My baby led weaning experiences

Thank god for baby cafe & the dreaded Kiwi!!!

2012-01-25T18:57:00.003Z

I had an exam this morning (long story!) and so we both missed swimming, so went directly to baby cafe....you'd think that this would have made me more organised with Evie's lunch - - but I was worse!!!

Thankfully baby cafe has a healthy eating bee in its bonnet - and so we are provided with fresh fruit & other healthy snacks...today was fruit.

As such we were able to improvise once again with tying Evie to the chair with a muslin (in the style of one of the portable highchairs rather than in a hostage style!!) and away we went.

She had apple (which was once again raw, but seems to be well liked - I MUST bake an apple for her!!), satsuma & kiwi. Kiwi is an allergy risk, so I will avoid strawberries (horrible out of season so I'd avoid anyway!!) and tomatoes & eggs for a day or 2.....but we have no allergies within the family so I am not too concerned. She did seem to enjoy the kiwi though!

love

Mel x

Double Baked potato!

2012-01-25T18:53:00.002Z

I had a friend come round for coffee this afternoon, arriving around lunch time, so dh was in charge of Evie's lunch....not as daunting as it sounds as I had baked a potato for her on monday night!

He did choose to match it with peach slices though - poor girl!

She had an impromptu second meal as she was sat in the bumbo avidly watching him cook dinner later on, and so he dug out the uneaten food from lunch & gave her a bit more!

I am not sure I would repeat meals in the same day through choice - but she seemed happy enough!

love

Mel x

A failure!

2012-01-25T18:51:00.002Z

I seem to have no record for sunday 22nd Jan, so onward to monday 23rd!!

I had bought some fresh peaches, and hoped to recreate the success of the whole pear....but the peaches were quite under ripe (which is how I prefer mine!!) so not easy whole - and tbh they weren't a great deal better when sliced up.

So we resorted to the fall back position of half a banana!!

Luckily, George finished off the uneaten halves....big brothers are so handy!!

love

Mel x

The Queen of Spoons!!

2012-01-25T18:46:00.003Z

a new day & a double new experience!!

I baked a sweet potato - which I used to do often for George, but this one was far too squidgy for madam to properly eat with her hands.

So I resorted to the old 'loaded spoon' option - and she did a cracking job - she really did eat loads and seemed to know exactly what to do with the spoon! I did 2 spoons in rotation, and this seemed to work quite well - I'm pleased as I have given this advice a few times to other BLW mums!
I think you'll agree she did well!!

love

Mel x

a Pub lunch with friends!

2012-01-20T17:06:00.003Z

My good friend visited us today, with her 3 year old daughter, and so we went for a mummy & me lunch in our local pub!

Miss Evie had some green & red pepper strips from our side salads, a couple of slices of tomato & a couple of fat cut chips. Now, chips are really not the devils own food in this scenario.... proper chipped potatoes fried in veggie oil. No salt or ketchup etc. They may not be a slimmers choice - or an every day choice - but there is nothing inherently bad about them!

Evie seemed very interested in the world at large though (as usual!!) and so not a lot was eaten.

Love

Mel x

PS - I THINK IVE FINALLY BACK FILLED ALL THE PICTURES....SO GO LOOK!!! xx

Malt loaf

2012-01-20T17:03:00.002Z

My darling husband decided, of his own volition, to give my Miss Mouse a breakfast of malt loaf. Of course, he didn't use the mat - so malt loaf was nicely ground into the table when I got up!!

I offered her a 'snack' of a small bit of banana (not keen) and a cream cracker with Philli - again as a way of increasing social eating time as she ate with George again.

No pictures....I was desperately trying to cook dinner!!

Love

Mel x

2 Meals!!

2012-01-20T16:58:00.003Z

Okay,

so this wasn't a conscious effort to give Evie more food in a day but more of a slightly crap parenting decision. It was wednesday again, so the whole lunch at baby cafe was necessary! I grabbed 2 cooked yesterday & refrigerated baby corns...but what else? I didn't want hugely messy food as the seating there isn't ideal and she wastes lots. So I grabbed a whole apple - which she had in chunks at cafe! Great teething, but not such good eating.

So, when George was having his after school snack of crumpets & salad I made an extra crumpet for madam.....and she loved it!!
I have GOT to work on more fresh veggies though! Urgh, maternal guilt!!

love

Mel x

Pictures!!!!

2012-01-17T17:45:00.002Z

Hurray!!!

I've managed to add a picture of my little christmas pudding to the Christmas day post!

I will now begin back filling the posts with the pictures I have been taking! I hope there are some readers out there in blog land.....I've not had a lot of comments since starting weaning Evie....but I live in hope!!

If there are readers out there, feel free to say hi etc

love

Mel x

Cheddar Cheese

2012-01-17T17:39:00.003Z

Yes, good old fashioned long cut sticks of cheese. They were quite crumbly, but she did manage to gum off bits!

I accompanied these with the obvious accompaniment to cheese - baby corns!! lol!

She gave everything a good go, and was smiling & enthusiastic but I'm not sure that a huge amount was actually eaten!

onwards & upwards

love

Mel x

Crackers & Philadelphia

2012-01-17T17:34:00.003Z

I sent my darling husband to the shops on saturday with express instructions to buy breadsticks & unsalted butter for Evie....unfortunately, as I asked George to pass on the message dh decided to ignore me!!

In desperation at something to try Evie with I grabbed a cream cracker....and thinking that looked a little workhouse like alone I added a decent smear of full fat philly - and Evie seriously couldn't get them in quickly enough!! This is a VERY messy dinner choice, so not one for out & about yet....but a really easy fall back & certainly it seems hugely popular!

She also had a few peach slices...still too slippery to get a hold of easily, but the new "tiny diner" tray helps as it has a tray that hangs off the table edge to catch the 'swept' food!

I am working on the pictures issue - bear with me!!

love

Mel x

Potato Cakes

2012-01-17T17:32:00.001Z

Very popular lunch option at our house today.

Both Evie & George had potato cakes, and I think this added to Evie's enjoyment of them - that she was eating the same as her beloved big brother!

It was a quite uninspiring food day really - a thoroughly lazy sunday for us!!

love

Mel x

Happy 6 months Evie Mouse

2012-01-14T11:16:00.002Z

Well, it is here - my tiny baby is officially 6 months old - and the food world is finally her oyster!! Can she have oysters? I actually have no idea - but I'd guess the puree brigade would have a heart attack at the very thought!

To celebrate this milestone I offered her a crumpet - with shock horror, salted butter!! I will buy unsalted, but I had forgotten! She was spectacularly unimpressed though, and it went on the floor quick sharp!

I also then tried her with some cherry tomatoes....a bit small really still, and she wasn't impressed! By the time we cracked open the salad tray though my husbands friend had popped round and he was proving too great a distraction - so largely food was a failure today!

I did us all baked sweet potato for supper, so have put in an extra one for Evie for lunch tomorrow - Maternal guilt appeased for another mealtime!

love

Mel x

2 Pears!

2012-01-14T11:13:00.003Z

So, Evie didn't eat everything on offer today - but she was really enjoying eating her pears, and as they will soon be past their best I thought "why not give her a second"!

She did eat quite well, and there was less left than I'd have expected - but she didn't eat the whole 2 pears!!

I am finding it quite hard going to be as enthusiastic about what new foods to try her on as I was with George....perhaps this is just 2nd baby syndrome!

onwards & upwards

love

Mel x

Not sure these are the right day's pictures as I'm back filling - but this is a day when she helped herself to a pear from the fruit bowl!!

and not much was left!!

Lunch out!

2012-01-11T16:14:00.002Z

Okay, so the title of this post is over billing it slightly! Wednesdays are baby swimming followed by our breastfeeding cafe (where I'm a bf peer supporter).

As 1. we are out of our routine after Xmas and 2. Evie was having a rare nap it didn't occur to me until running out the door that we needed to take Evie food for the cafe (I buy my lunch on the way between groups!!). As such I grabbed a clementine & a banana and ran! I did also grab a long sleeve bib which arrived in this mornings post!

I did forget the portable strap to any chair booster though, so poor Evie had the indignity of being tied to a toddler chair with a muslin square to eat!! She did a sterling job though, and I think we may have another convert (possibly) to BLW - hopefully Pippa's mummy will find the blog in the next few days / weeks & think its as good an idea as we all do!!

love

Mel x

Baby corn & Banana

2012-01-11T16:09:00.002Z

So, I cooked 4 baby corns yesterday & Evie only ate 2, so she had the others today.

She was more interested in the very brown (and so very sweet) banana, only problem was it was VERY squishy & as such VERY messy - especially as the long sleeved bibs still haven't arrived!

It is helpful that Evie eats with 1 or 2 fingers in her mouth as this helps her to eat smaller pieces of food already!

Whilst it is cool to see her eat, I forgot how frustrating the early days can be when a lot of food seems to end up on the floor....I guess this is one of the reasons why people give up & think it isn't working - IT IS, I promise!! I hate waste, and I'm a little OCD but it will improve quickly and the reward will be another lo who eats everything

love

Mel x

Baby Corn & Peach Slices

2012-01-11T16:07:00.001Z

Yes, I do mean together!!

The peach slices are from the fridge containers, so slightly posher tinned peaches in juice - a great stand-by. They are pretty slippery so I dried them on kitchen towel - but post 6 months I will crush a few corn flakes or rice crispies & roll slippery food in them to improve the grip!

both a hit & eaten well

love

Mel x

Bad mummy or bad blogger?

2012-01-11T16:05:00.001Z

no idea if we did food on Sunday - I have no record of any & no recollection either!

ooops

love

Mel x

Oh my darling.......Clementine!

