Reflecting on the Journey

Boo is now 17 months old. He eats a variety of foods with a variety of textures and flavors. I have always offered a variety of things, whether they appeared "kid friendly" or not. The one alteration I make is that things are not as spicy as I would like them. This is both for the benefit of my husband and for Boo. Boo has tried spicy salsas and stuff though when I have them out. And I would say it's looking like he's going to take after his mama in that department!

Would I do BLW again? Absolutely. Boo always has been in charge of what goes into his mouth. He's always been able to select from his tray what he wants. If he doesn't eat much of a certain meal or even on a certain day he makes up for it. I've never had a problem with Boo being able to handle a food that he could get into his mouth. If it was something he wasn't ready to swallow he just spit it out after tasting it. No harm done. Granted, some obvious hazards were not given to him. It does require some common sense.

We will continue with BLW and the spirit of BLW will live long after he's weaned. I hope that food continues to feel adventurous to him and that he continues to live tasting a wide variety of foods.

Boo Amazes Me

Boo continues to amaze me with the variety of foods that he will eat. Yesterday's daycare menu had a couple of new foods on it. We had Italian Bread and Cheese Soup. It was so yummy! I'd post the recipe, but I got it from a cookbook, so I'm pretty sure that would be a copyright violation. I got it out of a cookbook entitled, "Simple Suppers." It's a Moosewood Restaurant cookbook. Boo loved his soup and scarfed it down. Of course he ate the cheese off of the top first and then ate the rest of the soup. He loves cheese!

Afternoon snack was green olive tapenade on whole grain melba. I didn't have high hopes with this one. Nope - he scarfed it down. I'd love to say that it was this lovely homemade tapenade, but no, it was a jar of store bought tapenade. He actually ate the tapenade first and then started in on the melba. Although, that's the way he does with almost any topping!

Sick Boo and Thankful To Be Nursing

Sadly Boo has not been eating much these past few days. He's sick. He has an ear infection and a sinus infection. I've tried to get him to eat and he'll take a bite here and there, but mostly just throws it. He's nursing like a newborn though. I'm really thankful that he's still nursing actually because that's about all he'll eat right now while sick. He will drink water also. Interestingly enough, I tried Pedialyte and he won't touch it. He'll drink his water, but not Pedialyte. I really think the nursing has helped though as I've been watching him for signs of dehydration. He's got a bit of diarrhea due to the antibiotic.

All in all, I'm thankful to be nursing him still. I think I'd be a lot more panicked about his level of food intake if he wasn't nursing right now. Not to mention he feels like complete crap and it's so comforting to him. Nothing comforts him like a nursing session does. I would encourage anyone who tries to do BLW to try extended nursing along with it. I'm a little amazed at how natural it all seems and how much we both seem to enjoy this.

How to eat a rice cake w/ almond butter and banana

According to Boo:


1. Pick off banana slices and put on side of plate.
2. Pick off almond butter with fingers and suck off until rice cake is almost clean.
3. Eat rice cake.

Chili

Given the cooler weather I felt that it was time for a nice pot of chili. So I threw everything together this morning and set the crockpot to go. It was a great lunch for the daycare, as I didn't have to mess with it much. I did tweak the recipe a bit. The recipe is one that I found online. Here's a link:

Crock Pot Chili Recipe

I added a few more cans of diced tomatoes, a couple of cans of tomato paste, and some water. I don't like my chili thick. If you like thick chili then I'd leave this recipe alone as far as that goes. I didn't add the jalopenos as I had two toddlers partaking. I especially wasn't sure how the dc kiddo would do with spice, so I kept the "kick factor" down a bit. I added 1/2 teaspoon less tabasco. I think if I was making this just for the family, I'd add the jalopeno, the amount of tabasco in the recipe, and a bit more chili powder. But anyways, it turned out absolutely delicious!

If I'd been thinking about it I would've taken pictures. Both boys decided that their chili did not belong in the bowl, but on the table. What a mess!

Sitting at the Big Boy Table

For at least 2, maybe 3 weeks Boo has been eating many meals at a small table instead of the highchair. I'm in the process of building a home daycare business and we have one full-time dc kid right now who's a few months older than Boo. Boo is now 15 months old. So I decided to try them on the table as previously Boo was in a highchair and the dc kiddo was in a booster seat. Well, he does wonderfully at the table. He definitely needs reminders to sit at the table, but I think he does wonderful. For dinner he's often in the highchair simply because we're eating at the big table as a family. But I think it's great that he's gotten so much practice eating at a real table. He also does really well with an open cup. Yes, there are still times when he chooses to dump his drink all over himself rather than drink it. But overall, he does really well. I know I'm boasting here. I can't help it. I get so proud of all the little things that he learns to do!

He is a bit pickier now that he's a big toddler, but he still does really great overall. There are some days where he looks at a food and I can just hear his brain saying, "Really? This is for lunch. You've got to be kidding me."

Plates, silverware, and cups...oh my!

Vow to Self

- From here on out, I'm going to be better at giving Boo plates, silverware, and open cups to experiment with. I'm going to try not to just throw food on his tray as though it were a trough. I'm going to actually remember to get out a plate and place his food nicely on the plate, even if it only stays there for a short while. I'm going to give him silverware so that he can at least recognize there's another option aside from fingers (even if he chooses not to try it). I'm going to give him his open cup more because the cheesy grin he gives when he gets to slop water all over himself from the open cup is just priceless.

