[swmphoto]

We are traveling back for court on Dec 20th.
Our soon to be son is 11 months old.
Do I need to bring lots of formula and food,
or does the orphange tell me what he is drinking/eating and can I buy that in region before I pick him up.

Thanks everyone.

[emjay]

Our son was the same age when we picked him up. Try to find out what kind of formula he's on and what food he's eating. Some orphanages provide the info, and your agency may be able to find out for you. Perhaps some of the other Kemerovo parents can be of help, too, with their experiences.

We weren't given specific info on formula - were told they used what they could get. We brought some Good Start with us, as our ped. said it tastes sweeter and is easier to digest than most. Then in Russia, with the help of our facilitator/translator, we bought more formula and food in Russia. He was still on completely mush food (we were told mashed meat and a list of mashed veggies at orphanage), but we also started introducing bananas and some of the meals/veggies in chunkier form while still in Russia.

Good luck - I'm so excited for you!
- Maura

[britfish]

He is just the age Grace was when we had our Gotcha Day!! We were given her schedule on a piece of paper so we knew what they fed her at the orphanage.
Things we brought: Zweibac cookies and sweet potato fruit puffs (HUGE hit!!!). We couldn't find either of these in Russia only animal crackers.
Things we bought in Russia:
Animal crackers, baby food in jars (the labels are color coded as to stages and have pics. of what they are), juice, yogurt, drinkable yogurt, formula (just watch, I think the conversion is one scoop to one ounce of water in their formula), rice cereal.
Most things can be purchased there so I wouldn't lug over a bunch of jars of baby food.
You must be so excited!!

[hokie96]

Marina was 12 months old right after we got her....I agree with britfish about not taking a bunch of jars over there. Our facilitators always took us to the stores we needed to go to.
I took travel packs of soy formula just in case she had any milk allergies and cheerios and gerber puffs and also cereal we could just add water to. We bought a few jars of baby food in Russia, but I was so paranoid about how she would handle the change in food, we mostly kept it pretty bland until we got home.
The baby home did give us a schedule with a list of some food (bottle, porriage, fruit puree). Not too descriptive though.

[Kendal]

Our son was the same age and our ped also recommeded Good Start (which we were able to buy in Russia). Don't bring too much, baby food is very easy to get, same goes for diapers. Good luck.

[ncdoppler]

Our son was the same age and unfortunaltey we couldn't feed him what the orphange was feeding him, pourage and bread, try making that on the plane . We brought Isomil Soy formula and stage 2 baby foods, bananas and peaches, we also brought rice cereal. He handled all the new foods well and loved the formula. No diaper blow outs either!

We also put him back on the bottle, a personal decision but he loves it!

Hope this helps!

Nichole

[charles2004]

our son was 11 months too!
We adopted from Kemerovo also!
What baby home?

There is lots of baby food available in Kemerovo - you do not need to bring anything with you!!!!

Please feel free to PM me!
We brought Charlie home in July!

The orphanage will provide you with a list of foods and a schedule!

It is best to keep him/her on their food until you get home!

Best wishes!!

Tami

p.s. who was your driver translator!

[nungesser]

Ditto to those above!!

Don't take anything other than a good notepad to write down what the orphanage staff tells you he eats. If he is eating it there, you can buy it there. Plus you'll save yourself lugging a lot of extra weight from North America to Russia. Save the space for something you'll use, like a portable DVD player and some DVD's.

IMHO, the best coruse after you get your son on Gotcha Day is to try and keep his diet as close to the pre-Gotcha Day status quo as you can. He is going to have enough novelty, so good sense in unnecessarily introducing more that may upset him and that you'll have to clean-up.

But do take:

1. Some gladware bowls and tops to prepare and serve his food in.
2. Baby spoons to feed him with.
3. Bibs. I preferred some of the disposable kind beacuse you may not have the facilities, time or desire to wash bibs.
4. A bottle cleaning brush.
5. A few bandanas. They are great for everything with kids, especially at feeding time.
6. A few Avent bottles and a variety of nipples. When you discover which nipple he prefers, you can buy more Avent nipples in Russia pretty easily.
7. A small cooler that holds a couple of bottles. Good for when traveling on trains, planes, and automobiles.

Here are is links to a couple of previous threads describing one of my baby food shopping trips in Orenburg right after Gotcha Day and shopping for bottle supplies, etc. in Moscow: Season II, Episode 8: What Parents Do & Season II, Episode 10: Long Weekend.

Congratulations and good luck!!