Finger food

My Poor little man has been suffering over the last few days with his teeth. All he's wanted is smooth milky porridge or baby rice. He has however, really enjoyed sucking on cold, ripe melon slices.

Today he is on much better form and after a fun morning at the swimming pool (what else is there to do on a wet Sunday morning?) we retuned home to some finger food! Max is now 24 weeks and I decided to start to encourage him to pick up food. We dug out the tray for his high chair, lined up the cucumber sticks and let him play. After a lot of chasing cucumber around the tray he finally managed to pick one up and promptly hurled it across the room. Nothing actually made it to his lips but I figure it's all progress.

After a little while of playing he did get a bit frustrated and then didn't want his porridge, so with hindsight I wish I had started with the porridge first.....at least I'll know for next time!

Ouch

Max is cutting his third tooth and isn't interested in the spoon today. Although he'll happily let me hold a cold piece of cucumber or pear in his mouth all day to suck on.
Maybe we will give it a miss today and start afresh tomorrow...

Baby Led Weaning V's the Spoon

As I have mentioned before my daughter Evie is a great little eater. Evie was text book when it came to weaning, as she was sleeping so well on my breast milk we started weaning at 6 months.  This made it easy as she was physically ready for finger food and there was no real restrictions on what should could eat.  Max on the other hand is a hungry boy, he is constantly getting interrupted during feeds because he has a 3 year old sister and he also really dislikes the bottle.  The 3 milk feeds during the night couldn't go on any longer as I really needed some beauty sleep, this meant we turned to food earlier than planned.  What a difference it has made to his sleep. This has meant that I've had to change my weaning approach.

When I first weaned Evie we started to follow the baby led weaning approach, this is where you give your child finger food and allow them to essentially feed themselves.  They quickly learn how to move food round their mouth and how to hold different foods, which could be anything from slices of friut, toast or a bowl of pasta.  Its great to watch...but not quite so much fun to clean up! After a few weeks I realised that baby led weaning takes time, and lots of it!  It felt like all we'd done was live in the kitchen so I decided to also introduce the spoon.  From then on most of Evie's meals would consist of some mashed/puréed food, generally what we'd been eating, and also some finger foods.  Max is essentially the reverse of this.  As we started weaning him younger his co-ordination and gag reflex is not yet developed enough to be able to start with finger food.  He's got off to a flying start with the spoon and is as happy as ever, so I know this is right for him.  Just over the last couple of weeks his co-ordination has greatly improved and is now almost ready for finger food.  He's started to suck on cold cucumber and melon slices, which also gives him some nice relief on those sore gums, plus he's also perfected his throwing skills as bits of cucumber get hurled across the room.

My honest opinion is there is no right or wrong approach on how you wean your baby, but what is essential is that you read your baby's signs and adapt what you do to meet their needs.  If you can do this, then I'm sure the whole experience will be much more enjoyable and relaxing for you and your baby.

Hot Hot Hot

We are loving this weather! Its been alfresco dining for the last few days.  Not really in the mood for cooking so I have been experimenting with the fork...We started with half a mashed ripe avocado it wasn't so much of a hit but he ate most of it, eventually.  Not wanting to waste the other half of the avocado, Max had it the next day but this time mashed with some banana.  Yes you did read right, banana.  He loved it!  I mashed roughly half avocado to banana and it is now firmly on the favourites list.

Bless him he has been struggling with the hot weather and his milk feeds have been a bit up and down, but I have found that if I keep his food in the fridge and serve it to him cold he really enjoys it.  Plus it seems to cool him down, especially at tea time.

 Now we have been eating for a good couple of weeks he is starting to expect food at lunch and dinner time .  There is something very special about all sitting down together.

Gnashers

Max has teeth! Not just one but two bottom teeth!!  I felt them today, on my finger luckily. Now looking back, it maybe explains the couple of horrible nights we had earlier in the week.  Its great that he is going so well and I feel reassured that he must be ready for solids but there is a part of me which feels so sad to be saying goodbye to the gummy smile already.

