Feeding the Raptor

The Ins and Outs

tuilelaith — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 21:10:42 +0000

If you have children, you will probably know that at some point you become obsessed about what goes in and comes out of your child. It starts when they are first born, with different types of milk and their corresponding “end product”, colour, consistency, frequency. But it doesn’t stop there, it only gets worse. As the weaning starts, we become pre-occupied with everything that goes into the child’s mouth and comes out of the other end. A year ago I would have never thought I could have endless conversations with other mothers about poo, but we do it, every week. We compare, we ask, we wonder.
It seems to be one of the most fascinating things (not really, but we act like it is!). We observe the changes that correspond with the changes in food, and are forever reciting everything that might have been eating to make sure the nappy looks “right”.
The obsession is difficult to convey to someone who has never had a baby or looked after one for a longer period of time.

On a different note, Raptor has been introduced to tomatoes (a new favourite, along with chicken), mozarella, peas (for the fun of the chase), fish and porrigde (messy!). Tonight we had chicken, and a bit of cheese, and for desert I prepared some rusks with warm milk, grated apple and cinnamon, thinking that Raptor might enjoy it. He didn’t. It was too mushy, so I ended up eating all of it myself.
Bon Appetit!

Resuming Routines

tuilelaith — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:12:36 +0000

Thanks to a cold-turned-viral infection, Raptor has been completely uninterested in food for a few weeks. It started when the snuffles started, and got worse as Raptor did. At the worst point, he was only just taking enough milk to keep himself hydrated, but things are better now.

Yesterday saw a kiwi fall victim to his little claws and his ever improving coordination. Today, we all ate dinner together again for the first time. Garlic, Chilli and Coriander Chicken with Red peppers and noodles. (5 cloves of garlic, a bit of fresh chilli pepper and a handful of fresh coriander leaves with some basil-olive oil blended as marinade. Marinade chicken for as long as you want, then fry in olive oil with chopped red peppers. Cook noodles and add to chicken, toss till covered in the marinade. Serve.) Yum. This was the first time Raptor ever encountered meat, and he could not get enough of it. One piece in each little fist, he chomped away at his little pile of food for about an hour. I think he liked the meat because it didn’t slip out of his hand or break on the way to his mouth. It wasn’t even particularly messy – his aim is definitely improving. I dare say it went down well.

Not a puree baby

tuilelaith — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:01:00 +0000

Ok, so it’s been a few days. Life seems to always catch up with me and leave me with little time to write about the stuff I would like to write about.
Let me tell you about the Weaning workshop we went to on monday.
Two lovely ladies from HALFF prepared some different purees in front of us, and told us all we needed to know about mush-weaning our babies. They seemed somewhat shocked, and a little surprised when they heard that the raptor already eats what we eat almost every night. Don’t get me wrong – it’s all about personal choices, and we have made ours. I just don’t think the two ladies were quite prepared for that. For the duration of the workshop I felt like they constantly had to mention “or if you do BLW” as addendum to almost everything they said. A strange feeling.
At the end, every baby/parent got a plate with different bits of puree, and a spoon. The raptor’s first reaction, of course, was to stick his little hand in the middle of the plate and try to grab the bit of broccoli, along with a load of mush before we had even sat down. That was as far as the fascination went. As soon as a bit of puree passed his lips, he started pulling faces, spitting, gagging and crying. Totally unimpressed. I loaded the spoon with a different puree and let him try again, same result. I assume that he didn’t like the texture or the taste of it.
Mine is definitely not a puree baby.

You want me to eat THAT?

tuilelaith — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:14:41 +0000

It’s amazing how often I still keep forgetting that we’ve started BLW, and that the raptor will obviously want some food in the evenings too – at least until he noisily starts demanding it. He gets very upset when I forget.

On Friday night I though I could give bananas and pears another go. I peeled and chopped some (Bananas naturally split into three equal pieces, perfectly sized for tiny hands), and added a slice of melon and a slice of crackerbread with cheese to his plate. The pears earned me a disgusted, accusing look – Mummy, are you trying to poison me?- while the banana pieces just kept falling apart on their way to Oscar’s mouth. What made it in didn’t seem to impress him, though.
The melon was a different matter. I am not sure if he just liked it because it was cold and rather hard, soothing his teething gums, or because it was easier to hold and tasted nice. He enthusiastically sucked and ground away at it until there was just the little bit left that was inside his hand.
The slice of crackerbread – thus far the uncontested favourite – didn’t even get look in.

