Some days I don't think I will ever make it passed this "baby food feeding" stage! My life swarms in baby food jars and tubs!
At 10 months old...
3 fruits for breakfast...and 1 some-sort-of-fruit mixed with grain for Madelynn, since she won't eat baby cereal. (4)
3 veggies and 3 fruits for lunch (6)
3 baby yogurts for snack (3)
3 rice/grain/pasta mixed with meat, 3 veggies and sometimes 3 fruits for dinner (9)
So that's a total of 19 jars/tubs of baby food and 3 baby yogurts daily and of course boxes of baby cereal, tubs of puffs, boxes of cheerios..ect, ect, ect!
For 31 days in a month, that's 589 jars/tubs of baby food!!!!
I wonder how much time I spend feeding...
Of course I know there is an end in sight...we have already begun "self-feeding" and the girls get better and better at it each week!
They have been eating ham and turkey lunch meat, American cheese slices, cheerios, puffs, yogurt drops, baby yogurt, dried fruit, bread, baked beans, canned vegetables, and various shredded meats (which only Natalee will eat). We have been basically letting them try anything we have, but as to them actually "self-feeding" themselves these items, they have only managed to do the Cheerios, dried fruit, yogurt drops and puffs! If I feed them anything by a spoon that has "texture" they immediately gag and spit it out, but if they do it themselves, there's no gagging what-so-ever. Weird! They will not eat any stage "3" foods that have texture, so I know we will be going straight to "real" food more and more!
Any tips on what worked for your little ones making the transition to "real" food?
You are getting so close! As soon as mine could feed themselves (with small, bite-size finger foods from our plates), they wanted nothing to do with the baby food!
ReplyDeleteone thing I found that helped was to coat slippery foods (peaches, banana's etc.) in crushed cheerios, so that it's easier to pick up.
ReplyDeleteJust keep with it... one day it will just click with them, and they will no longer want baby food, and will only want to feed themselves.
Oh, you are so close to life getting sooooo much easier! When my trio started eating finger foods it was a huge celebration at our house! Mine struggle with the textures at first, too. Reagan, especially. I've heard most babies dislike the stage 3 foods so we gave up on those and just kept trying finger foods. One day I went out with a friend and Jason fed dinner- corn and green beans- and for the first time they didn't gag! We never looked back.
ReplyDeletePresley hated the stage 3s. So for now, (she is 10 months) she is eating the purees at daycare and at home she is eating what we eat. (until the cabinet is empty of the purees anyway)
ReplyDeleteGreat breakfast ideas....fruit pancakes. fruit muffins. I buy lots of frozen fruit and veggies and de-thaw a couple days worth. So they can accompany whatever we are eating for her. For slimy fruit I cut it on a paper towel and try and dry it really well so its easier to pick up.
Other easy hits, crockpot chicken pot pie. crockpot beef and noodles...notice my theme with the crock pot. It gets all the ingredients nice and soft for them.
Speaking of crockpot. Sometimes instead of freezer veggies I buy random fresh ones and throw them the crockpot in the AM with some water on low. Come home 8/9hrs later..carrots, broccoli, peas, green beans all soft and ready for consumption with little fingers and mouths!
Keep us posted on the food transtion.
We did a process called "Baby Led Weaning". We bypassed the pureed stage and just let her have solid foods. We started wtih things like steamed carrots, roasted potatoes in large church and green beans. We started at exactly 6 months old as Baby Led works with different reflexes in the mouth. There is an amazing book that you can get on Amazon that explains the why's and how's. It's SO simple. I know your girls are around my daughter's age so I know that you can't quiet go the route we chose, but, there is advice in the book for babies who are used to purees. I think the biggest thing that I can suggest is to just let them experiment and try new foods. I'd cut veggies in stick form so they are long and stick out the tops and bottoms of their hands. Some babies still don't have that pincer grab and don't quiet know to open their hand to get the food inside of it. I steam apples for Aubrey and make her mini muffins too. Don't be afraid to strip them to their diapers and let them just play with the food. Babies love to explore...and put things in their mouths! So it's really only natural for them to want to play with their food. I'll leave you the link for the book if you want to check it out. You can read a lot of it online too. It's been the easiest thing I've ever done as a Mom. We both eat together, at the same time, and I'm not stuck with a spoon in my hand feeding her. It's incredibly freeing. I'm actually going to blog about it all soon so feel free to follow along. Here's that link: http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Led-Weaning-Essential-Introducing-Confident/dp/161519021X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319833014&sr=1-1
ReplyDelete