Food
You want to talk about a boring post that's only intended to help Dad keep track of the kid's development? Here's one about her eating habits! I'll start, however, with a comment on lots of the baby food advice that you find in books and on the Internet.
First, this advice reflects very strong, and often unreasonable, opinions. "You cannot feed your baby store-bought yogurt! Make your own!" Yeah, right. We try to keep things organic for the kid as much as possible, but many of the books seem to imply that you should be growing all of your kid's food yourself. We've got better things to do, and Margaret doesn't have patience for carrots to grow in our backyard. Second, there are all these "restrictions" on what foods you can feed them. "Introduce each food one at a time, and wait at least a week before introducing anything new to note whether any negative reactions arise." What a drag. Perhaps we've been lucky that Margaret has never exhibited any negative food reactions despite our failure to carefully control the introduction of each new food. But I bet that, rather than being the rule, the types of food reactions that these books warn about are the exception. So I'd propose that it's easier, tastier and more fun to introduce foods as you see fit. Then, only when you find a negative reaction, you can start trying to sort out the source. It might be tough at that point, but I conjecture that negative reactions are rare enough that it won't become relevant in most cases. At least it hasn't for us. Admittedly, this is a sample size of one, and we haven't fed her certain things like nuts that you read lots of warnings about.
Margaret's first meal was September 14. That first meal was rice cereal mixed with milk. She was perplexed by the first spoonful, which quickly led to a meltdown after a few more bites. After enlisting Maddie to calm her down, we managed to get through that first meal without further incident, although most of the food ended up going down her face onto her bib.
Since then, she's been a little champ. She quickly learned the drill (open up, here it comes!) and hadn't been picky at all. Most meals involve a grain cereal mixed with formula milk along with some sort of fruit or vegetable. Almost all of her food has been homemade as I've been steaming various things which I then puree and freeze for future consumption. We've tried to stick with organic veggies and fruits as much as we can, but that hasn't always been possible.
What does Dad cook for Margaret?
The veggie list includes
- Carrots
- Peas
- Parsnips (parsnips? who ever eats parsnips?)
- Sweet potatoes
- Butternut squash
- Avocado (really bland, but mix it up and it seems to be ok)
The fruit list includes
- Mangoes
- Peaches
- Raspberries mixed in
- Applesauce
- Pineapple and passionfruit mixed in
- Bananas (not her favorite, just like her mom, which is a shame since they're the perfect food)
We've also started on some finger foods including the absurdly over-priced Gerber Graduate Finger Foods and the old standby, Cheerios. I had actually forgotten how much I like Cheerios, so I'll munch on them along with her. These finger foods are great since they take so much concentration to eat that we often forget why we're fussing when trying to scoop them up. Margaret also tends to grab too many Cheerios at one time, so she'll later "discover" some forgotten ones in her hand that she picked up earlier and forgot to eat.
Finally, we've recently introduced cottage cheese and yogurt which have been hits. We got some baby yogurt, called yobaby, which turns out to be sweet and flavored enough that I like it. Since she doesn't need so much sugar at this point, we've tried to switch to plain yogurt, but it's surprisingly difficult to find plain yogurt in small containers that isn't no fat.
There's a temptation to introduce complex foods. A friend of ours from lamaze talked about how she was excited about introducing so many foods to her kid, but had to take her time to do so. I completely understand how she feels. Curry! Even garlic! Such exciting flavors! But as our pediatrician pointed out, their palates are so undeveloped that anything seems interesting and flavorful. No need to overdo it at this point. Instead, we go crazy by mixing peas and parsnips. Yikes!
Margaret's first meal was September 14. That first meal was rice cereal mixed with milk. She was perplexed by the first spoonful, which quickly led to a meltdown after a few more bites. After enlisting Maddie to calm her down, we managed to get through that first meal without further incident, although most of the food ended up going down her face onto her bib.
Since then, she's been a little champ. She quickly learned the drill (open up, here it comes!) and hadn't been picky at all. Most meals involve a grain cereal mixed with formula milk along with some sort of fruit or vegetable. Almost all of her food has been homemade as I've been steaming various things which I then puree and freeze for future consumption. We've tried to stick with organic veggies and fruits as much as we can, but that hasn't always been possible.
What does Dad cook for Margaret?
The veggie list includes
- Carrots
- Peas
- Parsnips (parsnips? who ever eats parsnips?)
- Sweet potatoes
- Butternut squash
- Avocado (really bland, but mix it up and it seems to be ok)
The fruit list includes
- Mangoes
- Peaches
- Raspberries mixed in
- Applesauce
- Pineapple and passionfruit mixed in
- Bananas (not her favorite, just like her mom, which is a shame since they're the perfect food)
We've also started on some finger foods including the absurdly over-priced Gerber Graduate Finger Foods and the old standby, Cheerios. I had actually forgotten how much I like Cheerios, so I'll munch on them along with her. These finger foods are great since they take so much concentration to eat that we often forget why we're fussing when trying to scoop them up. Margaret also tends to grab too many Cheerios at one time, so she'll later "discover" some forgotten ones in her hand that she picked up earlier and forgot to eat.
Finally, we've recently introduced cottage cheese and yogurt which have been hits. We got some baby yogurt, called yobaby, which turns out to be sweet and flavored enough that I like it. Since she doesn't need so much sugar at this point, we've tried to switch to plain yogurt, but it's surprisingly difficult to find plain yogurt in small containers that isn't no fat.
There's a temptation to introduce complex foods. A friend of ours from lamaze talked about how she was excited about introducing so many foods to her kid, but had to take her time to do so. I completely understand how she feels. Curry! Even garlic! Such exciting flavors! But as our pediatrician pointed out, their palates are so undeveloped that anything seems interesting and flavorful. No need to overdo it at this point. Instead, we go crazy by mixing peas and parsnips. Yikes!
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