Last night was a bit of an experiment – we had veggie fingers (Mashed potato and broccoli mixed with peas, sweetcorn and peppers, shaped and then breaded and baked) with oven chips (shock, horror!) and garlic bread. After checking the salt contents in all of those I decided that it would be easier to give him some bits off our plates (minus the added salt) and see how he got on with it.
The clear favourite was the garlic bread. I gave the raptor the end piece of the baguette, and he quickly realised that he could dig his fingers into the soft bits and hold it steady with both hands. Somehow he managed to suck out all the soft bread and garlic butter, and just leave us with the outer shell. Veggie fingers seemed to go down well but caused a bit of frustration because they always fell apart, and chips, while easy to hold and eat, barely raised a reaction at all.

Tonight, the raptor is having dinner with grandma. We’ll see how that goes. I hope she’s prepared for the mess.

Spoons

tuilelaith — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:29:28 +0000

The raptor weighed in at exactly 20 lbs today, more than three times his birthweight. I am quite the proud mummy when I think about his development.
Today, we had rice with creamy garlic sauce, chicken and carrots for dinner. Remembering yesterday’s encounter with the pasta and the fork, I decided it would probably be best to try a pre-loaded spoon. Raptor enjoyed the spoon, and the rice, but got frustrated every time he had to give it up so I could re-load it. His impatience was voiced with loud, angry screams, and his joy over getting it back with lovely giggles. In fact, he liked the spoon so much, he tried to eat it. Of course, shoving a spoon down your throat is not the most pleasant feeling in the world. The raptor didn’t realise what it was that was making him gag and tried sticking the spoon even further down his throat, making the situation worse, so I switched the spoon for the plate with the rice. This is were the fun really started. The little one was loving the feeling of rice between his fingers, and soon it was everywhere: his hair, his clothes, the chair and its surroundings.
After peeling him out of his clothes and giving him a quick bath, he fell asleep an hour before his usual bedtime, still smiling.

I do believe that at least a third of his portion (about a tablespoon or two) made it into his tummy. The nappy will tell.

A start

tuilelaith — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:02:08 +0000

I fully intended to wait until Oscar was 6 months old before I started weaning him. All I read about Baby-Led Weaning made it clear that 6 months seems to be the best starting point.
Of course, things never go to plan. At about 4 1/2 months, the little man started helping himself – sprouts, carrots, parsnip, pancakes… everything had to go in his mouth. We started eating out of his reach, for which we were usually repaid with indignant, betrayed glances. Mummy, why can’t I have anything? So back on our laps he went.
This went well for a couple of weeks, until he started demanding his own portions.
We ordered a highchair – a Stokke Tripp Trapp, and decided we would make a start using the carseat and rocking chair, propping the little raptor up with some cushions to be more upright.

There are very few rules to BLW – no more than 1g of salt a day, careful with the sugar and potential alergies, always let the baby feed himself.
With this in mind, we began offering a few foods this week: apples, cut into thin slices – I think he enjoyed those, although he seemed to just suck them until no more juice would come out. Cucumber met a similar fate at first, until he discovered he could grate it with his little tooth stumps. Unlike the BLW handbook says, bananas did not go down well on the first or second attempt, and neither did pears. Toast or crackerbread with cheese spread, on the other hand, went down like a charm – first, the spread got licked off, then the bread got sucked until it was mush, and then disappeared into his little tummy.

Today, at dinner time, we had our greatest adventure yet: a plate of pasta with tomato sauce. I had chosen pasta, shaped so they could be held easily by little hands, but Oscar didn’t want to hold it. He wanted a fork, like we were using. I had never let him hold a fork before, but thought it could hardly do him any harm as long as he didn’t stick it in his eyes. I preloaded it with four pieces of pasta while he was watching me expectantly, and handed it over. We both watched in amazement as Oscar took the fork and brought it to his mouth, pasta first. Even he seemed a little surprised as bits of pasta and sauce disappeared into his mouth.
Half an hour later, he had managed to eat about 4 or 5 bits of pasta and cover himself in a seemingly infinite amount of tomato sauce. He was happy, and tiredly let us peel him out of his clothes.
A good start, we think.