As the mother of a more-or-less textbook baby, right on the 50th percentile and pretty predictable when it comes to when he sleeps, eats and... everything else, it can come as a nasty shock to the system when things get a bit more challenging.
Buoyed very successful play date yesterday when The Boy missed a nap but stayed cheerful to the end I had no qualms about taking him out to lunch with friends today. The Boy has always been highly portable, not stressed by new situations and, if he's tired, able to sleep almost anywhere.
So lunch today was a bit of a shock to the system - he would not sit on my lap, he would not sit in a highchair, he would not lie on the bench, he punctuated his usual cheerful moments with (to my ears) bloodcurdling screams and struggles.
The bright spot in this meal (baby-wise) was when my sandwich arrived, grilled pepper, aubergine and mozzarella and The Boy made a grab for it and kept coming back for more - he wasn't actually eating it, the sandwich was of a texture and proportions that our toothless, newly eating little one couldn't possibly manage but he gave all the ingredients a very good suck and seemed to enjoy them.
Towards the end he gagged on something which is still quite scary but I felt more confident that ever before when I said to my understandably nervous dinner companions "don't worry, he won't choke".
That episode marked the end of the sandwich based entertainment that had been keeping him occupied and we had to leave shortly after due to the noise vs. embarrassment factor that I'm sure every mum can identify with!
Thursday 25 February 2010
BLW - update
Not much to report on the food front at the moment.
We had tried fitting in a second practice 'meal' for The Boy in the afternoons as well as his breakfast extravaganza but as no one else was eating with him he'd sit in his high chair and look a bit bemused and stressed as G and I sat with him and encouraged him to eat his lovely butternut squash and broccoli. So we dropped that idea and plan to try again next week as DH will be away so The Boy and I can have an earlier meal together, I feel like he definitely needs the example of someone else eating at the same time as him.
That will be more exciting as I am planning to give him exactly what I eat, minus the salt where possible (I am a fully paid up member of salt-aholics anonymous so have to be careful he doesn't get too much).
On the breakfast front he is getting better and better at eating porridge and probably eats about three teaspoonfuls and then wears another three - not bad for a six month old!
We had tried fitting in a second practice 'meal' for The Boy in the afternoons as well as his breakfast extravaganza but as no one else was eating with him he'd sit in his high chair and look a bit bemused and stressed as G and I sat with him and encouraged him to eat his lovely butternut squash and broccoli. So we dropped that idea and plan to try again next week as DH will be away so The Boy and I can have an earlier meal together, I feel like he definitely needs the example of someone else eating at the same time as him.
That will be more exciting as I am planning to give him exactly what I eat, minus the salt where possible (I am a fully paid up member of salt-aholics anonymous so have to be careful he doesn't get too much).
On the breakfast front he is getting better and better at eating porridge and probably eats about three teaspoonfuls and then wears another three - not bad for a six month old!
Monday 22 February 2010
Tuna
DH and I bought some lovely and very expensive tuna steaks at the weekend and whilst I sat on the sofa and consumed empty calories in the form of wine, DH slaved in the kitchen... well, he threw the tuna on the griddle pan and got the salad out.
We like our tuna rare but DH cooked a little bit all the way through for The Boy, I don't know if you have to do that for small people but better safe than sorry and all that.
On the upside The Boy liked the flavour, he put all the tuna pieces we gave him in his mouth and looked for more. On the down side he failed to actually chew or swallow any - he did a sort of tuna-squirrel thing storing it in his mouth for a while then eventually had a prolonged coughing fit and spat it all out again.
Tuna
Flavour - Success
Actually Eating - Fail
We like our tuna rare but DH cooked a little bit all the way through for The Boy, I don't know if you have to do that for small people but better safe than sorry and all that.
On the upside The Boy liked the flavour, he put all the tuna pieces we gave him in his mouth and looked for more. On the down side he failed to actually chew or swallow any - he did a sort of tuna-squirrel thing storing it in his mouth for a while then eventually had a prolonged coughing fit and spat it all out again.
