Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Fiery & Opinionated.

Feeding my baby. November 2012.

Thanks for all the kind words about my funk last week.  It still seems to be lingering a tiny bit but it's nice to know that others have gone through things similar to what I am experiencing.  Like I said on Friday, I just didn't expect that, with weaning from breastfeeding, I'd feel such an overwhelming sense of Alice not needing me anymore!  It was like, all of a sudden, I wasn't her food-source and she just seemed so independent of me.  So indifferent to me.  It was a pretty terrible feeling.

Today, though, my Alice-still-needs-me confidence was boosted.  I went for coffee with a friend who is having her TWINS on Saturday.  We ordered our food and drinks, found a table and then my friend held Alice while I fixed up my coffee.  When I got back, she said...

"Alice looked for and then watched you that entire time you were gone. So cute!"

As she said that I felt tears spring to my eyes and I told my friend about those terrible feelings I'd been having the last few days.  As she handed Alice back to me she said...

"It's obvious that she adores you!"

I really needed to hear those words.  I needed to understand how an outsider observes Alice's relationship with me.  Her mom.  The person who is more than just her food-source.

Back to the part about Alice seeming more independent since weaning from breastfeeding.  She really does!  It seems like she now understands that she has a choice with what she eats.  That she doesn't have to eat what her mom is feeding her.  And, oh boy.  Is she letting it be known what she likes and dislikes!  This whole fussy and independent eater thing is also coinciding with her two top teeth coming in so all of this I-ate-bananas-yesterday-but-I-hate-them-today could be her annoyance with her mouth hurting.

Or it could be her fiery and opinionated personality shining through already.  It's a wonder where she gets those traits from!


Any favorite baby finger foods?  Now that Alice is using the pincer grasp to pick up her food, that's the only way she wants to eat!  No big deal.  No more baby mush.  But I'm drawing a blank on veggie finger foods!

5 comments:

  1. Good pincer foods are veggies you can mash but not mashed. Bits of carrots, potatoes, squash, fruit, turnip, etc..

    It can be easy to pick up and less fear of slipping away, but watch out as they can be smashed with little hands!

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  2. I'm so glad you are feeling better and got a boost of confidence from your friends.

    As for Alice being picky and showing her independence. That trait most certainly comes from you! Love the little bit of payback that you are experiencing, that I went through with you.

    I used to feed you small finger food sized cooked green beans, potato, carrots, beets, pinto and kidney beans. Fruit was the same, small slices of canned peaches, apricots, and pears. Since I used to can and bottle a lot of our food, it was what I used to feed you. Some days you ate everything and other days... I thought you might starve.

    Of course you didn't. Good luck with getting Ms Alice to eat her veggies and fruit. xoxo Mom

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  3. So glad your funk is leaving! It was so hard for me when my son weaned, around nine months. He was done, I was not. You will get through it, and she does love you, need you, and want you!
    As for finger foods, Eden loves: asparagus, carrots, brocolli, cauliflower,slightly smashed peas, turkey, dressing (thanksgiving!), blueberries cut in half, raspberries, banana, avocado, and oat cereal.

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  4. These babies always need us, even when they're trying to convince us otherwise! Have you heard of baby led weaning? It's what we did with Gus and it was really fantastic. I can send you a link to a book on the topic that really helped me out, and there's a cookbook, too! When Gus was Alice's age I sliced peppers into rings so he could grip them with both hands or even wear them as bracelets. Snap peas and green beans are great, too! Basically anything that can be given to her in a stick shape that she can hold and gnaw on is good. You know.. I could fill this whole page with thoughts on baby food so I'm just going to stop. :) If you want to talk more about what we did or hear more about baby led weaning send me an email!

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  5. Yes, you are most definitely needed- big time! Wyatt still barely uses utensils, so we've been finger fooding it for about a year and a half, but now it's basically just our meals cut smaller. I did start with seasonings right away, sauteed pieces of carrot with ginger and mustard seeds (I brown them and then toss in a little water or soy sauce at the end and cover them for a minute so they steam and get nice and soft), sweet potato fries with cumin, lots of beans with various seasonings (I like the one's from whole foods that come in a box so you don't have to worry about bpa in the cans), steamed pieces of broccoli or roasted cauliflower cut into little 'trees'. I also used to make more little 'patties' like mashed potatoes with pureed spinach breaded then baked or pan fried. The easiest of all is cubed extra firm tofu, now he likes more flavor on it but at Alice's age he just loved to eat it raw. Fun stuff :)

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