Almost done with week two. Which was supposed to be only the dairy allergen introduction, but has turned into both dairy and wheat. There is no right or wrong way to do this I suppose, since there is no history of food allergies in my or my husbands family and since our doctor okayed everything.
Still. I liked my original plan.
One major allergen of the eight, done for a week each week for the first two months. Nice and simple. I had a meal plan too for all of this, but life happens and things don’t always work out. At least Malina hasn’t had any more reactions beyond that one time (which I’m still curious about since it hasn’t happened again).
So in these two weeks Malina has been exposed to eggs, dairy, wheat, peanuts, and soy in varying amounts. Well there goes five of eight. This does not mean she isn’t intolerant or allergic, since a reaction doesn’t always happen the first or even hundredth time. I’m not going to worry or get into that right now however. Instead, I’m going to give myself some leeway since there are so many combo foods and trying to do individual ingredients is crowding Malina’s plate and my fridge.
So, today we did one of those combo foods as a part of our breakfast: Potato latkes. Also, because I have an inkling that Malina would like the applesauce without cinnamon, I’m offering plain applesauce as well as a side of sour cream to go with the latkes. Finally, I offered Malina her mesh feeder for the first time with frozen bananas to help with her teething.
Since this was her first time with the mesh feeder, I helped her grab it correctly and showed her how to use it. It took a couple tries, but she got the relative hang of it.
She munched on those bananas for about five minutes and enjoyed it so much. She ate about half of it I found out when I cleaned it and was impressed.
The next thing she went for were the latkes. She didn’t try to pick it up the usual way she reached for things, instead today she picked at it with her fingers and surprised me by getting a piece and bringing it to her mouth.
She developing her pincer grasp! Now I don’t feel so bad about having her practice with the small pieces over the last two weeks. I’m so proud of her and happy because she keeps developing quickly and surprising me with all she is capable of.
And she loved the latkes. I mean it is potato and potatoes are awesome. She picked at them a while and ate about one slice worth between the three over her entire breakfast time.
I got her to try the sour cream in the middle somewhere hoping to get her to see the flavor combination. Instead, she just wanted to eat the sour cream. I guess I should have expected that.
Next, I offered her a spoon of the plain applesauce. I had high hopes. I thought I figured out her problem with the apples I’d offered so far. It had to be the cinnamon. Apples taste good. Applesauce is good.
Does that look like the face of a baby enjoying applesauce?
Nope, I didn’t think so either.
She did much better with the cinnamon one. So I’m back to square one. I’ll probably go for green apples next. Find one that’s tart but not sour.
Malina spent the rest of her time eating and taking apart the latkes and putting her fingers in the sour cream. She also munched in the bananas a bit more but they were starting to be less frozen and less pleasing to her. So that was our morning.
Malina likes her mesh feeder and she enjoyed the frozen bananas, the potato latkes, and sour cream. And we had more setbacks with apples, but I’m not giving up.
Despite any setbacks it’s always important to remember that you are doing great and you’ve got this!
-Erica
Malina’s BLW Food Adventures 