My baby led weaning experiences

Sorry, sorry

2008-11-10T17:52:00.003Z

Rather overwhelmed at the moment. Anyway, he doesn't like Weetabix and refuses to try green beans.

Peas and pancakes

2008-11-02T14:15:00.002Z

Crawling, breakfast, first tooth, apple porridge pancakes

2008-10-31T17:49:00.003Z

As the title says, he's been busy! We've had proper crawling for about a week now (he's nearly 9 months old) so have been manically babyproofing. He's much more adventurous than his sister was and has discovered all kinds of things we hadn't thought about, like doorstops and drawers. Plus as his pincer grip is very good now, I'm constantly hoovering up the detritus shed by a 3 year old girl and 3 fluffy cats.

I introduced breakfast a few days ago, as he was hanging round the table looking hopeful, like a puppy. Just toast with butter or cream cheese, so far. Easy to clean up in a hurry.

His first tooth popped through the gum today, hooray. Soon its mate should follow and chewing will be more effective.

Finally, I made apple porridge pancakes for dinner. It's 50g oats (ground in a blender), 30g flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 whisked egg, 60ml apple juice, 50g yoghurt, half a grated apple. Makes 6 mini pancakes. Phoebe devoured 3, he's asleep so will try it when he wakes up. It was a lot of hassle to make, to be honest.

Cheesy nuggets, no chips

2008-10-24T21:55:00.002Z

We went to Chessington on Wednesday. Surprisingly, it's perfect for preschoolers. Under 1m means they get in free, yet over 90cm means they can go on 90% of the rides. We bought annual passes as we live fairly nearby. Anyway, we had lunch in the "Goblin Family Pub." Again, surprisingly good. Rafs was offered chips for the first time, but threw them all on the floor without tasting any. Luckily I had packed rice cakes and a banana.

Yesterday I made cheesy veg nuggets, again from Aitch's site (see links). 7oz frozen broccoli, steamed till very soft then disintegrated in the blender. Mixed with 4oz breadcrumbs, 6oz grated cheese, 2.5 tbsp each olive oil and water, and 1.5 tsp baking powder. Made about 15 balls. Baked at 190C for 25 minutes. Very oily result, but he really enjoyed them. Rather chewy too; it's amazing what babies can manage with no teeth. Once my frozen stock runs out I shall make them again. Probably with mushrooms instead as he hasn't tried them yet.

Orange mash (onion)

2008-10-21T18:20:00.002Z

Taken from Aitch's site (see links). This was my version. Finely chop an onion, fry in olive oil till soft. Add 1 grated carrot, 200g chopped butternut squash, 2 tbsp red lentils and 200ml water. Simmer covered for 15 minutes. Mash up with some grated cheese. Add some breadcrumbs to stiffen, as needed. This made about 8 servings (now mostly frozen). He adored this and scoffed almost all of his portion. It is very yummy, I agree.

Onion is notorious for causing wind but he seems fine with it. So there's another food ticked off :)

Jam, 8 month check

2008-10-16T19:51:00.002Z

Not just any old jam ;), Duchy Originals Damson Preserve. It is absolutely delicious and I fancied some, so I put a little on Rafi's toast too. He was indifferent really. Ate it but not with any particular relish, so I won't bother again. Mainly sugar anyway.

Had his 8 month HV check today, only 2 weeks late. Pointless really - height, weight, "He looks like he's doing fine, here's your free books". Could have got those from the library, which is right next to Phoebe's preschool rather than miles out of my way like the clinic. But it's good to know how big he is. Still 91st centile for both height and weight (73cm, 22lb) - he was born 9lb 4.5oz so is following his curve nicely and it explains why he's in 12-18 month clothes and already almost out of them. Genetically he should be short; we're all 25th centile. Weird. I guess he already eats more than his sister does now at 3.5!

Smoked haddock fishcake

2008-10-13T19:36:00.002Z

Made by my father: mashed potato and smoked haddock made into a big cake, coated in breadcrumbs, shallow fried. I can't think of much worse (I detest fish) but both children enjoyed it.

