Baby Things

As you'd expect, things for babies are a bit different in Japan...

Like baby food for example. In the US, they tend to be veg-based - peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, prunes (for constipation), and then they start going on to things like pastas, beef, rice... Here, the veg is different (like barnyard millet), they put fish in it (which I don't think is very common in the US), and the type of meat they put in is different too (like liver!). I tend to make Sungjae's food but I like to keep an emergency supply, just in case.

Another example is diaper sizes. First of all we had to figure out how much Sungjae weighed in kgs as opposed to lbs and then we had to try to find one that fit OK.
He's a bit on the chubby side so we had to go for larger options but they're harder to find. I asked a lady at church one day about diapers and from what I could understand with my limited Japanese, is that they tend to use pull-ups here on older babies / toddlers because they think it's easier to use. Her baby turned one this month and she's already on pull-ups. Juhee didn't wear pull-ups until she was almost 2 and a half and she only wore them while she was being potty trained. I think pull-ups are more for toddlers going through potty-training in the US. We figured out that Sungjae is a size "4", Huggies brand, US (diaper on left in pic) and size "Big" or "Large" here in Japan (diaper on right). =D Another thing we need to get used to when Sungjae starts wearing pull-ups is that we have to roll the diaper in from the back 'cause the tape you use to tape up the diaper is in the front. @@

They also use sippy cups earlier here too I think. In the US, the tendency is to use bottles till about 1 year of age and then change to sippy cups, but here they use sippy cups from before one. So we've started Sungjae on sippy cups too and he really likes it! Yay! :)

There are still things we need to figure out but we're finding out mostly on as-needed basis. I definitely need to go clothe shopping though. I don't think I have the appropriate winter clothing for them (like long socks and leggings) especially for sleeping. Babies / kids / adults too(?) wear fleece outer layers as they don't heat the whole house during the day and they don't heat rooms at night (yes, even the room you're sleeping in) so they get really cold. Need to go shopping!!! :( (For those of you that don't know, I don't like shopping.)