I started out very
by-the-book on introducing solids, and that lasted all of about 2 weeks before
we started tossing out “rules” and eased into baby led weaning. For months
before she had food, she had been very interested in what we were eating –
reaching for it and would get mad when we didn’t share. I thought for sure she
would be excited to try food, and that we’d need to only offer it after she had
milk to prevent dropping milk intake.
On her 6 month
birthday, I gave her avocado mashed with breastmilk and she was not at all
impressed. I offered the same thing for the next two days, then offered
butternut squash puree – no thank you. After a few more days, we added sweet
potato puree which I was sure she would like but that was pretty uninteresting
to her as well. She quit trying to steal food from us too – having discovered
she didn’t actually care for what we had.
Next we tried carrot
puree which she actually did eat some of, and then began adding fruit too. The
first thing she really liked was raspberries (whole), then carrot puree, then
tuna and salmon (crumbled). The first thing she ate a decent amount of instead
of just a taste was baby oatmeal mixed with mashed blackberries, raspberries
and blueberries with a little coconut oil or butter – this was our go-to for a
while.
I never worried much
about how much she ate – we subscribe to the “food before one is just for fun”
perspective. We settled into always offering three times a day at meal times at
around 7 months, but she still mostly tasted with only the occasional real meal
at that point. She started getting more into eating around 8 months.
Now at 11 months, she
eats three solid meals a day and snacks. She still only has two teeth, but we
find that many things don’t really need them. She feeds herself, almost never
accepts purees or being fed by others, and has coughed on a few things only a
few times and has never choked. I’m careful with peels – blueberries get cut in
half, and peels for larger pit fruits get scored but not removed since a lot of
the nutrition is in the peel and I also want her to just be used to it. Meat is
cut into small pieces especially if it’s from a whole piece (chicken breast)
and not a processed piece (sausage, hot dog).
I don’t differentiate
types of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner except the things I’m making for
us that she gets some of too. A typical meal for her now at 11 months includes
usually 5-10 of the following with at least one fruit, vegetable and protein:
blueberries (cut in half), raspberries, blackberries, banana, nectarines,
watermelon, apricots, salmon, tuna, breakfast sausage, hot dogs (pealed),
hamburger, feta, brie, mozzarella, cheddar, noodles with butter, noodles with
tamari sesame oil and Chinese 5 spice, sweet potato fries, steamed carrot rounds,
frozen peas, spinach tofu nuggets, scrambled eggs, unsweetened French toast,
frozen pancakes (I like the GF ones from trader joes). I also offer her bites
of anything I make for us that is at all baby safe. She sometimes seems more
open to trying complex flavors if we are out somewhere instead of at home – she
enjoys sampling things at potlatches that get flung to the floor when we try at
home.
I just got her some
of these snack cups a few days ago and she LOVES them. I load them up with
puffs, yogurt dots, rice cakes and freeze dried fruit and offer them a few
times a day, in the car and on stroller walks. For the car she only gets puffs
and yogurt dots because I’m a little paranoid about choking and I wouldn’t be
able to get to her right away. When we’re home and off the carpets, I put fruit
and veg in them instead, like frozen peas, frozen wild blueberries, bits of
cheese, etc. Really, anything goes.
I don’t worry a lot
about what she eats yet, since she still gets about 20 oz a day of breastmilk
so I feel her basic nutritional needs are being met regardless, but I do try to
keep introducing vegetables in a way that encourages her to eat them so she’ll
used to them when she needs them more. She doesn’t always reject them, but does
have a definite preference for fruit and meat.
I typically offer a
few puffs to start just to get her to sit down in the high chair, then 2-4
kinds of veg go on the tray. We wait a few minutes and add some meat next, a
few more minutes and then a grain maybe, and fruit is now last and only after
she stops reaching for what she has. I just made this change this week, she
used to get some frozen blueberries right after puffs to keep her into it while
I was still getting the rest of the food ready, but moving fruit to the last
spot helped with eating other things.
That pretty well sums
up our experience with solids from day one to now. I hope she continues to at
least tolerate healthy foods and vegetables, but I try to do my part by
offering lots of healthy options. We’ll see in time if that helps, or if we
just end up on hot dogs and fish sticks by 2 years old like many before us.
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