First Tooth, First Foods

Today Gillen got his very first tooth. There has been so much drool, but not much else to indicated our boy was teething. Very different from his brother.

A little bottom tooth deserved a banana at breakfast - he had a great time "tasting" it!

{blurry phone photo but we had to document the occasion}

What's good enough for Elvis, is good enough for Owen

I haven't written about our eating adventures lately so I thought I'd post some updates. Mr. O is eating like a champ now - but from the spoon. I know, the boy who refused to be spoon-fed for the first nine months of life, NOW INSISTS ON IT. I am still putting food down on his tray for him, mostly appetizers like cheese, cheerios, goldfish but other than that when I try to hand him foods to eat - he throws them on the floor. ALL OF IT. NONE IN THE MOUTH.

Ah, back to the drawing board. He is very good about eating from a spoon now and sometimes wants to try himself. When he is finished he swats the spoon away with his hand.

I recently read that after 1 year babies toddlers become even more picky about what they eat and you measure their intake BY THE WEEK (God, help me). Jeremy and I decided that since O isn't quite ONE yet - we'd take advantage of his stellar eating and try to find ways to get more calorie dense foods in him. This boy will eat butternut squash until its coming out his b-hole (literally.) but it just doesn't have that many calories per serving. I made a porridge with ground up lentils and barley that I've been adding to his cereal in the morning. I still want him to have the iron-fortified baby oatmeal, which he eats with 3 food cubes of fruit mashed in but the lentils added some protein. Owen still gobbles it up every morning for breakfast.

My friend Kelly is trying to put some weight on her boy right now so she shared a babyfood recipe with me that HORRIFIED me at first (she even warned me before telling it to me) but when it comes to calories - it packs a punch.

'The Elvis' Baby Food

1 piece of whole wheat bread (we eat Brownberry Double Protein)
2 slices of bacon (uncurred, this way it doesn't have any icky nitrates)
1-2 tablespoons of almond butter (be sure there is no added sugar or salt)
1 banana

Fry up some bacon. I don't cook pork bacon, but I noticed the turkey bacon we have from Trader Joe's was uncurred so I used that. Break into smaller pieces and add to food processor. Add the bread ripped into pieces and pulse. Add almond butter and banana (I also added a few tablespoons of whole milk yogurt for a smoother consistency) Blend well. Yields (2) 4oz servings. (Note: watch for nut allergies and this recipe is best for older babies 8 mons + because it has a chunkier consistency)

Owen ATE THIS UP. I gave it to him for lunch today and when I stopped shoveling it in he started screaming and crying? Whose kid is this anyway? I was horrified but Kelly proved to be a genius once again.

Since we were talking about feeding Owen, this weekend Jeremy and I went to the bookstore to pick up The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet. I've been reading reviews for a while and even though we're not going to be in "baby food" mode for long, I decided there were enough relevant recipes to buy it (that and we had a 50% off coupon to B&N). This book is great! It has colorful pictures and is packed with interesting ideas. One of the things that I would have never thought of was adding a teaspoon or so of oil or butter to baby food. Babies need fat, (BTW, did you know breastmilk and twice the fat and calories of whole milk? so awesome.) and good fats are hard to come by in a baby diet. It is counter-intuitive to add oil to your baby's food but it made sense in many of these recipes.

Black Beans, Avocado and Yogurt, OH MY!

1/4 cup black beans (homemade or canned)
1/4 avocado
1/4 cup plain yogurt (whole milk)
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (we used olive oil)

place all ingredients in the blender and puree. 1 baby serving or 1/4 cup (159.9 calories)

We doubled the recipe and it made (3) 4oz servings. Another hit with Owen (although I was skeptical, because it looked a little funky...)

The book also has lots of tips and tricks for feeding baby, a great conversion table in the back and a "Feedback chart" for each recipe you can note if baby liked it, any modifications you made, the date you made it and a place for notes.

As I've posted before, feeding Owen has always been "the thing" I'm most sensitive about. I think the bed rest and rough transition to breastfeeding (and me being crazy in general) has something to do with it but I'm always thinking about WHEN he ate, WHAT he ate, how much he ate, when he nursed, if he nursed, if he drank water. LITERALLY ALL THE TIME. I rack my brain trying to think of new and interesting things to offer Owen. I want him to explore foods and tastes while eating healthy. I have found making his food myself to be so incredibly rewarding and this weekend when Jeremy said, "I never imagined I'd marry someone who would make our baby's food. You're such a hippie! and I think its so totally cool." my heart almost exploded.