2012-01-07T15:03:00.003Z

a huge hit....Evie cannot get the segments into her mouth quickly enough!!

She must have de-juiced almost all the segments from the clementine, although her enthusiasm for grabbing them was such that as always the floor has had a fair amount of food. I really need to get a dog - although with the first foods being fruit & veggies perhaps a house rabbit would be a better hoover!!

This is a definite success & is one of the easiest things to take for BLW on the move!

George is back to school on monday, and the round of baby groups begins once more, and so this will become a consideration. Evie is still fed her solids on a "when I think of it' schedule so we should be able to eat at home in between some groups and the school run! Wednesday she will need feeding at out breastfeeding group - where the HV's assistant nurse is not a fan of BLW....but I look at it as another way to spread the BLW message and convert more mums!!

I will, as always, keep you posted!

love

Mel x

Delicious Pear

2012-01-07T08:52:00.004Z

A firm favorite so far it appears!!

She ate lots, really biting chunks off with her hard little gums & eating it all! She was really enjoying it.

We had a couple of gags on the skin, but nothing dramatic and she got the skin back into her mouth and matter of factly spat it out & carried on eating!! Good girl!!

I have ordered new bibs & one of the kiddopolus trays with a scoop so hopefully we will be less messy with this food soon!

love

Mel x

ps - who says babies need teeth to eat......

Broccoli & Cucumber

2012-01-07T08:49:00.003Z

I was cooking a veggie lasagna for our dinner, part of which was some broccoli - so I cooked a couple of extra bits for madam - they were not a hit....but (hangs head in shame) I had only microwaved them so it wasn't broccoli at its best! Evie was not impressed - and basically chucked it straight on the floor!! Next time I'll cook it in the steamer lol!!
As that was a disaster I offered some cucumber - which she really loved! Cold cucumber is another teething baby classic, but she did eat a fair bit (well, for a baby lol!!) and seemed to enjoy it.

so mixed reviews!

love

Mel x

ps - I MUST sort out the pictures, as they are very funny - especially the one I have of her hiding broccoli!!

A long wait.....and then apple & a baked potato

2012-01-07T08:43:00.004Z

So, after Christmas dinner I left it for a few days to see if Evie seemed interested in food again. Whilst she had given her first foods a good suck she didn't seem overly bothered.

As such, I left her to just milk. By 3rd Jan she seemed very fractious and so I thought i'd offer some more food. She had a spare baked potato left over from the previous nights dinner cut into wedges & an apple cut into the same sized pieces.

The apple was raw, and so was good for her to really bite - she is teething like mad!! She did get a few bits off, and seemed to spit them back. Same with the potato, but a little of that may well have been eaten!

onward & upward!! She enjoyed sitting at the table though, and trying to eat so I will be more consistent!

love

Mel x

ps - George wanted to sneak into a picture!!

Christmas Dinner

2012-01-07T08:31:00.003Z

Well, the day has finally arrived! I can't believe my tiny baby can possibly be trying actual food - but she is!!

In the midst of the Christmas chaos I did remember to roast a couple of slices each of carrot & parsnip in a separate roasting dish for Evie (I put honey on ours, and under 1's can't have honey).

I need to work out how to get the pictures off my phone & onto here as my poor baby was dressed like a christmas pudding courtesy of my baby brother....and looked adorable!! She knew exactly what to do with the food, and she gave both a good suck!! I think some was eaten too!

love

Mel x

A week of teething snotty hell!!

2011-10-20T19:04:00.000Z

Hi Everyone

Sorry I've been MIA this week, poor Laurie has not been well at all, he has caught a horrible cold, cough and is still teething. This has obviously equalled a hellish week of no sleeping, luminous snot, coughing fits in the night, separation anxiety, not eating and general grumpiness, i feel so sorry for the little dude. We've been to the doctor and i BEGGED for Medised (gods gift to medicine), Amelie used to have this when she was snotty as a baby and it was brilliant, it's the only thing that would clear her nose enough at night for her to sleep and i think it also has a mild sedative - bonus!! Problem is they upped the age to 6 so we can only get it on prescription now, i reckon some people were using it to get their kids to sleep at night.

So my little Koala Bear's eating hasn't been going well this week but he seems happy to eat from pre-loaded spoons, this obviously got me thinking of what i can cook which will be lovely and nutritious and i can load on a spoon for him. I trawled through the cook books and i found a few good dinners, this is what we have tried:

Baked chicken risotto
Cottage pie (this is from the Innocent cook book, you know the ones who do the smoothies, it's chock full of veg, parsnip, potato, sweet potato, carrot, celery, onion)
Mild Chili with polenta cobbler
Spaghetti Bolognese

We had lots of leftovers from the risotto and cottage pie so he's been polishing off these for dinner through the week as well. Breakfast and Dinner have been the best meals, lunch has been difficult as he really isn't interested in picking the food up himself at the moment, he's getting hungry at lunch but just cries when he's in the highchair, i think I'll just start feeding him dinners at lunch as well while he isn't well, I'll offer finger food in case he decides he wants to give it a go, I'm worried he will stop wanting finger foods and just want spoons of food if this carries on much longer but i really don't want him going hungry.

Will try and get on again tomorrow, I'll also try and add to the recipe bit too.

Update on my little Mouse & our new BLW experiences

2011-10-20T16:42:00.002Z

So....Evelyn is now 14 weeks - how did that happen!!??

So we are hurtling towards the 'magic' 26 week mark at a rate I am starting to find a little alarming...what happened to my tiny baby??

But, more importantly, when are we going to start to offer food? Those who have either followed the blog from the start, or have read back to me starting with George know we started to offer food at 24 weeks - and he ate instantly! Obviously, the biggest thing to look out for is a baby who can sit unaided....but we are already on course for an early sitter....she sat alone (for a short time granted!) at 10 weeks!! Then there is the gut immaturity - early introduction of food can lead to allergies.

I have counted forward and my little mouse is 24 weeks three days after Christmas day - which falls on a sunday this year. As such, I have decided that she will be joining us at the dinner table in a more involved format!! Whilst she won't have the full Christmas dinner George enjoyed at his first Christmas....a few roasted carrots might find their way onto her plate!

and so......watch this space!!

love

Mel x

The Alternative Weaning Group!

2011-10-20T16:24:00.002Z

So, you know how every year Channel 4 screen the alternative to the queen's speech - I remember Sharon Osborne doing one, and Marge Simpson another?

Well, this year in a Sharon / Marge style I have offered a few local mum's the 'alternative weaning talk'! UK mum's will know that at 4 months old we are invited by the health visiting team to come spend an hour being taught the "food introduction timetable" and how to puree a carrot!! (mine with G showed us how to mash a banana with a fork - I kid you not!!).

Well, in attendance at one group was my friend Charlie - whose ear I had already began to bend about the joys of BLW!! Well, when a couple of mum's asked about BLW, both she & the nurse running the session said "speak to Mel"....so they did!!

In the end a group of us met at Charlie's to discuss BLW & for me to talk through the basics etc!! I have told them all about the blog...so hi Hanna, Lizzie, Jess, Helen & Charlie if you're reading this!! I can't wait until they all get started properly...but we have had a few starts made with sweet potato & roasted apples!! Hurray!!

In fact, we had so much fun we are making our meets a regular thing....and hopefully they will soon all be spreading the word about BLW

love

Mel x

Today

2011-10-12T20:53:00.001Z

Another post, but about today's food, will be a quick one though as it's late and I'm so tired.

Breakfast was mini weetabix, these are soaked in some milk to soften and then placed in front of him to pick up and eat, he also had some pear and prunes. I mentioned in a previous post that next time i gave Laurie pear i would peel it as he always spits the skin out but i left it on for grip. Well, i peeled it this time and it obviously caught him by surprise as it did slip out of his hands a few times when he slobbered all over it but by golly he got so determined to pick it up his little tongue was poking out in concentration, he got it though and he demolished it...yay!

After pre-school i picked Amelie up and we headed to soft play, we had lunch there so it was sandwiches...........again! I could of taken my own lunch but i feel one of the joys of BLW is being able to grab while out, unfortunately unless you want to feed them deep fried something or other your pretty much stuck with sandwiches at soft play.

Dinner was Chicken and Apple stew, nice big chunks of chicken and apple with leeks and carrots, chicken stock and tarragon, Laurie loved the apple and it was lovely and soft, i used eating apples so they stayed together nicely. We had this with mash that i loaded on to spoons for him, he had a fromage frais for pudding which was also served on pre-load spoons.

Yesterday

2011-10-12T10:41:00.000Z

Hi All

Sorry i didn't manage to get on here yesterday, I was so shattered that i went to bed just after the kids, Laurie slept better last night but still woke at midnight, it didn't take too long to get him back down so my eyes were still nice and sleepy when i went back to bed.

For breakfast we were in a rush so Laurie had weetabix and had to eat some crumpet in the car (we were running really late!!) on the way to take Amelie to school. He is good with the aim of the spoon for weetabix, i still need to load the spoon but it gets to the mouth alright (if we don't count the waving it around first) Unfortunately with the crumpet, if he decided to lob it on the floor then that's where it stayed 1) I'm driving so obviously can't reach it and 2) only god knows what filth lay on the bottom of the foot wells in my car.

I've realised I've not been writing about what i give him for snacks, well normally a snack would be one of these:

Some fruit
Organix ginger bread man
Slice of Soreen banana loaf or malt bread (or if I've made some home made banana bread, Not likely)
Some cheese and a biscuit
Rice cakes with some topping

That's about it really, does any ones else have any good snack ideas, especially for out and about??