Eating on the Run

There's a problem in our eating that I'm struggling to fix. Whenever we get busy, meaning if we have anything going on during the evening at all, we end up eating out. And it's so awful. Usually the food is not very healthy. It's expensive and we really can't afford to eat out that often anyways. But I find that this happens over and over because the majority of what I buy is just not quick to prepare. So I'm trying to figure out what to do about this. I think it's really putting a wrench in the works as far as the healthy eating goes. Perhaps I would start to see some change in my health if it weren't for the eating out. And yes, this problem happens pretty regularly. And it's not stuff Boo should be eating either. I don't want him to get in the habit of eating junk just because he's in a hurry. And honestly, sometimes it's not because I'm in a hurry. Sometimes this happens because I'm just tired and can't imagine dragging myself into the kitchen to fix a meal. So, I need to figure this out for us to be more successful in our journey of healthy eating and teaching Boo good eating habits.

Almondapplicious Banana Grill

That's what I'm calling what we had for lunch today. I used sourdough bread. On one side was almond butter. The other side I put unsweetened applesauce. For the filling I cut thin slices of banana - I think it could be overkill if the banana was too thick. I then grilled this just like you would a grilled cheese. This was so yummy. Boo and I both approved. Although Boo prefers to pull his sandwich apart and eat the insides, then suck on the bread!

Quinoa Pilaf with Feta

We had this last night. So, Boo loved this and I loved it. T hated it. He's fed up with the vegetarian meals...LOL! I got it out of a Moosewood Restaurant Cookbook entitled "Simple Suppers." Someone recommended it to me and I think it's pretty great!

And by the way, quinoa is pronounced "keen-wa". Oops...and all this time I was saying "quin-oh-uh". My bad. A friend recommended this product and I'm glad that we tried it. It was super easy to prepare and I could definitely see this going with a lot of things.

We had the leftovers for breakfast this morning as we got around pretty late and I just didn't feel like making much, what with my recently sprained ankle and all. Yes, I'm afraid that it's made me quite lazy!

No Battles

You know one thing I really appreciate about BLW thus far. No battles. He eats what he wants and leaves what he doesn't. I really think that's the way to go. I know there's people that would disagree and go on about nutrition and this and that. I could see that if I was giving him veggies and ice cream all the time and he chooses to eat only the ice cream. But I'm making healthy choices for our family and he's being exposed to those healthy things. I'm not saying that I've never made a bad choice, because we ordered pizza over the weekend. So, I am human. BUT, overall he's presented with healthy items and he picks and chooses which of them to eat. I feel that it's extremely respectful of him as a person. I mean, I'd be pissed if someone told me I HAD to eat brussel sprouts. I HATE them and I know I'll make up that nutrition in other ways.

As Boo gets older I plan to continue the spirit of BLW. Granted he won't be a baby anymore. But I don't think that once he's two or three or whatever we'll all of a sudden decide now we have to change the way he's presented with food. I grew up under the "clean your plate" mentality. And look where that got me. I'm just in the past year learning how to make healthy choices and prepare healthy meals. I'm proud to say that I now shop the perimeter of the grocery store, which is the "healthy" thing to do. I also incorporate lots of vegetables and legumes into our diet. I'm getting better at it as I do this more and more. But anyways, my point is that if I'm just now learning how to eat healthy at 29 years old, then the "clean your plate" mentality did nothing for me as far as healthy eating goes. Just something to consider.

Some food for thought. Okay - I just HAD to throw in the bad pun!

Yesterday's Picnic

Yesterday we had a picnic. Boo ate really nicely. He sat on the blanket for part of the picnic and then he sat on my lap for a bit too. He had cold sesame noodles. I got the recipe off of one of the vegetarian blogs I've been reading:

Cold Sesame Noodle recipe

You'll have to do a search, but you'll find it. Anyways, it's a great recipe. I've made it twice in the past couple of weeks as we strive to be more vegetarian-like lately. Boo loves it even though it's got a bit of a kick to it with the red pepper flakes. It was perfect to take to a picnic.

I took some homemade salsa with my fresh garden tomatoes. YUMMM!!! This is the first time that I've gotten to make my salsa with tomatoes from my garden. It was so good. Anyways, Boo had a bit of that on top of some melba toast.

And then of course he had blueberries. It wouldn't be a summer picnic without some fresh fruit. He did so well sitting on the blanket and eating. I was pretty impressed with him!

Cleaning Boo

I decided to post this as there were some questions about cleaning children during the BLW process. I am by no means an expert. I've just found some things that work for us and if it can help someone else in their journey, then that's wonderful. Anyways, first thing that helps is a good highchair. Nothing with cloth. I've never had a highchair with cloth on it, but I can only imagine the horrible mess it would be. Crevices are bad too as they will get filled with gunk. We use the antilop highchair from IKEA and I couldn't be happier with the choice. There are some cuter options out there, but honestly, I don't feel a need to have something with animal or nursery print in the middle of my kitchen. Here's a link to the highchair in case you're looking for one:

IKEA Highchair

The tray comes separately so be sure to get the tray also!

