Monday 18th April 2011

I dislike Mondays. David goes back to work, and I can see all the housework I DIDN'T do over the weekend waiting for me. On the upside, Monday is shopping day, which I usually enjoy! Anyway, I digress..

I finally got a proper meal plan sorted for this week! I've deviated from it already, but a good plan does help. Breakfast was avocado on toast, and banana. Good effort by Ollie, into both the toast and the banana! Seemed to eat a lot in comparison to a couple of weeks ago. It is really hard to guage as it ends up in pieces. Perhaps I should try putting his meal back together like a jigsaw piece! haha.

Lunch was a roaring success too. Piklets with cream cheese, and feijoa. This time I cut the feijoa lengthways and ollie was easily able to pick it up and eat it. He LOVED it! He enjoyed sucking the cream cheese off before munching on the piklet. I really can't get over how much he loved the feijoa. None of his usual noises, just "suck suck suck" as he ate it. And of course, the biscotti was a favourite again! I gave it to him after the piklet and feijoa. Ollie talked to it few minutes before eating though... "I'm going to eat you now... and you are going to taste gooooood.... eeegughhaaaaa ba waaa".

I tend to refill Ollie's plate as the pieces get too small, so he has a good selection of food. So, if he runs out of piklet, I'll give him another. I think this has led to him ignoring the smaller pieces, knowing he'll get another "big" bit. Obviously he needs to practice his fine motor skills, so I'm going to make an effort to leave him with the "small" bits. I know he can manage them, they are just a bit trickier.

Dinner went really well too, despite being a bit late. (Ollie and I got stuck out in traffic). Chicken stirfry. Ollie mainly only ate the chicken as it was first on his tray. But I did see him munching on capsicum, courgette, and broccoli. It was the first time I've seen Ollie eat chicken, he normally ignores it. He loooved it! Lots of munching and definitely swallowing! woohoo!

Monday 11th April 2011

Where is the month going? I'm back at work in three weeks (sob) so Ollie is in daycare two days a week beginning 26th April. Haven't yet worked out how the food thing is going to work. We aren't allowed to take our own food - they have an in house chef. I assume to avoid allergies/sharing issues.

Breakfast.. avocado (mixed with baby rice) on toast, mini wheats, pear. Toast was the top favourite today, Ollie really got into it. Seems to be a bit over the mini wheats, though does give them a go if they are first on the tray and there is a delay in something else. Even pear wasn't as popular as usual. Ollie seemed to eat a fair bit of avocado and toast which was good.

Lunch... piklets... with baby rice for iron. (I eat a lot of baby rice). I spread a wee bit of cream cheese on Ollie's piklets. Not only did he suck the cream cheese off, but I think he actually ate a fair bit of piklet! Also had second half of pear from this morning, but Ollie wasn't really into it.

Dinner.. macaroni cheese. Busy day, Ollie not really interested in eating much. Did enjoy sucking on the pasta.

Saturday 9th April 2011

Breakfast.. mini wheats and pear! Of course! I'm working on more varied breakfasts!

Lunch was at Nana & Poppa's so we took some french toast and avocado (mixed with baby rice for iron) to have on rusks). Oliver wasn't too distracted (it was just the two of us at the table) but he made quite a mess! Ate lots of avocado and some french toast!

Dinner was pork chops. I was hoping he could hold onto the chop and chew, but the chops I got were the wrong shape for that! Still, he loved the pork, he had a stray bit in his mouth that we was chewing en route to shower. We now have a cheek checkpoint in the shower every night!

We've got proper (but short still) little teeth through now, the two bottom ones. It will be interesting to see how that affects our mealtimes!

Day Thirteen - Thurday 3rd March 2011

Things are going really well with our new approach. Ollie has lunch with me every day, and dinner with daddy and mummy. Sometimes he eats nothing, sometimes he eats a little. Depends on the food and his mood.

Lunch today was pate on toast (mummy gag! smelt like catfood!). Ollie LOVED the pate! Photographic evidence:

We also had pear and avocado (mummy had crackers and cream cheese too!) but they didn't get a look in! Ollie was really chewing the toast, and sucking off the pate! He got quite excited (as you can tell by the amount of pate on his face). A fair bit of gagging, but he easily dealt with it, and straight back to eating. He did briefly suck on the avocado (when the toast was all gone) but no real interest.

Dinner! Chickpea (& Butterbean 'cause I opened the wrong can!) Patties and steamed cauliflower. Mummy and Daddy thought they were yum, but Ollie was tired so didn't really give anything a go. We were running late home so dinner was half an hour later than it should have been!

Whoop - finally up to date in publishing all of these!

Day Nine - Saturday 26th Feb 2011

what is this strange food....

 Not so into the food today, but as usual very excited to be in the highchair. Perhaps I should give him time in the highchair without food.... or maybe that would confuse him!?

Grandma & Grandad were here today for foodtime, it was cool for them to see Ollie in his highchair with real food. Tried to give him a banana today, but he was too rough with it, and it and it broke up, so it didn't have a "handle" anynore (handle = skin left on at the bottom). He did get the banana in his mouth briefly, but no munching that I saw. Will definitely try banana again though. He had nectarine though, and did suck on that for a wee while (skin left on as a handle!)