On Tuesdays after school Amelie has Gymnastics, we usually take our lunch with us and eat it in their coffee shop while she's inside doing roly poly's. For lunch Laurie had Hummus sandwich, cheese, strawberries, watermelon and a fromage frais, he managed it all well, ate around half the sandwich, "melted" the cheese in his cheek again and pre-chewed the watermelon and strawberries, spat them out and then went on the chew them again and eventually swallow some.

After gym we had a play date with a friend from Amelie's pre-school, so we had dinner as well. Laurie had eggy bread and spaghetti hoops, he enjoyed the spaghetti hoops up until he wiped his eye with the sauce all over his hand, this resulted in a screaming fit, half because of the sauce which imagine must of been very unpleasant and half because i was trying to clean him up which he absolutely detests, no matter how i clean him after food, he hates it. I've tried a warm flannel, i dry muslin or flannel, wet wipes, sometimes after dinner i just wipe his clothes off and dunk him in the bath.

Sweet and sour chicken

2011-10-10T19:23:00.000Z

Hi All

Well, sleep was OK last night, we had one wake up at around 2.30am but he wentback to sleep after a few minutes of stroking his back, still no teeth but lotsextra dribble today and lots of yummy snot bubbles.

Breakfast was baby muesli with berries, I also gave him a slice of malt loafwhich he really enjoyed and it gets surprisingly messy!! I watched him closelyand I’ve figured out how he manages to eat some foods, he was keeping the maltloaf in his cheek and salivating excessively which was sort of melting it forhim and he was sucking the juice, when he was done he spat out the smallcompact piece. I gave him full fat cow's milk in his cereal, he finished hiswhole bottle this morning and I usually use leftovers for his cereal, he ateall the cereal as usual so I might start using cow's milk for cereal now.

Lunch was hummus in half a pitta bread, tomato, a prune, cheese and afromage frais, he "melted" the cheese in his cheek, the prune wasexpertly eaten and I gave Laurie pre-loaded spoons of fromage frais, this isalways messy but aim is improving - if only he would stop waving it aroundbefore he goes for his mouth! He wasn't interested in the tomato today, he justpushed it away.

Dinner was sweet and sour chicken with egg noodles and sweetcorn, I servedit to Laurie with the sweetcorn in a pile, the noodles chopped into smallerpieces and the chicken cut up into small chunks. His pincer grip was great withthe sweetcorn and he ate them really well, I guess I’ll see how much went inwith the morning nappy haha.

Laurie enjoys spaghetti so I knew he would be alright with the noodles, hewasn't chewing much so I think a lot was going down whole!! The chicken wasn'ttouched much, he seemed to prefer the sweetcorn and noodles, they did have someof the sweet and sour sauce on so he did get to taste that, but he reallydidn't seem too fussed with the chicken, I guess it's just a one off as he isusually good with it.

How is BLW going for all of you, has your babies got any favorites yet? It would be lovely to hear back from you :)

Bubble and squeak

2011-10-09T18:41:00.003Z

Evening all

Well, another nightmare night, Mr Laurence decided he was ready to be awake and wanting to play at 1.30am, nothing i did was making him sleepy, he just stared wide eyed at me throughout all my attempts at lulling him to sleep, so i gave up and decided to go downstairs and watch a movie while he played on the rug. By 3am he was ready to sleep again and stayed down until 7am, he hasn't napped too well today so i hope he will be so exhausted that he will sleep through all night (please, please, please).

Breakfast was crumpet with fruit puree spread on top and i thought I'd try him with cheerios, i soaked them in milk and then put a few spoonfuls on his tray for him to pick up. At first he was grabbing handfuls and shoving them in and as they were running low he was really concentrating on picking up individual ones, he's really good at getting food from the palm of his hand now, so he actually ate most of the cheerios, we had a few rouge ones but not many.

Lunch was Bubble and squeak with a (well) poached egg and baked beans, because Laurie hasn't been eating too well i had a stock of cooked veg in the fridge which i didn't really want to waste but they needed using up. I had been speaking to the other half about how we used to have bubble and squeak every Sunday night because my dad made it to use up the left over veg from a Sunday roast, i thought it was a perfect idea. So i made up some mash, used carrots, broccoli and parsnip and made up some little patties, i froze a few and shallow fried two until golden on both sides. They were yummy and Laurie ate them really well, they did break up but i could easily mould them back into little balls because of the mash potato, i chopped up the poached egg and snuck a few bits into the little balls i was making from the falling apart bits. I'm actually really pleased with how this went, i think it might actually become a regular Sunday meal, perfect for those leftover vegetables.

Dinner I'm ashamed to say was not very imaginative, in fact, it was just plain lazy but in my defence I'm absolutely SHATTERED and it's Sunday so the cupboards are bare (Monday is shopping day)!! Having so much interrupted sleep is leaving me so tired and it's near impossible to get any rest, when Laurie does nap I've still got my other little munchkin to look after. So dinner was Watermelon, strawberries and ..................weetabix!!

Please send sleeping vibes my way for tonight, also, if you have any questions, comments or just want to say Hi, please do, it would be nice to know someone is out there :)

Two partys and lots of sandwiches

2011-10-08T18:51:00.000Z

Today we had two birthday party's to attend, one at lunch time and one quite conveniently at dinner time, this obviously equals lots of yummy party food and sandwiches and means i don't need to use my brain to think of what I'm going to whip up for lunch and dinner.

For breakfast Laurie had scrambled egg and toast fingers, egg went down well but the toast was pretty much ignored, he also had a prune or two which were completely eaten.

Lunch was yummy party food, there was a buffet of sandwiches, carrot, cucumber, breadsticks, dips etc, i made Laurie up a lunch of egg sandwich, a breadstick, cucumber, i managed to rustle up some fruit so it was not a bad lunch. He ate well, the egg and cress sandwich was eaten but the bigger chunks of egg were spat out.

Dinner was pretty much the same but with a different sandwich filling and a few cheeky chicken nuggets, which unsurprisingly, he gobbled up with no spitting. And as a special treat i even gave him some birthday cake, it probably wasn't the most nutritious of days but whats one day of stodgy party food going to do, not much me thinks.

Sleep still rubbish but eating getting better

2011-10-07T18:49:00.002Z

Well Laurie's all nighter seems to of been a fluke, he was back to hourly whinging last night and a 4.30am wake up, oh how i miss my sleeping baby, he used to be so good at going 7pm-6.30am, i now realise how lucky we are/were (please be are!) when it came to getting a good nights sleep. On top of this we are trying to get Amelie to sleep without a night nappy, she woke at 4am and climbed into bed with us, i snuck my hand over to have a feel of her bottom and sure enough it was very wet, so in fact i was already awake at 4am changing Amelie's knicky knacky noo noo's (her name for her knickers).

So Laurie woke up at 4.30am, he didn't seem hungry and was content playing (i was zombified on the sofa, waving at him every now and then) so i tried to keep to our rough routine and waited to feed him his morning milk closer to his usual time. We got to 7am, which is fine, he drank about 5oz, he had breakfast, today we had buttered crumpet spread with fruit puree, weetabix and some raisins. He ate most of the crumpet, again he has improved with this massively, he used to just suck it but now he rips chunks off and gives it a good chomp....................and then spits out the bit he can't be bothered to chew anymore. Weetabix on loaded spoons is always a messy affair, he likes to wave it around a bit first before putting it in his mouth, i have to make the weetabix thick enough so it cements itself to the spoon and doesn't fling around my kitchen. Raisins are more for him to practice his pincer grip, he used to use his whole hand to grab them but now he is starting to use his pincer fingers (i know ones the thumb, whats the other - pointy finger?) Anyway, he pops them in his mouth but they normally get spat back out, the occasional one goes in but obviously not intentionally going by the shocked look on his face when he swallows one.

Lunch was some fruit loaf from Starbucks and some ham and cheese croissant, had to dash out after Amelie finished pre-school and we had to grab something while we were out. He gobbled the fruit bread up, he shared it with Amelie (she kept stealing it) and managed really well with the croissant and cheese, he couldn't do the ham and i think it's quiet salty anyway.

Dinner was chopped spaghetti with a tomato pasta sauce (homemade) and homemade meatballs, he grabbed fistfuls of spaghetti, he actually ate alot of it, i guess he had around a ladle full and about half went. Meatballs were quartered for him and he sucked one or two, i think he swallowed about half in the end (they were big a meataballs) All in all it was a good eating day.

Arghhhhh.....i hate teething!!!

2011-10-06T19:40:00.003Z

Hi All

Sorry for the lack of posts but it's been a bit hectic since coming home from Cyprus, we had a wedding party on Saturday night to celebrate again with all our friends and family who weren't able to make it out for the ceremony. Plus i officially unpacked the last suitcase on Monday night, a whole week and two days after arriving home, that's how busy I've been.

So with all the party planning i also had a very upset and clingy baby Laurie, he wasn't really eating, food or milk, poor soul was so uncomfortable. He has perfected a very high pitched scream, sort of reminds me of those kettles on a hob which whistle when the waters boiling! So for the last week Laurie has been eating his favorite foods on a loop, so prunes, watermelon, pear, cheese, tortellini pasta and mini weetabix, he refused anything else and only ate very little of these so tried topping up with milk after each meal, he would have an oz or two but would refuse the rest. So this also led to Laurie waking in the night, hungry and in pain, i felt like we were back to newborn stage, i fed him when he woke and also dosed him with nurofen or calpol, he would snuggle me and still be slightly sobbing while he tried to get back to sleep and if a dared put him down it would start all over again.