Good full-coverage bibs. I've read on my BLW yahoo group that some people are using muslin tied around the baby. I think that would also do the job quite nicely. Here's what I use:

I-Play Bibs

One thing I've done is put some soap and water in a spray bottle. I use Dr. Bronner's, but you can use any mild soap that you like. Often I will spray Boo down before he even leaves the highchair. Then I may follow with a wet paper towel. If he's not that messy I may skip the initial spraying and just carry him to the sink to wash his hands in the faucet. One day after blackberries I just plopped his entire body into the sink for an impromptu bath. Most days though I just get what I can. If there's food dangling from his hair I'll scrub his head with the cloth and get the food out and send him on his way to play!

So hopefully this will be helpful to someone in the journey of BLW!

Toddlerhood

Well, it's been a long time. I'm afraid that I've neglected this blog. Bad bad. And here I had this vision of helping to bring BLW to moms in the US. I guess I have to keep up the blog if I'm going to be of inspiration to everybody.

So here's where we're at. Boo loves to eat and I get excited about the variety of things that he loves. He's tried my homemade salsa - which does have a bit of a kick to it - and he loves it. Just this last week I discovered that he LOVES chickpeas and lentils. The chickpeas I shouldn't be suprised as he loves humus. The lentils he really chowed down on. We tried scrambled tofu today...a new one for both of us. Boo LOVED it and so did I. It was extremely tasty.

I can tell he's entering toddlerhood though in that he definitely has those picky days that are so typical of this stage. There are days that he'd eat nothing but fruit if he could. In the spirit of BLW I try to let him pick and choose for himself. However, I've found that if fruit is part of the meal I must hide it until the end. I found out the hard way that too much fruit makes for really awful diapers. And since we're doing cloth diapering it's even worse. I won't go into detail, but I'm sure you can imagine!

We're in "extended breastfeeding" now. In the US pretty much anything past a year is considered "extended breastfeeding." How sad since so many other countries don't think anything of breastfeeding beyond a year. So Boo is 13 months now. I haven't gotten any weird looks yet for continuing to nurse him, but I imagine as he gets older the looks will come. The World Health Organization recommends that children be breastfed until the age of two at least. So that's my goal. I really want as much as possible to allow Boo to take the lead on his weaning, rather than forcing my own agenda on him. I've been trying to do some reading on extended breastfeeding. Perhaps when I get some time I'll post some links to articles and such.

Eating Machine

Boo is an eating machine. He doesn't turn his nose up at too many things. According to grandma, he does not like honeydew melon or brussel sprouts. I'm not with him during the day so I haven't seen him try these foods yet, but I can't say I blame him on either accounts. I don't care for honeydew or brussel sprouts. He loves avocado which grosses grandma out to no end. She hates avocado.

Dinner can be hit or miss depending on how busy the night gets. I'm trying to be more consistent with it. But I do keep reminding myself "Food is for fun until one." That's my favorite BLW saying and I repeat it to myself when I'm feeling incompetent due to a less than wonderful spread for that night's dinner. It's very hard to be a working mother and accomplish all of the tasks that I want to do in a day. And BLW can be messy and time-consuming. I think it's time consuming in that you're not able to just spoon-feed something in quickly. However, it saves time because baby eats at the same time that you do! It's just the mess afterwards that gets a bit old. But it's all in the fun of being a parent I suppose.

Boo loves baked beans. He thinks they're wonderful. I'm not a fan of baked beans and it's not something we have often at all. But he's had them two or three times.

I let him try a bit of dairy now that he's a bit older. Just some cheese. He thinks cheese is pretty spectacular. Is there a kid out there that doesn't like cheese?

Well, anyways, this is just a little bit of this and that to kind of talk about our progress.

Boo's First Highchair Meal

Well, our highchair came yesterday. We got the Antilop highchair from IKEA. The price is right and it's nice because there are no crevices. So it's spray and wipe. Very easy to clean. And we sure put it to the test. Last night was tacos. Silly mommy only bought hard shells, so Boo didn't get any taco shell. But he got taco meat (ground beef), black refried beans, and homemade guacamole. Boy did he love that! I got pics, but of course will have to wait to get them developed. He was quite a mess by the time that he was done. I didn't know where to start! One thing about BLW is it is very very messy. I think I've griped about that before. I wouldn't trade it for anything though because he LOVES his food. None of this spitting it out at us or trying to push it away. He can't get to it fast enough most days. He eats such a variety of things too. Grandma's been doing a great job giving him breakfast and lunch. While I'm not so naive to think she's not sneaking in some spoon feeding here and there, she really does follow the self-feeding quite well. So I'm pretty excited about that. He's definitely with great people while I work. But I guess that's off topic. Well, anyways, I have to run. I just wanted to update again!

So Many Foods, So Little Time

Hello there! I am guilty of getting behind on my blogging. I admit that since returning to work this has dropped on my priority list a bit. I really do want to learn to keep up with these blogs though. So I'll keep trying.

As far as BLW goes, Boo has had many wonderful things. He eats all three meals a day now. He started breakfasts a couple of weeks ago when I started work. So far it's usually english muffin with fruit or oatmeal with fruit. Although, he doesn't seem to be a big fan of his oatmeal. And lunch was started this week. At this point I'm very unadventurous with lunch and it's usually dinner leftovers from the night before.

Here's some thinks Boo has had:

Steak and smashed potatoes with gravy. He loved sucking on the steak. He absolutely adored the smashed potatoes with gravy. He kept looking at me with this smile on his face. I think he would've been happy just to eat a big pile of gravy, but I won't cater to that!

