Differences In Opinion

You wouldn't think that there would be that many discrepancies between recommendations for babies here versus in the states, but I have come across quite a few. It's hard when you have read and re-read your handy baby books from America a million times, and then you get to your regular checkups and they throw a curve ball at you. Whose opinion do you go with? Most of the differences have centered on feeding. First when I got here I wondered what kind of water I should mix with the formula, especially since I am not familiar with the water here. When I asked around, the only opinion in Oz is boil the water. This is harder than it sounds though because it's only sterile a certain amount of hours, it must boil a certain amount of minutes, etc, and if I don't need to do it, I would rather not. I ended up going against popular opinion in Oz and we buy sterilized steam purified water, which is ok according to my book. 

Then solids came along. The book I have (Baby 411) said starting at 6 months, 1 meal per day in between bottles, then at 7 months 2 meals and by 8, 3 meals. The GP (General Practitioner, which babies see instead of a Pediatrician unless something is really wrong and they need a specialist) said feed solids first, then bottle. The Early Childhood Development Center (Gov't office you see for regular milestone checkups and growth) said she needs 3 solids a day and feed bottle, then 30 minutes to an hour later do the solids. Well, Avery made the decisions for me I guess. She doesn't like her formula so I did start her on 3 solids a day and she just turned 7 months old. But it's interesting to see how different the medical community feels about these things. Another book I have with baby food recipes says a pediatrician should clear the baby for 3 solid meals by 9 months! Guess we're just ahead of the game.