Tuna
Flavour - Success
Actually Eating - Fail
Sunday 21 February 2010
Porridge Fun
I think The Boy does better if whoever is feeding him is eating as well and appears not to be paying attention to him, so the best meal for baby led weaning for us is probably breakfast.
Being a slow mover in the morning I will attempt to give The Boy his breakfast bottle at 7.30 am which he isn't normally very interested in, but then by the time I've caught up on the morning news, showered, dressed and actually made breakfast it's usually gone 9 (I said I was a slow mover) by which time The Boy is hungry enough to show interest in the food and not in need of his next nap yet - perfect.
My weekday breakfast is porridge and blueberries and in the best principle of blw I thought I'd try and give him what I was eating. I wasn't prepared to give him porridge with no cutlery at all, it's just not practical although I guess it would have been messy fun, so I thought I'd try a loaded spoon left on his tray for him to pick up.
The results were both entertaining and successful - he seemed to like porridge (the pre-squished blueberry not so much as it turned up in his bib later). He figured out which was the business end of the spoon (after shoving the handle in worryingly far and causing another fit of gagging) and had a good go at four small spoonfuls before losing patience and indicating loudly that it was in fact, now naptime.
HK Life - Lion Dance
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I know it's a terrible photo but I think this sums up Hong Kong with it's mixture of tradition and consumerism.
At the start of the new Chinese Year the Lion Dancers perform a routine which will bring luck and good fortune in the next year. These lion dancers were performing a dance in each of the shops in one of the many high end designer malls that Hong Kong is littered with.
Saturday 20 February 2010
He seems to be on a bit of an eating go slow at the moment
After a storming start The Boy seems to be on a bit of an eating strike... I think it might be the tomato - he really didn't like the tomato and I hope it hasn't put him off the whole idea of eating!
Even the usually crowd pleasing Broccoli hasn't gone down too well.
We have noticed that he's had one red cheek and ear for two days now and I just googled "red cheek sign of teething?" and apparently it is - what did we do before the internet!?
Even the usually crowd pleasing Broccoli hasn't gone down too well.
We have noticed that he's had one red cheek and ear for two days now and I just googled "red cheek sign of teething?" and apparently it is - what did we do before the internet!?
Thursday 18 February 2010
Choking and Gagging
Not an S&M post, still in the realms of baby led weaning, sorry.
Honestly, the choking situation is a worry.
I think I'm probably a fairly laid back parent but at the sound of my little one making a choking noise as he eats I feel my heart beating faster and I tense in preparation for turning him upside down and patting him firmly on the back in a baby heimlich.
But, following DH's excellent example I sit quietly and try not to look worried or even send The Boy subconscious Mother to Baby worry vibes.
When G and I are feeding him we both pretend that we are not worried and yet are secretly wondering which of us will crack first and whip the offending food item out of his little mouth.
And the thing is, The Boy doesn't care at all, he makes his chokey noise, sometimes a bit ducklike and sometimes a lot of coughing and he either brings the food back to the front of his mouth and spits it out or he swallows it... then he smiles like he's done something clever, which I suppose he has.
He's not at all traumatised and he always goes in for some more - I notice that after he has a big mouthful of food he often stops and sucks his fingers for a while to let it go down before weighing in again.
At the moment it is scary for me but I'm trying to bear in mind that this is the very early days of The Boy learning to do something new.
It seems from what I have seen The Boy doing so far, that he has the instinct to chew his food already and I want him to give him the opportunity to practice and strengthen that skill with blw. And most importantly he obviously has a very strong instinct and knows exactly what to do when he feels overwhelmed by a big lump of food. The reality is that he is not choking at all, just gagging as he learns how to deal with the food.
From what I've read of other people's experiences with this two things happen; one is that I will get more hardened to hearing those noises and two, he will very quickly develop all the skills he needs with respect to chewing and swallowing and learning how to eat and the gagging will get less.
So check back with me in a couple of weeks and I'll let you know!
