Lesson Learned

Generally speaking, it's okay to give your nine-month-old babies the food you are eating.

Generally speaking, it's okay to chop up a bunch of chili peppers and add some greater-than-called-for quantity to the mushroom curry you are making (for the first time).

However (generally speaking), it is not such a brilliant idea to combine those two practices.

Poor kiddies. After some tears (and nursing) they ended up having just beer bread and baked apples for dinner last night. Not that I think they minded much in the end...but it's a shame, since Rita at least seemed to be digging the saag aloo before she got a mouthful of the hot curry.

What's the matter, Colonel Sanders? CHICKEN?

My children are no longer vegetarians. Rafi, at least, seems to be very happy about it.

(Off the grill, of course!)

food update

This won't be a very good baby-led weaning blog if I don't actually write about the foods my kids are trying. As of this week, we have broken the "one new food every two or three days" rule, though we still are not offering complex mixed foods. The list of offered foods thusfar (I think in order):

• sweet potato (boiled; steamed)


• avocado


• carrot (steamed)


• zucchini (steamed; grilled)


• banana


• peas (boiled, in mesh feeder)


• broccoli (steamed)


• green grapes (in mesh feeder)


• brown rice pasta


• blueberries (in mesh feeder)


• red bell pepper (raw, for gnawing)


• eggplant (grilled)


• watermelon


• oatmeal (cut oats, not whole)

I feel like I must have left something out, but I can't think of anything just now. The grilled veggies are made with a bit of olive oil, and this past Sunday also had some black pepper sprinkled on before grilling. Grilled zucchini so far seems to be a favorite, either fresh off the grill (cooled slightly) or cold the next day. Watermelon is a hit with Rafi, not so much with Rita.

Pasta (offered four times) was met with almost no interest whatsoever, and I can't tell whether that's because the shape (rotini) was too small to pick up (didn't seem so) or because (as Julian theorizes) it's just too bland. Tomato sauce is out because we haven't yet offered tomatoes, which are somewhat allergenic, and sauteed veggies in oil seems like it would be too slippery...but I'm wondering whether a nut-free pesto would be a good pasta sauce. Maybe with some avocado for creaminess? They haven't had basil either, but this would be a good introduction.

General dexterity is improving - Rafi is quite adept at getting the right part of the mesh feeder into his mouth when he wants to, and both kids can usually manage to pick up spear-shaped foods and place them into their mouths (though they sometimes need us to hold up the slippery foods so they can grab them).

The oatmeal was a new food this morning, and I helped a bit by putting some onto spoons for each of them (from piles in sections of their trays) and letting them attack the spoons as they saw fit. Both aimed for the oatmeal directly with their hands as well, and Rita had a ball squishing it through her fingers. I must admit I tried the squishing thing as I was rinsing off the trays, and it's rather fun.

Grilling Success Story!

Today we had some chicken cutlets, onions, and zucchini off of the grill (a charcoal kettle deal that debuted on Mother's Day). I left the salt and pepper off of the pieces of one of the smaller zucchini, and we offered wedges of that to the kids. Oh my, was that a hit. Rita only had about one and a half pieces, but that's a significant amount for her. Rafi must have gone through about half of a zucchini's worth of wedges - most of the skin and some bits of flesh were left me behind, but the greater part of everything we handed him made it into his mouth and down the hatch. There were flecks of grilled-blackened veggie all over his cheeks and nose, too. I guess we now know who really picked out that Mother's Day gift!

Oh yes - Rita is back on food now. On Friday I spoke to her pediatrician, who thinks the rash is just a superficial skin irritation caused by the food. After observing her eat a few times this weekend, Julian and I think it's actually caused by her polyester bibs, which she would rub against her cheeks and mouth. So at the grill-fest today we put her in a long-sleeved bib with a fleece front, thereby preventing the bib-rubbing. After a few days of that, we'll see how it affects things.

In other news, we also discovered today that Rafi can reach the spinning animals on the very top of the toy tree that came with his high chair. Two days ago they were out of reach, and now he can make them whirl like nobody's business. Awesome!

food log: bananas

I gave Rafi very ripe banana this morning - sliced in half crosswise, peeled down one side of bottom half. He promptly stuck it in his mouth, sucked off a bit, and then squirted the rest of the banana out of its peel. After watching his fruitless (punny, huh?) attempts at getting the squishy stuff into his mouth, I started holding up chunks within lunging range and letting him bite or suck off bits. Then we repeated the process with the second half. All told I'd guess he actually consumed maybe 1/6 or 1/;8 of the banana...not bad!

I Dream of Rafi With the Toothless Grin...

...because that Rafi is disappearing before my very eyes! His two lower front teeth are on the attack! The left one has already cut through his gum and is ever so slowly working its way out; the one on the right hasn't cut yet, but is causing the little guy plenty of pain. On Sunday we tried an ice cube in the mesh feeder, thinking the cold would help, but he wasn't interested. So far he's needed two doses of Tylenol (one Sunday afternoon, one a few hours ago) and a little extra cuddling and nursing, but otherwise he seems to be taking it in stride.

And while ice in the mesh feeder may not have been his thing, peas definitely are! Today I boiled (eight minutes) some frozen organic peas, let them cool a bit, stuffed a bunch into the mesh feeder, and handed Rafi his new "toy." It took him a few minutes worth of random bites all over the thing, but eventually he figured out that yummy stuff would ooze out of one side if he chewed on it. By the time he was done (i.e., asking for a nap), there was neon green pea juice all over his mouth and neck and the collar of his shirt (it snuck in behind the bib), and most of the peas inside the feeder had been demolished with only skins left behind.

food update

Yes, I know, enough with the babies and food posts. This blog is also where I keep records of what foods we've introduced, though, so you'll just have to live with it and pretend to be interested.

