Today was a special day for Jesse! Today was the first day he had NO baby food.
At 16 months, I have been trying to transition him to a diet of only table food. It's been a slow process, though. Just like we had to take it slow in getting him off bottles (now he only has a bottle before his afternoon nap, but that'll soon be a thing of the past, too), we have slowly been transitioning him to eating more table foods and less baby foods. And today was the first day WITHOUT any baby food at all!
Here is what I fed him today:
Breakfast: 1 1/2 banana with Cheerios and milk.
Lunch: Rice (he hated it), noodles (ditto) and corn (he LOVED it!).
Dinner: I cheated. I bought him one of those prepared toddler meals. It was spaghetti with meatballs. He LOVED it and ate it all up. (He never eats spaghetti plain. He loves spaghetti with sauce, just like me! Jennifer prefers it plain.)
For a snack, he had two Dash of Salt Ritz crackers. (We don't give him the normal Ritz -- too salty.)
However, he refused to eat the veggies (corn and peas) that he was served with his dinner. Well, at least he ate corn at lunchtime!
Getting him to eat "table food veggies" has been hard. He loves the veggie baby foods (green beans, squash, sweet potatoes), but if they're on a plate, he won't eat them.
I've been reading online about what other moms are doing. One mom said that a 13-month-old should be OFF of baby food. Another mom's 10-month-old started eating table foods and no more baby food. They offered some great suggestions on what to try feeding baby: Yogurt, oatmeal, pasta, mashed potatoes, cut up chicken, etc. They pretty much agreed that if the baby has a good supply of teeth, go ahead and weed out the baby food. We gave Jesse some broiled chicken last night for dinner and he did a pretty good job chewing it up. He really liked it. So I'm guessing that even though he has a lot of teeth, not a full mouth of teeth but a lot of them, it's okay to give him things like the soft chicken, shredded meat, etc. (Oh, I wish I had a food processor to get everything all nice and pureed like Gerber does!)
I just want to know the varieties of things I can give to him. I also have to remember that he is lactose intolerant, so if I make mac and cheese to feed them both, I have to use the Lactaid instead of regular milk. (I wonder if Jen will notice the difference?)
I'm definitely drawing the line on fast food, though. I've seen moms feeding their babies French fries and cut up chicken nuggets. Nooo way would I feed that stuff to my baby! I'd rather wait until he's older before he eats any fast food. It's just a feeling I have about it.
I was chatting with my husband about this, telling him I'm going over what other moms do. He was all like, "But you've done this before with Jennifer." My response? ""I can't remember everything!" LOL It's true. When I asked my mother-in-law for some tips on what kind of table foods to feed Jesse, she really had to sit and think about that for a while. Oh, if only I could remember how I did this with Jennifer! (On a related note, when I was pregnant with Jesse, and asking the nurses questions, they joked about how women have babies again just so they can remember everything that they're supposed to do!)
The thing I worry about, though, is making him something to eat and he won't eat it. What if he keeps refusing one thing after another and then I don't have ANYTHING to give to him?? Maybe I can buy a back-up supply of baby food? Or, something else. I REALLY want him to continue eating veggies, because I know his health is benefiting from the vitamins and nutrients in vegetables, so I have to either get a food processor to puree the veggies or figure something else out.
Well, I'm still reading up on it and hopefully I will "remember" everything. We'll see how tomorrow goes. One mom on a message board said, "I am SO glad I don't have to buy baby food anymore." I can't wait until I get to say that, too.
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3 comments:
HI Dawn,
well I think Isabel was the first baby in the history of the world that refused ALL baby food. All of it. I think there was one baby food, that was peach oatmeal something or other that she would allow us to feed her. But mostly we bought large quantities of baby food and she would spit it out. No baby cereal though, she spit it out NOISILY. And I mean like 'BLAGHHHH!" She seriously disliked it.
I was distraught, had no idea what to feed her (even though yes, I did this with Caitlin five years earlier, but never had a problem, Caitlin loved all baby food and then transitioned easily to table food) So with Isabel I had no idea what to do. Her first food was regular applesauce about age 7 months, not baby applesauce, she would spit that out!
Then one day I gave her a bite of scrambled eggs. And that was it. For the next two years all she had for breakfast was scrambled eggs.
This is a picky kid, so when I told her Dr. she said it was fine. She then moved on to cheese. She loved cheese, yogurt and eventually pasta. She is something of a conoseur though now and I think she will just always be a bit picky about her food.
My nephews could not eat mashed potatoes, something about the consistency just bugged them and they would gag. Caitlin could not eat popcorn till she was SEVEN years old. Seriously. If a kid wont eat something, dont force it. Theres a reason they cant eat it. People that say a baby at 10 months or 13 months should be OFF baby food are generalizing. All babies are different and develope at different stages.
I agree with you on fast food. When Caitlin was 1 year old, a well meaning relative handed her a chicken mcnugget. Caitlin said, "ball"...and...you guessed it, threw it across the room. Ha ha She didnt eat fast food for a long long time and she is a brilliant genius so I say be as healthy as you can.
For Jesse I would get him those toddler foods, to keep as back up. Mostly babies end up wanting what everyone else is eating, when he starts doing that, he is ready to leave baby foods.
Wow, Nancy, thank you so much!! I really appreciate such helpful advice.
How very interesting that Isabel didn't want ANY baby food at all. Wow. I have never heard of that. I'm glad you were able to resolve that, though. I agree, you can't force stuff on kids. No matter how healthy the food you are offering them!
You've made some really good suggestions here.
Sadly, Jesse started eating baby food again, but I'm trying to keep table food in his diet whenever possible. I FINALLY got him to eat regular oatmeal, but that's only because I was eating it and of course he wants some of whatever it is Mommy is eating! LOL Maybe I can try that trick in future.
Well, he loves to eat chicken, mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs and bananas. I gave him some baby yogurt and he liked that, too. Oh, and he LOVES macaroni and cheese (the regular boxed kind) and toast. So I guess I just have to work with him in figuring out what foods to offer when. I'll have to keep a close eye on the foods he DOES like and go from there.
Thank you again. :) This is very reassuring.
yes, it was very odd Isabel would not eat baby food!!! She just seriously hated the texture. She was a nursed baby, and I supplemented her with formula too so she got both. Caitlin was a fully formula fed baby and she loved all baby foods. I remember her looking like a little bird when we were feeding her, with her mouth in a little "o". But Isabel, she would spit out every single bite of baby food. At 6 months she still had not had a single bite of anything, then somewhere around 7 months I think is when we found the peach oatmeal baby food that she would eat a tiny bit of. At about 9 months is when she ate apple sauce. I forgot to mention she did also like cheerios, and would eat those dry, at about 10 months. Isabel was super slow at walking though, she did not walk till 16 months, and she had delayed speech. Since she was slow at those things, its possible she simply was taking her time with food also. (She's total genius now like her sister...
:-D..but she still has speech issues and takes speech at school.
Sounds like Jesse is doing good, a mix of both at this age sounds about right!
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