Toast was surprisingly not a huge favourite today (but still probably more than anything else) - again I think he was a little distracted. Gave Ollie a spoon to play with, with mashed avocado on it, he quite liked it as I think it has the same attraction as toast but doesn't get soggy! Only downside is the scoop bit of the spoon is long (designed for puree feeding!) so he kept gagging on it as he shoved it too far into his mouth.

notice - toast still firmly held in his left hand...

I have made hummus and pate (I cannot begin to describe how gross it was making the pate!!) so I will introduce those this week and plus some other "real" food that I can eat with him! Will post recipes at some stage.

Day Seven - Thursday 24th Feb 2011

Had a coffee group today, so offered ollie some toast, cream cheese, and avocado while we were picnicking at the park. He wasn't really interested - too many exciting things to look at (aka other babies!!). I did intend to offer some more food later, but it just didn't happen! Still really upset about the earthquake.....

I did have a chat with another mum in my coffee group who has also signed up for the university study. We should be able to share tips! 

Day six - Wednesday 23rd Feb 2011

Feeling a little shellshocked and really upset about the earthquake. Ollie didn't eat a huge amount.. I didn't introduce anything new. He, as always, had fun smooshing it up.

Day Four - Monday 21st February - 4:30pm

Weird day here. Ollie is teething and has had whacked up sleep times. Toast is the favourite. Today we had avocado and cream cheese with toast, both went down well, often he had both in his mouth. Didn't seem to really ingest much, bit of toast. Still banging like a madman with his right hand, and pushing off the footrest. Think I'll take it off...

Tried cucumber, seemed to be too slippery, even with some skin left on as a handle.  He did gag on a bit of toast, but thankfully no vomit this time.

Food time ended with a suddenly overtired baby - into bed! Trying to find the "right" time to give him solids so I might try a more purist approach and just give him food whenever he seems interested....

Day Three - Sunday 20th February - 3pm

Toast was a roaring success! I made crunchy toast fingers in the oven - they were really hard which gave Ollie a good handle! I spread avocado on the toast and he sucked it off, and also bit into the toast as it got softer. It was as messy as day one! Ollie was very happy the whole time and loved having Daddy home. Ollie's right hand banged the high chair (in time with his feet!) and his left hand held the food. We may have a lefty! Ollie bounced most of the time - pushing off with his feet up and down. This wasn't so helpful to avoid gagging, as it meant the toast finger got shoved further into his mouth!

Ollie did have a couple of gagging sessions on a piece of toast too big, which resulted in vomit! It was surprising how many chunks of food (mainly toast) were regurgitated! He was clearly swallowing! I think we might have had solids too soon after mama milk because there was a fair bit of milk too! (Though, he has vomited a lot over the last few days... I'm hoping it is just the teething!)

Ollie preferred to pick the food up himself rather than us hand it to him. He had fingers of toast with avocado, fingers of purple kumara, and a slice of avocado. He was much more receptive to food this time, picking up the kumara finger before I'd even put the toast on his highchair. I got some photos of his great facials, but sadly my camera is just not fast enough and there was too much blur. I also got a video of the first gag (and vomit) but I'm not really sure people want to see that....

 

messy boy! note the green sleeves!!

Learnings:

* Roll up sleeves of white bodysuit before applying avocado to baby

* Purple kumara is far superior to orange

* Wait longer after breastmilk before solids...

Day Two - Friday 18th Feb 2011 - 11:45am
Ollie was much less interested in his food today. I gave him orange kumara and avocado again, and had intended to try toast fingers, but he wasn't really interested. I think I waited too long (40min after breastfeed - should have been more like 20). He did purposefully pick up a piece of kumara and take it to his mouth, resulting in a chunk sticking to his lip, but otherwise distinterested. It ended in a bit of a meltdown and I quickly realised he was tired, so off to bed!
I have been reading online that a less structured approach is good - rather than one set meal a day - offer them when you eat! Might give him another go this afternoon....

 Day One - Thursday 17th Feb 2011- 2:30pm

Food is fun, til you're one! That seems to be the motto of baby led purists and I can see why. Today was our first day of "real" food! On the menu was orange kumara (steamed), and a wee bit of avocado. I don't know that Ollie actually ingested anything, but he had a LOT of fun smooshing (and banging on his highchair!). Ollie normally puts things to his mouth very quickly, but he didn't seem to be in the mood to at food time. I think this was partly because I made the kumara too soft and it squished when he tried to pick it up. (Or it could have been his superbaby strength?). He did seem to suck a little off his/my fingers towards the end, and pulled a funny face (camera too slow to capture) but not his "sour" face that he gets when it is something that he doesn't like! I then saw some sucky/tongue actions... so maybe it was swallowed! By the end, his hands were coated and he had a bit of a food moustache. He was VERY VERY happy the whole time, and thought it was hilarious when I washed his hands with a flannel at the end. I also spoke to our contact at the university today, who gave me a few tips! 

Things I learnt/need to do:

* Buy a tarp to go under highchair (to protect carpet and allow food retreival)

* Cook kumara a little less to give him a better grip

* Try crusty toast with spread - better handle

* Make some pate and hummus

* buy some kind of sippy cup so Ollie can experiment with water

Rock on tomorrow!