Baby-led solids is so much fun. Really! I love that my baby eats the same things I eat. I love that she gets so excited to feed herself. I love that she is learning different foods, flavors, and textures. I love sitting down for meals as a family. No pursed lips to my incoming spoon. Just. Eating.
Buttercup recently tried chili for the first time. My chili is heavy on the beans and veggies, mild-medium on the spice level, and vegetarian (we use Morning Star crumbles in place of ground beef). Buttercup has also eaten grandma's chili, which is more meaty (ground turkey) and less veggie-y.
Unlike her technique with shepherds pie, Buttercup picked through the chili piece by piece looking for specific food elements. She was really quite scientific with it, especially honing in on the beans. But, she enjoyed the entire meal and ate quite a bit.
I have noticed Buttercup has starting to consume more at each "solids" meal. This has coincided with her dropping one nursing sessions a day. She is now down to nursing 4-5 times a day. I've also noticed she is suddenly drinking more water after meals (nearly an ounce, twice a day). I still think most of a baby's liquids and nutrition should come from breastmilk at 9 months. But, hey, I'm no doctor.
PROS: lots of nutrition and variety
CONS: none
At daycare this week, they've been doing a lot of finger painting. Cute, yes... but when I dropped a dollop of cottage cheese on Nugget's tray, she decided it was much like finger paint and spread it all out, then swiped with great gusto, sending small curds several feet away. And she repeated this feat again with tonight's dinner of pasta & veggies. Any thoughts or suggestions? For now it's still cute, and the dog is very good at getting most of the mess, but if this is a nightly trend it's going to get old fast.
ReplyDeleteMrs. R,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, wow! Finger painting already? Impressive! I think Buttercup would have the opposite problem to Nugget and just try to eat the paint, rather than trying to turn food into paintings. The most unruly thing Buttercup does at the dinner table is to "squish" her food. She'll get a hand full and then repeatedly open and close her fist (I THINK to hear the sound it makes). If she does that or threatens to drop food over the edge of the highchair we firmly tell her "no", shake our heads, and sign and say "eat." Maybe Nugget is getting full/bored? Maybe you could try the tips outlined in the Lessons Learned from last month:
http://baby-led-solids.blogspot.com/2010/10/lessons-learned.html
Thank God you have a dog! I yearn for one for about 15 minutes a day (after lunch and dinner)...
Ha ha yes, I'm not a dog person but this was kind of a fluke. My ex-sister-in-law worked for a shelter and somehow talked me into adopting an abused, older purse-dog. Turns out he's perfectly sized to fit under the high chair.
ReplyDeleteRight now we're still laughing when she makes a mess, but I've started to say "no" when it happens. She continues eating after so I -think- it's more about sensory exploration than boredom. Sometimes I don't know what goes on in that cute, tiny mind though... :)