During Owen's nap yesterday we chopped/roasted/pureed batches of spaghetti squash, acorn squash, a batch of Prunanas (with yellow raisins for added iron), kiwi and pears - in addition to the recipes above. It was a fun afternoon, and it was nice to do it together. Now, every time I pop those cubes out of the freezer - I think about how they were made with love, by the both of us.

MESS, MESS and MORE MESS

In the last month Owen has really taken to eating solid food (FINALLY!)  He will pick up food with his fingers and lets me spoon feed him as well, so meals have been much less stressful. He eats three meals a day in addition to breastfeeding. He still nurses about 6 times in a 24 hour period and drinks 8-10 oz of water out of a straw cup each day.

7am - wake, nurse
8-9a - play, eat breakfast
9a - nurse, nap(9-11)
noon - lunch, more playtime, storytime or errands
230p - nurse, nap(230-430)
5p - dinner
6p - nurse (~2 mins), play
730p - bath, nurse, bed
1130p - nurse

Our days vary depending on naps and teething. This schedule was pretty set in stone since about 6 months (minus the solid meals) but he just started to shorten his morning nap. If he sleeps in past 730am, he doesn't want to take a morning nap at all and that makes for a fussy afternoon.

He eats (whole grain organic baby) oatmeal with fruit mixed in for breakfast and has an egg yolk or whole grain waffles to go with it. Usually has lunch with me - some hummus on bread, cheese strips, goldfish crackers, banana or yogurt. Sometimes leftovers. For dinner he has a veggie and yogurt and something off our plates (he's a big fan of ground beef and ground turkey these days).

O has been wanting to feed himself with a spoon - so last week (when I was feeling EXTRA patient) after he ate some blueberry oatmeal for breakfast, I let him practice spoon-feeding himself some yogurt. The nice part about it was no matter how he dipped the spoon, it was coated in yogurt so each bite was rewarding. He actually did a pretty good job. A few times the spoon was even right side up!

Solid Feeding MUST HAVES

If you're observant (and I know you are) you may have noticed a new Listmania! list in my sidebar. This one is for introducing solid foods. We've struggled with Owen's level of engagement for solid foods for almost five months now so, after lots of reading and trial and error I wanted to compile a list of things that have helped us along the way.

I must say as a qualifier to listing books that I never take one strategy to heart (sleeping for example: We very loosely used THIS BOOK but also incorporated the dream feed strategy from THIS BOOK). Perhaps its my relentless nonconformity or general indecisiveness but I like to read a bunch of methods/theories and go with what works for our family. In my opinion if you are too rigid about any one strategy and your child doesn't fall into alignment exactly as demonstrated in the book this can lead to lots of unnecessary frustration.

My intent was always to make Owen's food and that hasn't changed. It has saved us SO MUCH MONEY, I get peace of mind out of knowing exactly what goes into what he eats and most importantly - I make it with love. Recently I was feeding Owen at a public event and another mother asked me about what he was eating. I responded that it was pears. She asked me why it looked that way and I told her that I had peeled and pureed them myself.

Her: "Your make your own baby food?"
Me: "Yes."
Her: "WHY."  (very pointed, almost defensive statement)

I didn't know how to respond to this. She is a mother, a busy working mother, and I in no way wanted my response to imply that homemade food was superior to store bought. It was a choice for us. My mother made my baby food when I was small and I guess I always intended to do the same. It happens to save us a boat load of cash and I really like doing it (except peeling pears - peeling pears is slippery hell. Or grapes. Or peeling in general.)

My response: "Well right now I stay home with Owen and my full time job is to take care of him. I make food for the rest of our family so it came pretty natural to just make his as well."

I contemplated for a long time about buying THIS. I read reviews, looked for sales and even found one that had been used once from a ready seller on Craigslist (post a wanted ad - never know what you'll get). In the end I decided I didn't need a fancy contraption to make his food. I bought a $4 basket steamer from Wal-mart and already had a mini Cuisinart. I've never thought twice about this product. I'm sure its great and helpful and might have been a perfect addition to a baby registry - but in the end isn't necessary to make your own food.

