une petite aventure: Baby-Led Feeding: Month 2

check out that pearly white!

Whoa! Little Man upped his eating game this month! We jumped from maybe eating solids once a day to THREE meals a day and 24 ounces of formula. If the amount of food he puts away is any indication of teenage years, I am in trouble!

To be honest, I have bought way more baby food this month than I ever anticipated when we decided to leap into the Baby-Led Weaning journey. I have a couple of reasons:

1) We introduced fruits this month and it is WAY harder for him to grasp---fruit is super slippery!
2) With his dairy/milk allergy thing, he can't really eat what we eat. That makes it more difficult because I can't just give him bites of whatever I make for dinner or whatever I order at a restaurant.
3) My child LOVES to be fed from a spoon. Some days he prefers it over feeding himself.

I still put pieces of fruit or veggies on his tray and he does feed himself. I have had to make them smaller because he started stuffing the whole chunk of food in his mouth and he would gag. I usually offer him banana or sweet potato or zucchini. (He eats banana and sweet potato EVERY DAY). I also found these Gerber Fruit and Veggie Melts (the only melts I could find with no dairy) and he loves to feed himself these too!

I found a brand of baby food at Walmart called Beech-Nut. It is CHEAPER than Gerber and they use Non-GMO certified foods. That's a win for me! Plus, they incorporate meats so Holt gets a little added protein. (Until he gets more teeth he can't chew up meat properly and I'm afraid he will choke). I have also bought a few Earth's Best brand baby food---a UK brand that uses organic produce.

I buy both Stage 2 and Stage 3 baby food jars and I also buy the baby food pouches made up of fruits and veggies. When I get his food ready, I add bits of sweet potato or zucchini or banana to make it more chunky and that ensures he is still practicing chewing and not just swallowing.

Example of our Daily Eating Routine:

7-7:30 AM Holt eats an 8 oz bottle
8-8:30 AM Holt eats breakfast---usually some kind of fruit puree with chunks of banana
9 AM Naptime
11-11:30 Holt is up from nap and he eats lunch---veggie/meat puree with sweet potato and zucchini chunks
1-1:30 PM Holt eats an 8 oz bottle
2ish PM Naptime
4-5 PM Holt eats dinner----veggie/meat puree with sweet potatoes again and sometimes some fruit for dessert
6:45-7PM Holts eats an 8 oz bottle and then is down for bed

I have made scrambled eggs a couple mornings and he likes them ok. But they are kind of dry and he doesn't chew very well without teeth yet, so he ends up gagging quite a bit.

I did introduce peanut butter one time and he loved it! And NO allergic reactions! Once I introduce grains I'll probably spread PB on some toast and see how he likes that.

We also tried puffs and Ritz crackers this month--both were a huge hit!

This month, Holt has been introduced to lots of fruit---banana (his FAVORITE), apple, mango, strawberries, peaches, plums, kiwi, and pears. He had some diaper rash with the pear so we are holding off on that for a bit. Except for the banana, he has eaten all the above mentioned fruits from Beech-Nut and sometimes I add cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice to add a little flavor.

He has also been introduced to chicken and turkey as well as rice and little star pastas (both in the baby food). These can be somewhat bland so I have been adding spices such as garlic, cumin, curry, and paprika. I do not use salt.

Green veggies have somewhat taken a backseat this month with the introduction of the sweet fruits. He will still eat them, but I typically mix them with an orange veggie like carrots or sweet potato.

One thing that I felt like was tough to find (probably more tough than usual because of his dairy allergy) was nutritious snacks. I like Plum Organics brand, but their teething biscuits have a lot of sugar. I know he is already getting sugar from fruit so I'm trying not to add too much extra on top of that. Most of the other snacks on the market for crawlers contain some form of dairy so he can't eat those right now. I did some looking around on Pinterest and have found 2 recipes for nutritious and yummy snacks! (Check out my board here to view them and some other helpful info on BLW) One was homemade teething biscuits and the other was baby food muffins. Neither one had dairy, used very few ingredients and were super easy to make--plus Holt loved them so it's a win win for this busy mama!

The recipe made around 30 mini-sized muffins

The recipe made approx. 20 teething biscuits

Goals for Month 3:
*introduce peanut butter again
*introduce cheerios---we need to start practicing the pincher grasp
*continue to find nutritious snacks and new recipes to try
*maybe try pancakes? Depends on if he gets any more teeth or not