Tuesday 22nd March

Supposed to have lunch with a friend in town today, but I got my days mixed up and didn't go! Whoops! Cheese on toast, nectarine and cucumber for lunch today. I think Ollie has really sore teeth today and he was getting pretty grumpy at his food! He really seemed to enjoy sucking on the nectarine, which was the first time he has shown an interest I think. It was a bit firm, so I didn't really expect him to eat it. I think some toast was consumed! His drink bottle is definitely his favourite thing, and he ignores food if that is on his tray. I usually wait for him to throw it overboard and then leave it there.  He seems to enjoy rubbing it on his teeth.

Dinner was meatloaf (recipe from the baby led weaning book) and steamed broccoli, and corn on the cob! Ollie not really into dinner at all tonight, don't think he ate anything - spent all of dinnertime throwing food and laughing. Oh well, David loved the meatloaf!

Monday 7th March

We officially have a teethy grumpy monster in our house!

Lunch - raw carrot, pate, nectarine. He sucked the pate of the carrot, and seemed to really enjoy it, but that was about it - we didn't even get to the pear and cucumber!

Dinner - spicy lamb patties, steamed broccoli and carrot. Ollie had a good go at the broccoli, but wasn't too interested in the pattie! Disappointing! It was really good to see him pick up a smallish bit of broccoli - with no stalk and put that in his mouth though. He couldn't have done that two weeks ago. The patties were from the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook, which has some great recipe ideas in it.

We've had a rough few days, I think mainly due to Ollie's teeth and our lack of good timing.  It seems he has almost regressed in his interest in food, but I think that is partly the "harder" foods we are giving. I will make sure we have at least one easy finger food every meal, but also add on an interesting new part too.

*repeat to myself - it is not about how much he eats. It is fine if he isn't too interested some days*

Day Eleven - Tuesday 1st March

Lunch: Banana and Pear. Ollie didn't really ingest anything much today, but I was so impressed with how his food handling skills have improved! A week or so ago, he couldn't hold onto banana and eat it, even in the skin. It got too slippery, or the unpeeled end fell off. Similar with pear - very slippery! Today, he picked up his banana and put in in his mouth! We are also starting to see more chewing action, as well as the sucking! He also picked up his pear and sucked on that quite competently! It is amazing, in less than two weeks, just how much more capable he is.

Dinner: STEAK! With steamed broccoli, courgette, and carrot. I thought he did well with the beef strips in the stirfry last night, but wow did he enjoy the steak! We cooked a mini size beef steak to well done, and then cut into Ollie size strips! He really got into it - almost attacking it. Ripping it up, chewing it around his mouth, and sucking out the juices. The poor veges weren't getting a look in!

Day Ten - Monday 28th February 2011

So I've been reading the "Baby Led Weaning" book by Gill Rapley - and the approach is quite different to the one proposed by the study we're participating. The book suggests including baby in family life from the get go, and including them in every meal. So on that note, we've changed Ollie's bedtime routine, and our dinner time to include him at dinner!

For lunch we had broccoli, kumara, pear, nectarine, cooked carrot, and raw carrot with hummus. The carrot was a good dipping tool, but he wasn't keen on the hummus! I wish I'd captured his face!
 

 At dinner, we had our usual meal of stirfry (will have to vary things up a bit now that Ollie is joining us). Ollie had broccoli, carrot, and strips of beef. He loved being at the dinner table with us, and LOVED the beef! He really got into it, and didn't really given anything else a second chance!

Whoops a bit behind in posting 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 Five - Tuesday 22nd February - 11am & 2pm

Well we tried solids twice today!! Ollie still teething and not so interested. Don't think he really ingested anything today - and mainly only interested in toast! Fruit was too slippery and I just don't think he was in the mood today. Broccoli will be good I think - the stalk is a fantastic handle. I don't think he is a big fan of the taste though! haha. He did enjoy mashing it about though.

We took the foot rest off his highchair to try and get him to sit still a bit more, but no luck, he just swings his legs around!

I have to keep reminding myself he isn't meant to eat anything much yet! Its all about the playing....