Introducing Solids
When my daughter, Jane, turned four months old, Adam and I were beyond excited when her pediatrician recommended that we start feeding solids. We started small with oatmeal followed by sweet potatoes, which she absolutely hated. Over time we were able to find solids that she enjoyed and solids that she enjoyed most of the time. She hates carrots when I make them for her, but she seems to love carrots when grandma makes them. I need to figure out her secret. Many first experiences with feeding solids were camera worthy, such as the time we fed her peas and she refused to eat it with a spoon. No, she preferred to lick it off her bib (see video). Feeding her solids were not the only challenge we faced. How many parents found the transition from bottle to sippy cup painful?
For The Love Of Puffs
By seven months, we started feeding her puffs. Puffs are perfect for infants who are ready to feed themselves and practice some light chewing. The puffs dissolve in the mouth quickly and come in many flavors that are commonly favored by infants. Jane loves the blueberry flavor puffs. At first, I broke the puffs in half before giving them to her one at a time. She had some trouble with coordination as it took some time for her to effectively pick up a puff and bring it from tray to mouth. After some time, she got the hang of it and can now eat full puffs when I place them on her tray. Actually, she enjoys them so much you would think we were placing a large bowl of ice cream in front of her.
Introducing The Sippy Cup
By eight months, we introduced the sippy cup. She absolutely hated the thing! Instead of drinking her milk or water from the sippy cup, she filled her mouth with the liquid and spit it out. It created a mess and Jane didn’t benefit in any nutritional way. Instead, she got some entertainment and giggles in from playing with her food. I tried verbal discipline, such as saying “Jane, no” in a stern voice, taking the sippy cup away for a few minutes before trying again and showing her the correct way to drink from the sippy cup by imitating the motions, but my efforts didn’t get us anywhere for some time.
By 12 months, we started noticing a change in her eating habits. She developed an independence when eating; always wanting to feed herself. she also started accepting the sippy cup with water during meals. Determined to remove the bottle from Jane’s daily routine, we only fed her a bottle in the evening during her bedtime routine. We are still battling the occasional gulp and spit game that she loves so much, but when she is thirsty, she drinks like a pro.
Feeding A One Year Old
Now that Jane is one, her pediatrician along with several parenting books I have read explain that Jane should be feeding herself by hand and with a spoon. While she mastered feeding herself by hand at seven month, she thinks the spoon is still a toy that makes loud noises when pounding on the high chair tray or fun to throw across the dining room. Often, she refuses to allow us to feed her by spoon because she is determined to feed herself by hand. Not a bad trait to have at times. She is also expected to eat her food from a plate. So we purchased some children’s plates with suction at the base. They work great and she thinks it’s fun to eat off something so colorful.
I still run into the challenge of trusting the process. As a new mom, each stage is a new adventure for me as well as Jane so I am always concerned with the following:
- Fear of Choking – Even though I have gone through many CPR and first aid classes, I fear that she will choke on the food I give her. I know what to do, but I second guess the effectiveness of my efforts if such an event were to happen. To prevent choking, I’ve cut all her food into small bites and made sure that each serving is soft and can easily be chewed. She still chokes on some bites, leaving me a little concerned, but she recovers quickly with a smile to reassure me that she is okay.
- Messy Mealtimes – Mealtimes are very messy. Last night was pasta night so we prepared the noodles to be extra mushy and added some delicious meat sauce. Jane gobbled it up. With every handful of food, half made it in her mouth while the other half either collected on her bib or dropped to the tray, lap or floor where our dog, Bella, was quick to clean (gobble) it up. I know it’s inevitable to have a messy experience with each meal and it’s something I need to get used to even though the clean freak in me is screaming.
- Allergies to Foods – Is she going to have an allergic reaction to the foods we feed her? You never know. As far as we know, our daughter is only allergic to milk, which she has outgrown. Finding out that she had a milk allergy was a nightmare! She was vomiting often and she seemed to have a runny nose that wouldn’t quit. Her pediatrician urged us to try a different formula and give it time to work its way into her system to see if it would make a difference. We started feeding her Nutramigen and she has been doing very well since. It’s a very scary thing to watch your child work his/her way through an illness and have limited tools to make him/her better. All I could do was give Jane endless amounts of love and comfort and follow the doctor’s recommendations.
Quick Food Prep For Your Infant On A Budget
Until recently, my husband and I prepared meals for Jane well in advance; that is because we are now trying to feed her what we eat each day. When we prepared the meals in advance, we selected foods that provided her a well balanced diet. It was a little challenging because Jane favors fruit over vegetables, like most children I know. In preparing the food, we made sure that the fruit, vegetable, chicken, etc. were soft and easy to chew. Between the age of six months to eleven months, we would prepare and puree her food in advance. Since we keep busy schedules, we would fill ice cube trays with the pureed food and freeze them. Once frozen, we would place them in labeled ziplock baggies to consume later. It was a lifesaver on busy days.
Preparing her meals in advance were very easy. Jane’s favorite freezable meals were squash, zucchini, strawberries, applesauce and cantaloupe. I often froze pureed ground turkey and mixed it with her zucchini or squash. To add some grain to her fruit dishes, I’ll added oatmeal (with grain). She liked that very much. Now that Jane’s eating a wider variety of solids, she is eating the same meals that Adam and I eat chopped into baby bite size. In the mornings, Jane enjoys eggs with whole grain toast or half a banana with cereal (whole grain cheerios) and she usually eats a wide variety of meals for lunch and dinner. She has come to love spaghetti night and will gobble up chicken and potatoes. We give her a sippy cup with milk with each meal and water in between meals or with her snacks.
What To Look Forward To
Close are the days that Jane will say “thank you mommy” when I place her meal in front of her. Close are the days that I won’t have to cut her food into small bite sizes. Someday my husband and I won’t have to take a wet cloth to our baby girl and scrub the floor under her high chair after each meal. We’ve started taking her out for ice cream after a trip to the doctor’s which she enjoys very much. Slowly, feeding Jane has gotten to be less scary, more work and eventful.
Thank you!
As always, I want to thank you for reading my blog. Please share and leave a comment. I’d love to learn more about how you have transitioned your child into eating different foods and drinking from different cups.