Let's add solids to the routine, shall we?

We are full force into baby food in our house. It took a little while for Max to get used to the textures but now he's excited to try new things. Like a baby bird with his mouth open, he sits and waits until I spoon in the next bite. Since we've started solids as a dinner time thing, the evening extra bottle of breast milk has gone away.  Our new evening ritual is to strip down to his diaper for dinner, he gets one veggie and half a fruit helping. I let him explore feeding himself. More times the food ends up in his hair or on me but he is learning and getting better at putting the spoon in his mouth. Then it is bath time, a book and finally he nurses before bed. Before we started solids it was pretty much the same routine except he'd nurse before bath and then get a bottle before bed. Usually after he'd finish off his bottle, he'd cry out for more.  I'd let him top himself off on the breast and then he'd be ready for bed.  Now he seems much more satisfied and zen before bed. I like that. :)

This week we started gouter. Or as the French call afternoon snack time. Traditionally this around 4-5pm, kids will have an after school snack of tartines of nutella, a fruit and a bowl of milk or juice.  Of course, we'd like to stick to the tradition of nutella and baguette that my husband grew up with. But it's a little too early for Max to try nutella. Though Max is all about the baguette! So  for now we are going to stick with fruit purée.  This week we had banana and prunes. Also, gouter is my way of transitioning through the late afternoon nap (or nap #3) for Max.  I can see that it is starting to phase out already!  Soon, I'd like to have gouter while we are on our afternoon walks.  Maybe I'll start a gouter group where we can meet up with other kids and have gouter in a park in Paris.      

This weekend I am visiting a friend and am hoping to get inspired on new "dishes" I can make for Max.  I've had a few hits but mostly misses making my own food for Max. But I'm inexperienced and am still learning.  For now, Max has been eating organic baby food I found at my local bio marché.  I've also started getting an organic basket of fruits and vegetables from Le Campanier every week in an effort for Julien and I to eat better. I know I that will give me ideas for new purées to try out on Max.

Mama's milk is still his main source of nutrition. And I can tell he prefers that over everything else. I don't blame him! :)

Veggies Max loves:

Carrots
Broccoli
Pumpkin (Potiron)

Fruits:

Nectarines
Peaches
Banana
Prunes

On our to try list:

Tofu (in cubes)
Zucchini (again)
Sweet potatoes

What foods have you been feeing your babies or fed your babies in the past? When did you start giving them actual bits to try to eat? I ask this because I can tell that Max is more interested in feeding himself then being fed by Mama.

Comments

[gleek]

the peanut and i are following the guidelines in the "super baby food" book that i bought about introducing solids so we're not as far along as you guys. she has tried:

rice cereal
peaches
prunes
plums (didn't like these for some reason)
sweet potato
avocado
and today, butternut squash

i'm introducing new foods every 3 to 4 days to watch for allergic reactions and we've only had one solid meal per day after her first nap. last night though i introduced evening cereal after her cat nap and that went moderately well. she's never happy in the evenings :) anyway, i think that we'll stick with it and switch to oat cereal which has more fiber and is less likely to cause constipation. i'd like to be at three solid meals by the time she's 7 months (morning fruits, afternoon veggies, evening fruits with cereal). we'll see!

by the way, i highly recommend getting a pressure cooker for making baby food. takes half as long to cook! i have all my baby food made and stored in the freezer in cubes that i make in ice cube trays. very convenient.

[mamie]

no ideas yet as we are a month behind you and max..the boys just started tasting rice cereal and it is hilarious. i will eagerly await any other food related posts as an idea of what is ahead.

[Juliet]

I'm not sure you can get it in Paris, but one of the first foods I gave my children was avocado. They loved it! I would cut it in half, drag a fork through the avo meat, untill the right consistency was desired. Eventually I cubed it, once they got the chewing technique.Untill then they would literally suck it off fingers!
Enjoy your new eating ventures!

[misschris]

Hi Aimee I started solids with Little S at six months. I let him do it himself right away which will be hard for lots of French mothers and grandmothers to understand because of the mess they make! I have to agree that a big favorite right away was avocados. I made everything and it was so much fun. Invest in one of those Babycooker things that let you cook and puree in the same unit (I think Moulinex makes it). Those things are really convenient and easy to clean. I never got around to buying one for the first baby and I really regretted it.

