When my oldest was a baby, I had read about the benefits of making your own baby food, so I made all his food. I puréed fruits, vegetables, and meats and froze them, along with puréeing or mashing up some of our meals for him. He enjoyed his purees and they were great to take with me when we were at relatives houses and restaurants, or on those night when we had take out pizza for dinner. I could at least feel like the baby got a healthy dinner. As he got older, he started eating more non-pureed food and more of what we were eating. I did the same for my second son as I did for my older son. My daughter has her own ideas though.
I tried some mashed bananas first. Her reception was less than enthusiastic. She was also not thrilled with sweet potatoes or squash. I did discover that she has an adorable disgusted face though. I gave her a piece of toast to keep her entertained at a restaurant and she was thrilled. I bought bell peppers to have the boys use stamp shamrocks with and I gave her a large piece of one and she loved it.
Apparently, whether I like it or not, she has decided that she would prefer baby-led weaning to purees. This has presented a challenge, since prior to this I didn’t really know much about baby-led weaning. I have been doing some reading about how it works, and tonight, she had a hunk of the baked chicken we had. From what friends with three or more kids have told me, it is common for younger kids to want to skip the “baby” food and go straight to what their older siblings are having.
From what I have read, and how she has done so far with the foods I’ve given her, it shouldn’t be too difficult to cook some foods soft enough for her to eat at home. It will be more of a challenge to figure out what to take for her to eat when we are not at home. A frozen cube of food in a container is fairly transportable. I’m not sure what I’ll figure out to take for her. There are websites with lots of information on baby-led weaning that I plan to read through, along with some books available. I did see a baby-led weaning cookbook, but that seems kind of strange, given that the idea is that they have foods the adults are having, and that I already have a whole wall of cookbooks in my library.
There seems to be some sort of rule that each child has to be different. What works for one will not work for another. It would be too easy if what worked for the first child worked for the rest too. I can’t wait to see what other surprises will come along as she grows up.
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