11/10/2005
My MIL is great but..
She does have moments of idiocy. I never thought it would happen but I was SOOO annoyed with my MIL on tuesday. There have been alot of times in the past 6 months or so since DS was born that I have been frustrated by her/ thought she was a bit of an idiot but in a sweet way. However, this incident really annoyed me. She comes twice a month to look after DS while I teach two classes, one on tuesday evening and one on wednesday morning. I feed him before I leave and she knows that he doesn`t need anything else while I am gone because I am away for two hours max and he is feeding every 4 hours or so at the moment. He isn`t really taking to solids and I have been trying to take it slowly and carefully because I have asthma, excema and am allergic to eggs and walnuts and have really sensitive skin so a while ago I instructed her that when/ if she was ever to give him any food without checking with my first she should under NO circumstances give him eggs, peanuts, citrus fruits or strawberries etc.. I hit her with a list of stuff but empahsised the above. The conversation came about after a friend of mine`s MIL gave her 10 month old son peanut tofu and he had a reaction to it. I figured that by having the conversation early on and emphasising that as I have allergies to various things, it was important not to give Joey anything other than stuff I had given the green light to.
When I came back from class today I noticed funny yellow stains on J`s onesie and when I first commented on it she didn`t say anything but then I asked Daisuke if he had any idea what it was (my first thought was maybe he had poo-ed and it had gone everywhere but as it was around his neck I thought that was unlikely) and he said I should ask MIL. Tuns out that while I was out she was eating some of the abundance of mikan (satsuma oranges) that we have at the moment and was playing with it by putting it to DS`s mouth and trying to feed it to him. Obviously being the inquisitive baby he is, he started grabbing it and putting it into his mouth (as babies his age do with EVERYTHING.. doesn`t mean he necessarily wanted it) so she decided to give it to him to eat! OMG!! I came *this* close to hitting her for being so stupid but I just lost my temper a teeny bit. As I don`t normally get angry at all she was very apologetic. I think she knew she had done the wrong thing because when I had commented on the stains in front of her, she didn`t say anything. She has a habit of trying to tease him with food and I have noticed it before and it bugs me but I figured I would leave it but I am PISSED about this and am now worried that I can`t trust her to look after him. She is normally pretty good at listening to what I say (or so I thought) so now I am going to be worrying the whole time I am away from J that she is going to be feeding him random stuff. I guess on the scale of things it isn`t such a big problem as it wasn`t like she actually fed him copious amounts of the stuff (as she apparently said when she tried to defend her actions to Daisuke before I got back from work "it was just one piece".. his reaction was that even with one piece it was something she shouldn`t have given Joey so she could bet she was going to get a bollocking when I got back from work! LOL!) but the fact he had enough stains around his neck for me to notice bothers me. I told her under no circumstances was she to give him anything like that again. If I catch her doing it again I might seriously consider (or at least threaten to consider) putting DS into childcare if I can`t trust her to respect my wishes. Daisuke said the same thing last night, if she does it again then I am free to tell her that she can`t look after the baby anymore. He figures that even the threat of it will be enough to ensure it won`t happen again.
I left him with her yesterday morning when I had class. He fell asleep just before I left and woke up just before I came back apparently! Obviously trying to avoid being fed random food!!! When I came back we tried him with some water from a cup and he loved the cup! He hasn`t quite got the hang of it but it was fun to watch him! I don`t really want him having too many other fluids other than BM until we are through the winter because I want him to get as much immunity as possible from the ongoing colds and flu that hit every year but I realise he needs to learn how to use stuff like that. I figure I will start pumping and watering down the BM so he is at least still getting it!
All of yesterday I was wondering if I was over-reacting to the whole situation. I think one of the problems is that one of her friends` daughters had a son a couple of weeks after Joey was born and because he was showing an interest in food, they started solids alot earlier than we did so he is already eating all sorts of food. This is fair enough but Joey was slow to show interest and is still more into chewing on the spoon than eating the food so I don`t see any necessity to rush solids as he will get it when he is ready. I feel that Japanese people tend to think us westerners are over-reacting with the allergy thing but because I am allergic to so many different things I am so scared of something happening to my son because I love him so much!
Today the thing that is bothering me most is that I can`t get the sodding stain out even though I have tried all sorts of things!! Grrr....
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4 comments:
grrr about the stains. i hope you get them out!!
Smacking. Your MIL needs a good smacking. Can I use my MIL's head to do it?
They introduce foods to babies so early here- I always got asked about when I was going to give DS meat and fish etc when we first came back to Japan. He was 8 mos old at the time and I had to explain a lot of times that we don't give babies those foods until they are at least a year old etc. The good thing was that I never had to explain to my MIL...
I dont think you were over reacting. I have milk and yeast allergies and have been very strick with my daughter about it. I was told that Japanese people tend to be very wary of Soba if there is any possible allergy treats.
I had no choice but to introduce food at 5and a half months, kid was sucking me dry, but I have been very lucky to have a daycare that is very strick about allowing kids to eat ONLY wha their parents have provided for them.
Tell the girl one last time and if she complains about it fire her. Your baby is much more important.
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