We had a week of this, most nights I'm sure i wasn't getting any more then 5 hours sleep, Laurie wasn't sleeping much either obviously but he was getting to have two naps per day which i was growing increasingly jealous of. He is starting to eat more the last two days, and seems to be chomping on food a lot better and swallowing a lot more, perhaps his gums are nice and strong because the teeth are STILL NOT THROUGH!!! How can we have had a week of this and still have NO TEETH!!! I hope that when the teeth do come through it's his top and bottom at the same time because this is ridiculous. Sleep has also improved, he went down last night at 7pm, stirred at 11pm but didn't really wake and then i had to wake him at 8.30am because i needed to get him ready so we could take Amelie to pre-school (i did have a peek in at 6.30am and again at 7.30am to make sure he was still breathing).

Today's food dairy is:

Breakfast - Laurie ate mini weetabix soaked in some milk so they are a bit soft but still firm enough to pick up and not fall apart, he ate around 6 of these, he also had a soft prune and some watermelon. The prune went down really well, i found some good ones in the whole food section at tesco which are stone free and so soft that Laurie can eat the skin as well.

Lunch - Laurie had Philadelphia sandwich, strawberry's, pear and some cucumber sticks. He ate two squares of the sandwich, this i am still amazed by, he perfected eating sandwiches on holiday but i still find it amazing when he actually eats and swallows the sandwich (i still search the bib and under his thighs in case i missed it falling out) I think the strawberry's were too tart as he normally eats these with gusto but he was pulling lemon faces and lobbing them across the table, the pear was quartered and then halved again, he eats these really well and manages to spit out the skin, i leave the skin on to help him grip but lately his grip has improved so i might peel it next time to see how he does. He chomped on the cucumber sticks, i think this was more for teething reasons then hunger.

Dinner - The was Spanish chicken with roasted courgette, tomato and yellow pepper, he ate the courgette flesh and tomato, these went down very quickly and easily, the yellow pepper wasn't a hit but he did give it a go a few times, perhaps the courgette and tomato was so easy to eat he couldn't be bothered chewing the yellow pepper, he also mushed the chicken up, spat half out but did swallow some too.

We're back and a surprise

2011-09-28T19:52:00.001Z

Hi all

Well we are all home and safe after a lovely twoweek holiday on the gorgeous island of Cyprus. We had such a great time, theweather was amazing, and the hotel was fab, all the family with us and...................................


We got MARRIED!! not me and Laurie obviously but the other half is paranoid about his info online and blah blah

Surprise!!

The wedding went fabulously, it was such a specialday and I’m so pleased we finally did it, only took seven and a half years andtwo children but we finally took the plunge.

Ok, so, Baby led weaning while on holiday wasactually not as bad as I thought it would be, it's basically the same as eatingat a restaurant every day. Our first challenge was the flight, we had to leavehome at 5.30am, our flight was at 8.50am from terminal 5 at Heathrow, I wasreally unsure what we would be able to take through security so made up a smallbag of dried fruit, rice cakes and an oat bar, we got it through and Laurie ateit at the airport. Because of all our wedding gear and my dress we flew with BAin club class (I’d like to stress this isn't our usual class when flying, ifyou can't go up a class when you’re getting married, then when can you hey?) wewere able to take advantage of the free food and drink available in the BAlounge so Laurie also managed to have some weetabix and a yogurt.

During the flight he snacked on food I stocked upon (stole) from the lounge area and the snacks I packed with me, the flightattendants happily gave us some extra fruit they had available so all in allnot a bad lunch on board, Laurie even had a mini seat between me and a nicestranger.

The man next to us was a good sport, even when Laurie smeared food all over his shirt sleeve and moob.

We arrived at our hotel and it wasfab, the bonus was that at our hotel we had breakfast included and it was a bigbuffet so we had so much choice for Laurie. Laurie's breakfast most days was:

Watermelon or nectarine
Croissant (tut tut) or toast
Scrambled egg or omelette
Yogurt
Cheese
Grilled Tomatoes

He ate well, watermelon was themost favoured and egg was second, he gave the toast and croissant a good go buthe still has no teeth so has to suck the life out of it all, bless him. Oh and yogurt was also a favorite.

Lunch was normally more fruit, acheese sandwich, cucumber sticks, tomatoes, sometimes we bought something fromthe pool restaurant so he might of had an omelette, pasta dish or some ofwhatever me and the other half has for lunch. We ended up hijacking the minibar fridge in our room for food and Laurie's milk so we could make our ownsandwiches and keep some fruit.

Dinner was normally cooked veg orgrilled peppers, courgettes, aubergine etc, chicken (again this is sucked untilmush due to no teeth yet) or a mince pattie or meatball and cucumber, pittabread, sometimes restaurants had a children’s menu so we'd order something fromthere but at most local tavern type places we had to pick bits and pieces offthe menu, most restaurants were happy to make up something if we asked them forcertain bits, they were all so helpful.

He is still chewing up and spitting food out, if i can catch it or it lands in his catcher bib then he will re-chew and swallow some food, i have no doubt he is getting enough as he's gaining weight, he has now dropped from 3 bottles a day to 2 and a half (after lunch he still drinks around 3ozs but i always offer 6ozs and 8ozs morning and night), i'm looking forward to seeing if the amount he eats and if the way he eats changes once he gets some gnashers and hoping there will be slightly less wastage invlolved.

The flight home was during the night so we had some snacks and extra milk in case but he mainly slept so that was nice but not so much for my arms, they were pretty much dead by the time we landed from cradling him for nearly 5 hours!!

A bit off topic but i'm really proud of Amelie, during the holiday she ate some new foods, soup being one of them. She learnt how to hold her breath and swim under water with her goggles on and she swam with us in the big pool with armbands on, she was so well behaved, patient and really helpful especially with Laurie, my little baby girl is growing up into a really wonderful little big girl.

Restaurants are easy!

2011-09-12T19:36:00.003Z

A has had a couple of new experiences in the last few days.

We tried applesauce (store bought) the other day. She was NOT a fan. She made the same grimace-y face and gave the same little shiver she does with her vitamins with iron. I've tasted the vitamins and had the same reaction, so I don't blame her on that front - they're horrible - but I was fascinated that she had that reaction with the applesauce. S (my husband) suggested that she might not like the consistency. What a thought, huh? Do you think it could be that she's just not interested in purees that are that smooth? The store bought applesauce has no chunks of any kind. Has anyone else's baby had a similar reaction?

We also had great success taking A out to lunch today. We ordered a pan-seared fish dish that came with string beans. A did amazingly well with some bread from the bread basket, a few of the string beans and even tried (and gobbled up!) some of the fish. My only concern was that the fish had a fairly salty/oily sauce on it. Think it was a big problem? We don't give her anything like that on a regular basis, so I figured it was an okay just-sometimes thing.

I'm planning a new kind of stewed chicken for tonight, flavored with curry. The Chicken Paprikash was such a hit that I thought we'd try a similar cooking style with a different flavor. Mel asked for the recipe for the Paprikash, so here goes:

chicken pieces, bone in, skin removed

one onion per 2-3 pieces of chicken, chopped

hungarian paprika

water

olive oil/butter

saute the onions in olive oil/butter (use as much as you normally would to saute onions for another dish, but you don't need much) in the bottom of a pot that's large enough to hold the amount of chicken you're using

add the chicken pieces to the pot and turn the ingredients together a few times

fill the pot with water to just cover the chicken

add 2 tablespoons of paprika per whole cut-up chicken (or to taste)

mix together

bring to a boil, then simmer for an hour, or until chicken is cooked through. the longer you let it go, the better it gets and the more easily the chicken will fall of the bone (making it easier for gums to chew)

note that i don't add any salt. feel free to add salt to taste.

Enjoy!

Red onion was a no no

2011-09-09T20:34:00.003Z

Ah, I'm glad to hear Laurie isn't the only one that likes to pre-chew his food.

And to update on Amelie, she didn't eat her dinner, i gave her an ultimatum, dinner or bed.........and she chose to go to bed!!

Today was another manic day of packing and cleaning, we leave tomorrow morning at 6am so everything needs to be done tonight and i hate coming home from a trip to a messy house.

Anyway, for breakfast Laurie had eggy bread, he picked the pieces up and sucked them first before taking a chunk and giving it a chew. He swallows some of his food but it's like he always has to spit a little bit out, but break through today is he figured out he can pick bits out from his bib (it's a tommee tippee one which has a catcher), he has also managed to drink from a straw cup, in fact he drank so much water, more then he does from a sippy cup. Laurie also had some watermelon and the usual "juicing" occurred haha.

Lunch was the left over carrots and roasted red onion, i had to wave the red onion in front of him for him to reach out and grab it (is that cheating? Can't be, Mel admitted to doing it with George haha) otherwise he was just avoiding it, he gave it a suck and i got the usual lemon face he pulls when it's a new taste, he did go back to it but it eventually got swiped on the floor. We played the game of picking it up and putting it back in front of him but eventually he did just lob it on the floor and screamed at me, i took the hint then. Carrots got chomped and sucked, he managed to destroy all the sticks and it seems like most went into his tummy.

Dinner was cod pieces and new potatoes, i did put some peas in front of him but he found these difficult to get from his palm into his mouth. The cod fell to pieces as soon as he picked it up, he did better picking the small pieces of cod up because they mushed together in his hand and stuck to his fingers so he'd suck it off. I took the skin off the new potatoes and he ate one or two of these but again he just chomped at it until it was lots and lots of small pieces so it's hard to work out how much of it got eaten. I'm sure he had enough though as he didn't drink all his milk at bedtime but he happily went to sleep when i put him down, i assume that means dinner filled him up enough.

Well, i will try to post a few times while we are away, it will be interesting doing BLWing on holiday, if i can't post then I'll let you all know how it goes when we get back and will let you into any hints or tips that i think are handy to know.

