If you know me, you know I like to talk in absolutes. I’ll never do this, I’ll always do that, I want to have this same thing until I die… I could go on. Before having a baby, there were a lot of things I said I’d never do. Some things stuck. Many things did not.
Believe me, I am well aware that one toddler does not make me an expert by any means… but I DO have a pretty good expectation of how things will be different with my next. (Until I make another post that says “things I never said I’d do until I had my second child”).
Without further ado, here are 8 things I said I’d never do:
Give sugar before 2 years old
I was SO sure I would wait for this one for her gut health and because I wanted her to develop a taste for meats and veggies first. I don’t even think I waited until a year old. She licked a gummy at six months, and I felt so devastated that I let her down. Little did I know that I would bake her a carrot cake for her first birthday! Though I do still try to avoid added sugar, I like to bake for her often!
Give screens before 2 years old
Surprisingly, we’ve stayed strong on this front. Mostly. She likes to peek over my shoulder or my husband’s if we’re looking at our phones, and she gets to FaceTime family. Every now and then, I show her my photo album, which is just pictures of her. She loves that. Maybe a little too much.
Cater to her food preferences
I strongly believed that pickiness should not be catered to… buuuuuuut she’s just a baby, tasting everything for the first time. Some things ARE yucky. I agree. I still offer her everything that I make for dinner, but if she doesn’t like it, I give her something I know she will eat.
Give grains before 1
Okay, in my house, this one is just crazy. We love pasta here. We love bread. I love to bake bread. Zucchini bread. Banana bread. Sourdough bread. I LOVE bread. I don’t know what I was thinking with this. I read somewhere that it’s better for their digestive tract to wait to introduce grains. At this point, I don’t even know where I read that. I’m not fact-checking it either, because we eat bread and pasta in this house. Everything in moderation!
Cosleep
I had so much anxiety around cosleeping before having my baby. Unfortunately, she absolutely did not tolerate the crib. Every single time I went to put her in the crib, she woke up. After she hit two months, it was impossible to get her to sleep unless she was touching me. Eventually, we moved our mattress to the floor (our rolly polly had an incident) where she slept with us. Then, she got her a twin-sized mattress for the floor so we could put our bedframe back together. Big enough to cosleep (and fall accidentally asleep every time I lay down to put her down.)
We got the Newton baby/kids mattress for her, which is rated for infants through ten years old (it took me forever and a day to find a twin-size mattress rated safe for infant sleep!) Her mattress is now on a twin bed frame like a big kid. I nap with her in it almost every day!
I am not at all affiliated with them, but figured I’d link the mattress if anyone else is struggling to find one. After she turned one, we got a cheap mattress topper and now it is so comfortable! Without the topper, it is very firm, which is perfect for infant sleep (but uncomfy for me).
Use pull-ups
I wanted to go from diapers to underwear. This did not happen. My daughter loved to do the alligator death roll when I tried to change her diaper, so we switched to pull-ups when she could walk (around 9-10 months). Life saver in the early days, but a real obstacle when we started potty training. After I noticed them setting back her potty training, we switched to puppy pads anywhere she sits. Game changer! Now we only use pull-ups at night, but I’m really hoping to do away with that soon, too.
Give snacks all day… lol….
If you have a toddler, you probably know why I changed my mind on this. They survive off of snacks. We go through a lot of bananas, blueberries, string cheese, and yogurt. And I make so many smoothies. So. Many.
Use a toddler leash backpack
I’m not even going to think about what teenage-me would say if she saw me walking my toddler on a leash. Come on! I’m raising a fearless explorer! She’s very much a wanderer, and I am very much not as fast as she is.
Honestly, there are probably a thousand more things I have changed my mind on and a thousand more I will change my mind on in the future. Parenting is all about rolling with the punches and I like to think we are doing alright:).
Thanks for reading!
