Solids: Stage 4

Will is weaning himself away from nursing and from purees in favor of feeding himself.  Why fight it?  We are on to finger foods full force now!

So, in mapping out Will's food through the day, I think of these rules:

• Three meals a day, plus a snack if he misses that late-afternoon nursing time for whatever reason.
• Breakfast = Fruit & Grain
• Lunch = Fruit, Vegetable, & Protein
• Dinner = Meat, Fruit, & Vegetable
• I try to make sure the vegetables and fruits are different to ensure he's getting a variety of nutrients.

Types of finger foods on the menu vary.  

Fruits include:

• banana
• mango
• peach
• pear
• plum
• Clementines
• strawberries
• peeled grapes
• halved blueberries
• applesauce

Vegetables include:

• frozen peas
• frozen broccoli florets
• sweet potato
• potato
• green beans
• beets
• squash
• zucchini
• eggplant
• frozen corn kernels

Proteins include:

• black beans
• cheese
• yogurt

Meats include:

• chicken
• ground turkey
• ground beef

Grains include:

• oatmeal
• brown rice
• brown rice cous cous
• pasta

Solids: Stage 3

Now that we are well into 8 months, I have progressed to my own version of "stage 3 solids."

In all my research, I have found that there is no set method that doctors and experts agree on.  Good news for me because I am trying to take a conservative approach, but I am certainly not following any set guide!

For me, Stage 3 means:

• Three meals a day.  
• Meals often include a mixed puree of several items.
• Add chicken to the diet--I plan to add other meats, too, as I have them on hand.
• Add more yogurt.
• Add some seasonings (cinnamon, garlic, cumin...okay, that's all I'm brave enough for so far!).
• Offer "puffs" and small pieces of banana or other soft foods to encourage chewing.
• Offer juice in a cup occasionally.  (I really started this because Will needed a little prune juice to help soften things up if you know what I mean!)

Some of my favorite purees right now:

• Mango, spinach, pear (blend raw in food processor...maybe add a little apple juice if you need it)
• Peach and dried apricot
• Broccoli and apple
• Pea and pear (sometimes I add green beans)
• Sweet Potato, pear, banana
• Sweet potato, banana, yogurt
• Chicken and dried apricot
• Chicken, rice, and veggies (any and all--I actually made and froze a chicken-vegetable-rice soup) 

Will still nurses 4-5 times a day.  I'm not pushing him to go less than this, but with night weaning, he has given up one feeding now in the middle of the night.

Happy Babycooking!

Solids: Stage 2

So after 3 and a half weeks, Will finally started to act like he enjoyed eating solids!  He actually opened his mouth and ate quite a bit of the purees he was offered.  It was time to move on and figure out the next stage of the mystery of weaning.

The pediatrician informed me that Will could now eat pretty much anything we were eating, just so long as it was cut up to the size of our pinky fingernail.  Not helpful.  When I gave Will tiny banana chunks that night, he nearly choked.  Like, I had to pull him out of the high chair and hit his back til he coughed it up. 

So, we needed to go a little slower.

Stage 2 weaning for me means:

• Offer food twice a day, 
• Offer mixed-ingredient purees, 
• Make the purees a little thicker (still no real lumps, though), 
• And add yogurt to our mix of cereals, vegetables, and fruits.  

I plan to continue this regimen until Will is 8 months old.  I am adding some blueberries and some citrus in the form of orange juice added to some of the purees.  Some sources advise against berries and citrus until 8 months, but my pediatrician said I could go for it.

Here's the list of things I have made so far or plan to make.  (Many of these I will mix with yogurt, breastmilk, oatmeal, or rice cereal for another variation.)

Vegetables

Carrots
with apples, peas, dried apricots, sweet potatoes, green beans, potato/brocooli, sweet potato/potato, pumpkin, parsnip, parsnip/sweet potato, corn

Peas
with carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, potato/broccoli, sweet potato/leek, pumpkin, corn, green beans

Broccoli
with carrots, potato, peas/potato, zucchini/potato, sweet potato, carrots/potato

Pumpkin
with peas, carrots, bananas, pear/apple juice, apples, orange juice

Sweet Potatoes
with peas/leek, carrots, potato/carrots, broccoli, peas, spinach, green beans, potato/zucchini, parsnip/carrots, pear, apple, banana

Potato
with broccoli, peas, carrots, sweet potato/carrots, broccoli/carrots, broccoli/peas, corn, spinach, parsnips, zuchinni/squash

Corn
with carrots, peas, potato

Spinach
with potato, squash, sweet potatoes, banana/yogurt/apple juice

Avacado
with banana

Green Beans
with carrot, sweet potato, peas

Squash
with pear, apple, sweet potato, zucchini/potato

Zucchini
with potato/broccoli, squash/potato

Parsnips
with apples/carrots, carrots, potato, sweet potato, pears


Fruit

Apples
with vegetables (any?), pear/banana, blueberry, raisins/orange juice, carrots/mango

Bananas
with avacado, apples/pears, apple/orange juice, peach, sweet potato, apple/prune juice, blueberries, peaches, avacado/pineapple/yogurt

Pears
with squash, sweet potatoes, blueberries, pears, apples

Papaya

Blueberries
with bananas (roasted?), pear

Mango
with apples/carrots

Peaches
with bananas

Dried Apricots
with apple/pear, plum

Plums
with prune juice/apples

Chemicals, Fillers, and Dyes...Oh My!