How much is getting in?

2011-09-09T01:44:00.002Z

Hello to Lyn! It's great to read about someone else's simultaneous experience. A does something similar to what you describe with watermelon. It seems almost like she's "juicing" the watermelon, letting the juice run out of her mouth and swallowing whatever's left. It's hilarious to watch, but not at all clear if anything's going in.

Baby A is getting better and better with her (almost) pincer grasp, so we've broken out the Cheerios. I offer her a few periodically throughout the day and she gobbles them up. We've also had some recent success with chicken paprikash (my grandmother's recipe) and steamed cauliflower.

I do have to confess one weakness on my part: I've started occasionally feeding her. It's still solids that she has to chew and it's only after she seems not interested anymore and I don't force anything in her mouth, but I do hold it near her mouth for her and give her the chance to open her mouth. Am I terrible? I feel guilty doing it every time, but I worry that she's not really eating anything. Will she start? Should I be more patient?

Meatloaf

2011-09-08T17:35:00.000Z

Hi Readers,

Well today has been manic, we are going on holiday to Cyprus on Saturday and packing is a nightmare. I know I'm taking too much but i feel like i need it all, if i could pack up my house and ship it over with us i would!!

For breakfast Laurie had mini weetabix again but i spread some mashed banana on each one before tipping the milk over this time, he couldn't shovel it in fast enough. He also had some of my toast, he's getting better with toast, before he would just suck the butter off and chuck it on the floor but now he rips chunks off chews it up and then spits it on the floor, to me this is progress!!

Lunch was a meatloaf i made before and froze in slices, it's made from an Annabel Karmel recipe, lean mince, grated carrot, grated apple, onion, dried thyme and home made BBQ sauce to moisten it up, this was served with broccoli. I decided to try out yesterdays idea and i cut it into smaller pieces for him, he still spat bits back out but i think more was eaten, the broccoli was demolished, he loves broccoli but it's a bugger to clean up sometimes, he makes such a mess with it it's impossible to see how much he's eaten until the dreaded nappy.

For dinner i roasted a chicken, carrots, red onion and some spuds. He gave the chicken a good chew, most bits that came out were definitely more mushed, he sucked the potato and left behind the crispy skin, he didn't touch the roasted red onion so I've saved that and the carrot for tomorrow, after dinner i gave him preloaded spoons of fromage frais.

So far Amelie has refused to eat her dinner, I'm waiting for Daddy to come home so he can encourage her to eat with him, hopefully she will be hungrier by then so might attempt it. Probably not.

Another new contributer

2011-09-07T18:20:00.002Z

Hi All

I'm Lynsey, a mother of two, Ameliewho is 3 and Laurence who is 8 months, I’ve been reading through Mel's blogsince making the decision to BLW Laurie and thought it would be great todocument our experience, Mel has kindly allowed me to contribute to her greatblog.

I heard about BLW when I had Ameliein 2008 but I was a bit too scared to do it, I wasn't sure where to findinformation, health visitors didn't have any more of a clue then I did and if Iasked any mums at the local baby group I tended to get blank stares.
This time I'm a lot more confident, knowledgeable and completely trust myinstincts so decided to go ahead with it, even though convincing others hewon't choke is getting very tiresome and have taken to carrying around my BLWbook so I can quote from it!

I guess it will also be interesting to see what type of eater Laurie will be asa toddler, Amelie is very fussy (she has a very beige diet) and I'm certain it'sdown to puree's and "hidden veg sauces", she never really learnt whatcertain fruit and veg looked like so when it began appearing on her plate sheutterly refused to touch it. Funnily enough she's improved since Laurie has beguneating, I think watching him eat and the praise he gets is helping her. Laurieis getting better at actually eating his food, even though some days I’m surehe just chews it up and spits it out, he must be getting some in his tummy ashis weight is increasing along his centile and he's dropped 2 milk feeds and isdown to 3 a day, no night feeds either so sleeps all night.......result!!Laurie was breast-fed up until 6 months but we moved on to formula after this.

Anyway, Sorry for the long post, the rest will be shorter :) I look forward to sharingwith you all, I hope you enjoy reading :)

Laurie enjoying some broccoli

Amelie very pleased with nearly finishing her dinner

Down to business.

Breakfast was two prunes, a butteredcrumpet cut into strips and a few mini weetabix soaked in formula left overfrom Laurie's morning milk, he sucked the life out of the crumpet and I thinkhe managed to swallow a lot of it, the weetabix went down well also, the pruneswere ignored and when I nudged them forward as encouragement to try them theywere window wiped onto the floor. All in all only a small amount of breakfast wasfound squidged under his thighs when we were finished and a small amount on the floor (including the prunes).

Lunch was a hummus sandwich andwatermelon, both were a big success, the watermelon was cut into chunks hecould pick up. He puts it all in his mouth and chews then spits out the littlechunks and then he picks up the little chunks for another chew, he actuallydoes this with most food actually, note to self, tomorrow try giving him smallchunks to see what he does.

Dinner was a family meal of Chickenpot pie, this is chicken thighs (no skin or bone), potato chunks, parsnip,carrot, leek in a sauce of dry thyme, stock (using low sodium stock cubes),wholegrain mustard, bay leaf, flour. Very yummy and all chunks of food are agreat size for Laurie to pick up and eat, he favours the parsnip and chicken.He's getting much better at eating chicken, thighs seem to go down better thenchicken breast, I find chicken breast dry and much prefer thighs, perhaps hefeels the same.

Other caregivers and Cheerios!

2011-09-01T05:39:00.002Z

We figure A is getting old enough now that more and more of her calories could be coming from solids rather than breastmilk. That's not to say the majority, necessarily, but we're okay with her actually eating, rather than the experimenting she was doing in the beginning. In that vein, we've started asking the nanny to give her solids during the day, so she is offered something solid three times a day, rather than just two. We've noticed that the nanny is somewhat reticent and is having a bit of trouble adjusting to this style, though she's making a valiant effort.

Have others run into this trouble? Maybe with babysitters or even relatives who help care for your children?

New food of the day: Cheerios! We were amazed to see that A is developing a pincer grasp. It's really still a rake with her pointer finger, but two fingers, nonetheless. She's less good at releasing it, so still ends up putting her whole hand in her mouth, but it's amazing to watch her dexterity improve.

Market trip planned for tomorrow to get some more nectarines. We gave her a slice the other day with the skin still on and it seemed to help her get a better grip on it (as suggested in the book, right?). Any other fruits people have tried that way?

Lentil Success and French Toast

2011-08-30T15:07:00.002Z

A had an adventurous day yesterday with lots of new foods.

We had some disappointing bread from the store and wanted to make French Toast, so I decided to make some for A, too. I cut the bread into 'fingers', soaked it in egg yolk, cinnamon and a bit of breastmilk and cooked it in the pan. A seemed to love it and devoured the whole portion. I avoided using egg whites, but in truth, there are whole eggs in the bread I used to make the toast, so how is that different?

A's second new food was lentil 'logs'. I cooked lentils with some chopped carrots in water and pureed it. I also threw in some sauteed onions and garlic and leftover squash and sweet potato we had from last week. I put it in the fridge to solidify a bit and formed it into log shapes. I dredged the logs in flower and baked them at 400F for about twenty minutes. They were solid enough for A to get ahold of them, but fell apart without too much pressure from her. She managed to get quite a bit in her mouth and swallowed most of that! The best part is that I could reform pieces she could hold with the leftovers because they're just that mushy, so there was less waste than with other things we've tried. We have a few more we'll give her today.

All in all, an excellent eating day. Now I have to come up with some more new foods for her. Any suggestions? What have your kids liked most?

Irene is coming

2011-08-27T23:14:00.003Z

Those of us on the East Coast (north of DC) are bracing for Irene to arrive tonight. Honestly, my biggest concern is loosing the stock of breastmilk I have in the freezer if we loose power. Fingers crossed for us!

A's eating has been going pretty well the last few days and the nanny has even started to give her some food. We tried the squash, which I unfortunately overcooked a bit so it was hard for her to hold, and it was a big hit. We feel so lucky to have a baby who's willing to try almost anything she sees us eating. ;) Otherwise, we've been sticking to variations on the themes we've already established - chicken, pasta, broccoli, string beans.

If we do have power tomorrow, I'll try the lentil croquettes. I'll let you know how it goes...it'll be A's first multi-ingredient food. Any advice on ingredients to avoid, other than too much salt or sugar?

String Beans

2011-08-23T01:14:00.002Z

String beans were the theme of the day today. A had some both for breakfast and dinner. We also gave her one piece of Bamba - a puffed corn peanut flavored snack. It dissolves right away so doesn't require much chewing, but also isn't really so nutritious. I'm not sure we'll give it to her again any time soon.

Our new plan for tomorrow is butternut squash. I have some in the oven as I type.

Thanks for the lentil croquette suggestion! I'll give it a try later this week.

Slight Delay

2011-08-20T15:59:00.003Z

A has been plugging along and getting better at the solids every day. Since my last post, she's had bread, asparagus, string beans, watermelon, chicken, pureed peas and cantalope.

The asparagus and string beans were steamed. A seemed to like both, but devoured the string beans - a new favorite!

The chicken was from the same soup as the carrots I mentioned earlier. I've read that white meat is harder for them to chew than dark and we found that to be true. A had a much easier time with the leg meat than the breast.

We're sticking with the purees on a loaded spoon for now because A really seems to enjoy using the spoon. Unfortunately, she's starting to get good at using the spoon as a catapult. We've had to increased our covered-floor radius around her when she eats!