{Super Baby Food} - this was the first book I read after seeing a friend use the method successfully. Her toddler eats the coolest stuff! Some things I like: When to introduce what, food cube method, preparing different foods for different ages, money saving hints and tips.  What I don't follow: the portion size for age, and I don't make my own porridge. At least not yet. Right now I use Earth's Best Oatmeal because 1) Its easy and 2) it is the only iron fortified food that Owen gets. He hated rice cereal so we switched to Oatmeal because he was more accepting, he still doesn't like it alone so I started incorporating it to other foods such as pears and peas. (look for this book at your local half-price books! Its usually $6. I have two copies. One for me and one I lend to friends!)

{Baby-Led Weaning}This book was released in the US in the last few months but the methodology has been embedded in attachment parenting theory for a while now. I originally disagreed with this approach because seriously? Babies get baby food because... THEY ARE BABIES. But since Owen rejected spoon feeding early on, I desperately wanted him to show interest in food experimentation. That is exactly what this method is. Owen's first solid poop was after I introduced broccoli "trees". The downside: lots of gagging at first. This method requires soft consistency and a close eye. Hard to tell exactly how much baby is ingesting. Its also harder to do the '4 day allergy wait rule' with this if you are feeding from your dinner table. Thankfully Owen doesn't seem to have much sensitivity to foods.

{Child of Mine} This book was handed down to me from Jeremy's aunt. Reading this book helped me to relax. I dreaded our feeding times and this book helped me see that through meals Owen and I are communicating and I needed to respect what he was telling me and be respectful in how I fed him. Some great tips were not to hold new foods right up to the baby's face - rather hold them at least 12 inches away where they can see and study what they are about to eat. Done means done and each child eats at a different pace. Our daily feedings became more relaxed after reading this book.

So the combination of these three books has turned into our "feeding strategy". I use the food cube method and freeze in nested freezer bags. Owen enjoys whole milk cream top yogurt plain and I mix in anything and everything. We were struggling with constipation so with a wonderful recommendation from my friend Kelly, Owen eats at least one serving (1-2 Tbsp) of "Prunanas" a day. Bananas bind him up (but he loves them) and prunes - well yea. So the mixture balances itself out and we have a BM every 1-2 days with limited screaming. Fun fact: rehydrated prunes look like something left behind by a German Shepard or small horse. True story. Kills me every time.

Owen has a very sensitive gag reflex but refuses food that is too liquid-y so I experiment on a daily basis with consistency (apparently gift wrap goes down effortlessly!?) Almost anything can be thinned with yogurt or breastmilk. I'm experimenting with lentils and pastina right now and we take things day-by-day. I am sure this is a fluid process and will change as Owen grows to accept (and reject) new foods and textures. Eating has definitely been our biggest challenge with Owen, and the comforting part about it is that with our next kid at least I'll have a basis for comparison.

There are a few things that I wanted to include but are not from Amazon:

This Bumkin bib pack is a steal! The bibs are great - washable, velcro, shoulder coverage and go for $20 for three on Amazon. This is a SEVEN pack from Costco ($28) which includes the three super bibs AND two infant bibs (we keep these in the diaper bag) AND two toddler bibs (put away for later). This is seriously the only pack of bibs you would ever need to buy. We went for the Dr. Seuss pattern and they are adorable! If you don't have a Costco nearby you can shop online if you know someone with a membership.

Picked up THESE shallow bowls from Ikea the other day for $2.99/ 3pk and they are great. I am going to grab another set next time we are there. It is the perfect size for baby portions, easy to hold in the palm of your hand and just shallow enough to allow food to cool properly. Durable, dishwasher safe and cool colors! Did I mention I really like these bowls?

I think that completes my babyfood dissertation but I've been meaning to share some of my favs for a while. What are your favorite feeding items? Any great tips?

Birthday Breakfast

To celebrate Owen's 8-month birthday, I made him a very special breakfast. He had a blueberry (frozen) waffle (fancy right?) AND, for the very first time -- EGGS! Well, egg-yolk because egg white isn't supposed to be given to babies until 12 months or later for allergy risks blah, blah, blah.

I separated two egg yolks and whisked them up really well with about 1 oz of breastmilk. I beat lots of air into them, like like I do regular scrambled eggs, hoping for a light and fluffy consistency. And then I remembered I was making boobymilk yolks. The consistency was a little off - but Owen didn't seem to care. It made enough to last for a few meals. He loves to chew new textures so he was totally digging his breakfast. The waffle was BY FAR his favorite part. We topped it off with a little yogurt for good measure and Mama had the whites of the eggs with some cheese on top.

