09 March 2016

Solids: baby eats

When Rory turned 6 months old we tried to start introducing solids and it was a disaster.
She gagged everything up, no matter how small.
I even blended up bananas and she gagged on the tiny lumps in the puree!
I was freaking out, because well... she had to be able to eat something else eventually.
And if she hated real food, it would be that much harder to wean her when the time comes.
And heaven knows that's gotta happen, because for my mental health I eventually
have to stop being the only source of milk in this girl's life.

I eventually figured out that if I placed the food right between her gummy back molars
she could figure it out and chew it enough to swallow.
From there on, eating has been a dream. Except what do you feed a baby and feel good about?!
Rory never really liked purees or baby food aside from applesauce, so we did real food from the start.
But you can't just hide some spinach or beets in real food like you can in purees,
so I have had to do some searching to find things that
1. I feel good about feeding her and
2. she actually likes

And she can't seem to get enough food, so it's been a challenge to come up with that
a minimum of  5 times daily.

So here's about what our balance looks like:
Rory gets up and eats baby muffins (blog post for the recipe coming later in the week), or whole wheat pancakes paired with some kind of fruit. Either dried prunes cut into pieces, or frozen bananas and blueberries.
Lunch consists of either an egg or whichever one of the above options she didn't eat before. Typically we use cheerios or some kind of puffs as a filler if she's still acting like she's starving after she's eaten her food.
Rory's mid-afternoon snack is hit or miss. We have Costco applesauce packets for if we're on the go, or the cheerio option (which she would eat for every meal if she could) Sometimes I make us a smoothie, but I've found that cutting the frozen fruit up keeps her occupied for longer and is easier for her to eat without me. But if we're being honest, it kind of depends on what I have on-hand and how much time I actually have!
Then dinner she typically eats whatever we have for dinner, within reason. Whole wheat pasta, tacos, chicken and rice, etc etc. We slack a little on watching the salt intake here and try to be good about it the rest of the day.

Regardless we love this girl, and if you have any good food suggestions for us let us know!
She basically is a mini garbage disposal. (aka my mini me)

*And pictures of my baby dripping in blueberry juice because.... pictures of my baby dripping in blueberry juice. #amiright 
**Will you please appreciate her baldness and the way she looks at her Uncle Zane in that last picture?!?










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