Any suggestions for next new foods? We'd like to give her a bit more iron in her diet so are thinking about lentils. Has anyone else tried that?

Hello All!

2011-08-08T14:35:00.003Z

I'm a first time mother to Baby A, age 7 months. Mel invited other moms to contribute while we wait for her new little one (congratulations, Mel!) to be old enough for solids, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. We started A on solids just after she turned 6 months, until which point she'd been exclusively breast fed, and have been following BLW. We've really loved every minute - it's so much fun to watch her learn to pick up foods and get them to her mouth, not to mention the delightful expressions she makes with each new flavor.

So, to dive right in:

A had carrots and banana for breakfast today. The banana was pretty ripe and the carrots had been cooked in a soup I made last night. I did put salt in the soup, in the form of some powdered consomme, so I was a little bit worried A would be getting too much salt. What have others done about that issue? If the idea is to give the baby food from your plate, are we just not supposed to have any salt on our food? Is a little bit of salt okay? In any case, she didn't eat more than one or two baby carrots, so I can't imagine it's that much of a problem...I hope. ;)

Dinner tonight will probably be some more soup vegetables and some lightly pureed spinach. We'd like for A to have some of the green leafy vegetables, but can't figure out how to get them to an appropriate consistency while retaining enough volume for her to pick up. So, we give her a loaded spoon. Have others come up with an alternative fix to this issue?

Happy eating to us all!

Birth Announcement!!

2011-08-05T12:36:00.003Z

Dearest blog readers....

I am delighted to announce the arrival of Evelyn, born by c section on 13 July - 7lbs 13oz.

She is doing really well and George, dh & I are all delighted with her!

We will be blogging again in approx 5.5 months...but in the meantime watch this space, as we may have an exciting new contributor!!

love

Mel x

6 weeks (and 6 months) to go!!

2011-06-08T13:39:00.002Z

So there is a max of 6 weeks left until I meet the newest member of our family!! Both George, my hubby and I are very excited at the thought of meeting our little surprise!! I will keep you posted fellow BLW'ers!!

That means we have 6 weeks 6 months until I start a whole new BLW journey with you!

In the meantime if there is anyone just about to start their journey who would like to share their story via the blog then please let me know!!

love

Mel x

BIG NEWS!!!

2011-02-19T11:15:00.002Z

Hi there BLW'ers....

well, it seemed a little silly to try and tell you much about what George is eating or not seeing as he is fast approaching 5!

I have also struggled to find a new mum to take over and run the blog for me!

As such it's really good news that George has a little Brother or Sister due in July 2011....so by Jan 2012 there will be a new baby starting his or her BLW adventure for you all to read up on!

not long now!!!

love

Mel x

Been a Long time ladies!!

2010-02-14T11:08:00.003Z

BLWing ladies!

I am really sorry...it has been a very long time indeed since I last posted! George has grown and grown and will be 4 towards the end of May!

His eating is generally good, and whilst he now has a near pathological obsession with chocolate, he is still a little fruit bat and will generally choose a blueberry or raspberry over anything else on offer!

I will do my best to come back often....and maybe even to find a new mum to help with her story too? Any volunteers gratefully recieved!

Mel x

Sorry, sorry

2008-11-10T17:52:00.003Z

Rather overwhelmed at the moment. Anyway, he doesn't like Weetabix and refuses to try green beans.

Peas and pancakes

2008-11-02T14:15:00.002Z

Crawling, breakfast, first tooth, apple porridge pancakes

2008-10-31T17:49:00.003Z

As the title says, he's been busy! We've had proper crawling for about a week now (he's nearly 9 months old) so have been manically babyproofing. He's much more adventurous than his sister was and has discovered all kinds of things we hadn't thought about, like doorstops and drawers. Plus as his pincer grip is very good now, I'm constantly hoovering up the detritus shed by a 3 year old girl and 3 fluffy cats.

I introduced breakfast a few days ago, as he was hanging round the table looking hopeful, like a puppy. Just toast with butter or cream cheese, so far. Easy to clean up in a hurry.

His first tooth popped through the gum today, hooray. Soon its mate should follow and chewing will be more effective.

Finally, I made apple porridge pancakes for dinner. It's 50g oats (ground in a blender), 30g flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 whisked egg, 60ml apple juice, 50g yoghurt, half a grated apple. Makes 6 mini pancakes. Phoebe devoured 3, he's asleep so will try it when he wakes up. It was a lot of hassle to make, to be honest.

Cheesy nuggets, no chips

2008-10-24T21:55:00.002Z

We went to Chessington on Wednesday. Surprisingly, it's perfect for preschoolers. Under 1m means they get in free, yet over 90cm means they can go on 90% of the rides. We bought annual passes as we live fairly nearby. Anyway, we had lunch in the "Goblin Family Pub." Again, surprisingly good. Rafs was offered chips for the first time, but threw them all on the floor without tasting any. Luckily I had packed rice cakes and a banana.

Yesterday I made cheesy veg nuggets, again from Aitch's site (see links). 7oz frozen broccoli, steamed till very soft then disintegrated in the blender. Mixed with 4oz breadcrumbs, 6oz grated cheese, 2.5 tbsp each olive oil and water, and 1.5 tsp baking powder. Made about 15 balls. Baked at 190C for 25 minutes. Very oily result, but he really enjoyed them. Rather chewy too; it's amazing what babies can manage with no teeth. Once my frozen stock runs out I shall make them again. Probably with mushrooms instead as he hasn't tried them yet.

Orange mash (onion)

2008-10-21T18:20:00.002Z

Taken from Aitch's site (see links). This was my version. Finely chop an onion, fry in olive oil till soft. Add 1 grated carrot, 200g chopped butternut squash, 2 tbsp red lentils and 200ml water. Simmer covered for 15 minutes. Mash up with some grated cheese. Add some breadcrumbs to stiffen, as needed. This made about 8 servings (now mostly frozen). He adored this and scoffed almost all of his portion. It is very yummy, I agree.

Onion is notorious for causing wind but he seems fine with it. So there's another food ticked off :)

Jam, 8 month check

2008-10-16T19:51:00.002Z

Not just any old jam ;), Duchy Originals Damson Preserve. It is absolutely delicious and I fancied some, so I put a little on Rafi's toast too. He was indifferent really. Ate it but not with any particular relish, so I won't bother again. Mainly sugar anyway.

Had his 8 month HV check today, only 2 weeks late. Pointless really - height, weight, "He looks like he's doing fine, here's your free books". Could have got those from the library, which is right next to Phoebe's preschool rather than miles out of my way like the clinic. But it's good to know how big he is. Still 91st centile for both height and weight (73cm, 22lb) - he was born 9lb 4.5oz so is following his curve nicely and it explains why he's in 12-18 month clothes and already almost out of them. Genetically he should be short; we're all 25th centile. Weird. I guess he already eats more than his sister does now at 3.5!

Smoked haddock fishcake

2008-10-13T19:36:00.002Z

Made by my father: mashed potato and smoked haddock made into a big cake, coated in breadcrumbs, shallow fried. I can't think of much worse (I detest fish) but both children enjoyed it.

Also, I gave him a new rice cake topping today. Mashed banana with greek yoghurt and lemon juice. Went down a treat but left him very sticky!

Boursin, smoked salmon

2008-10-11T13:09:00.002Z

Yesterday I put Boursin on his rice cakes instead of regular cream cheese. He didn't seem to notice; I guess he's used to garlic through breast milk. So now I can use it in cooking with confidence.

Today he had a bit of organic smoked salmon with his lunch. Like the plaice last week, he chewed a while then spat. Texture, not flavour, seemed to bother him a bit.

Irish potato farl

2008-10-06T19:19:00.002Z

Bought some today on special offer, to see how the kids like them. Toasted and buttered. Naturally the big girl refused to even try, but Rafi adored it and stuffed it in quite frantically. Also had cheese and roast sweet potato. Dinner was lentils spread on rice cakes and his favourite raspberry yoghurt.

Summer pudding, fish

2008-10-05T19:34:00.002Z

Tried the Plum Baby summer pudding. Gloopy so it stays on the spoon very well. He was indifferent to it really; ate it but without much enthusiasm.

Also had his first fish, a bit of the inside of a plaice goujon. He was puzzled by the texture I think, as he chewed it a bit before spitting.

Oh and I have discovered that he will eat lentils after all, if they are spread on a rice cake. Good result there.

Proper sweetcorn

2008-10-02T20:28:00.001Z

He had sweetcorn/carrot puree a few weeks ago and hated it. Today I mixed some kernels into his mashed potato and got the same reaction. Irritating as it's Phoebe's favourite veg.

Wednesday

2008-10-01T19:55:00.001Z

Lunch: cream cheese on toast, blueberry/banana puree
Dinner: pancakes (thrown on floor), mashed potato (tasted a few times), apricot yoghurt (devoured)

Lumpy puree

2008-09-30T19:00:00.002Z

Lunch today: cream cheese on toast, banana.

Dinner: coconut couscous, steamed butternut squash, and lumpy puree. Well, a "Stage 2" variety (strawberry and mango) intended to teach 7 month olds how to eat tiny lumps. I bought a pack by mistake a while ago and Phoebe won't touch it ("I don't like bits") so thought it was time to try it on the boy. Interestingly it was quite gaggy; he clearly sucks the puree off the spoon straight to the back of his throat just like the theory says. As Rafs, who is happy with toast and pasta and could chew at 5.5 months, had this problem, it's no wonder so many exclusively puree-fed babies struggle to move on to stuff with more texture. He did get the hang of it after a few goes and does love "spoon-fruit", as it's known in our house.