A wonderful birthday breakfast with my boy!

PEAS!

Dinner is funny from Tam on Vimeo.

Sweet and Savory Fall Family Meal

I am so excited about the arrival of fall - the leaves are turning, there is a chill in the air and yummy, spicy smells are all around us. I picked up an organic butternut squash at the store a few weeks ago and it has been sitting in the kitchen staring at me ever since. I knew I wanted to feed it to my family but I wasn't sure how. I did what any other 21st century housewife would do...

I Googled, "How to prepare a butternut squash"

And within seconds watched a video that showed me how to peal, seed and cube my squash. I'm not gonna lie - peeling and cutting it into cubes - SUCKED. I heard a rumor that Trader Joe's sells it fresh but already cubed. Next time, I'm doing that.

So there I was with a HUGE pile of cubed squash and I remembered THIS AWESOMENESS.

Potato Gnocchi with Autumn Vegetables
and Sage Brown Butter Sauce

1 package of store-bought potato gnocchi, ready to cook
1 medium-sized butternut squash or small sweet pumpkin*, peeled, seeded, and chopped
20 small shallots, peeled
3 large, firm, tart apples, cored and chopped
extra virgin olive oil, to coat
coarse salt and ground white pepper to taste

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
16 fresh sage leaves, minced
dash of sea salt
juice of 1 half fresh lemon
1/4 cup chopped fresh, flat leaf parsley


Place the butternut squash, shallots, and apples on a cookie sheet with a slight lip. Drizzle with olive oil and coat. Sprinkle with salt and white pepper. Place in a 425˚F oven until tender (approximately 25 minutes).


While vegetables are roasting, boil a large pot of salted water. While the water is coming to a boil, in a large frying pan, melt the unsalted butter over medium heat. Continue to cook it until the butter achieves a light caramel color. Remove the butter from the heat. Sprinkle in sage leaves and salt. Leave butter off of the heat in the pan.


Boil the gnocchi in gently boiling, salted water just until floating. Drain and immediately place in pan with butter. Toss gently to coat. Remove tender vegetables from oven and add to gnocchi and butter. Toss all ingredients together. Place in a serving platter. Spritz with fresh lemon juice and a dash of salt, to taste. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley. Serves 10 as a side dish.

I used whole wheat Gnocchi, honey crisp apples from a local farmers market and 1 large yellow onion instead of shallots because that's what I had on hand. I reduced the butter to 3/4 stick.

I saved the other half of my pile of cubed squash and honey crisp apples for Owen. I used my trusty steam basket ($5 at Wal-Mart) and steamed the apples and squash until very soft. It took two batches to steam it all. Then I mashed it and sprinkled it with Cinnamon for Owen. I put some in a bowl and added a tiny bit of plain yogurt. He gobbled it up.

The rest I froze in food cubes and mini Glad containers. One thing I've learned from making food for O, a little goes a LONG way. I also overcooked a few Gnocchi in the water I used to steam the squash hoping they would soak up whatever nutrients were lost during steaming. I mushed them up into very small pieces and gave those to O as well.

I made this on Friday for Shabbat dinner with baked Parmesan chicken thighs. I also had the leftover Gnocchi dish for dinner the next day by itself. Overall - yummy fall dinner for our entire family.

*Note: If you are making it with pumpkin, grab a saw

** double note: If you read THIS POST on Tofu, books are WRONG Tofu does NOT freeze well. At least for babies. I found that even thawing it on the counter it was way to spongy to feed to Owen, so I dumped the food cubes and only feed him the fresh stuff that I keep in water in the fridge. At least I tried!

More with eating

I've continued to work on my laid back approach to baby-led weaning. Owen seems to enjoy it more than me force feeding him with a spoon and we've been experimenting with solids twice a day now! We're (Jeremy and I) also trying to get away from eating meals at our coffee table, which we've always done. In our house, the kitchen table is a dump zone for mail and junk but I've cleared it off to show Owen how respectable people eat meals (not the TV watching barbarians we used to be!) I think this has contributed to his added interest. If I am eating, he wants to be eating too. With Jeremy's schedule, I eat most of my meals alone - so its nice to have some company.

Dinners out are pretty entertaining with Owen now, too. We had a coupon so we tried a new Israeli restaurant down the street from us this week. Owen enjoyed some pita with hummus on it. He would suck the hummus off and then wait for us to put more on. The only downside was that we had to hold the pita or else he would drop it on the floor - and this was the best pita I've ever had (flown in from Israel) so wasting it wasn't an option.