He's had garlic bread and really thought that was wonderful.

He's had honey mustard chicken.

He's had asparagus and green beans.

BBQ Beef Brisket, baked beans, and cornbread. That was tonight's meal.

I have some film developed that has pics of him eating. As soon as I get the chance I'll post some of those on here.

Oh, and I must say that grandma is doing much better with the BLW. She's the one that feeds him most of the time since I work full time now and has been pretty cooperative. Now I'm not naive enough to think that she doesn't help him along with a spoon on occasion. But I'm going to pick my battles and let this one slide.

Boo has not been starving this week

Hello! I just wanted to inform everyone that Boo has not been starving this week. I have been feeding him. I started a new job on Monday and we're still adjusting here. I am planning on keeping this blog going. I feel that it's really important to have as many resources as possible about BLW, so I'm pretty motivated to work on this. So I imagine that the longer I work I will get into a routine that works and be able to keep up a bit better.

As far as Boo's eating goes we did add in breakfast this week. Especially with me working I wanted him to have more opportunity to eat solids as it's really hard to pump enough milk for him every day. I've done it so far though. Yay!

For breakfast Boo has had oatmeal pretty much every morning this week. Boring that it's the same, but I'll try him out on pancakes this weekend and try to make up a bunch and freeze them.

Dinner was pretty boring most times. Last night was something new. I made honey mustard chicken wings. I know you're not supposed to give honey to infants, but the honey was cooked, so I imagine that's different. Anyways, he just got strips of the meat, not the skin anyways. He really seemed to like the chicken. And then he got some steamed broccoli with that.

Ham

Well, we did ham for dinner. Today was my first day at work since Boo's arrival and in the interest of making it easy on myself I threw a bunch of ham and cannelini beans with some water in a crockpot this morning and let it stew all day. I gave Boo some of the ham. Honestly it wasn't a great choice. I think the ham was way too salty. I didn't add any salt, but I cooked it with the bone for maximum flavor and it turned out pretty salty. I don't think Boo ate enough of it for this to be a problem, but I think I'm going to hold off on ham for quite some time. He really wasn't that interested in eating tonight either. Usually he's so excited. He got his usual initial excitement, but it died out really quickly. I think it had to do with me going back to work today. Today was my first day back at work and Boo was really anxious to see me. He kept trying to grab my hand and play with it and was more interested in me than the food. So his excitement with his food died away quickly and he signaled me to let him out. His signal usually consists of rocking in his chair and ignoring his food. So it's just as well since ham wasn't a great choice in the first place. So we just had a short dinner with lots of quality time and cuddles afterwards.

Oatmeal and Banana for Breakfast

Well, we tried Boo on oatmeal with a bit of banana mixed in to sweeten it up. He's had it a couple of times now. He had it on Sunday night for dinner so that I could see how he would do with it before giving the okay to start having oatmeal for breakfast. He did great. I wanted to get a pic of his oatmeal face, but my hands were so disgusting when it was all over that I dare not touch my camera. He really enjoyed pulling the spoon towards his mouth once it was loaded up. And he also enjoyed sticking his hand in the bowl and mushing the oatmeal between his fingers. Of course! So Boo got oatmeal and banana again for breakfast today. He's starting breakfasts finally! Yay - two meals a day. Woo hoo. Once I've adjusted to being back at work (I started today) I'll add in lunches. He's pretty content with his lot right now, so no huge rush.

Whole wheat english muffin and banana

Well, Boo had a whole wheat english muffin and banana. Sooo, here we go to see how he does with wheat. Although I'm pretty sure the saltine that I let him snake from me yesterday has wheat in it too. He was just looking at me with his big eyes while I was eating my saltine and cheese, so mommy caved and gave him a saltine. Not the best choice I know as they're a bit salty, but they're the only salty thing he had that day and he certainly didn't have enough of it for it to be of concern. He LOVES banana. He looked at me with this huge smile on his face after sucking on the banana. He didn't really eat much of the muffin. He mostly sucked the banana off of it and spit the muffin out. Oh well, I'm sure he'll learn to love them once he's better at chewing them. But what's not to love about banana? It's so sweet. I'm sure he felt like he was getting a great treat.

Turkey and Apple and High Chairs

Yes, it is the same turkey from yesterday. But I added apple today. We did slices. Today Boo did not do great with the apple. He was having a pretty rough time of it. So I've decided that I'll soften apple slices for him next time he does apple instead of giving it to him raw. We'll see how that goes.

I am anxiously awaiting our tax return so that I can get Boo a high chair. I can't wait. There's quite a few moms who practice BLW who love the Antilop high chair from Ikea. At $18 for the chair and $5 for the tray the price is right. Those are approximations...not the exact price. Oh well, I might as well look it up now. Okay...it's $18.99 for the high chair. Pardon me. Anyways, it's not much to look at, but at least it doesn't look like a nursery vomit all over it. Here's what people like about it. It's plastic with no crevices. So it's pretty easy to clean up. It is polypropylene as opposed to polycarbonate which makes me happy. Polypropylene is a much safer choice when it comes to plastic.

Ikea Highchair

Here's another high chair that I like, but it's not nearly so cheap.