Catching up

2008-09-28T19:00:00.002Z

Sorry, have been really busy. Meeting all day yesterday, then working on decluttering/babyproofing today as Rafs is so close to crawling. 5 charity shop bags, one bin bag, and I've almost done my bedroom...

Anyway, the only new thing he has eaten was cauliflower cheese. A rip-off frozen organic "home-made" thing from Waitrose. I thought it was really nice but he hated it so much it made him cry. So I quickly replaced it with a trusty yoghurt.

Blueberry

2008-09-25T19:45:00.002Z

yesterday: no lunch. Rice cakes with hoummus for dinner, and apple/strawberry puree pot (same as Phoebe).

Today, more rice cakes and hoummus for lunch, with an apple/blueberry puree pot (same as Phoebe). Dinner was mac cheese; he loves this. Tried a few squashed peas as I made some for Phoebe anyway, but he can't pick them up yet really. Then squash/carrot puree from the freezer - I made it so I'm determined to use it up.

Too much poo

2008-09-23T19:36:00.002Z

After being a bit constipated for a while, now we have the opposite problem... Skipped his swimming lesson today just in case, boo hoo. He's fine in himself though, with a good appetite.

Lunch was plain mini rice cakes (now a firm favourite), broccoli and a peach yoghurt. I need to cut down on yoghurt I think - he now eats the entire pot and it's quite sugary.

Dinner was linguine (amusing), banana (to try to bung him up a bit) and a pot of pear/raspberry puree. He adores raspberry and got cross when it was finished.

No dinner again

2008-09-22T18:05:00.001Z

Because he is still asleep.

Lunch was roast potato, broccolli and raspberry yog.

Random pics

2008-09-21T19:03:00.003Z

Smoothie-gulping big sister.

The "splat" technique. Surprisingly effective.

Concentration.

Finger-lickin' good.

Showing the baby how to use a fork.

Still no kitchen access

2008-09-20T20:28:00.001Z

Managed plum, plain rice cakes and yoghurt fot lunch. No dinner as he slept 5-7.

Parsnip and pea

2008-09-19T18:16:00.002Z

Bit tricky today as my kitchen was being tiled. No freezer or microwave access.

Lunch: Mashed avocado on rice cakes, strawberry yog.

Dinner: Plum, tomato, Plum Baby puree of parsnip, pea and apple. Smelled revolting but he ate half the pot quite happily.

More of the same

2008-09-18T18:28:00.002Z

Lunch: mashed avocado on rice cakes, apricot yoghurt
Dinner: coconut couscous, plum, apple/peach puree.

Pancake

2008-09-17T19:00:00.002Z

Lunch: Macaroni cheese, banana, apple/mango puree. He ate the entire pot!

Dinner: Phoebe begged for pancakes. Wheat, dairy and egg, all in one package. But I decided , what the heck, let him try it. Another hit :) and no sign of any egg problem so far. She ate three whole pancakes, so a great success all round. One left, now in the freezer.

Catching up

2008-09-16T17:24:00.000Z

Manic here, sorry. Anyway, the good news is that he likes macaroni cheese.

Eating out

2008-09-14T16:35:00.002Z

Went into central London for brunch with the ILs. Didn't know where we were going so packed a picnic of steamed broccolli and roast sweet potato for Rafs. In the end he ate very little as the restaurant was full of so many distractions. Phoebe did fairly well though with her veggie sausage baguette, and even tried a mouthful of her cousin's baked beans. Still doesn't like them but at least she tried.

For dinner he has eaten a fair bit more of the broccolli and sweet pots, along with some couscous and some rice cake with hoummus. It's fantastic that he likes hoummus; it's a great protein source for a veggie and as DH eats the commercial stuff for breakfast every day it's a family staple.

Hoummus, coconut couscous

2008-09-13T18:09:00.002Z

Had a cookathon today, as I want to get R onto slightly more substantial meals than just random bits of fruit and veg.

First I made hoummus. One can of Tesco organic chick peas (they have no salt), roughly mashed, then blended with the other ingredients. The trick with hoummus, I find, is to add way more liquid than you would expect. So I used about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 3 of natural yoghurt and several good glugs of bottled lemon juice. Next time I'll add garlic, but I'm avoiding tahini at the moment because it contains the same allergen as peanuts do.

He had the hoummus spread on a rice cake for lunch, and seemed to enjoy it. He also had one with cream cheese, and some tomato pieces on the side.

Then he had some coconut couscous for dinner. This is based on a recipe in Carol Timperly's Vegetarian Baby and Child, one of my favourite books. Phoebe used to eat a lot of it when she was younger (she won't eat it now, of course).

I did 200ml carton of coconut cream, 2 tablespoons demerara sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 400ml water. Boil, make sure sugar is dissolved, stir in 8oz couscous, remove from heat, cover, leave till ready. It's good with raisins and dried apricots (simmered for 10 minutes separately to make them juicy, then stirred in) but he doesn't have a pincer grip yet. The couscous clumps nicely into big balls so makes good finger food, although it goes everywhere when dropped on the floor. It also freezes really well.

First taste gave him "the shudder" but he kept eating, so must have liked it well enough. He also had some defrosted carrot puree, left from my early "does he really hate carrots?" experiment, but rejected it. So he had an apple/vanilla puree pot instead.

I also made a big batch of macaroni cheese for the freezer. Won't give you a recipe as it's hardly unusual! Fingers crossed he likes it.

Pumpkin

2008-09-12T18:52:00.002Z

Lunch: cream cheese on rice cakes, a Plum baby pot of pumpkin/carrot/mango. Disgusting in my opinion but Rafi liked it.

Dinner: steamed carrot and courgette (defrosted). Don't freeze cooked courgette, it goes quite slimy! Digestive biscuit, banged it on the tabke till it shattered, and so he managed to actually eat a few of the smaller bits. Then raspberry yoghurt, his favourite flavour.

Digestive, strawberry yog

2008-09-11T18:23:00.002Z

Lunch: Finally managed to find some large unsalted rice cakes. Not organic, sadly. Anyway, he had those with cream cheese on, which he enjoyed. Then an apple/raspberry puree pot. Phoebe turned her nose up at hers - she doesn't like raspberry.

Dinner: Banana. An organic wholewheat digestive. This was thoroughly sucked but he didn't manage to bite any off. Poor toothless fellow. Then a strawberry yoghurt. First taste of strawberry; it's very very unlikely that he'll be allergic, and he's been fine with raspberry, so I thought it was reasonable at 7 months 8 days. I'm tired of throwing away the strawberry yoghurts because nobody likes them. Luckily, he did.

More dullness

2008-09-10T17:58:00.001Z

Lunch: orange rice cakes, banana, peach yoghurt
Dinner: plum, Cheddar slices, apple/blackcurrant puree pot.

Big day

2008-09-09T22:32:00.002Z

Phoebe started again at preschool, thank goodness. She is delighted to be back. And Rafi had his first swimming lesson. He loved it and was very splashy.

Lunch: the last of the roast squash, more orange rice cakes, and an apricot yoghurt.
Dinner: Plum, tomato and some of Phoebe's linguine. He did surprisingly well with it. His technique was to open his hand flat, pressing his palm against his mouth, and try to slurp it in. Very entertaining. Also offered lentils on a spoon, again. Wasn't third time lucky; he still doesn't like them. But I have a few more pots in the freezer so will keep offering periodically.

Orange rice cakes

2008-09-08T18:46:00.003Z

Lunch: roast squash, rice pudding blobs. Messy but yummy.
Dinner: orange flavour rice cakes. Only 1% orange oil (it's an allergen). Loved them. Another Golden Globe plum. Offered Plum baby sweetcorn/carrot pot but he still hates it. Fair enough; I'm not buying any more. Soon he will be able to cope with proper sweetcorn.

I must get more creative

2008-09-07T17:15:00.003Z

Lunch: Cream cheese on toast again (DH made lunch today). He seems to like sucking the cheese off and spits most of the bread out. Tomato quarters again, and a Golden Globe plum (skinned and quartered).
Dinner: Pasta twists (not wholemeal) and roast butternut squash. Followed by mango/banana puree pot.

Same old food...

2008-09-06T18:05:00.002Z

Lunch: roast potato, Cheddar slices, tomato quarters and mango chunks. All eaten like it's going out of fashion. Phoebe was impressed enough to actually eat a tomato herself, which is a very rare event.

Dinner: avocado, cream cheese on toast. Toast still a bit gaggy so will leave it another week. He liked it though :)

I was out today

2008-09-05T18:15:00.001Z

But am told that he had avocado, tomato and roast potato for lunch, then mango and more potato for dinner. I think he didn't get any spoon food as DH couldn't face the mess!

7 months yesterday

2008-09-04T18:50:00.002Z

But I was too busy to post, sorry.

So, yesterday, lunch was apple rice cakes, banana and raspberry yoghurt. He found the banana much easier to handle tha the last time a few weeks before. Dinner was steamed courgettes and carrots, then apple/something I forget puree pot.

Today lunch was more carrot and courgette, 2 slices of cheddar, banana yoghurt, and as he was still very keen, mango/banana puree. Dinner was apple rice cakes, banana, and lentils on a spoon. He still doesn't like them and only put the spoon in twice.

DH is in charge tomorrow as I'm going to a study day for my antenatal teacher training. Wish him luck!

Tomato

2008-09-02T19:16:00.003Z

Uninspired today, as none of my fruit is ripe.

Lunch: apple-flavour rice cakes. Nicer than the plain ones; kept him amused for 20 minutes or so. Followed by mango yoghurt.

