I have three days off a week, a bonus to my already great job. I generally use Friday to get things done so I can have the weekend to enjoy with the guy and the boy. It seems, without fail, the more I get planned out on Friday, the more the universe likes to laugh at me. I went to the doctor, took Henry for a checkup, bought a ton of healthy food to cook for him and Ben and I over the weekend, and downloaded a training program for the 10k I've signed up to run in April. I was feeling great and ready to go.
By Friday evening I was leveled with another bug, and Henry was coughing and blowing snot everywhere. I didn't eat anything but chicken soup all weekend, and am scrambling now to freeze things so the stuff I bought doesn't go to waste. Missed a day of work, and I feel like my head is full of cotton. Ben came home and kept getting mad because I wasn't responding to him when he was talking to me-I just couldn't hear him. That's definitely weird for me, I have crap vision but my other senses seem to have overcompensated-I've got a crazy sense of smell and ears like a bat.
But anyway, we're recovering. I'm reading a ton about food for babies, we introduced pureed food a while ago. The books all say "Look for signs that your baby is ready for solids." Well, I was giving Henry a bottle one morning while trying to multitask and eat a bowl of oatmeal, and before I knew it, he had spit out his bottle, grabbed a handful of my oatmeal, and stuffed it in his mouth.
Ok, can't get more obvious a sign than that. So far he's just been doing cereals and baby food. I had great intentions to make his food, but that's just been impossible. Plus the one time I made him peas, he ate three spoonfuls, each time giving me a look of pure horror, then covered his mouth with this hands and yelled at me through them. I have managed to do some sweet potato and carrots that he'll eat, but that's been the extent of my culinary attempts for him.
So my friend Melissa has been posting on facebook about her son starting solids, and they basically skipped the whole pureed thing at the advice of a book she read, which I can't remember the name of and am too lazy to look up. She's got all these adorable pictures and posts of her boy (who is younger than Henry) with plates of food in front of him, looking completely delighted. "Roast sweet potatoes and broccoli a hit!" and things like that.
I figured I'd start letting Henry mess around with some solids. Cut up pasta stuck to his hands until he forgot about it and started playing with something else, every now and again pausing to poke curiously at the noodles. I gave him a piece of string cheese, and he appeared to eat it. Then he made his raspberry noises (BBBPPPPPTTT BBBPPPPTTT) which are generally accompanied with a lot of spit, until the cheese flew out of his mouth and across the room, and the dog ate it.
Well, I guess it's going to be a process. He also has cut a bottom tooth, and I have to say, I'm glad I stopped nursing a while ago. That went from gums to sharp pretty damned quick. Ouch.
Bum Megan, I'm so sorry you've been sick again! Hope you feel better soon.
ReplyDeleteThe book is Baby Led Weaning: http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Led-Weaning-Essential-Introducing-Foods-/dp/161519021X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295959140&sr=1-1 and there is an excellent website here: http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/blog
One of the keys with this method of introducing solids, though, is not to worry about how much they are actually eating - it's about fun and learning in the beginning. I know David is still getting the vast majority of his nutrition from nursing, and will for months, and, frankly, I'm surprised at how much he has actually eaten so far, as made evident in his diapers. In the next couple of weeks I expect he will figure out that this strange stuff not only tastes good/feels good on his gums, but also fills his tummy, and then he will eat more and spit out/throw over the side of the high chair/mash between his fingers less. Right now I take care NOT to offer him food when I know he's hungry, as counter-intuitive as that seems. I nurse him when I know he's hungry: that way he doesn't get frustrated with trying to eat other food. It is messy. It's also excellent fun and so amazing to see how quickly he learns. This morning he was starting to be able to reposition slices of pineapple in his hand, using his highchair tray for leverage, to be able to get it in his mouth better. So cool!
I partly wanted to go this way because it took me until college to be able to leave food on my plate without guilt (the starving children in Africa!) and I didn't want to go the two-more-bites, finish your main course before you can have dessert, way, and teach D my bad habits. Seriously though, different things work for different people. Good luck in the adventure. And hooray for teeth!
So far Maddie has stolen out of my hand: a carrot, a granola bar, and a cracker. She was actually able to get the cracker in her mouth before I stopped her. And she stares longingly at me while I eat my oatmeal every morning (so much so that it makes me feel uncomfortable). I think she might be trying to tell me she is ready for solids? We're still hoping to hold off until she is at least 5 months old, but we'll see.
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