Author Topic: Totally forgotten the path...  (Read 1535 times)

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Offline lauradj

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Totally forgotten the path...
« on: December 20, 2015, 22:22:47 pm »
There are only 18 months between my boys but I swear I forgotten everything to do with solids!!  Currently DS2 is 9 months old.   He has three solids meals a day and has just started having a little mid-morning snack with his brother but I just realized he ought to be having finger foods by now!  I do give him a variety of textures and he eats pretty much whatever we feed him, I just haven't given him many opportunities to feed himself. 
I tried giving him toast fingers this morning and sticks of banana and he ate pretty much nothing.  Naturally he was a hot mess by 8:30am because he was hungry.  Can someone remind me of some good, healthy options.  I prefer to make everything they eat from scratch and we're still testing the dairy waters with DS2.  This is his current eating.

7:00am - bottle (6oz)
7:45ish - breakfast (usually oatmeal with fruit.  He did have some hardboiled egg the other day and that was ok)
9:30am - snack (applesauce or a fruit/veggie pack if I'm out and about)
12:30pm - bottle (4-6oz)
1:30pm - lunch (either pureed leftovers or a specific baby meal I've made)
4:15pm - bottle (4oz)
5:30pm - dinner (what we're eating, pureed or a specific baby meal if our meal isn't baby friendly)
6:45pm - bottle (3-7oz)

Does this look right?  I feel like I've totally dropped the ball with helping him develop better eating skills.  He also really likes water, LOVES it in fact.  He drinks probably 3oz over 24 hours and he gets right ticked off if we take it away (we still do though).





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Re: Totally forgotten the path...
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2015, 09:00:32 am »
He might just need a bit of encouragement to self feed and take the finger foods.  Some LOs do expect the feeding to be mummy's job and sit with their mouth open like a little bird waiting for it to be filled but if you take your time you could probably transition over a week or two to all finger foods and pre-loaded spoon/fork.
I would just gently encourage him with words and actions, put the food in his hand and say "you do it" and gently bring his hand up to his mouth, he'll probably catch on pretty quickly just not all in one day :)  At meal times I would perhaps say "you eat yours and I'll eat mine," help him grab a piece if needed.  You can even demonstrate for a few days by using your fingers to eat too.

Rather than changing the meals how about just adapting them a bit?  So rather than switching oatmeal to toast how about making oatmeal fingers (there is a recipe somewhere on the finger food thread - I'll did it out if you can't find it), or I used a "my first muesli" which I made very thick (little milk and stir into a dough like mix) and rolled into balls which DS picked up, he took bites out of the balls, perhaps you can do similar with a thick oat meal or pre-load spoons for him to pick up and self feed?

Hard boiled egg is great, as is omelette (a one egg omelette is so quick to make too once you get in the swing of it) which can be cut into strips for him to pick up or into mouth size squares to stab with a fork, help him stab or pre load a fork.

I would just switch your fruit puree to fresh fruit, if apple is a bit hard try steaming for a few mins or oven baking wedges in the oven (dry on the outside which is easier to pick up and manipulate than steamed which is wet on the outside, but nice and soft on the inside), same with pear and almost any veggies, potato, sweet potato, carrots etc. Cut everything into wedges or big chunks.
The left overs which you are pureeing I would just offer as a regular un-pureed meal.  If the pieces are small maybe you can adapt your cooking for a few months to offer bigger pieces which are easier to pick up?  I made stews with big chunks so that DS would be able to pick up his veggies.  Quick meals would be things like steamed carrot fingers, green beans or asparagus (minimal pre needed as they are all perfect size for finger foods!) to go with some protein and carbs.
Protein I used to make batches of lentil or bean burgers (little patties fried or stuffed into a mini muffin tray and baked into neat little packages I could freeze) and they were always great to take out and about, neat little dry finger food protein/veggie meals, I could lift out 1 or 2 in the morning and they were defrosted by lunch, I just served cold.  Little pancakes (fruit or veggie) and mini muffins (again fruit or veggie) were often staples as back up food here too, oaty chews (recipe on the finger food thread, they can be dairy free no problem).
Which foods you serve depends on what you eat as a family really as you want it to be the same or similar but there might be some adaptations to allow for his age and ability.  I mean we were not lentil burger eaters but they were handy for DS and then our main meals I made sure included things he could have so we were eating the same.

Your routine looks fine. It's quite early to be introducing a solids snack but I imagine a lot of people do when they have an older toddler around and LO is seeing the snack and wants some!

If you have lots of pureed foods frozen you can use them up by adding to pancake mix or muffin mix or using as a spread on toast or a sauce for pasta etc. They don't have to go to waste.

hope this helps


Offline lauradj

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Re: Totally forgotten the path...
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2015, 19:09:31 pm »
Thank you!!!  There are so many great ideas here, I think I'm just going to print your response out so I don't forget anything.  I'm scaling the mid-morning snack back to only a couple of ounces.  I don't want it to take away from his milk feeds and I can see a decrease.  I don't know why it seems so unsurmountable, I just could not wrap my head around any finger food ideas.  If you have the oatmeal finger recipe that would be great.  I tried one with DS1 and they did not work at all!


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Re: Totally forgotten the path...
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2015, 19:40:02 pm »
The oaty chews are not great IMO but DS and DP like them, I'm really not a fan but I used to make lots of these because they were easy to make and DS loved them, so easy to take out and about...and often took extra as his little toddler friends liked them too.  For a younger baby I would advise whizzing the oats to make the texture smoother and perhaps whizzing the dried fruit too, the result is not that far off from a shop shelf brand.
Here's where I first posted it, I'm not sure I fully followed the recipe, usually just made it up once I had the hang of it
Re: Finger Foods (6 months+)
They are pretty gross warm and much much better if left to cool fully. The recipe says you can replace the milk with water or fruit juice, I would just use water as they are pretty sweet anyway with the bananas and dried fruit in.

There are also lots of other recipe ideas on that thread.


Offline lauradj

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Re: Totally forgotten the path...
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2015, 20:45:17 pm »
Thank you!!  I'll make these today :)