Philadelhia on Toast - Redux
He was quite excited when he saw philadelphia on toast for breakfast again this morning but his new found toast-grabbing-confidence now means that he shoves the whole darn thing in his mouth and gums it until it's a claggy mess in the roof of his mouth and then starts a prolonged coughing fit in order to dislodge it.
It's a worry.
Wednesday 17 February 2010
The Very Hungry Boy and The Nasty Red Fruit
Once upon a time there was a little boy and his mum was giving him a selection of new foods every day.
On day one he had banana
On day two he had a carrot and some pasta
On day three he had banana, raspberries, potato and broccoli
On day four he had toast, cheese, mango and another banana
On day five he had... a tomato
... and I think he still hasn't forgiven me!
N.B. any resemblance this post might have to any books about caterpillars is entirely coincidental.
On day one he had banana
On day two he had a carrot and some pasta
On day three he had banana, raspberries, potato and broccoli
On day four he had toast, cheese, mango and another banana
On day five he had... a tomato
... and I think he still hasn't forgiven me!
N.B. any resemblance this post might have to any books about caterpillars is entirely coincidental.
HK Life
I was looking for rice cakes for The Boy as apparently they make a good snack with a bit of hommous - couldn't find them but I did find Cubic Pastry - which is apparently both Convenient and Handy.
Good to know should I ever get bored with the old 2 dimensional pastry.
BLW - Day 4
Philadelphia on toast.
Toast bread
Spread cheese
Cut into small person sized fingers
Watch The Boy (surprisingly dexterous when it's something he discovers he likes) pick up every bit of toast, systematically suck the cheese spread off each bit then throw the resulting mushy wilty bread fingers over the side of the high chair.
Toast, it seems, is little more than a cheese delivery system.
He's a lot like his mother, that Boy.
Toast bread
Spread cheese
Cut into small person sized fingers
Watch The Boy (surprisingly dexterous when it's something he discovers he likes) pick up every bit of toast, systematically suck the cheese spread off each bit then throw the resulting mushy wilty bread fingers over the side of the high chair.
Toast, it seems, is little more than a cheese delivery system.
He's a lot like his mother, that Boy.
Tuesday 16 February 2010
BLW - Day 3 Valentines Day
Day 3 started with G popping back in the middle of her 4 days off for Chinese New Year to tackle the chaos she somehow knew would be awaiting her (psychic G). Proud mum me was keen to show her The Boy's new talent so set him up with another banana and some raspberries.
Not his most impressive demonstration of eating! Getting the banana from tray to mouth proved as tricky as before and apparently we're just not a fan of raspberries.
G said all the right things but I suspect she secretly thinks mum is a bit mad.
It being Valentines Day DH cooked Chicken Mole, an interesting spicy dish of chilli, chocolate and... chicken.
As we were unsure of how he would receive this exotic fare The Boy had broccoli and mashed potato.
He clearly enjoyed the mashed potato and weirdly loved, loved, loved the broccoli - seriously chewed it, sucked it, spat it out, ate it, swallowed it, smooshed it, ate some more.
Hats off to all the people on the blw forums who say babies love broccoli, I didn't believe you and I was wrong!
Then, as a sort of encore because the Mole turned out not to be crazy spicy I gave him some of the sauce with some rice (no chicken yet though) and he loved that too.
Not many babies can say they had Chicken Mole and Rice as one of their first meals... well except in Mexico I guess. Not many in Hong Kong certainly.
Not his most impressive demonstration of eating! Getting the banana from tray to mouth proved as tricky as before and apparently we're just not a fan of raspberries.
G said all the right things but I suspect she secretly thinks mum is a bit mad.
It being Valentines Day DH cooked Chicken Mole, an interesting spicy dish of chilli, chocolate and... chicken.
As we were unsure of how he would receive this exotic fare The Boy had broccoli and mashed potato.
He clearly enjoyed the mashed potato and weirdly loved, loved, loved the broccoli - seriously chewed it, sucked it, spat it out, ate it, swallowed it, smooshed it, ate some more.