Ever since I found out I was pregnant I have been keenly aware of all of the chemicals, preservatives, additives, and other fake junk that enters our bodies.  I tried very hard during my pregnancy to avoid those kinds of things and eat as naturally as I could.  It wasn't easy.  A lot of my go-to items were suddenly off limits.  Yoplait Light Yogurt, granola bars, Diet Coke, Lean Cuisines, non-organic apples and peppers, salad dressings, Skinny Cow ice cream treats.  Ugh.  Not a pretty list.

When Will was born, I knew exactly what he was consuming, but I also became aware of all of the chemicals that touch his sensitive, innocent skin, like dyes in laundry detergent and fabric softener, and fragrances in baby body wash and lotions.  The pediatric dermatologist warned me against using Johnson and Johnson baby products in favor of Cetaphil, CeraVe, and Eucerin.  Johnson and Johnson has even been under fire for including known carcinogens in their baby products!

Now that he's eating, I want to make sure to avoid as man food chemicals in his food as I can.  I'm making my own food with organic produce and nothing else.  My friend's pediatrician warned her against Gerber baby food because it contains several fillers and is nutritionally depleted.  I bought organic brown rice cereal for Will thinking that it would be the best source of nutrition and the organic nature would be beneficial...only to hear that researchers are now finding elevated levels of arsenic in brown rice and particularly brown rice syrup used in infant formula!

It's a little frustrating when I'm trying to do the best I can for Will and constantly finding out that something ELSE is toxic or harmful.  It doesn't seem to stunning that diseases are still so prevalent in our country when you stop to examine all the junk we are putting in our bodies or rubbing on them.  It's downright scary, really.

All I can do is the best I can...for him, and for me and Alex.  Ultimately, our lives are in God's hands and there is no safer place to be.

Solids: Week 1

We are off and rolling on solid foods!  I have made carrots, sweet potatoes, and apples.  These I steamed, pureed, and froze using my awesome little Babycook food maker by Baeba and some Fresh Baby covered ice cube trays.  I bought organic rice cereal and oatmeal that is fortified with iron.

I feel so good knowing exactly what is in Will's food.  I used only organic produce and I added nothing to it.  I added back a lot of the steaming liquid to make the puree, so that allows even more nutrients to remain in the food.  Apparently, when food is steamed it retains more of its nutrients than when it is boiled (as is done for commercial baby food to preserve it longer).

So this week, our schedule looked like this:

Sunday: Rice cereal

Monday: Pureed Sweet Potatoes

Tuesday: Pureed Carrots

Wednesday: Pureed Apples

Thursday: Mashed Banana

Friday: Baby oatmeal

I am still nursing the same amount.  The goal of this week and next week is just to begin to allow him to taste food and learn to eat with a spoon.  I didn't realize how this was something that babies really have to LEARN how to do.  While nursing came so naturally, this is a different ball game.  He doesn't really seem to like any of this yet, and doesn't open his mouth for the spoon.  It will come in time, I'm sure.

Next week, I'll repeat this list and maybe begin to mix some of these same things together.

For practicality, I want to use up the food I've made, then I'll hit the store for some more food to try.  This is fun!

Solids

We started solids!  Will is 5 1/2 months old, and I started a couple of days before his official due date (he came a week late), so I was sure his intestines were ready to go.  He has nearly doubled his birth weight (he was born 9 lb 7 oz; he is now 18 lb 4 oz) and he is sitting up pretty well, and putting everything in his mouth.  He still isn't acting hungry after feedings or between them, and he isn't waking up more than once in the night, but I thought this was a good time to go ahead and give him s couple of tastes, just to get him used to the idea.

So, we started with just a teeny bit of rice cereal one day, watered-down pureed sweet potatoes the next, and pureed carrots the next day.  I plan to continue with a new food each day around lunch time so that if he has a reaction, I can spot it and trace it to a specific food.  I do not anticipate any food allergies since they do not run in my family or Alex's.  But, better safe than sorry.

The food has been met with mixed reaction.  He certainly doesn't seem to LIKE it.  I think he just doesn't know what to do with it!  It is so foreign to him...and yet to think of all the millions (billions) of bites of food he will have in his lifetime!  It was a memorable first! :)

Starting Solids

Will is now 5 1/2 months old...solids are just around the corner.  I could have started already according to my pediatrician, but Will hasn't been acting hungry or waking up extra in the night.  He is just starting to sit up pretty well, though, and I think I'm ready to begin this journey with him.  I want to make my own food as much as I can--but what food to start with?  What time of day?  How much?  When to increase?  How much breastfeeding do I maintain?  This is all a daunting task!

So, where to begin?  Well, I hit the library!  I'm reading up and getting a plan in place....  Exciting!