I was so excited to start feeding my babies solid food. Excited to pass on my love of food, while teaching them from the beginning to love ALL the food. Teach them it's all good stuff, and make memories and traditions around all that good stuff. Coming up to this stage in baby raising, I heard several accounts of people skipping baby food entirely because they didn't need it, or so and so's baby not even liking baby food so he just eats real food starting at seven months. When I heard about people making their own baby food, I thought that I wouldn't really NEED those purees, that they're really just optional. So my version of homemade baby food was whatever I was eating and mashing it with a fork. I realized that at least for us, those purees really are necessary. And continue to be at nine months! I wonder if it's because my girls still have no teeth, or if it's just them.
When people ask me about what my girls are eating, I say that they are pretty much eating real food and we are about done with baby food. You should know my life is always explained using euphemisms. I’ve been saying the same thing for months. The truth is we are making progress, but it's much too slow for me, and much slower than I expected.
I started at four months with baby food and they just weren't ready. The practice with the spoon probably helped, but at that point progress was too slow for my sanity. I did want them to get used to flavors and textures and expose them to possible allergens early, so we did a lot of "tasting" foods from out plates. Our doctor told us the AAP recommendation follows research showing that introducing common allergens often and early actually helps decrease allergy risk. Totally interesting, and makes sense! But I totally gave up on food for a time. Nursing was more convenient, but as they kept growing, my supply had to keep increasing. I could do it, but that meant I was feeding them every two to three hours during growth spurts and I felt like I had two newborns again. Along with all the sore nipples. Fun, but I'll pass.
When people ask me about what my girls are eating, I say that they are pretty much eating real food and we are about done with baby food. You should know my life is always explained using euphemisms. I’ve been saying the same thing for months. The truth is we are making progress, but it's much too slow for me, and much slower than I expected.
I started at four months with baby food and they just weren't ready. The practice with the spoon probably helped, but at that point progress was too slow for my sanity. I did want them to get used to flavors and textures and expose them to possible allergens early, so we did a lot of "tasting" foods from out plates. Our doctor told us the AAP recommendation follows research showing that introducing common allergens often and early actually helps decrease allergy risk. Totally interesting, and makes sense! But I totally gave up on food for a time. Nursing was more convenient, but as they kept growing, my supply had to keep increasing. I could do it, but that meant I was feeding them every two to three hours during growth spurts and I felt like I had two newborns again. Along with all the sore nipples. Fun, but I'll pass.
Motivated again at seven months, my goal was to feed them baby food once a day for dinner. This also began our ritual of nightly baths. :) Baby foods were still hard, but after some diligence they got easy breezy. Instead of just riding the puree train for a while, I just kept pushing more challenging foods. Now that we are at nine months, I wish I just enjoyed the purees longer. Part of the problem was I was trying to save money by avoiding buying baby food without actually committing to make my own. I have pureed quite a bit of my own food, but I just can't get excited enough to go into mass two-baby-production.
I'm writing this realizing that I am probably not having fun mostly because my expectations are too high. But also baby food is hard. I can nurse two babies in 10 minutes. I have a system. I can multitask with a book, my phone or even eat my lunch. On the other hand, I have two mouths and one hand/spoon (yes, they share). Also, I don't know how normal this is, but Peyton and Zoe don't seem to care much about eating. They will be completely focused for about five minutes until their hunger is barely satiated. Then all they want to do is turn around, play with their straps, talk to each other, eat the side of the high chair, and grab the spoon. They do love self-feeding, but I'm not only going to give them bread and crackers. And about half of the food they feed themselves ends up on the floor. The two mouths, the bibs, the eternal mess, and the steady dip, wipe, scoop, wait, and work to get attention tries my patience more than anything else.
I'm writing this realizing that I am probably not having fun mostly because my expectations are too high. But also baby food is hard. I can nurse two babies in 10 minutes. I have a system. I can multitask with a book, my phone or even eat my lunch. On the other hand, I have two mouths and one hand/spoon (yes, they share). Also, I don't know how normal this is, but Peyton and Zoe don't seem to care much about eating. They will be completely focused for about five minutes until their hunger is barely satiated. Then all they want to do is turn around, play with their straps, talk to each other, eat the side of the high chair, and grab the spoon. They do love self-feeding, but I'm not only going to give them bread and crackers. And about half of the food they feed themselves ends up on the floor. The two mouths, the bibs, the eternal mess, and the steady dip, wipe, scoop, wait, and work to get attention tries my patience more than anything else.
I know it will get better (though in many ways it could get worse:). But can I get an AMEN??! Haha I think that's really why I'm writing about this.
Love,
Lauresa
Love,
Lauresa