Dinner: made some wholemeal pasta but found it was too chewy. Phoebe objected as well. So more apple rice cakes. And a large vine tomato, skinned and with the hard green bit cut out. I know it's a potential allergen, but he's not genetically susceptible to allergies/eczema/asthma etc so I feel it's extremely unlikely to be a problem. Anyway, he gave his usual "what on earth is this?" shudder, but came back to it quite a few times so it can't have been that bad. Dessert was half a Plum Baby mango/banana pot. I've had a proper mango ripening for a week now, with bananas next to it, and it is still rock hard. So needs must...

Broccolli and blackcurrant

2008-09-01T17:21:00.001Z

Lunch: more squash pieces and mashed potato cakes. Mainly thrown on the floor, as he wanted to chew his mat instead.
Dinner: Rice pudding as finger food. Broccolli for the first time, which he liked a lot. Finally something green! And then an apple/blackcurrant Organix puree pot (Phoebe had one too). Only about 2% blackcurrant though!

Mashed potato cakes

2008-08-31T20:11:00.002Z

Based on Jenny Maizel's recipe in Finger Food. Mix in some cheese, flatten balls, draw smiley faces with 3 year old, bake or fry. Phoebe ate them despite the cheese! Bit squishy for Rafs but some went in. Along with squash pieces, then raspberry yoghurt.

Dinner was avocado and plum.

Cream cheese on toast

2008-08-30T18:53:00.003Z

He struggled a little as it needed more chewing than he is used to, and gave up fairly quickly. About half a finger did go in though! Then he enjoyed some avocado and melon.

Dinner was steamed butternut squash (he adores it still) and the last of the melon. Slight choking episode with the melon, but one quick pat on the back sorted him out. I wasn't there but DH said it was definitely different to gagging :(. No harm done; just a reminder to always supervise them while eating and make sure not to give them melon or similar that is a bit too hard.

PS No spoons today.

Pretty in pink

2008-08-29T19:14:00.006Z

Mmmm, courgettes and cheese.

Although I do fancy a bit of that ice lolly.

If only I could crawl... Who needs cheese when there are cat biscuits?

Nothing new

2008-08-28T19:33:00.002Z

Lunch - a very large purple plum, skin off because it was very loose. Apricot yoghurt.

No dinner. He slept 5:30-7:15, by which time Phoebe had eaten all his avocado!

Melon

2008-08-27T19:23:00.002Z

Lunch - pasta twists and avocado. 3 cubes of butternut squash puree from freezer, then when that ran out, a whole apple/peach/mango pot.

Dinner - the rest of the avocado and some very juicy squishy melon. All a bit frustrating for him. No spoon food as he ate so much lunch and I don't want more constipation.

My boy likes cheese!

2008-08-26T19:30:00.002Z

Lunch - more pasta twists and carrots. Phoebe also had sweetcorn, but he can't pick it up yet, so I offered Plum Baby sweetcorn/carrot puree. First taste was spat out with a shudder, and he refused to put it anywhere near his mouth again. Fair enough; it was a bit gross really.

Dinner was rice cakes, now definitely liked, and slices of medium Yeo Valley cheddar. Phoebe could sniff out (and reject) a cheese molecule like a shark detecting blood, even at his age. But Raf couldn't get enough of the stuff. This opens up so many options - macaroni cheese, cheese on toast, pizza, sandwiches... We're absolutely ecstatic!

Then he had a Hipp apple/mango/peach pot. It was very yummy; Phoebe ate two.

Eating again today, yippee

2008-08-25T18:26:00.003Z

He "exploded" last night, but it didn't seem to bother him at all luckily. So back to normal today.

We went out to Kew Gardens. I don't recommend the Victoria Terrace cafe. Long queue, nasty soggy sandwiches and dry oranges. Phoebe's plain scone was nice though. Rafi had a banana/peach jar, as there was no suitable finger food available to buy, which was tricky. The high chairs were for toddlers not babies, so I did it on my lap. As he won't let me feed him, we both ended up covered in a sticky mess. Then he had two mini rice cakes. Last time these were rejected, but today he seemed to enjoy them a lot more.

Dinner (at home) was pasta twists and steamed carrots. He's still not overkeen on carrots but accepts them.

No food today

2008-08-24T17:33:00.002Z

All that eating has made him constipated, so we have decided on no more solids till he does a poo. 48 hours and counting. Neither of us wants to hold him, it's like playing "Pass the bomb."

We went out for lunch today as we didn't have to worry about him. Veggie/fishy options on the extensive childrens' menu included mini lentil burger, veggie hot dog, macaroni cheese, fish pie and spaghetti with tomato sauce. But none of these are acceptable to Miss Picky, so she had the bread from around my own lentil burger (luckily there was no sauce to contaminate it), half of DH's chips, and a side order of sweetcorn. It's immensely frustrating.

Lentils

2008-08-23T17:26:00.002Z

Lunch - quartered yellow plum, boiled courgette, mango/banana puree.
Dinner - quartered ripe pear, red lentils boiled for 30 minutes to make a thick soup. Neutral response really. Think he prefers sweeter things.

Bottomless pit!

2008-08-22T19:11:00.002Z

Late lunch today (1:45) thanks to Phoebe's morning at a sports camp. Raf was clearly starving. He had his first proper pear and ate about half, along with a few bits of avocado. Then he went through an entire raspberry yoghurt and was still keen, so half an apple/pear puree pot followed. Of course he didn't actually eat all of the liquidy stuff because much of it got spread around, but still...

Dinner was just pasta twists and boiled courgette. I didn't offer any spoon-food this time, so he had a very long bf instead.

Biscuit

2008-08-21T17:45:00.002Z

Specifically, an Organix Baby Biscuit. Not great I know, but at least it wasn't orange. He was very puzzled because it was too hard to chew (he has no teeth yet) and soon discarded it in favour of squash pieces. Phoebe said it was yucky, and I agree - very dry with a weird flavour. Won't buy them again. Apple/pear puree followed.

Dinner was the last of the squash, along with rice pudding blobs as finger food. Both greatly enjoyed. Then I offered Plum Baby Super Porridge, banana and plum flavour, made up with normal full-fat cow's milk. He loathed it, and having tried it myself I don't blame him. It tasted like envelope glue. Will just do normal porridge with rolled oats next time. He enjoyed a Plum Baby banana/mango pot instead.

So I learned a lesson today about versions of normal foods aimed at babies. In my defence the ones above are new products that were not around 3 years ago when Phoebe was this age.

More and more

2008-08-20T21:30:00.003Z

Lunch was more pasta twists with fried courgette. My mother's help V, who comes twice a week so I can do a bit of study or work, was here at lunchtime. She was flabbergasted to see him picking up and munching his food. He had carrot puree to follow and she couldn't resist trying to spoonfeed him, but he wasn't having any of it - atta boy! I think in the end they compromised; she held the very end of the spoon and he had it near the bowl. He was certainly less messy than usual.

Dinner was steamed squash pieces then mango yoghurt, both comprehensively demolished. He was very ready for two meals. I think he would like three but I can't face it quite yet.

Pasta and plum

2008-08-19T18:11:00.002Z

Lunch - pasta twists and yet more sweet potato. This was his introduction to wheat. He didn't pull his "yuck" face, but really, who doesn't like pasta? It's utterly inoffensive surely. I think he swallowed about half a twist as it was a little gaggy. Then apple/pear puree again. Phoebe had plain pasta and puree too; that's a typical meal for her alas.

Dinner - a quartered yellow plum. I bravely left the skin on, quelling thoughts of "choking hazard!" . It was great, very easy to handle. We have a new favourite food; he demolished it! One quarter was completely eaten, skin and all. The rest was all sucked off the skin. After all that he wasn't bothered about his puree (homemade butternut squash) and started his "bored now" spoon-banging after only 3 or 4 mouthfuls.

Phoebe was over 1 before she ate this much! It doesn't seem to have displaced milk luckily. He has visibly gained since we started and now has lovely wrist and ankle creases and a double chin.

Up to 2 meals

2008-08-18T19:16:00.002Z

Lunch - more roast sweet potato, very enthusiasticaly received. Boiled carrots, not rejected this time. About half a baton eaten. Banana yoghurt. Little Rachel this time. Runnier than Yeo Valley but no sugar.

Long wet afternoon at home. By the third showing of Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea by brain was dribbling out of my ears. So I decided in my wisdon to give Raf dinner as well. Another half of a carrot baton went down, and some avocado was thoroughly squashed. Apple/pear puree was appreciated too, although his sister's antics (naked hula-hooping) were rather distracting.

Roast

2008-08-17T14:57:00.003Z

For a change, we made a roast lunch today. Well, sort of, as we're a semi-veggie household (apart from the cats). Quorn escalopes for the adults and sole goujons (posh fish fingers) for the big girl.

Rafael had roast sweet potatoes, which are definitely his favourite finger food so far. Just as well as I've got several days worth in the fridge now. He had a bit of normal potato but it crumbled too much in his hands. We intended to give him baby corn but it was still too crunchy after 20 minutes steaming. Phoebe liked it, at least.

Phoebe wanted to choose his pudding, and went for a banana/mango puree (Plum Baby). Apparently, because she doesn't like fresh plums and nectarines, she thinks he won't either. She is astonished that he likes sweet potato. It's very cute that she cares so much.

He'll turn orange at this rate!

Learning fast

2008-08-16T14:57:00.002Z

Gave him the rest of the cauliflower today and he managed it much better than yesterday. He still went for the stems first, but ate the heads too instead of destroying them. Much less went on the floor. Also offered avocado pieces but these were almost entirely ignored.

Followed up with raspberry yoghurt (a new flavour). It was quite sharp, and made him wince a little, but he kept going back for more. Now he smells lovely - think he still has some in his hair.