Introduced zucchini (cut into "french fry" strips with peel on and steamed until soft, about seven minutes) on Sunday. Both kids seemed to have a better time holding onto these pieces and biting off small chunks (usually spit out afterwards). Rafi definitely sucked significant bits of the flesh off of the skin and wanted more than one piece at both Sunday sit-downs. We paired it with more steamed carrot strips (first introduced Friday) at the second meal on Sunday; they seem to like that as well.

Rita has developed some sort of rash on either side of her mouth which may or may not be food-related...or just a heat rash that coincidentally started right after we introduced solids. Our pediatrician isn't in today, but the senior doctor in the practice returned my call, heard my description, and recommended taking her off of solids completely for a few days to see if that clears up the rash. Oh well - at least I've found a silver lining to the kids' naps not overlapping, as I can now offer Rafi solids while Rita is asleep and therefore unlikely to complain about what she's missing.

About the Weather

We had a spectacular thunderstorm this afternoon, the kind that comes in surges with occasional snippets of sunlight or quiet (but oddly enough, not both at once). One clap of thunder was so loud (and so close) that it startled Rita's eyes wide open and she almost - almost - started to cry. And at one point a little later, I could actually see another wall of rain moving in toward us, just by the dumb luck of happening to look out the window at that moment. The only thing missing was the sight of actual lightning...I didn't see a single bolt through any windows, and caught only one reflected flash when my back was turned.

I hope this storm means the weather for the next few days will be more pleasant than it has been this past week. Don't ruin it by pointing me to the forecast; I think I want to be surprised.

Solid foods introduction update: offered steamed (until quite soft) sliced carrot yesterday, and both avocado and steamed carrot today. So far the sweet potato wedges seem to have been the most manageable, though Rafi is certainly adept at mushing the avocado into his eyebrows.

Avocado

Yes, I know, I said I would try to blog about something other than my kids. Sorry. Just want to log that this morning at breakfast we offered Rafi and Rita each a wedge of avocado (1/8 of the fruit, sliced lengthwise). Rafi made an attempt at getting it toward his mouth, smushed a little on his face, and then decided he'd rather nap instead. Rita employed the same technique she's been using for sweet potato: squish trough fingers and lick or suck off what sticks. She seemed to really like the avocado bits she managed to eat (and even sucked a few tiny bits off of my fingers - bad BLW mommy I am). She had her first gagging incident, got through it just fine, and resumed the squish-and-suck process almost immediately. After a few more minutes, though, she started fussing and whining. I'm not sure whether she was annoyed by the bib, frustrated that she couldn't get more avocado into her mouth, or just bored with the whole thing.

Sweet Potato Poo

The sweet potato experiment was a success, if you define "success" as "a mess was made and some small portion of sweet potato made its way into each child's mouth." Which is, of course, how I define "success."

I peeled one large-ish, organically farmed, garnet yam and cut it into wedges that were about an inch at their widest, a quarter-inch to a half-inch thick, and four to six inches long. Said wedges were boiled in plain water for about seven and a half minutes (until soft) and then removed with a slotted spoon and placed on a plate to cool to room temperature. A little while later, Julian and his parents and I sat down to our bagels and cream cheese (and stuff, always stuff), and Rafi and Rita joined us at the table in their high chairs, with a couple of sweet potato wedges on each tray. There was a bit of assistance involved to get the sweet potato into their hands (the trays are a wee bit high for my short children to reach up and over them), but we didn't place any into their mouths. (At least...I didn't. Julian may have snuck something in.)

Rafi's method: Hold wedge gently at one end. Bring hand near mouth. If opposite end of wedge does not flop over and fall into lap, place it into mouth and bite off a chuck with gums. Mush it just the barest amount, and attempt to swallow. Gag, cough, scare Grandma, and spit out chunk. Repeat until this whole high chair thing gets boring, and then insist on being transfered to Mommy's lap, where one may rub the sweet potato chunks into a placemat.

Rita's method: Grab wedge, mush through fingers. Suck thumb. Discover that thumb tastes interesting. Suck other fingers. Discover that they also taste interesting. Mush more sweet potato through fingers and suck thumb again. Alternately, grab wedge with two hands, bring wedge to mouth, and lick it. Experiment once with biting off a good-sized chunk. Puree said chunk with gums and spit it out slowly, but not quite slowly enough for Mommy to get a good picture.

And did they swallow anything? The proof is in the poo, and the answer is yes! A mere six hours after our adventure, I found some bright orange bits of undigested sweet potato in Rafi's dirty diaper. I excitedly called Julian over to investigate, and he acted appropriately pleased. Rita did not grace us with a dirty diaper at all Sunday afternoon, but this morning there was some sweet potato in her diaper as well. They swallowed! They swallowed!

This morning, after their first nap, the experiment was repeated, but with only one wedge of sweet potato each. Nothing was dropped onto the floor (maybe they just haven't figured out that game yet), and while I doubt much was actually eaten, they seemed to have figured out that they should at least be attempting that. Nifty.

Next on the list is parsnip, I think, mainly because I have some in my fridge.

Oh dear, I just wrote an entire post about boiled potatoes and poo. I promise, I'll get back to political rants one day.