I'm really happy to report that our first visit to the halte garderie yesterday went way better than expected! Fry had a nice long nap before we went and was raring to go once we got there. At first, he got a little upset with being in a new place with new people, but he quickly settled down in the lap of one of the caregivers and played there for an incredible thirty minutes! He charmed the ladies with his smile, played with different toys and darn near turned over by himself during a little tummy time! Right about the time he should have had his bottle he started to get cranky again. I asked the ladies if they wanted to try to give him a bottle, because honestly my mother-in-law hasn't even succeeded in this area yet, but it was no dice. Luckily we're only ten minutes away from home on foot so he had no problem waiting until we got home to drink his milk, but everyone - including me! - was impressed at how well he did on his first day.
Also, it's been two weeks since we tried solids so we gave it another go this morning with a pot of green beans. He did much, much better this time, even opening his mouth when he saw the spoon coming and taking a few gulps of water after about three spoonfuls. After about a dozen spoonfuls, however, he'd had enough and wanted his usual veggie milk. He didn't make much of a dent in the pot but I suppose it's a beginning.
So from what the doctor said at our last visit, apparently he'll slowly start eating more veggies and drinking less milk at lunch time. I'm curious to know, you moms out there, is that your experience? I talked to MIL about eating solids the other day and she basically said, "Yeah, you gotta force them," which made me go !!!! Anyway, advice and suggestions are much appreciated.
16 comments:
Have you thought about trying rice cereal? That's what I started all my boys on. I just mixed a teaspoon of rice cereal with a little of the milk out of their bottle and they took to it like fish to water.
I did this for a few weeks before introducing fruit and veggies one at a time (and mixed in the with rice cereal).
God this makes me feel so old, like when my Mum used to tell me about how she weaned me in her day. (Back when I was a baby they put babies on solids at 6 weeks!)
Like Ms Mac this make me feel old, BUT (no, not the grand surface!), try compote sans sucre. DD wouldn't take rice cereal or mashed up anything. She preferred the sweet stuff. A whole tin of Heinz fruit purée for lunch! I was furious! I'd been making purée out of everything we'd eaten and freezing in ice cube trays. She wouldn't eat any of it so DH used to defrost it all and have it for lunch!!!! As soon as the teeth start appearing try crudities - broccoli, carrot cauliflower - in small amounts.
Seriously, try compotes and fromage frais. My sister hit the jackpot last month with Estella who is about a week older than FF. Her success was puréed carrot and puréed sweet potato.
Best of luck and don't let him wind you up. They sense the moment their mum is getting stressed!
Well, we decided to skip cereal he's already eating more than he's supposed to and he's got a couple of teeth growing in already. The thinking now is to introduce veggies first and then fruits later so they have a chance to like veggies as much as the sweet stuff.
Honestly, I think he liked the green beans, at least better than the carrots a couple of weeks ago, and he got bored with it or annoyed or just wanted his milk.
We started Rowan at 6 months with a little rice cereal, and she liked it OK but preferred the oatmeal that came next (she got really constipated on the rice, and frankly, it tastes like glue.) Then veggies (puréed) were no problem. I waited on fruits until she was solid on veggies because I didn't want to create a totally sweet palate. She never really liked sweet potatoes or carrots (?) but was big into prunes, peas and green beans. Applesauce without sugar is also a big hit and has been from day one. I also would mix in a tiny bit of oatmeal to make it a little thicker and easier for her to spoon up once she was trying that.
Have you tried milk first, then veg? He might be more willing to try it if he doesn't think he's not getting his milk. Just a thought.
I can't believe he's big enough for this already!!! Man, time flies. :)
Milk then veg sounds awesome! The only problem is that the goal is to replace that milk with solids *but* we've just consolidated from five bottles a day to four and we're giving him more water during the day, so maybe that's not a bad idea. I think we'll try that tomorrow, thanks for the suggestion!
I should add that even though I say we've skipped cereal, he gets two bottles a day called "lait et legumes" which is made up of 200ml milk, two spoonfuls of veggies, and cereals are added. So we are kind of doing cereals after all.
I started both mine on apple compote which I made myself from organic apples (ah, those were the days, when I had 100% control over what they ate - now they drink coke and scoff MacDonalds). A dozen teaspoons seems like quite a lot to me actually for just a second try. I seem to rememeber freezing tiny amounts of pureed vegetables in ice cube moulds for the first few weeks and defrosting them one by one. Looks as if he's going to have a healthy appetite!
Ah, thank you Lesley, that is what I wanted to hear! It's just that when you're working with a pot of baby food and you can't see the dent in what he's eaten, am I supposed to be happy he ate as much as he did or concerned because he hardly had any? Plus I hate throwing away 3/4 of a pot of baby food away because they only keep for two days... Anyway, thanks, I feel a bit better now about his progress!!
Sounds like he's right on track! Can you freeze what you don't use so that it doesn't go to waste? I know you can with homemade (perfect in ice cube trays) but i"m not sure with store brand.