Here's my link to feeding Baby S back in the day. You can scroll through my April 2005 posts and see what fun we had.

http://aprettyhowtown.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archive.html

[Kelly]

Hi Aimee,
I am glad that Max is enjoying his solids. With my first I gave her the organic baby food from the store, which I also do with the second. But with the second I started just chopping up whatever we were eating for dinner and giving it to her and she actually usually perfers that. For instance if we are having spagatti, then I will just chop some up for her. Tonight we had meat balls, green beans and mashed potatos and she loved it (She is 11 months). I have a little chopper I bought through pampered chef although I am sure you can buy them anywere. Plain yogart with fruit mixed in is also a good choice...I think I started that around 8 or 9 months. It is also good for the gut.

Spoon feeding seems to take a bit longer then finger feeding, but I with you about letting them try and get messy. But pretty early on they can pick up little pieces of noodle or soft fruit or Cherios and feed themselves.
Again, best of luck and I am glad you are finding yourself in a happy routine. That is not always easy to do :)

[Caroline]

I started giving chunks (rice puffs that melt) at 9+months. Personally, that was already pushing my comfort level although he was starting to chew stuff. At day care, they feel ok with the chunks when they have bottom and top teeth. So one little girls who had a lot of teeth really early on started early. Also, baby crawling is a sign that he is getting ready for chunks developmentally. All of it came into place at around 9+ months for us. He has been moving really fast, and I don't think it quite matters if you start early...

Ideas for foods:
apricots
anise (fenouil) -> he LOVES it
Anything winter squashy (but it sounds like you already tried it)

Did you take the seeds away from the zucchinis? My son didn't like it the first time when I left the seeds. The second time, I only put the flesh, and it was a hit. I second the Babycooker thingie. It is the best!!!! I brought it back form France and got a transformer. Worth every penny!

[Aimee]

Thanks for the comments and link. It's good to get ideas to try, for some reason I'm very uncreative when it comes to cooking.

This baby cooker sounds interesting. I had thought about it but now I'm really curious.

Well, we're off for the weekend and I hope to come back and get started making baby food.

Thanks for all the great ideas.

[Emma]

Right now I am inspired by this "new" thing called Baby Led Weaning, because my little Ivar seems to like his food best when he is in full control of it himself. We are trying some of the BLW ideas, but not everything.
He gets Cheerios in the morning which he loves and it is a treat to watch him concentrate on those tiny loops. Ivar also loves to have big chunks of fruit or vegetables to suck and chew on, like cucumber, apple, banana, carrot, broccoli, kiwi... Crackers and swedish gingerbread cookies is another favorite.
He also gets pureed food for dinner (whatever we are having minus salt, mashed and diced) and oatmeal in the evening with fruit.
I am so lazy when it comes to cooking! I would rather spend time playing with my kids. Yeah, irresponsible but fun. My goal is to have the kids eating exactly what the rest of the family is eating, and to be curious about a lot of different tastes.

[Matt]

Anything the little cutie pie can feed himself is a great idea. Cheerios and other cereals are a good start, as they aren't too filled with sugar. The cereals are good to help teething, and feeding himself will help with the pincher movement he needs to perfect. :)

Logan went through a lot of phases at that age--for weeks he would eat green beans and peas--then he wouldn't want anything besides sweet potatoes. Then peas, then back to carrots. On the fruit front, he loved it all--berries, peaches, raisins, pears, apples, oranges. It is probably too early for Max to have citrus fruits and berries, but Logan certainly does love them. He was never big on the pureed meats, and I can certainly understand why based upon how they smelled! HA HA HA

I definitely agree with Emma, though. The best food is to give him what you guys are eating (within reason). Logan eats almost exclusively the same things we do including Vietnamese, Indian, French (he loves pate and cornichons), and even Mexican (he ate a Chipotle soft taco last week).

[tracy]

I'm not sure the the baby cooker is, but I steamed everything just in a basket steamer and put it through a little food mill I have. I did the freeze in ice cubes with my first, but found with the second that just doing the food mill was just as easy because baby then just ate whatever we were having.

Have fun with the feeding!