We have been serving Charlie his food in little pieces since he was six months old. After a round of antibiotics for a bronchial infection little Mister refused to take any food off of a spoon. (I wish I knew the trick then of putting antibiotics in a bottle!) So, everything was cut up, or served whole. Or, if we are somewhere where we do not have a knife, food is bitten into little pieces, spat out and served to my little bird! It's so hard to know if they are getting enough when you feed them this way. It's much easier to judge when you can look at a puree and know how much has been shoveled into your baby, but Charlie would have none of this. So, we adapted.
We had lunch with Polly today. I listed to the people behind us trying to get their babies to eat. The food was green, probably beans or peas out of the jar. I am not against jarred baby food, I have used it for convenience sake. But, like a good mother, I taste everything before I shovel it into my baby's mouth, and I have to say, the majority of the veggies are pretty bad. They all taste similar; I can't say exactly what it is, but there is something. Charlie had spinach salad and tortiere for lunch, served off of his dad's fork. We knew he liked it because he yelled between bites for more!
This is how we have been feeding him since he was about six and a half months. Whatever we eat, he eats. I did a lot of reading on baby nutrition as we prepared to start Charlie on solids. I did more reading when he seemed to be indifferent about the rice cereal we started him on. I turned to as many resources as I could find when Charlie quit taking food off of a spoon after he was sick. Every "expert" seems to have an opinion on what foods to give when, allergies, portions, timing, it's really enough to make a new mom sit down and cry. Mark and I decided that, knowing we eat a well-balanced diet that we prepare mostly at home with lots of spices, and few preservatives, and knowing that we both have no food allergies, we decided we would go with a method of feeding that was a bit more controversial, and feed him everything we eat (minus honey due to the bacteria in it)
So far, so good. We had our nine month visit at the docs a couple of weeks ago, and Charlie has actually grown more since starting solids than his growth curve would have projected. The doctor was very happy and said the best words a new parent can hear: "Things look great, just keep doing what you are doing".
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| Charlie's first meal of solids |
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| Charlie chewing on a piece of steak |
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| He LOVES red pepper! |
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| He still has no teeth, but he looks pretty darn happy after gumming away on a steak and potato dinner! Charlie likes to help Daddy make his meals. He's a pretty good helper. We can't wait until he can be our sous chef! |
Bad mother! Bad!! Totally kidding. I only wish we'd started Leah on finger foods sooner - I thought it was easier to do purees, in part because I could see how much she was getting, but more because of ease of access, and I could control the pace of the meal. But now I can just set her up with some food and do my kitchen work, and it's heaven! She doesn't share much of our food though, partly because we don't always eat balanced meals, but mostly because we almost never eat until she has already gone to bed! I'm going to have to get used to saving a portion for her for the next day or something.
ReplyDeleteLove that you're starting a blog! As Alexa starts to eat, I'm facing the same plethora of opinions about what to feed, and when, and how. I've enjoyed watching Charlie explore food, and think you've got a pretty good little "foodie" in the making there.
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