun came out but the temperature remained pleasant and we stayed for five hours. Noah enjoyed watching the people as much as we did and he even took a short nap in the stroller. It was a great surprise to see our friends Jen & Mark – they just returned from Greece, lucky bastards. It was as wonderful a day as I could have imagined last year – and I’m so glad we didn’t talk ourselves out of going.

And thank the gods they didn’t have it yesterday. It was too hot, too sunny. We took a walk to the water ice stand in Fishtown that soon felt like a death march because on the return we were walking directly into the sun. I can’t believe it is this hot and only the first week in June. I turned the air on this morning because I’m unsure if Noah’s uncommon whininess was being caused by the heat, his cold, his constipation, or his teething – and I figured the least I could do was to eliminate one element of discomfort. The poor boy is falling apart. His warranty must be up.

4 comments:

hazel said...

I have to get you some prunes! I don't remember if they still have them on our shelves, but I will check and find some. regarding the juice, I know that they say don't do it, but totally do it. as little as 12 years ago, that's what our pediatrician told me to do with trent when he was constipated (the only time in the history of trent that he was ever constipated) when he was only 4 weeks old. so it can't be that bad.

I would keep trying to gradually prop him up, though, when he takes his bottle - maybe this is a wives' tale though? but the pooling of fluid in his ears causing ear infections. whatev. as long as he drinks it.

so glad you had a good time at the festival!! I remember you saying how much you wanted to have your baby at that festival, how you couldn't wait to have kids, and how come you didn't have one already dammit. now you do, and he's full of poop!

Kodi said...

Sheesh. No prunes. That is a problem. The do make baby enema stuff. Not fun for you or the baby, but possible option. I didn't think they really worried about empty calories at that age. Do babies really form eating habits? My kid ate everything in site for the first 2 years, then hated everything for the next 10 years. I don't think my giving her juice was the cause of all the eating drama.

MC said...

I recommend a can of Dr. Pepper. That should get things moving in no time.

If I come across a stash of prunes up here, I will let you know...perhaps I could send Noah a care package.

Jen O. said...

You should complain to Planet Feedback about the lack of prunes, and the relative unhelpfulness of the consumer care line. Maybe they'll ship you a crate! I get great responses from them.

planetfeedback.com/consumer

As far as the juice thing goes: I think there are a lot of parents under the misconception that fruit juice = fruit, and healthy. We know that's not the case, but many parents don't know. All things in moderation.