We still do give O some foods on a spoon. Right now yogurt is staple. He loves it. At first I bought him the Yo-Baby kind which he gobbled up, but then I noticed it had lots of added sugar so now I just give him Stonyfield whole cream plain yogurt. I usually mix in whatever fruit cube I have in the freezer (usually pears) and O is happy with that. Its much cheaper to give him yogurt this way and I feel better adding fruit instead of the sugar.

Tonight I had macaroni and cheese for dinner (fancy, I know) and O ate about six shells, and then of course his yogurt. For dessert I gave him two yogurt melts which he really likes.

Please don't think this is a perfect science, some meals he's into what I give him and some he still sits there with pursed lips and stink face. This boy has more faces than you would believe! The main problem I have found is that O bites off more than he can chew - especially with toast. Then he gags (which the book said is pretty normal) and I end up swiping it out of his mouth because the gagging freaks me out. I'm sure we'll get there, its all about experimentation at this point. I'm not worried about calories, just offering him opportunities to try new things.

Here are some outtakes from lunch the other day. I made pot roast with carrots so I gave him some of the cooked carrots out of that, steamed broccoli and of course, yogurt. He can't feed himself with the spoon but he sure likes to try!

Broccoli "tree" bites

First taste of cooked carrot

and yogurt completes the mess

Baby-Led Weaning

I attempted to introduce solid foods to Owen at 4.5 months and have been trying ever since. I've tried different foods, different times of the day, different chairs, different temperatures, different spoons. He just isn't interested in being spoon fed his meals.

A few weeks ago I realized that I DREAD his eating time. I am frustrated by the whole ordeal - peeling/steaming/pureeing foods, choosing which ones I am going to feed him, warming the breastmilk to mix in, getting everything set up, the ridiculous faces and noises I have to make just to "trick" him into opening his mouth. He opens twice and then just looks away, trying his best to ignore me. Then I'm left with the mess, ugh! the mess! It is his favorite part of a meal and I wouldn't deny him his playtime. I think it is important for him to explore these new things - the bowl, the spoon - but cleaning it up would be a lot more satisfying if I knew he had actually ingested something that I made for him.

I don't want meal time, or anytime with Owen, to be frustrating for me - or for him. I am sure he can sense that feeding him exhausts me. I'm thankful that he still loves his milk and gets plenty of calories from nursing 7-9 times a day. I love that we still have our special bond but I know that I need to continue to present him with opportunites to explore other foods.

I needed a different strategy so I've been reading Baby-Led Weaning. The idea behind this theory is that babies don't necessarily have to begin their food experiences with purees and spoons. Basically, it expands on the notion that babies have been snatching food off of their parent's plates for decades. Babies can be offered healthy, appropriate finger foods to explore in a relaxed atmosphere.  The baby is in charge of how much of what goes in and then explores the food with their mouth - learning new tastes, textures and techniques.

Owen likes being part of meals with us. At brunch the other day we offered him toast and yogurt and even though I fed him the yogurt from a spoon, he was very open to it.  This afternoon while Jeremy and I ate lunch, Owen sat in his high chair and enjoyed some toast smeared with pureed chickpeas and avocado, some steamed broccoli ("trees") and some yogurt. He was very interested in the broccoli and polished off all of his yogurt. Jeremy and I spent our meal watching O explore his food. The two cautions the book explains about BLW is that it might take a while before food is actually ingested (babies move the food around in their mouth a lot and then push most of it out, gradually they learn to swallow the smaller bites) and the mess.  Our boy had broccoli bits from head to toe - coated in yogurt and mushed up bread -  but I didn't even mind cleaning it up. I wasn't frustrated with him, I was proud. I watched him learn something while I ate my own food. Not to mention, I never imagined anything involving broccoli could be adorable - but that's exactly what it was.

As far as what he's ingesting. Friday evening I found rye seeds in Owen's pooh diaper. And as soon as I ruled out bugs - I laughed at my four little discoveries. He ATE something! And I HAVE PROOF!

All in all I think this new technique is a SUCCESS! I'm going to continue to let him explore his meals and try to think of fun things for him (and I) to eat. I'm letting go of expectations and frustration and trying to be thankful that I have a growing boy - who apparently likes steamed broccoli. Go figure!