I just finished “feeding” my son this morning. He is now taking his morning nap, and I have a moment to survey the scene left behind us in the kitchen. I feel like it takes a lot of equipment to feed a baby! My kitchen sink is piled up with bowls, spoon, sippy cup, high chair tray, high chair tray cover (that is supposed to keep me from having to clean the tray – not!), dirty wash cloth, bib, and cutting board. It feels like we had a food fight, and Jackson looked like he was a contestant on Double Dare. He sounds like Darth Vader because my little guy has his first cold. =(
I believe we had a break through this weekend with eating, however. I introduced him to sweet potatoes. I’ve been putting off the orange veggies because they are “sweeter”, but I think I needed some encouragement that we were getting somewhere. So yesterday we tried taters and I think he liked him. He at least didn’t make that awful, I-don’t-like-it face when I spooned it into his mouth.
Our progression of food thus far is: raw avocado (mixed with milk), zucchini, asparagus, and sweet potatoes. For each of these I have given him spoonfuls of the pureed version and also large spears of the raw version to gnaw on. I think it’s important to have Jackson discover food through his own way of playing with it (always supervised, of course). I also like presenting him with options while he eats. Maybe this is because I like to eat this way. As an example, this morning I had pureed zucchini and sweet potatoes (I put a small bit of both on the spoon) and asparagus spears. I am putting his sippy cup on the tray as well so he will begin to associate drinking water with eating. He loves his cup! I don’t think he’s getting much water out of it but it’s the right idea.
I’ve included 2 different add-ins, as I like to call them, to his food so far. I’ve dipped his puree into his powdered probiotics since this is a flavor he is very familiar with. That seemed to work well for increasing acceptance. Today, I tried sprinkling a little of Garden Blend Juice Plus+ over his sweet potatoes for extra immune-boosting power and that also went over well.
Jackson and I are flying together later this week, for the first time. I’m a little nervous about it. Do any of you have good travel tips for babies??? I could really use them. With that said, I’m not sure how this will impact his eating progression. I would like to do another new veggie later this week but it may not happen. Peas are next on my list, to be exact. I think I will bring along a couple of jars of organic peas and see how it goes.
I’m starting to think that using organic, frozen veggies are a great way to go for making your own baby food. Freezing preserves all the nutrients so if you don’t get to cooking your produce right away, as happens to me often, no nutrients are lost. Frozen peas are on my grocery list this week.
I realize that this post will only benefit a small number of you that have babies. But hopefully you enjoy reading about my daily attempts of healthy living. Now it’s off to my living room for some home yoga and then I’m fixing a vegetarian lunch for my friend.
I hope you have an awesome, veggie-filled, high energy day!