Hats off to all the people on the blw forums who say babies love broccoli, I didn't believe you and I was wrong!
Then, as a sort of encore because the Mole turned out not to be crazy spicy I gave him some of the sauce with some rice (no chicken yet though) and he loved that too.
Not many babies can say they had Chicken Mole and Rice as one of their first meals... well except in Mexico I guess. Not many in Hong Kong certainly.
BLW - Day 2
Lots of posts today as I am starting this blog on Day 4 of BLW and want to share all the details of the first few days.
Day 2 began with carrots due to some vague idea of starting with orange vegetables (note: orange vegetables not chocolatey eclair goo) so I made DH and myself some breakfast (bacon sarnie if you're interested) and cooked up four small carrot sticks for The Boy.
Lesson 1 - don't put the food on the high chair before you put the baby in it, this will result in baby grabbing the food before he is strapped in and you having to take it away while you put his arms through the straps sending entirely the wrong message about enthusiastic grabbing of food.
Lesson 2 - carrots, much like bananas, are sort of ok but not generating huge amounts of enthusiasm. The Boy picked them up put them in his mouth, chewed a bit, swallowed a bit lost interest and sucked his fingers.
Mum took this as a challenge and thought long and hard(ish) about what to offer The Boy next.
I have confused ideas about what babies this age can and can't eat - largely because the medical and baby care establishments have confused ideas about what to give to babies this age. And the world wide webster? well read enough of it and you could go mad trying to follow all the advice.
What I was sure about was that I didn't want to give The Boy what DH and I were having - I forget why, probably chilli related. So I cooked him up about 6 fusilli pieces debated putting pesto on them, decided against it due to a worry about the amount of salt in it plus a worry that the oil content would make the fusilli slippery and render them bananalike in their ungrippability. So I sprinkled some mixed herbs on them for flavour - gourmet, who me?
I feel like the fusilli was the start of BLW for us as The Boy showed a real enthusiasm for this offering. He picked it up he chomped it, he spat it out, he rechomped it, he swallowed a bit, he threw some over the edge of the chair (onto his Messy Mat, thanks to my cousins for that bit of advice) he grabbed some more and in fact, happily occupied himself with the delights of plain pasta with a bit of mixed herbs for the whole time DH and I were eating our food.
Watching The Boy, smile, show enthusiasm for his food and keep coming back for more was incredibly and unexpectedly rewarding.
Return of the irrepressible grin!
BLW - Day 1
Hidebound by convention I started with bananas... well, no hang on, stop there, I actually started just before Christmas with the inside goo from a chocolate eclair which The Boy couldn't get enough of. Two months too early and chock-full of sugar and cream. Bad Mother.
Moving swiftly on to BLW Official Day 1.
The Boy is five months and four weeks and I started early because it's Chinese New Year and DH has four days off so can share the first food fun. And I started with bananas... because babies like bananas right?
Some hitherto unknown things about bananas will follow;
Babies do like them but not nearly as much as they like other things which we will come to on Days 2 & 3.
Bananas are gooey and squishy and really hard for a little unco to pick up and put in his mouth.
Banana goo sticks like cement to every surface and cloth it gets onto.
Banana goo leaves permanent black specks on clothing.
Meal 1 went like this;
Put together new much searched for aesthetically pleasing wooden high chair (Bumps to Babes in Ap Lei Chau, in case you are wondering).
Realise that although The Boy can sit unaided for short periods of time something about the aesthetically pleasing wooden seat and the designed-by-a-spanner harness makes The Boy slump unhappily to one side unable to reach the tray or use the arm he is slumped onto.
Try to take The Boy out of the high chair but not being an expert yet precipitate a "What are you doing to me Mum" screaming fit.
Worry that I have traumatised my baby without even presenting him with any food yet due to a desire to have a high chair that somewhat matches my living room furniture.
Enlist DH who points out that if I loosen the straps and stick a cushion behind him The Boy can sit comfortably at the tray with the use of both hands and arms.
