Saturday, January 15, 2011

More Fun With Baby Led Solids!

I realized I haven't done a food update in a while, so here goes!

Part of hte reason is becuase Eirik now just eats pretty much whatever we do! He is now eating 3 meals a day... though how much he actually eats varies day to day. A typical day is something like this:

Breakfast:

Cereal or baby puffs - yes, i am aware this is not the BEST thing to be giving him but my husband gives him breakfast and its easy. I'm going to try and start switching this up soon... but we buy the natural puffs.

Lunch:

Whole wheat toast with either hummus or soft cheese (laughing cow flavored cheeses). A fruit of vegetable. Today he had blueberries... he LOVED them.

Dinner:

Whatever we are eating. For example last night he had a baked potato with a bit of cheese, peas and homemade refried beans (my husband makes AMAZING beans).

For a while I was sort of nervous about the whole baby led solids thing. Eirik didn't really eat much... sure, he would play with the food but actual eating? Nah, not really interested. I would read about how other babies were demolishing jars of baby food and here mine was picking at a piece of toast! Then all of a sudden he went from picking at food to shoveling it in... litteraly! It was almost overnight! I also did a little research on how much nutrition babies get from solid food in their first year of life and this helped ease my fears a lot. At 1 year only 10 - 25% of their nutrition comes from solid food... which means he really doesn't need to be eating all that much food at all right now!

I try and buy healthier foods now that Eirik eats more of what we do. There are certain foods that I make sure to try and buy organic, but not always.  We don't give him a lot of heavily processed food and he doesn't get anything really sugary (we haven't given him juice yet). Its really hard sometimes... I want to get him fresh and organic foods but in all honesty I am on a pretty tight budget right now. I do my research however and know which foods its better to buy organic and which foods it doesn't matter.

Tonight we had a fun food experiment. We went out for dinner. I realized it had been a long time since we'd gone out anywhere... with the chaos of the holidays it seemed that we never had time... Every weekend was filled with one thing or another. So this evening I thought would be the perfect opportunity to get out of the house for a few hours. I settled on the mall... lots of food options and no one to stare at us if Eirik started to screech (his newest trick). My husband and I both decided on Chipotle. I LOVE Chipotle and I honestly don't feel guilty eating their food because they are so dedicated to buying natural and organic food. I hadn't bought any food for Eirik because he really doesn't NEED to eat dinner at this stage. But, he was looking interested, so I figured what the heck. Well, apparently I have a Chipotle addict on my hands! I gave him some of my rice and beans and he kept opening his mouth for more! My husband was shocked he liked it because everything is very well seasoned. I then pointed out this is the child who loves hummus. Enough said.

I realized today that I have never had to make or buy baby food. Time AND money saved! Another pro for baby led solids!

And now, a fun picture of Eirik covered in Puffs. No one warned me these things stick to EVERYTHING.

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4 comments:

  1. I have read the same thing, that at a year MAYBE about 25% of their nutrition would come from solids. This was on a website that advocates extended breastfeeding, though. So I imagine if one isn't planning to BF past a year, it would have to be different. Cow's milk doesn't have NEARLY the right nutrients to allow it to make up 75% of a baby's diet. Are you planning on breastfeeding past a year?

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  2. I'm planning on it Lauren! I am planning on at least pumping 1X a day at work until june or july and I have a huge freezer stash so that he can continue to get breastmilk after that and then even after i stop pumping and my stash runs out I plan to keep on going!

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  3. Oh he is so cute! Good to know about the puffs being sticky once Colton gets there too. :)

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  4. Happy he's doing great on the baby led solids! He looks adorable covered in pufs =)

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