Finland Versus Canada

No nothing to do with the Olympics - sorry. I haven't followed the Olympics whatsoever with the exception of the death of an athlete prior to the opening ceremonies - that's about all I know.
Oh and one Canadian curler is over 5 months pregnant. That's it.
And right now as I type this Canada has scored 2 goals against the US during the Gold Medal Hockey game. Thank goodness for Facebook.
May as well explain why I'm not following the Olympics and get it all done and over with before I get heckled later on.

A) I have a baby that is in the phase of "I'm bored of you - where's Daddy?" and if Daddy's not home - it's a scream fest. On top of teething.
B) While we do have a television - we have not bothered setting up our cable as we haven't watched TV since we've been together (Tim and I)...about 4 years ago. I don't miss it and whenever there's something that's really HUGE that I really want to see - I resort to searching for it on Youtube. The television we have is primarily for the Wii console and the DVD player.
C) I am not a sports person. I prefer to watch hockey in person and love the hockey fights. This probably coming from my high school days and dating a hockey player that played defense...who knows. I certainly don't promote violence regularly - but a good hockey fight is enjoyable to watch as long as nobody gets seriously hurt or dies.


Now onto the reason why my title is "Finland Versus Canada".
I've been getting a lot of tips, advice and comments about feeding (or trying to) V�in� solids already at the age of 4 months. I understand in Canada the standard is 6 months no food whatsoever except baby cereal and go from there.
Here in Finland - they're a bit different. They strongly recommend feeding at four months mashed vegetables, berries or fruits. It's to help with their constant need for food, nutrients and to give the poor boobs a break. On that note - no I can't give V�in� a bottle of pumped milk as he constantly rejects it. He'll take a bottle of cold water for teething - but that's his limit.
In terms of allergy testing and figuring out what he'll like and not like - the nurses recommended trying a food for 3 days consistently before moving onto another mashed up food. Today probably wasn't the best of days to try apple sauce as he was cranky prior to trying it.
In regards to baby cereal - they do sell it however during our last appointment the nurse noted that any kind of cereal or porridge/gruel should be given at 5 months. So I'll hold off on the cereal for a bit and do it accordingly.
It's not that I'm knocking Canada's "how to raise your kids" system - I'm not. Do what you want - it's your kid and how you were raised is probably different than myself. Besides the different country of birth - I'm sure V�in� will be raised much differently than how Tim or I were.
I'm only saying that if you saw how healthy the Finnish people are here compared to Canada - there's obviously something they're doing right.
From day 1 since we've been here - we noticed many things about Finns that we didn't always see with Canadians. Such as regardless of age - they bike or walk. It doesn't matter what your bike looks like here - there's no judgement. If it works and gets you from A to B - they use it. In Canada I'm sure some of these bikes being used would be scoffed at because they look so old they shouldn't be able to work. But they do. Even though it's winter and we've had a bit of snow everyday since October/November - everybody is walking. Babies are pushed in strollers, teenagers and kids are strolling around and even the senior citizens with or without assistance (human or walker) are walking. It's not something I was used to seeing when we first arrived.
Maybe that's why they can afford physically - to eat all those baked goods I keep taking pictures of! The chips and pop section are always full. Doesn't seem like anybody eats them to be honest!
I tried giving V�in� a baby-sized spoonful of home-made apple sauce (sugar/salt free of course!) and he rejected it. Probably not used to something in his mouth other than a bottle or breast and I can't blame him. He only accepted the spoon once before and that was for liquid pain medicine during his teething in which nothing else was working to soothe the pain. So hopefully he warms up to the idea of a little spoon in his mouth. And the nurse only recommended at most a tablespoon worth then work your way up as the weeks go by. So no worries - I'm not pressuring him to finish a bowl of apple sauce (which was super easy to make and delicious by the way).

And there you have it. Finland versus Canada.