Finally present The Boy with much longed for banana.
Watch and grin.
Moving swiftly on to BLW Official Day 1.
The Boy is five months and four weeks and I started early because it's Chinese New Year and DH has four days off so can share the first food fun. And I started with bananas... because babies like bananas right?
Some hitherto unknown things about bananas will follow;
Babies do like them but not nearly as much as they like other things which we will come to on Days 2 & 3.
Bananas are gooey and squishy and really hard for a little unco to pick up and put in his mouth.
Banana goo sticks like cement to every surface and cloth it gets onto.
Banana goo leaves permanent black specks on clothing.
Meal 1 went like this;
Put together new much searched for aesthetically pleasing wooden high chair (Bumps to Babes in Ap Lei Chau, in case you are wondering).
Realise that although The Boy can sit unaided for short periods of time something about the aesthetically pleasing wooden seat and the designed-by-a-spanner harness makes The Boy slump unhappily to one side unable to reach the tray or use the arm he is slumped onto.
Try to take The Boy out of the high chair but not being an expert yet precipitate a "What are you doing to me Mum" screaming fit.
Worry that I have traumatised my baby without even presenting him with any food yet due to a desire to have a high chair that somewhat matches my living room furniture.
Enlist DH who points out that if I loosen the straps and stick a cushion behind him The Boy can sit comfortably at the tray with the use of both hands and arms.
Finally present The Boy with much longed for banana.
Watch and grin.
Who, What, When, Where
Thinking about it, this should have been my first post.
What's my blog about?
For now Baby Led Weaning although I have no doubt I'm going to very easily get distracted from this topic.
It's not advice although I will share what I'm doing and what I've found does and doesn't work. I'd like to hear about other people's experience as well.
I've started this blog really because I was in danger of overposting on Facebook. You know those people that go on and on about one aspect of their life, yeah, them - well I'm so enthused by baby led weaning two days in that I know I'm going to bore my baby-free friends and annoy my babied-up spoon feeding friends. I've already posted two videos of "My baby eating" and I do appreciate that if I post many more people are just going to think I'm one of "Those" mothers. Maybe I am.
Who am I?
This is the bit I'm having most difficulty writing as everything I put sounds like a lonely hearts ad. Mid 30's mum of one (so far), serial expat, now living in HK would like to meet....
So I'll move on to the real star of the show. DS (Darling Son), six-months old in six days variously known as peanut, sausage, squeaky, cost centre 1 and one-of-small but hereinafter for the purposes of this blog known as The Boy.
And a quick mention for DH, (that's Darling Husband) the person proofreading this blog and assuring me I'm not about to make a complete prat of myself by publishing it. At this point I could include a para explaining how much I love him and how much fun it is being married to him but let's face it - we're English and stuff like that makes us feel very uncomfortable and more than a little silly so I'll skip it (He knows anyway x).
Last but certainly not least is another DH, those here in Hong Kong will know that DH can also mean Domestic Helper and ours is the lovely and incomparable G herinafter known as... G to avoid confusion with the other DH.
That's the cast of characters.
JVNT
Postscript 1.
Please excuse my often shocking spelling and grammar, my mother taught me better.
Postscript 2.
Anything in this blog is Just My Opinion and should be thought about long and hard before being accepted as any sort of fact. I often present half remembered snippets of information as fact mainly because I can't be bothered to look it up and check if it's true.
Postscript 3.
Children are for life not just for Christmas ;-)
What's my blog about?
For now Baby Led Weaning although I have no doubt I'm going to very easily get distracted from this topic.
It's not advice although I will share what I'm doing and what I've found does and doesn't work. I'd like to hear about other people's experience as well.
I've started this blog really because I was in danger of overposting on Facebook. You know those people that go on and on about one aspect of their life, yeah, them - well I'm so enthused by baby led weaning two days in that I know I'm going to bore my baby-free friends and annoy my babied-up spoon feeding friends. I've already posted two videos of "My baby eating" and I do appreciate that if I post many more people are just going to think I'm one of "Those" mothers. Maybe I am.