Euro II Highchair

I may have to break down and get it someday though. It's beautiful and it adjusts so that it can be used for all ages, all the way up through teens! Now I can't see having my teenager sit in the same chair all the way up through childhood, but it's nice to know that the option is there. But I could definitely see using it up until junior high as it's height adjustable. The Euro II is much more affordable than similar models that I've seen, such as the Tripp Trapp or the Keekaroo.

Anyways, I did not mean to go on and on so much about high chairs, but oh well. I did and now that's that.

Turkey and Sweet Potato Steak Fries

Well, sorry I missed posting a couple of days. But there was nothing really exciting going on in the food department anyways. Well, he did try a bit of wheat toast with banana on it over the weekend. He seemed to like it. I smeared the banana on as a spread and left a dry bit for a handle. Of course he grabbed the mushy end!

Anyways, last night was turkey and sweet potato steak fries. I just cut my sweet potatoes like I would for regular steak fries and put them in the oven with a bit of salt and pepper and coconut oil. I forgot to leave the salt out. Oops. Oh well. I'm not too worried. It wasn't much. Babies are supposed to stay under 1 gram of salt a day. I know that he had nowhere near that much. The turkey was a turkey steak that we got from the meat department at the grocery store. I tore him some strips that he could pick up and eat. At this point he still mostly sucks on his meat. I tried tearing it into smaller pieces to test and see how his pincer grasp is coming. He's not really there yet, so we'll continue with the chip shape.

Pizza and Apple

Tonight's dinner was pizza and apple. The pizza was a Digourno. Yes, I realize that it was processed crap. I'm not perfect. Anyways, I picked off the cheese and topping and let him have chip-shaped pieces. So it was basically crust and sauce. Yes, I know, not the most nutritious choice. But I feel we do pretty well most days, so it was frozen pizza tonight. The apple I tried a couple of ways. I peeled it and cut some slices. I also gave him half an apple and let him try to pick it up and gnaw on it that way. He seemed to prefer the slices. Boo got a bit frustrated trying to pick up the other half of the apple in one piece. It kept slipping out of his hands. The verdict? Boo LOVED the pizza. Of course. The apple he liked as long as it was the slices. He was just too frustrated with the big apple piece that he couldn't seem to get to his mouth.

Steamed Zucchini and Steak Fries

Well, tonight's meal was steamed zucchini and steak fries. I have to say that the zucchini might as well have been pureed. I steamed it a bit too long so that it was extremely soft. It pretty much mushed together while being picked up. So not great for self-feeding. But Boo happily played with it just the same. He's such a good sport with this whole thing. He really enjoyed the steak fries. I made them at home so they had no salt.

Oh...and I wanted to pass along some clarification on "chip shape" that I came across in the BLW Yahoo group I participate in. Chip shape is like a thick french fry here in the US as that's what a chip is in the UK. And since BLW came out of the UK that's why the ideal shape is called "chip shape" and not "fry shape".

I'm really excited about our upcoming tax return. I'm going to get Boo a highchair. We're making do with what we have, but there's tons of crevices and it's a pain to clean. I've heard good things about the highchair that IKEA sells and it's super cheap. That's a double plus.

Rice Cake with Avocado and Carrot

Okay, I'm sure you're all thinking "Enough with the avocado and carrot and rice cakes already." Ideally, I'd love to be providing Boo with a different food experience nearly every night with new tastes to discover. However, I live in the real world where money doesn't grow on trees. So, I'm working with what we currently have. I remember reading on one of the BLW sites that re-heating of leftovers is not recommended for this. While I would love to provide fresh food and can see why this would be ideal, I have no shame in admitting that we use leftovers and I refuse to simply let them go to waste. So Boo eats leftovers with the rest of us.

Turkey, carrot, and smashed potatoes (dairy free)

Well, last night's dinner was turkey, carrot, and smashed potatoes. The potatoes were dairy-free as I'm not sure Boo can handle dairy. He's had an awful rash on his bum which I think could be from the accidental dairy he had the other day. It's looking a lot better now though.

The turkey he just kind of sucked on and spat out once he had gotten his sucking enjoyment out of it. He's a pro at the steamed carrot by now. In fact, that's the first thing he went for. I loaded his spoon with the potato, but he seemed to prefer to grab at the potato with his hands. He especially enjoyed biting on his spoon. It's the kind of spoon that has a soft end, so it probably feels great on his gums.

Anyways, I have to admit that cleaning food up night after night gets to be a bit much sometimes. It's times like that where I wonder, "Wouldn't a puree be less messy? Sure he'd get it on his chin and stuff, but not all over his body or the floor (or splashmat in our case)." But it's one of the realities of BLW. And Boo really really enjoys it. So I couldn't see another way for us. I do love that it fits right into natural life for us. I don't have to slave away making homemade purees on the weekends. That parts kind of nice. So BLW has its pros and cons. I personally think the pros outweigh the cons though.

Taking It Easy

Well, today we took it easy with food. Boo has a diaper rash and his bum is red. It's possible that it's a reaction to the accidental dairy the other day. Or it could be that he's responding to one of the newer things he's had. Or it could be his cloth diapers. He just got some new ones, well, used, but new to him. So it's possible that there could be detergent build up from the previous owner. Or it could be teething. I've heard some babies will get a rash when they teethe. So, anyways, without knowing what's caused his little bum to be all rashy I decided not to introduce anything new for maybe a week. We'll go over some of our foods that we've had and see how it goes. We were going to start Boo on lunches this week, but seeing as we won't be able to grocery shop until next week lunches will be delayed. Oh well. This might be best anyway while we get his little bum all better.