Also, I gave him a new rice cake topping today. Mashed banana with greek yoghurt and lemon juice. Went down a treat but left him very sticky!

Boursin, smoked salmon

2008-10-11T13:09:00.002Z

Yesterday I put Boursin on his rice cakes instead of regular cream cheese. He didn't seem to notice; I guess he's used to garlic through breast milk. So now I can use it in cooking with confidence.

Today he had a bit of organic smoked salmon with his lunch. Like the plaice last week, he chewed a while then spat. Texture, not flavour, seemed to bother him a bit.

Irish potato farl

2008-10-06T19:19:00.002Z

Bought some today on special offer, to see how the kids like them. Toasted and buttered. Naturally the big girl refused to even try, but Rafi adored it and stuffed it in quite frantically. Also had cheese and roast sweet potato. Dinner was lentils spread on rice cakes and his favourite raspberry yoghurt.

Summer pudding, fish

2008-10-05T19:34:00.002Z

Tried the Plum Baby summer pudding. Gloopy so it stays on the spoon very well. He was indifferent to it really; ate it but without much enthusiasm.

Also had his first fish, a bit of the inside of a plaice goujon. He was puzzled by the texture I think, as he chewed it a bit before spitting.

Oh and I have discovered that he will eat lentils after all, if they are spread on a rice cake. Good result there.

Proper sweetcorn

2008-10-02T20:28:00.001Z

He had sweetcorn/carrot puree a few weeks ago and hated it. Today I mixed some kernels into his mashed potato and got the same reaction. Irritating as it's Phoebe's favourite veg.

Wednesday

2008-10-01T19:55:00.001Z

Lunch: cream cheese on toast, blueberry/banana puree
Dinner: pancakes (thrown on floor), mashed potato (tasted a few times), apricot yoghurt (devoured)

Lumpy puree

2008-09-30T19:00:00.002Z

Lunch today: cream cheese on toast, banana.

Dinner: coconut couscous, steamed butternut squash, and lumpy puree. Well, a "Stage 2" variety (strawberry and mango) intended to teach 7 month olds how to eat tiny lumps. I bought a pack by mistake a while ago and Phoebe won't touch it ("I don't like bits") so thought it was time to try it on the boy. Interestingly it was quite gaggy; he clearly sucks the puree off the spoon straight to the back of his throat just like the theory says. As Rafs, who is happy with toast and pasta and could chew at 5.5 months, had this problem, it's no wonder so many exclusively puree-fed babies struggle to move on to stuff with more texture. He did get the hang of it after a few goes and does love "spoon-fruit", as it's known in our house.

Catching up

2008-09-28T19:00:00.002Z

Sorry, have been really busy. Meeting all day yesterday, then working on decluttering/babyproofing today as Rafs is so close to crawling. 5 charity shop bags, one bin bag, and I've almost done my bedroom...

Anyway, the only new thing he has eaten was cauliflower cheese. A rip-off frozen organic "home-made" thing from Waitrose. I thought it was really nice but he hated it so much it made him cry. So I quickly replaced it with a trusty yoghurt.

Blueberry

2008-09-25T19:45:00.002Z

yesterday: no lunch. Rice cakes with hoummus for dinner, and apple/strawberry puree pot (same as Phoebe).

Today, more rice cakes and hoummus for lunch, with an apple/blueberry puree pot (same as Phoebe). Dinner was mac cheese; he loves this. Tried a few squashed peas as I made some for Phoebe anyway, but he can't pick them up yet really. Then squash/carrot puree from the freezer - I made it so I'm determined to use it up.

Too much poo

2008-09-23T19:36:00.002Z

After being a bit constipated for a while, now we have the opposite problem... Skipped his swimming lesson today just in case, boo hoo. He's fine in himself though, with a good appetite.

Lunch was plain mini rice cakes (now a firm favourite), broccoli and a peach yoghurt. I need to cut down on yoghurt I think - he now eats the entire pot and it's quite sugary.