We did a little of everything with the boys, so I don't remember.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if he's *starving* he's less likely to want to mess with the solids, he'll want what is fast and easy (the milk)...so try to catch him when he's hungry, but not famished. But I think your doc is right, he'll gradually want more and more and less milk. Especially with only being a second try....a dozen attempts is really good.
We always did veggies first too...same reason as you. Another big hit for our guys was pureed avocado....can you get those in Tiny Town?
You're doing great!!
Thanks D! I may try that with freezing the store bought stuff. We can get avacados when they're in season, I know we can get them in the summer for sure so I'll definitely try that!
I had an idea this morning, I think we'll try the milk before veggies method, and then maybe slowly reduce the amount of milk he gets? At least that way it will take the edge of the hunger and he can eat more veggies. Won't try this right away but it's something to think about...
Ah Vivi! Pretty soon your MIL's comment about "forcing" will no longer fall on ears that think that their baby rules the earth... and that they are delicate creechurs who do nothing but fart angel dust.
I'm feeling a bit cynical today since my daughter tried to trip me on Saturday. Good times.
So. As per the food. Go slow and steady but good idea in easing in the veggies so that he develops an affinity for them.
Well, I do think there's a difference between forcing your kid to eat when he's playing or goofing off or whatever, and forcing him even though he's not digesting it well and he's not ready for solids yet. If recognizing that means I'm raising a spoiled precious snowflake, I'm ok with that.
Speechless. Your comment has caught me by surprise. Obviously my comment bothered you. I am sorry if that is the case.
This Mother's cynicism kicked in after baby two when things weren't new anymore, especially when the ages were close together and, unfortunately, all that mother remembers is how hard everything was and she was more aware of not doing anything right and some days, it was all she could do to get food in her kids at all.
Thank goodness for these days when there is positive reinforcement from the internet and the isolation is minimal. Truly, you are very lucky.
It's probably best that he doesn't eat the entire container at one time. My 7.5 month old now just eats about two small ice cubed size portions of food we make ourselves. The one time I let him eat all he wanted of some jarred food (the entire container) he spent the rest of the night vomiting. We also give him some baby yogurt but since you are trying to give your little guy LESS calories that might not be a good idea. We are having the opposite problem with our little guy. We are trying to fatten him up since he is not a big eater and usually is satisfied or falls asleep after a minutes of nursing.
PS to Mrs C.....didn't you ever hear the saying "you can't spoil a baby!"?
Babies no, they can't be spoiled. But older babies and toddlers? Hoolah. The power struggles happen and they happen sooner than we think. Small children are smart little badgers. :-)
Food is the only thing that small children have any kind of control over (either eating it or not and throwing the household into turmoil when they don't which they could construe as 'fun'). And if it's a soft spot, they'll use it to their advantage.
But whatever. Vivi ain't there yet. She's still in the discovery stage.
I'm chiming in a little late here, but here's my experience. With Gab, we started him on cereal around 4 and a half months, which I feel was a mistake and contributed to his 'chubbiness' as a baby. Around 5 months he was eating veggies like a champ and then we started fruit at 6 months etc... I pretty much let him eat the 'petit pot' that corresponded to his age (if it said 4 months and up, 6 months and up, etc...) When he was around 8 months and could start eating meat, I started making our own baby food and freezing it. I do remember gradually replacing a petit pot and yogurt for his lunch- probably around 6 months???
With Louise, she didn't want to hear of solids and wasn't truly eating from a spoon until her 8th month! What I would do with her is dump the petit pot in with her milk and she'd drink it from the bottle (you have to make sure and have a 'tetine' that's adapted for thicker liquids) just so that we could introduce her to some other foods. She didn't get any cereal at all in her bottle and that never prevented her from not sleeping through her nights. We did start on cheerios and oatmeal at the right age, but never did the rice cereal thing.
With Alice, I will probably introduce solids around the age of 6 months. With Gab it was sooner because he was our first and we were anxious for him to move onto the next stage. But, trust me, when you already have one or two to take care of, it's a lot easier to keep them on the bottle as long as possible, so 6 months it will be.
Whoa ladies! What's with the hormones? Chill.
Back to the question at hand...
Monkey 1 had no problems. We started him on carrots at four months and moved on from there. Saved the fruit for later, though. Sweet tooth thing and all. We let him eat as little or as much as he wanted to, and that varied from day to day. He was the easy one.
With Pooplette, we kept the same attitude, seeing as how it worked so well with the first one. HA! You know that old saying about every baby being different? THEY ARE! Imagine that!
She LOVED carrots and everything else we offered her. But that spoon? "You're fucking out of your mind lady if you think you're putting that thing in my mouth!" So we just tossed everything into a bottle and thinned it out a bit. Also kept her from SCREAMING all the time. Consequently kept ME from screaming all the time.
Enter Child the Third, the one who REFUSED to eat anything from day one, and still managed to grow. She's the one that totally makes me understand where your mother in law is coming from because we did (and still do) have to FORCE her. She's going on two, and starving children in Africa eat more than she does.
Advice: Do what feels right and natural for you and yours, cause baby, he's YOUR baby. And the rest of us? Well, we're all having fun screwing up our own kids...
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