Who am I?
This is the bit I'm having most difficulty writing as everything I put sounds like a lonely hearts ad. Mid 30's mum of one (so far), serial expat, now living in HK would like to meet....
So I'll move on to the real star of the show. DS (Darling Son), six-months old in six days variously known as peanut, sausage, squeaky, cost centre 1 and one-of-small but hereinafter for the purposes of this blog known as The Boy.
And a quick mention for DH, (that's Darling Husband) the person proofreading this blog and assuring me I'm not about to make a complete prat of myself by publishing it. At this point I could include a para explaining how much I love him and how much fun it is being married to him but let's face it - we're English and stuff like that makes us feel very uncomfortable and more than a little silly so I'll skip it (He knows anyway x).
Last but certainly not least is another DH, those here in Hong Kong will know that DH can also mean Domestic Helper and ours is the lovely and incomparable G herinafter known as... G to avoid confusion with the other DH.
That's the cast of characters.
JVNT
Postscript 1.
Please excuse my often shocking spelling and grammar, my mother taught me better.
Postscript 2.
Anything in this blog is Just My Opinion and should be thought about long and hard before being accepted as any sort of fact. I often present half remembered snippets of information as fact mainly because I can't be bothered to look it up and check if it's true.
Postscript 3.
Children are for life not just for Christmas ;-)
Baby Led Weaning and Me
I haven't got "The Book" aka Baby Led Weaning yet - I halfheartedly looked for it here in HK (sent Dymocks an email and tried Bookazine's online search engine) not really expecting to find it and was (or wasn't) disappointed. Thanks be for Amazon's international delivery.
The upshot of this is that I don't know the science behind it, may update this when "The Book" arrives. In the meantime my understanding of the whole BLW thing:
What is it? Strapping baby into the high chair. Put food in front of him (normal food, like carrots, broccoli, pasta that sort of thing). Let him get on with it.
Why? I heard... but don't know if it's true that the whole pureeing baby food thing started when the recommended age for starting solids moved to around three or four months - the only way to get solids inside a baby that age would be to puree. Then we moved the recommended age back to 6 months but carried on pureeing.
Why 2? It makes sense to me that learning to eat should be about learning that orange, stick-like things are probably going to taste carrotty, (or, I guess like Cheesy Wotsits but I don't plan for him to know what those taste like for a while yet!), small green trees will taste broccoli-y. Spooning puree into baby, whilst not, in my opinion a bad thing at all, will just teach him that spoons contain all sorts of surprises, some nice, some not and, in the words of Forrest Gump's Mother "You never know whatchya gonna get".
Why 3? Laziness. No, really. It seems like the easiest way to go. Yes, they are going to make a mess but a mess now or a mess later on when they start self-feeding anyway... shrug.
The upshot of this is that I don't know the science behind it, may update this when "The Book" arrives. In the meantime my understanding of the whole BLW thing:
What is it? Strapping baby into the high chair. Put food in front of him (normal food, like carrots, broccoli, pasta that sort of thing). Let him get on with it.
Why? I heard... but don't know if it's true that the whole pureeing baby food thing started when the recommended age for starting solids moved to around three or four months - the only way to get solids inside a baby that age would be to puree. Then we moved the recommended age back to 6 months but carried on pureeing.
Why 2? It makes sense to me that learning to eat should be about learning that orange, stick-like things are probably going to taste carrotty, (or, I guess like Cheesy Wotsits but I don't plan for him to know what those taste like for a while yet!), small green trees will taste broccoli-y. Spooning puree into baby, whilst not, in my opinion a bad thing at all, will just teach him that spoons contain all sorts of surprises, some nice, some not and, in the words of Forrest Gump's Mother "You never know whatchya gonna get".
Why 3? Laziness. No, really. It seems like the easiest way to go. Yes, they are going to make a mess but a mess now or a mess later on when they start self-feeding anyway... shrug.
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