Riley's been eating solids for a few weeks now. During the last several days, I've been trying to think about what I can give her besides produce, which is pretty much all she's had because I'm not so sold on the iron-fortified cereal. Not that produce is bad, produce is lovely and yummy. And she really enjoys it ... well, all except for the avocado I tried to give her yesterday (wish I could have caught that face on camera). Not that I complained because it made great guacamole!
But, I do want her to get all the benefits from other kinds of food too. There's just too much to read about baby food. Too many voices. Too many opinions. Meat? No meat? No dairy until a year? Are you kidding? Eggs? Depends on who you read. It's all just so darn confusing.
So I read, in several baby food sources, about all the good stuff in organ meats and, culinary risk-taker that I am, thought I'd try to feed her some liver. I've never eaten liver and it doesn't seem all to appealing to me, but, I thought, she likes peas (which I abhor) so she just might like liver too. So I found me a recipe for chicken liver pate and bought us some liver at Market of Choice. Liver even looks and feels gross. The process of washing it almost made me vomit. Anyway ... so I made the pate, and in the process stunk up our kitchen. She had better like this, I thought to myself. Then I thought, I wonder if I'd like it? I really should've known better because it looked and smelled so bad. But I didn't, I rarely do. So I tried it, gagged, and ran to the sink to spit it out. Then I grabbed the closet food, an apple, and took several quick bites. I really hope my daughter doesn't have this bad of taste, I thought, as I took it over to her.
As always, she smiles and opens her mouth wide when I bring her food. She's really quite the happy eater. (I'd love to post a pic here but, for some reason, I can't get the camera software to load on this new computer. Will have to keep trying.) I held out the spoon with some liver pate on it. Her lips closed, still smiling. But half a second later, her whole face contorted, she pulled her head away from the spoon, looked at me with an "Are you f-ing kidding me?" expression, and promptly pushed the liver pate out with her tongue. Then, face still sour, she kept pushing her tongue out of her mouth over and over again as if trying to get rid of the liverish saliva. Understanding her pain, I quickly mashed a banana. With uncharacteristic hesitation, she opened her mouth for the banana ... and kept opening until her new, better food was gone.
Won't make that mistake again.
To smarter, more experienced mamas ... any suggestions?
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can't really say I'm smarter by any stretch of the imagination but I do have two healthy girls who made it through this stage relatively unscathed and have turned into quite adventurous eaters at the ripe old ages of not yet 2 and not yet 4....
ReplyDeleteSabine I'd say I fed the best...probably because I didn't really listen to any voice and just adapted what we were eating. Her first foods were hard boiled egg yolks mashed up with home made chicken broth. She loved it. We did all the typical veggies and fruits for her too just mashing them up but I basically fed her everything we ate after 8 months...I'd just grind it up right before serving. I also just introduced everything really slowly...she pretty much nursed exclusively as far as nourishment was concerned until 9 months...then she always had breakfast and dinner...both usually what we ate...often I would add more butter to her food to soften it further but otherwise it was much the same as ours. Eggs, plain yogurt, berries, lasagna, pad thai, meatloaf, brown rice...I stayed away from most grains until she was almost a year and didn't give her honey until over 1 but otherwise she had all that we did. Don't know if I'm much help...you can always remember that this stage is really quick and before you know it you'll be able to give her finger foods which will help make it easier. I think the pate was a good idea..I like pate, though I've never had chicken liver...and the pate I've had has quite a bit of herb and spice flavor so that helped! I think you are on the right path!
Thanks Summer. All ideas and advice are helpful. I'll definitely be trying the egg yoke concoction after I make broth tomorrow. I did try plain yogurt, she wasn't a fan ... maybe if I smash up some berries in it she'll go for it. And it is nice to remember that it is a tricky stage until she can chew a bit. I've read lots of stuff advocating for not mashing a baby's food, but I just can't stand it when she gags, so we'll stick with the mashing root until she's got a few teeth.
ReplyDeleteI feel (felt?) exactly the same way about the mashing and the gagging... but had my bubble burst a bit when Sabine didn't get a single tooth before age 1. My doc kept saying...give her finger foods...so around 9 months I finally just did...toothless and all and amazingly enough at first she did gag a bit but figured it out really quick and was feeding herself like a champ well before a single tooth popped through.
ReplyDeletewe used to call her our poor little toothless wonder.
Thank God her teeth finally showed up!
So did you give her soft things like partly steamed carrots or just apple slices and things like that? I'm sure she would learn fast and I just need to toughen up, but it seems to frustrate her too and she just looks at me like ... What the heck? Why are you doing this to me? I really want to eat this food, why aren't you helping me?
ReplyDeleteOh I'm so sorry to hear about the pate disgust because I'm a huge fan of the stuff! I do, however, like liver plain, love it in fact. But I found a pate recipe that I use every year now for holidays that even non-liver lovers like - it tastes more like bacon and sherry and hard boiled eggs and apple and butter than liver - Rowan gobbles it down along with the adults! If you had any interest in giving it another go I can send you the recipe.
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