Dinner was linguine (amusing), banana (to try to bung him up a bit) and a pot of pear/raspberry puree. He adores raspberry and got cross when it was finished.

No dinner again

2008-09-22T18:05:00.001Z

Because he is still asleep.

Lunch was roast potato, broccolli and raspberry yog.

Random pics

2008-09-21T19:03:00.003Z

Smoothie-gulping big sister.

The "splat" technique. Surprisingly effective.

Concentration.

Finger-lickin' good.

Showing the baby how to use a fork.

Still no kitchen access

2008-09-20T20:28:00.001Z

Managed plum, plain rice cakes and yoghurt fot lunch. No dinner as he slept 5-7.

Parsnip and pea

2008-09-19T18:16:00.002Z

Bit tricky today as my kitchen was being tiled. No freezer or microwave access.

Lunch: Mashed avocado on rice cakes, strawberry yog.

Dinner: Plum, tomato, Plum Baby puree of parsnip, pea and apple. Smelled revolting but he ate half the pot quite happily.

More of the same

2008-09-18T18:28:00.002Z

Lunch: mashed avocado on rice cakes, apricot yoghurt
Dinner: coconut couscous, plum, apple/peach puree.

Pancake

2008-09-17T19:00:00.002Z

Lunch: Macaroni cheese, banana, apple/mango puree. He ate the entire pot!

Dinner: Phoebe begged for pancakes. Wheat, dairy and egg, all in one package. But I decided , what the heck, let him try it. Another hit :) and no sign of any egg problem so far. She ate three whole pancakes, so a great success all round. One left, now in the freezer.

Catching up

2008-09-16T17:24:00.000Z

Manic here, sorry. Anyway, the good news is that he likes macaroni cheese.

Eating out

2008-09-14T16:35:00.002Z

Went into central London for brunch with the ILs. Didn't know where we were going so packed a picnic of steamed broccolli and roast sweet potato for Rafs. In the end he ate very little as the restaurant was full of so many distractions. Phoebe did fairly well though with her veggie sausage baguette, and even tried a mouthful of her cousin's baked beans. Still doesn't like them but at least she tried.

For dinner he has eaten a fair bit more of the broccolli and sweet pots, along with some couscous and some rice cake with hoummus. It's fantastic that he likes hoummus; it's a great protein source for a veggie and as DH eats the commercial stuff for breakfast every day it's a family staple.

Hoummus, coconut couscous

2008-09-13T18:09:00.002Z

Had a cookathon today, as I want to get R onto slightly more substantial meals than just random bits of fruit and veg.

First I made hoummus. One can of Tesco organic chick peas (they have no salt), roughly mashed, then blended with the other ingredients. The trick with hoummus, I find, is to add way more liquid than you would expect. So I used about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 3 of natural yoghurt and several good glugs of bottled lemon juice. Next time I'll add garlic, but I'm avoiding tahini at the moment because it contains the same allergen as peanuts do.

He had the hoummus spread on a rice cake for lunch, and seemed to enjoy it. He also had one with cream cheese, and some tomato pieces on the side.

Then he had some coconut couscous for dinner. This is based on a recipe in Carol Timperly's Vegetarian Baby and Child, one of my favourite books. Phoebe used to eat a lot of it when she was younger (she won't eat it now, of course).

I did 200ml carton of coconut cream, 2 tablespoons demerara sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 400ml water. Boil, make sure sugar is dissolved, stir in 8oz couscous, remove from heat, cover, leave till ready. It's good with raisins and dried apricots (simmered for 10 minutes separately to make them juicy, then stirred in) but he doesn't have a pincer grip yet. The couscous clumps nicely into big balls so makes good finger food, although it goes everywhere when dropped on the floor. It also freezes really well.

First taste gave him "the shudder" but he kept eating, so must have liked it well enough. He also had some defrosted carrot puree, left from my early "does he really hate carrots?" experiment, but rejected it. So he had an apple/vanilla puree pot instead.

I also made a big batch of macaroni cheese for the freezer. Won't give you a recipe as it's hardly unusual! Fingers crossed he likes it.