I thought it was about time that I posted an update on how Evan’s eating’s been going. It has definitely been a difficult road. It is starting to get better though. When I posted last time we were unsuccessfully trying to get Evan to eat a few purees. We failed miserably.
After doing a lot of reading, I decided to skip purees and do baby-led weaning. Basically, the philosophy is that instead of pureeing food, you just give babies the same food you are eating. You put a few options in front of them and they pick up things, put it in their mouth, spit it out, gag a bit, and hopefully swallow it eventually. It was a bit nerve-wracking at the beginning because I was really afraid he’d choke. He’d put a bunch of stuff in his mouth and start gagging, but he never choked (as of yet). This wasn’t a 100% turn-around though. It’s not that Evan started chomping down and eating like a pro.
Not at all.
He played more often than ate and spit out way more than he actually swallowed.
Evan eating (aka playing) with his dinner of tomato and broccoli.
If he swallowed anything at all. The books and internet all said that baby-led weaning babies tend not to really eat much until about 8 months and before then they are just learning about food and practicing chewing (but not swallowing). Since he consistently refused purees, I was thrilled that he actually put food in his mouth from his tray or my plate, even if he wasn’t swallowing it. Food close to his mouth = progress.
For the most part, he wasn’t eating too much but I cleared it with the pediatrician and she said that babies don’t need too much nutrition-wise, aside from breast milk, until they are 1 year old. So we persevered and kept putting food on his tray and hoping he’d one day start shoving food into his mouth.
Chomping on some chicken.
To tell you the truth, it is HARD feeding him. I didn’t realize that I ate so erratically. During the week I eat breakfast at work because I leave the house at 6:10am and there is no time for breakfast in the morning. Even when I work from home on Wednesday, Ivan still takes Evan to my sister’s at 6:15am, so there is no breakfast time. Evan’s lunch is always done at my sister’s house (except Friday), so dinner is pretty much the only meal time I have with him. And I used to eat dinner after Evan went to bed, but now that he’s suppose to be eating solids, I try to eat with him before bed. This is hard. I get home at 6:30pm and I usually like to play with him for a while, walk the dog maybe, and give him a bath between 7pm and 7:30pm. Well, cooking dinner can take up to an hour. So, I try to find quick things that we can enjoy together or we munch on left-overs. But then I also need to try and find something for him to eat for lunch.
Eating asparagus and strawberries.
These are some of the things I’ve given him:
- Broccoli (roasted if I’m organized or just frozen – thawed of course)
- Asparagus (he loved this for a while)
- Tomatoes
- Romaine lettuce
- Pasta with olive oil (an easy kind to grab, like penne)
- Rice and beans (his new favorite)
- Fruit (oranges, bananas, strawberries)
- Soup (I’ve tried tomato and lentil)
- Bread (his absolute favorite thing – French baguettes, tortillas, bagels)
- Couscous
- Sweet potatoes (roasted)
- Chicken tamales
- Pancakes
- Scrambled eggs
- Salmon
- Picadillo (Cuban ground beef dish)
I’m sure I’ve given him other things, but I can’t think of anything else right now. He’s also eaten some “processed” foods like Ella’s Yum Yummy bars (loves these), Happy Puffs, Little Duck Tiny Fruits, and Happy Yogis Yogurt Drops. He likes all of those but has a hard time picking up the dried fruits. The hardest thing is trying to make sure he doesn’t get a lot of salt – the pediatrician said too much salt in babies can harm their kidneys. Well, food has a lot of salt in it (soups, bread, tamales) and even though I’m not a big salt person (I never add salt to food), a lot of the food I eat does have salt in it…and sometimes a significant amount. So, although I feel like I eat fairly healthy, it’s not quite healthy enough for Evan.
Eating some salmon.