Cauliflower and Asparagus

Tonight Boo had cauliflower and asparagus. I actually made a recipe that was macaroni and cheese with cauliflower mixed in, but since I'm still holding off on dairy with Boo I just set aside some cauliflower for him. The asparagus was roasted in the oven with olive oil and garlic. He liked to gum on the asparagus. I'm sure he was able to swallow bits of the asparagus tops, but not so much of the stem. Of course I'll know for sure when I see his next dirty diaper. The cauliflower he did alright with. I noticed though that he didn't sit eating for too long before he was all done (i.e. puts his hands out as if to say "Take me out please."). So I'm not sure if he wasn't as crazy about the meal. I have yet to see anything that he rejects outright though. So far Boo eats anything I put in front of him. Hooray for a good eater!

Hudson's Baked Tilapia with Dill Sauce

Seafood for dinner. We had baked tilapia with dill sauce and a side of steamed carrots. Mmmm...yummy. I think Boo liked it. I felt like tilapia was a nice choice for a first fish. Extremely low in mercury, so safe on that front. There's a website where you can find the mercury content of different seafood items and what amount is appropriate for your weight.

Got Mercury Website

The tilapia had cajun seasoning and lemon on it. Boo didn't seem to mind the spicy cajun seasoning. A boy after his mamma's heart! The dill sauce had dairy in it. We were holding off on dairy due to concerns with food sensitivities, but I gave him some of the sauce without thinking about it (bad mommy moment). And he seems fine so far, so maybe he's gotten a lot more tolerant of it. I'm not about to break out the milk though. Of course, with all that I've read about cow's milk, I'm not sure that I ever want to touch raw milk ever again - let alone let Boo have it. So we'll see on that one. Of course, sour cream is still a dairy product. Anywho, I'm straying from the topic at hand. Here's a link to the recipe that I used:

Allrecipes Tilapia Recipe

Chicken and Rice Cake with Avocado

Last night's meal was chicken again. Yes, I realize this makes me rather unadventurous. However, I will say it was prepared differently. T and I had chicken chili, so I took the chicken out of that for Boo. It had some nice chili flavor to it. So in my defense it was different from the chicken he had last night. And since that was all that I cooked last night Boo had a rice cake with some avocado to go with his chili. Those rice cakes come in handy, but I wonder if I'm overusing them a bit? Hmmm....They're just so great as a palette for mushy foods. It's so much easier for Boo to eat the avocado off of a rice cake versus picking up the slimy pieces of avocado. Perhaps it's time to introduce some toast? I'm a little nervous about the wheat with him being pretty sensitive to foods in my milk when he was a bit younger. He seems to handle things much better now. Although his cheeks do still get flaming red from time to time.

Oh, and I bought some vinyl from Jo-Ann's yesterday and made a splash mat. Yay! Clean-up was so much better. No more nasty food on the carpet. Well, he did manage to get a piece or two off of the mat, but not like it was.

T and I decided that we'll add in lunch on Monday. We'll give that a week or two and then it'll be breakfast. Oh my...more meals to prepare! Plus, I'm going to be starting a new job on the 25th of February, so I imagine I'm going to have to use my weekends to prepare things ahead of time that freeze well.

Chicken and Spinach

Well, yesterday's dinner was chicken and spinach. The chicken was boiled so it was nice and soft. Boo seemed to really enjoy shoving it in his mouth. I'm not sure how much of it he actually swallowed. The spinach was steamed with olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice. I've made the spinach that way before except without the lemon juice. I got the idea from another blogger on the lemon juice. My husband was not excited about the addition of lemon juice, so next time it will just be olive oil and garlic. Anyways, I wish I'd had the camera ready during Boo's first bite of spinach. It was hysterical. He made such a funny face and spit it back out. I think the new flavors just startled him a bit. After that first bite he was happy to try and shove it back in. I think it was the lemon juice. He made such a sour face.

Rice Cake with Hummus and Broccoli

Sorry I've missed a few days. I have been feeding my child. However, we had a few non-exciting days in a row. Today wasn't really exciting since it's nothing new. Although the hummus recipe I used was different and I thought much better. Boo ate dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's. They actually had a chair we could use. It's the kind that attaches to a regular chair and harnesses the child in. Yay! It was so nice for Boo to have a tray. I didn't have to use my hand to "be the tray" while he ate. So since Grandma and Grandpa aren't using that handy device I got to bring it home. I'm so excited. I've been so frustrated with not having a highchair and this will definitely be sufficient for now. Boo really seems to enjoy the rice cake and hummus. The broccoli he doesn't have a problem with, but it does seem that he prefers the rice cake with the hummus to the broccoli. He did end up wearing quite a bit of his broccoli and much of it made it's way down under the tray into his lap. But oh well, that's all part of the experience!

Carrot Poo

It has arrived! Finally...a sign that Boo is actually ingesting some of this food. He had a carrot poo...smelled exactly like carrot with little bits thrown in. Very lovely to look at. And yes, his crazy mom was inspecting it very closely.

Sweet Potato and Canteloupe

Today's food was sweet potato and canteloupe. We went out to eat with Grandma and my brother and sister-in-law. My meal was conveniently served with a triangle of canteloupe as was everyone else's. So Boo had two wedges of canteloupe and LOVED it. He does not get that from me. I hate canteloupe. He also got to have sweet potato. He really enjoyed shoveling it into his mouth with his adult-size restaurant spoon. It was pretty comical.

