I am so so sorry for everything you’ve had to go through.

One more thing, after my daughter turned four, I started feeling really depressed and couldn’t figure out why. I started picking fights with Jon a lot and finally we had a huge fight where I told him he must be really unhappy and want to leave me. He could not for the life of him understand but I insisted that I must be a total pill, no fun, anxiety ridden and he probably wanted a divorce. Well…after some thinking it occured to me that my parents divorced when I was four. Yeah, anniversary’s of bad things are not good for the psyche.

I’m not sure if Simone’s teething has yet yielded pearly white fruit, but even if not there are plenty of finger foods she might like to have a good old chew on, subject of course to choking hazards/professional advice as to suitability. Re: choking hazards I will add that despite advice I have heard on “no bigger than a pea” sized food until 1 (!!!), my daughter, who is no eating prodigy, can manage chunks of food she has bitten off herself perfectly well, so far (nearly one). Also, I tell myself that pieces of food are a good way of working on pincer grasp etc – practically educational :)

Things that worked for us: grated cheese or later sticks of cheese, banana, cold celery (excellent for teething although no good if worried about choking), pieces of steamed white fish (depends on when starting meat) or easier still fried fish with batter peeled off!, cheerios, frozen peas, blueberries (beware – frozen will stain clothes), or you can spread all sorts of stuff on rusks/dried out toast eg cream cheese, avocado, blah blah.

Puree refusal or no, you are doing an amazing job, so please don’t take the above as advice as you don’t need it! Simone is so lucky to have such an eloquent, thoughtful mother.

XOXOXO