That’s pretty much the food update. Now that he is 8 months old he is starting to eat more and more and that makes me a bit relieved. The other night he shoved some rice and beans in his mouth and actually swallows the tortillas. This morning he ate a bunch of tortilla and eggs. I’m hoping that now that he’s gotten a bit more used to moving food around his mouth, he’ll start eating a bit more. Baby-led weaning has really worked for us and I’m glad we went that route. Although it would have been a lot easier to puree a bunch of foods and be done, it’s been a lot more fun seeing him eat “adult” foods. And supposedly baby-led weaning babies turn into less picky eaters – so we’ll see about that!
Someone in the house LOVES the fact that Evan is starting to eat…
Dolce cleaning the high chair and making sure no food goes to waste!
If you have kids, what foods did you feed them when they were little?
Do you eat a lot of salt?
Do you feed your dog “human” food?
Dolce doesn’t usually get any human food, but I do let him clean up some of Evan’s food, if it’s healthy…like broccoli, eggs, tomatoes, oranges, etc. No grapes, onions, or garlic though – all poison for doggies!
Neither of my kids liked the "cereals" for babies, but they would all eat purees. After tons of trying. But I would take a bite of my food, then give the kids a bite of their food, etc. I think half of it is them not knowing what it is they should be doing- if they don't see you eating, then they don't get the concept.
ReplyDeleteBut by 10 months, my kids were doing solid foods, whatever we had for lunch/dinner. Then by 12 months, nobody was on formula and they both ate like champs. To this day though, Olivia likes meat and some fruit, no veggies. Jackson does not like meat, but will eat some veggies, no fruit. So I usually make 3 things for meals and they have to eat 2 of them. It's worked out pretty well here.
Good luck! It really is tricky transitioning them to regular people food, but all you can do is keep trying. :)
Evan has just started to eat a ton of food. He'll shove tortillas in his mouth but broccoli, not so much. We'll see what happens in the next few months. It's funny how siblings can have such different tastes for different things. I think the idea of making three things and them having to choose two of the three is a great idea.
DeleteKara ate everything when she was little. She loved the rice cereals, the purees, anything. She ate loads and loads. She was so healthy. By 2 or 3, she ate every food group, meat, veggies, cottage cheese with fruit, etc. By 4, the growth spurts stopped, her appetite stopped, and she started getting picky. Because I have a girl and don't want to make food an issue for her, I never force fed her anything, but whenever she was hungry, she had to eat something healthy - protein, dairy, fruit, etc. (I grew up on grilled cheese and mac and cheese - I'd never let her survive on that! There's like zero vitamins in those foods.) Anyway, she's pickier than ever, just like I was when I was little, and I grew up to love all healthy food as an adult. I think we have some more picky years ahead of us, but I don't stress, which her doctor supports. :-)
ReplyDeleteLooks like you're doing an amazing job - he's such a cutie and it's neat to see all the foods he likes already. :-)
I think that is so true - kids go through such phases. My sister's kids loved all healthy food until about 2 years old - then they only wanted mac and cheese. Literally, that is all they will eat. And fruit snacks. I am really hoping to hold out on giving Evan processed foods like that for as long as possible. I grew up on ramen noodles and Campbell's split pea and ham - not the best diet either. However, I did turn out fine as far as I know.
DeleteI think it's great that you are so careful with food and Kara. It is so sad to hear my 10 year old golf girls saying they need to go on a diet. I think the most important thing is to model a healthy body image and I think you do that really well. As long as you're happy in your skin and you're confident about yourself, I think Kara will grow up happy with herself. I probably have less to worry about with a boy, but I still worry about raising him in the correct way (especially since there are so few good male role models in the world - sure don't want him to turn out like Justin Bieber).
You are doing a great job with Kara! She's seems like such a wonderful little girl. Maybe we can get together this summer - I'd love to see you guys again and introduce you to Evan. There is a huge playground off near our house that Kara would probably love - it would be fun to meet up there.
Have a great day!
Thank you so much, Kattrina!
DeleteI cracked up when you said you didn't want Evan to end up with Justin Bieber. lol!
I would LOVE to meet up with you sometime! PM me on facebook and we'll set it up. :-)