I'm still waiting on some evidence of food ingestion in Boo's diapers. Once I see some evidence that he's swallowing I'll start offering him food at lunch also. So I'm hopeful for a telling poo soon.

Chicken, Smashed Potatoes, and Steamed Carrot

Well, it was chicken breast really and it wasn't great. I baked it but it came out a bit tough. I still gave Boo a chip-shaped piece of it as I thought gnawing on it might feel great on his gums. If I can find some roast chicken at the store that isn't overflowing with butter I may try that next time. The chicken I made was too tough for Boo to actually eat. To go with the chicken Boo enjoyed smashed potatoes leftover from yesterday's dinner. He did a great job with his spoon once again. I'm not sure how he felt about the steamed carrot. I peeled it, cut it into quarters, and steamed it. Because it was so soft he was able to gum off pieces of it which made me a bit nervous. Plus he was really going to town trying to shove in as many pieces as he could at one time. At one point he got this really alarmed look on his face and he started shaking his arms. He made this high-pitched trying to breathe sound. So I promptly picked him up, tipped him over, and beat him on the back. That was all he needed. This seemed different to me than the gagging that he does when he pushes something too far back. He doesn't usually look quite so alarmed. However, he's a trooper. Once the food was out he went right back to eating. Business as usual I suppose.

Well, there you have it. I plan on disclosing the good, bad, and ugly as we journey through the world of baby-led weaning. And we had a bit of bad/ugly with our carrot tonight. But Boo certainly doesn't seem traumatized.

I was thinking about something today. I was an infant teacher at a Montessori school for awhile and we started babies on table foods maybe around 8-9 months. I don't remember exactly, it's been awhile. But the babies always gagged on something or other. It's all part of learning how to properly manipulate the food inside the mouth. Boo will get it just like they did.

Seeing Green

Green was the theme for dinner. Not intentionally, but oh what a sight. *sigh* I'm still wishing I could get the camera to work so that I could show off the pics. Oh well. I gave up and used my film camera for tonight's entree, so I can post pics later when the film is developed.

Anyways, tonight was broccoli. I attempted to make the broccoli trees as recommended for BLW. However, I think I steamed my broccoli a bit soft, so the handles broke off almost immediately upon being picked up. Oh well, Boo didn't seem to mind. He attempted to shovel it all in there anyways. He's such a great sport with this whole eating thing. He really seems to love it. In addition to the broccoli he had smashed avacado on a rice cake. That rice cake was so mushy and slimy when he was done with it. It was a beautiful sight to behold. I bet the rice cake felt great on his teething little gums. By the way, did I mention that he has the beginnings of a tooth? I can feel it and see it just a tiny bit. Yay - go Boo go!

I'm still waiting for evidence of food in his diapers. Still none as of yet, but I obsessively check each diaper. Although, I am a bit sad. We cloth diaper, so going from breastmilk poo to more solid poo is going to force me to work just a bit more when changing diapers. Oh well - it's worth it. He looks so cute in cloth. Plus, more money to buy fresh food that he can try.

Hummus - Face

I have been trying in vain to get the digital camera to load to the computer and it won't do it. We think I may have accidentally deleted the software to make it work. Oops. I wanted to show off Boo's little hummus-face so badly.

We had quite the time this meal. Boo had hummus and mashed potato and green beans. He ate with a spoon for the first time and wouldn't you know that my little genius held his spoon and moved the end with the food right into his mouth! I was so proud. Granted, he didn't do that everytime, but he did it quite a few times. I helped him load the spoon a couple of times. But he attempted to do this for himself too. What a smartie! Anyways, he made some funny faces at the hummus but he kept eating it. So I take that to mean that he liked it. He's still working on those green beans. He definitely hasn't figured out how to make much progress with them as far as chewing and swallowing. For now he's content to suck on them and spit them back out. However, he didn't gag on the green beans as much. He actually gagged more on the softer foods, the smashed potatoes and the hummus. He is very new to this eating thing though and I think he's really enjoying it. He gets very excited everytime I put food in front of him.

I made the hummus at home.

Tahini
Chickpeas
Garlic
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice

I couldn't find salt-free chickpeas and I was too lazy to buy the garbanzo beans that I would have to soak, so I picked the cans with the least amount of sodium.

Once again, if I figure this camera out I'll load picks. If not, oh well. I'm hoping that I do though. His hummus potato face was so cute. I am longing for a highchair though. *sigh*

Potatoes and Green Beans

Well, it was potatoes and green beans tonight. I got pics with the digital camera, but we can't get them to load onto the computer. *Sigh* I LOVE technology. Boo was pretty thrilled with his meal, although, I'm longing more and more for a high chair. Cleaning food off the carpet every night is no fun. I also plan to make a mat for under the high chair when funds become available. I'm going to buy some vinyl and sew up the edges.

Here's how I served the potatoes. They were roasted in a little bit of olive oil and seasoned with garlic and onion powder. I sliced them up steak fry style. He definitely enjoyed them. I'm not sure he ate any of it, but definitely gummed them beyond recognition. I guess I'll just keep watching his diapers for signs of ingested food. The green beans were steamed and plain, nothing added in other words. The green beans just got sucked on and spit out. He did gag once or twice on the green bean. But, having reassured myself on the gagging thing, I patiently watched as the big bad green bean made it's way back to the front of the mouth. At no time did Boo show any signs of choking or distress. He just went right on eating.

