Birdseed Biscuits

Spring has sprung in Denver, and we need some activities to get us out of the house!

At the grocery store today, I passed by a display of bird seed. Years ago, when I was pregnant with Oliver, I flipped through a Parenting magazine at my OB-GYN's office. I saw an article on how to make a cute, little, heart-shaped birdseed biscuit. I tore it out and saved it in my recipe box. When I started on Pinterest over a year ago, I went through a bunch of things I'd saved, pinned them, and then tossed out the random articles and how-to's that I'd saved. Let Pinterest save them for me! So, anyway, I found the birdseed biscuit online and pinned it here. When I saw the birdseed at the grocery store, it reminded me of the project. I decided Oliver is finally old enough! I picked up a 7-pound, reclosable bag of wild bird feed for $6. Warning to parents of kids with severe allergies: the bag of bird feed I picked up said it contains peanuts.

When we got home, I asked Oliver if he wanted to help me make some food for the birds. You guys, he got so excited!

Here's what you need to make your own bird seed biscuits:

*Bird seed (approximately 1 cup)
*Flour (approximately 2 Tablespoons)
*Water (as needed, but approximately 2-4 Tablespoons)
*Cookie Cutter (Or use a cup to cut out circles)
*A straw
*Ribbon or string

Here's how we made our biscuits:

I handed Oliver a 1/4 cup measuring cup and asked him to pour 5 scoops of the bird feed into a bowl. Not all of his scoops were full scoops, so we probably ended up with about a cup of bird seed in the mixing bowl. I asked him to add one small scoop of flour. He filled up the same measuring cup about halfway with flour and dumped it in, so we had about 2 Tablespoons of flour to our mix. This isn't an exact science, so go with it! I filled a small pitcher with just a splash of water. Oliver poured it in and mixed everything together. It looked a little dry, so I got a bit more water. The water and flour basically make a paste to hold the birdseed together.

While he mixed, I preheated the oven to 170 degrees F. I sprayed my cookie cutter with Pam. I lined a baking sheet with a silicone liner I have, but you can just put foil or parchment paper on your baking sheet. When Oliver was done mixing, I pressed the mixture into the cookie cutter. I poked a hole with a straw-like instrument I had on hand. Make sure the hole goes all the way through to the bottom of the biscuit, so you can string a ribbon through when they're done baking. The directions I read said to leave the straw in while it bakes, but I actually pulled mine out. It wasn't a problem for us. I gently lifted the cookie cutter away from the biscuit and then got to work on the rest. We got 6 small biscuits out of our mixture. I popped the biscuits in the oven for an hour for them to dry and set.

As they were baking, I put Jo to bed for nap time. As I tucked Oliver in for his quiet time, he looked up at me and said, "OK, so after quiet time, we can go outside and give the birds the food." He is so excited! That made me really happy. The biscuits finished up as they rested, so I finished the project by threading ribbon through the hole in each biscuit, and I tied it with a bow.

As soon as Jo was up, Oliver announced, "OK! We get to go outside and give the birds their food!" He hung each biscuit from the tree. Then, we sat on the porch and blew bubbles, watching for the birds to come.

 

The birds didn't come. When we ran out of bubbles, I told Oliver we were probably scaring the birds away. So, we went inside, and he watched from the back door.

Finally, a little critter came and ate two of the biscuits. No, it wasn't a bird. It was a squirrel! I captured this photo of the guilty party:

The Merits of Peanut Butter

I'd like to first say that large quantities of peanut butter aren't safe for babies because it can pose a choking hazard. That seems pretty self-evident; after all, it's sticky and difficult to swallow! Peanuts themselves are, of course, considered a choking hazard, too.

That said, I've decided to start offering Oliver small quantities (specifically, a bit on my finger) of all-natural peanut butter, which is actually against pediatrician recommendation.

At Oliver's 6 month appointment, our pediatrician gave the green light on all food groups with some specific exceptions: fish (because of allergen risk), juice (because it's high in sugar and low in nutritional value and contributes to childhood obesity), honey (because of the botulism risk until age 1), and peanut products (because of allergen risk).

However, when I was pregnant with Oliver, I read a little article in Parents magazine that said new studies have shown that waiting to introduce peanut products to babies/children actually increases their risk of developing a peanut allergy. It doesn't just slightly increase their risk; the article said it increased their risk by tenfold.

I didn't think to ask the doctor at the time, and I wish I had. I've been absolutely paranoid about Oliver developing a peanut allergy. I stopped using lotion on both him and me when I read lotions containing peanut oil were linked to increase risk of peanut allergy (later, after contacting Aveno, I learned our lotion was free of peanut oil and resumed its use. Apparently, most lotions that contain peanut oil are "high end" lotions, especially from Europe). For a period, I drastically decreased my soy consumption because I read that might increase a breast fed child's risk of peanut allergy (I resumed soy consumption when I had to eliminate dairy from my diet).

My friend, Corinne, is a microbiologist, and she explained to me a bit about the hygiene hypothesis (Wikipedia article: http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis). According to the hypothesis, kids who grow up in an ultra clean environment have "bored" immune systems that over react to their environment, and they end up with increased risk of asthma and allergies. I actually try not to keep our house too clean now by using just water to clean our floors and some surfaces, and I encourage Oliver to touch things outside like our flowers and tall grass.

Later, I decided to read up on the study I'd originally read about in Parents magazine. Here's a link to the study from The American Academy of Pediatrics: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/124/Supplement_2/S118-a

Essentially, the researchers looked at groups of children in Israel, who have a very low occurance of peanut allergies. They then contrasted them to Jewish children living in the United Kingdom, where the incidence of peanut allergies is high and growing, just like in America. Anyway, they found that children in Israel are given peanut butter early on. Specifically, 69% of Israeli children were eating peanut products by 9 months of age (compared to 10% of children of the same age in the United Kingdom). In the United Kingdom, parents are (were) recommended to wait until their children reached age 3 to introduce peanuts. Anyway, they found the children from Israel were much less likely to have peanut allergies, especially the at risk group of children with eczema.

Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics has stopped recommending that parents wait until age 3 to introduce peanut products to their children (http://http//www.webmd.com/allergies/news/20100514/peanut-allergies-in-kids-on-the-rise?src=RSS_PUBLIC).

Because the doctors have brought up Oliver's skin issues and mentioned the word "eczema" multiple times, and because an estimated 20-30 percent of infants have at least a mild form of the skin condition, I consider Oliver to be in the "at risk" group. Different websites I've consulted have stated that babies with eczema have anywhere from a 6% chance of developing a peanut allergy to a 10% chance. Additionally, my mom has a very mild allergy to walnuts (they cause her throat to itch), and that also increases Oliver's risk of a nut allergy.

Based on all the information I read (I emphasize this because I don't want people to think I'd disregard doctors' advice on a whim), I decided to introduce Oliver to peanut butter at 7 months. A few days ago, I put the tiniest dot of peanut butter on my finger tip and offered it to him. I watched him like a hawk for the next two hours, but he had no hives, no difficulties breathing. I waited until yesterday and repeated the small dot of peanut butter. Again, he had no issues. Today, I offered him a dab of peanut butter that I'd describe as a quarter of a pea size. Again, there were no issues. Typically, peanut allergy symptoms appear within two hours of consumption, and most other allergies appear within a week. So far, so good. I think I'll keep up the small amounts of peanut butter (perhaps by stirring in an eigth of a teaspoon into his bananas and apples) for a while and see how that goes.