Today I want to ask you about food. Daughter is 9 months old next week (the 19th) and I am wanting to start her on some new foods. When did you/when are you planning to start feeding your child(ren) dairy products, such as cottage cheese, whole milk yogurt, american cheese, etc.? How about eggs? Wheat bread? Other table foods like meatballs and pasta with sauce? Daughter doesn't have any teeth yet but she can chew well with her gums, and the books I read say it's important to get babies used to chewing right about now. She eats pieces of banana and peach, as well as cheerios, teething toast, and pastina. We go to the doctor next week and I will ask their advice at that time. But I also like to hear what other moms of my generation are doing.
And now, here is some knitting:
funky kool aid socks
trellis from knitty
I think I am liking the kool aid socks. There's an interesting striping thing happening, as you can see. The Knitpicks dye-your-own sock yarn is lovely to work with and makes beautiful stitches. I will probably use it again to experiment with dye, but I'm bummed that it's hand-wash only.
Trellis is a great pattern - easy to follow and so far, no errors or anything weird in the pattern. I'm about 11 rows away from finishing the back, but as I watched the opening to Conan O'Brien last night I realized I'd better put the sweater down and head to bed if I wanted to get up this morning.
Obviously the sun is blazing today so Daughter and I are heading out to do errands. It's going to be 52 degrees today! In January! In Buffalo!
5 comments:
I really like the Kool-Aid socks ... that striping is completely wonderful.
As for solids, I would say that almost anything from your list is fine, as long as it's mashed well and/or cut up into itty bitty pieces. I would toast any bread that you give her -- it makes it easier for them to gum and mash with their jaws. Introduce one food at a time, several days apart, so that you can see if she has an allergic reaction of any kind. I don't give my kids peanut butter until they're at least 18 months old, just on general principle -- no peanut allergies here, but better safe than sorry.
That's the other question, actually ... are there food allergies in your family, or DH's family? If so, I'd be even more cautious about introducing foods that are very allergenic, like eggs.
Macaroni & cheese is good for little ones, too ....
Forgot ... I toast bread, then cut it into long strips (We call them "toast soldiers"). I think it's easier for them to hold that way. You can also make "banana sticks" by breaking a banana in half and then squeezing its sides gently ... it will break apart along the lines of the little star you see in the center, and is easier for little fingers to hold than banana circles.
You know me - I can go on and on about kid stuff. But before I forget, let me say that I think those socks are great! Though having to hand wash socks would definitely be a bummer. I'd probably end up wearing them over other socks to keep them clean longer :).
Feeding babies... with my older daughter we had her on some cheese before she was nine months old, because she had refused to eat pureed food (despite having very few teeth) so we had to get creative with soft finger foods. She was probably eating slices of american by the time she was eight months old. I'd say as long as you monitor it closely at first for allergies, you'd be fine to add that and some yogurt, etc. anytime now. Just make sure it's not replacing the breast milk in her diet. Good luck finding whole fat yogurt, though. Maybe it's just our grocery stores, but it was nearly impossible to find anything above 2%.
We also wanted to get my older daughter used to the taste of cow's milk so that we could wean her pretty quickly after her first bday, as we were looking to have another baby fairly shortly thereafter, so her doctor told me at her nine month check up that we'd be okay to let her have small amounts of milk, again as long as it wasn't actually replacing any of the breast milk in her diet. So we'd give her a sippy with a little whole milk while she ate, where in the past we would have given her water.
I'd say around 9 months was when we added eggs (scrambled, well cooked, usually with cheese melted on top - totally one of my daughters favorite meals! maybe with tiny bits of ham and broccoli mixed in once she's was older and could chew really well). Really, by a year old we had her eating whatever we were eating for dinner. We'd have to get out the food grinder now and then for harder to chew meats or veggies, but she always loved wheat breads and whole wheat tortillas. I'm of the mind that now that your daughter is getting older, you just try new things all the time. If she can eat it, and enjoys eating it, you're probably fine to feed it to her (with the exception of the big no-no's like peanut butter and strawberries). The sooner you get her on table food, the easier your life will be when you want to go out to eat or to someone else's house!
Sorry this is so long! Hopefully you can find something useful in all the rambling.
I totally dig the kool-aid socks!! They're so fun!!
(Un)fortunately you will not get any child rearing advice since I do not have kids. :)
What did was buy the frozen multi veg mix (the one where there is little square carrotts and peas and corn...you get the idea) and cook it then let it cool ( I used to make about a cup at a time and put the rest in the frige for later) give her only a few of each and see how she likes it. My son to this day loves those little veggies.
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