Well. if I get the camera figured out I'll add some nice pics of this meal. Otherwise this is it until the next meal.

A Couple of Links and Future Plans

I wanted to post a link to an article that a came across in another BLW blog.

Baby Food Myths

Anyways, I thought that was an interesting read.

Also, here's a link to a site that I had posted previously. However, the link I posted went directly to Gill Rapley's interview. This link has more information.

The Weaning Room

Well, that's all for now. I'm going to try to play with the digital camera. Maybe I can get it working before dinnertime tonight.

Today's Food

Well, we didn't do much feeding today. We went out for lunch with Boo's grandma. Boo tried a green bean. However, I gave up after one green bean. Why? Because I didn't want to hear it all through lunch. Grandma is definitely not on board with BLW and kept saying every two seconds while he was sucking on his green bean, "He's going to choke." I finally snapped and told her "if my child chokes and dies it will be my fault then, won't it." A nice remark to say to someone who's buying your lunch. *sigh* He did gag on the green bean which of course reaffirmed in Grandma's mind that I'm about to kill her grandchild. It did make me nervous a bit being new to this and all. After getting home I looked up my BLW information and re-read the parts about gagging so that I can have a better ready response next time and also to reassure myself as I'm new to this.


"Gagging, as opposed to choking, is actually a safety response to food travelling too far back into the mouth so when we see our babies gagging they are actually handling the problem and it's best just to keep calm (or at least look calm) and wait until it passes. I give her a wee drink of water immediately afterwards which she seems to like."

- Quoted from Baby-Led Weaning Blog

Not that my ready-made response will make things any different next time. Of course it's not the way she did things or the way most people do them, so of course she's bound to think I'm nuts. Oh well.

I did find a nice guideline for what to introduce when. Here's the link:

Food Introduction Schedule

I am looking for ways to incorporate more iron into his diet, so I'm on a mission to pick some iron-rich foods in the near future. I've chosen not to utilize the iron supplements that most doctors tend to push, because I think they're probably unnecessary for many babies. Here's some information that that I utilized in making that decision:

Kellymom Iron Information

Well, I'm going to sign off and head to bed now.

Out of bed to get some water and I'm editing to add that babies gag when being spoon fed all the time - especially when they're first starting and nobody tries to tell a mom to stop feeding her child that way because "they'll choke." Anyways, just had to get that last word in.

Disclaimer

Here's my disclaimer. I am not in any way pretending that I am an expert in baby-led weaning (feeding). I am not claiming that I am following this feeding protocol exactly the way that it is meant to be followed. I am simply a new parent doing my best to understand and follow this approach to feeding. My goal with this blog is to chart our experiences, the good, bad, and the ugly. I'm hoping that I can raise awareness of baby-led feeding as a viable alternative to the traditional approach to feeding and point any interested parents in the right direction.

Beginning our baby led feeding journey

I've decided to start a new blog dedicated only to baby led feeding. Actually, the technical term is baby-led weaning. However, I've noticed that some people get confused and think that it means weaning from breastfeeding, so I've decided to use the word feeding in place of weaning. Nothing could be further from the truth. Babies who are breastfed need to continue with that during baby-led feeding as they're still getting the majority of nutrition from breast milk. Baby-led feeding is not so much about the nutritional value of solids in the beginning...it's more about experiencing foods as baby is ready. I'm not the expert here, so see the links below if you want to read more. It seems that most resources on this style of feeding are in the UK and I'd really like to see more moms in the United States see this as a viable feeding option. So that's my reason for starting a new blog.

Some of you know that we've chosen to go the way of baby led feeding with Boo. We're really enjoying it so far and Boo seems to respond well. He gets so excited when he gets food put in front of him. It's so far away from mainstream and I'm sure it would raise all kinds of eyebrows with a lot of people, but oh well, Boo's not their child now is he? Anyways, here's some links in case you're wondering what the heck baby led feeding is.

Tribal Baby
Baby Led Weaning Blog
Baby Led Weaning Guidelines
An Interview With Gill Rapley (Developer of Baby-led Weaning)

So far Boo has had dairy-free pancakes, avacados, bananas, french fries, broccoli, and pork. Today I think we'll try some black beans. Last night was his first meat and he loved it. I would've taken pics if I had film. He just sat there and sucked the crap out of his pork. It was so cute. I bet it felt great on his gums too. I'm wanting to incorporate more iron-rich foods, hence the beans. I don't want to have to give him supplemental iron drops. I'd rather him get his iron naturally. So I see leafy greens in his future also. At this point he's not swallowing much at all. He didn't swallow any of the pork. I think he did swallow a bit of his broccoli, but not much. Mostly he just plays in it and throws it around. I can't wait to get a highchair. Right now I end up wearing whatever it is we've decided to feed him. Oh well - I guess that's part of the fun.

I'm going to attempt to figure out our cheap digital camera. I don't normally use it as I prefer my Canon SLR. However, in the interest of logging our feeding experiences, I would like to get the pics up immediately with the posts. So I will work on figuring that out. I'm looking forward to starting this journey and hope that many searching for more information find their way here.