Eating with Lucy

If you read any of Lucy's most recently monthly updates, you'd know that we had previously struggled with her liking actual food. Not just table food...purees and basically anything but milk. So we started Ford on baby food at 5.5 months and by 7 months he was no longer eating purees and eating 3 solid meals a day. So you can see why I was shocked that at 8 months Lucy was not interested in anything but a boob, bottle, or occasional puff. I know Ford was an early eater (and a good eater!) so I was trying not to stress about it but I can't lie, She would gag on even the smoothest of mixture. I tried homemade, store bought, pouches, everything. I was worrying about her possibly having tongue tie or issue with her palate. I had heard of mamas having to take their littles to therapy at a year when their kiddo wouldn't even eat purees so I said I would talk to her pediatrician at her 9 month appointment. Lo and behold, the week before she turned 9 months old, something clicked. Here we are a few weeks later and girlfriend eats full grilled cheeses, quesadillas, yogurt, cheese sticks, potatoes, and so much more....with no teeth. So how did I do it? I really can't say much but don't give up. Again... I really wasn't going to get worried until we had hit the 3 month mark of her not eating (and I was worried about her gag reflex, not the fact that she wasn't interested), so I kept trying. I was surprised to see so many moms in a forum talk about how their babes didn't start eating food until 10, 11, and even 12 months. You may be thinking I'm nuts for even worrying because "they" say that food before 12 months is just for fun but I plan on weaning Lucy right at a year like I did Ford.

So mealtime now is fun and messy with Lucy girl. She is very independent and wants to do everything on her own. I try to give her an array of options on her tray and she almost always gravitates towards the dairy and carbs. She still has an empty mouth so I make sure things are soft enough for her to chew, although I am shocked by how she can gum the crap out of foods. I also try to give her something to gnaw on like an apple slice or pepper to soothe her gums. I still do offer her purees once a day to get veggies in her. Her favorites are sweet pea/apple and pumpkin/sweet potato/carrot. And because a girl has always gotta look cute, I got a new set of Lemonade bandana bibs and we LOVE them! We've tried a few different brands of bandana bibs and these are the biggest and softest. They are fleece lined which means her precious little outfits won't get ruined and the patterns are cute! You can get them in a 4 pack for $14.99 on Amazon...killer deal! Head over to my Instagram for a giveaway!

Lemonade Bibs

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Lucy's First Food

Today is a crazy day in Austin. It hasn't stopped raining since early this morning and there is flooding across our city. For a city who has experienced a multi year drought, it is great, but man it's intense! Since we planned on staying home all day, it was finally time to start Lucy on solids! In typical 2nd child fashion I have been meaning to start them this week but then time gets away from us and I postpone. I spent a whole day last week making a bunch of homemade baby food. Like with Ford, we plan on doing purees for a couple of weeks then transition into baby led weaning. Lucy has shown major signs that she is interested... grabbing our food, opening her mouth, and loving puffs and mum mums. I decided to give her sweet potatoes since that was Ford's favorite and I used a store bought Gerber brand because it is really thing and pureed (my homemade food is thicker). She was funny about it and got over it pretty quickly. I assumed she was going to plow through it but that wasn't the case. She did want to grab onto the spoon to gnaw on. I am in no rush to go full force into food but we will try again tomorrow! And just like Ford, Lucy had her first food off of a beautiful silver spoon gifted to us by my grandparents (and they gave me one when I was a baby too!). I love incorporating family traditions into any experience for my kiddos.

Googly eyes for her daddy

Toddler Food Swap

Yesterday someone in my mom's group hosted a toddler food swap and it was a genius idea that I wanted to share with you guys. I know I am always in a rut when it comes to making new things for Ford to eat, especially snacks. He loves anything carby and fruit and it's hard to pack healthy things for on the go. So the swap. Each person brings 6 snack items per child and goes home with the same number of different snacks! Does that make sense? So if 10 kids come, I bring 10 bags of 6 of the item I chose to make. And then I bring home 9 different snacks that those kiddos parents brought. It is a fun and easy way to try new things for your kids without having to make an entire batch of something that they may not like. I love swapping ideas with other moms, especially ideas to make things a tad healthier. I brought Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip mini muffins that are a fan favorite in our house. They are made with bananas which I always have in my freezer and sweetened with honey or agave. And if you know anything about my food preferences, you'd know I am slightly obsessed with anything chocolate/peanut butter. The event doesn't have to be anything fancy....our host had a few simple snacks and the kids played while the mamas chatted. We came home with mini quiches, zucchini orange spice muffins, and blueberry spinach yogurt popsicles. We were even talking about how this would be a neat thing to do with crock pot meals or frozen meals for us adults. Hope you mamas can take this idea with your community!

Ford's First Food

We finally caved and gave Ford his first food last week, Friday January 17th! Our doctor recommended waiting until 6 months but said if we get to 5-5.5 months and we think he is ready, we could go ahead. Ford has always eyed our food like a hawk but last week he started reaching for it and opening his mouth as if to say, "feed me!". Jon traveled last week and I told him the second he comes home, we are starting food. After doing research (Wholesome Baby Food), we decided to start initially with organic oatmeal mixed with breastmilk. Ford was pretty hilarious, I will let the video and pictures do the talking. 
Ford's great grandparents (his namesake) gave us a monogrammed silver spoon for our little prince and I knew I wanted to use it for his first bite. They also gave me one when I was born so it is pretty darn special. 

I'm ready mom!

Thank you to Dr. Brown's for sending me all sorts of goodies to start the baby food journey with Ford! We love the flat tipped spoons for feeding since babies tend to be quite messy. 

This isn't mommy's milk!

Dr Brown's feeding bowls & long spatula flat tipped spoon

Supposedly it can take up to 20 tries for a baby to enjoy a certain food so we are not giving up! 90% of the battle is getting him to understand how to swallow it and since he doesn't take a bottle or paci, he doesn't have that sucking reflex. I read that cinnamon is super food so I added a dash to his oatmeal on Saturday and he kept a lot of it in! I also decided that a hard, plastic bib (baby bjorn bib) is much better for feeding our messy boy! 

We gave Ford some mashed up avocado mixed with breastmilk last night which he wasn't a huge fan of but they say it can take up to 20 tries for a baby to like a certain food. I also let him gnaw on a few cucumbers he loved it! Good for his fine motor skills and good for his teething. Right now we're just working on him getting used to something in his mouth. I've picked up the ingredients to make some yummy first foods for him this week (butternut squash, green beans, sweet potato). Check out the swag Dr. Brown's sent me! Can't wait to share what foods we are making, why we chose these foods, and how we made them!