In my last post I mentioned I was going to try a pea and pear puree.  Well it went down a storm!  Its so easy to make and he loves it too.  I added two handfuls of frozen peas to a dry pan and then added a large pear, peeled and chopped.  I cooked them together for about 5 minutes so the pear was soft (no need for water they cook in their own juice) then whizzed until smooth.  I made this into two portions but I think Max would have happily eaten the lot.

Its so lovely to watch Max try the new flavours, I'm introducing them slowly because he's still not yet 6 months but he is getting on so well and his sleep is also starting to settle down.  When I try a new food I follow the recommended advice and do so at lunch time just in case he does have a reaction to any of the ingredients but so far so good.   Next up butternut squash!

Time to try something new

So we've been getting on really well with our pear or banana baby rice and I feel it's time to start to introduce some new flavours. In the last couple of days we have tried apple with baby rice and also pureed sweet potato.

The sweet potato was an instant hit and the whole bowl was gone in a matter of seconds.  We're still on the fence about apple, he ate it but seems to have developed an "apple tic" when he eats it....Im sure they were eating apples I pureed and not cookers!?

Now that we have moved on to more pureed foods the mustard poos have gone, in fact sometimes I don't think he has even digested what he's eaten.

I think we're gonna try a pea and pear puree next, I look forward to that nappy already....


Photo credit: lovelihood

Karma

Karma... it must exist! After choosing not to tell Nanny about Max's bowl kicking ability, this evening I'd just prepared a lovely bowl of fruity baby rice when after only one spoonful Max made the perfect strike and kicked the whole bowl over himself!  Evie then chose this moment as a great opportunity to run off from the dinner table and throw toys all around the kitchen...{argggghh}...deep breaths...1.2.3.4.5.

That said, when he doesn't boot it across the room, it seems as though he's getting the action of eating and moving the food round his mouth sorted, and he's realising it does something for him. I feel we're really turning a corner with this sleep thing too, lets hope they're linked.

Another winning combination

I want something different but easy to go with Max's rice today so opting for some mashed ripe pear.  No cooking involved.

It's not a massive pear and I have peeled and mashed about a third of it mixed with the standard 45ml of milk and teaspoon of baby rice.  Nanny is here today so she has taken control of the spoon.  Maybe I should warn her that Max has got pretty proficient at grabbing the bowl and spoon, or maybe I will just her find out the fun way ;-)

Cheeky monkey

So the banana was an instant hit, he now inhales his food and looks very pleased with himself once it is all gone.   He thinks of it more of a game rather than food at the moment but I'm sure that will change soon once he has realised that it fills him up.  I have stuck with the 45ml of milk but with 1 teaspoon of baby rice and an inch or so of mashed banana.  He has had this for the last couple of days now for lunch and dinner.  I'm still timing it about 45 minutes after a milk feed so he is relaxed when the game begins.

I might try a different fruit tomorrow...

Confidence creeping in

I think it is starting to have an affect.  Dinner seems to be a bigger hit than lunch which resulted in a great nights sleep.  Starting to feel more confident now, might even try some banana mixed in?

Wot no Zzzzzzzzz

Sadly the sleeping through was short lived. Max was a hungry boy again, I think we should try lunch and dinner today.

Zzzzzzzz

He slept through!! Amazing.  Roll on lunch time for more baby rice.  Planning on sticking to the same amount again today.

Rice o'clock

11am and it's baby rice time.  He had a milk feed 45 minutes ago and seems pretty chilled out.  I don't have the energy (or desire) to express so I'm using formula with the rice and making twice at much. I have gone for 45ml of milk with 2 teaspoons of baby rice.  Again it seems to be a hit, now let's see if it has any affect...

No surrender

In short NO! Horrible night and even my secret weapons (my boobs) didn't settle him, we were up cuddling most of the night. Was it the baby rice? Was it his teeth? Who knows, one thing is for sure I'm not ready to give up yet.

It all starts here...

I give in, Max is only 5 months and I have decided to start to wean him.  I know the current recommended advice is 6 months but he's a hungry boy, last night he had me up for 3 full feeds! So today Max will get his first taste of baby rice and boy do you look ready for it!


I'm breast feeding so I have expressed the recommended tablespoon of milk and added the teaspoon of baby rice, spoon and bib at the ready...here goes...and it's gone in seconds.  Excellent, now I wish I had made more.  The big question is will he sleep through the night?