With the success of our first day of shellfish introduction we are moving on to introducing more shellfish today!
So breakfast today was baked mini scallops, steamed bell peppers, frozen pineapple, and goat cheese.
Malina’s breakfast
I followed the instructions for the scallops and they got overcooked. This is disappointing but Malina isn’t a seafood aficionado yet so she won’t mind.
While I got everything together, she munched on her silicone tether filled with frozen pineapple. She’s been teething again though there is no sign of a third tooth yet. And treating her gums with the frozen fruits before meals has had better results.
“Mama used to be a Piña, now I eat it.”
She seemed to like the pineapple well enough and was still preferring to munch on it for a bit after her food had been set down.
When I tried my own I was disappointed to find they lacked flavor. I just hope that maybe hers tasted better.
When she moved on to the food on her plate she picked up a scallop and started eating.
“I thought you said it had a shell.”
She seemed to like it as she gummed it and eventually swallowed it, but she wasn’t interested in eating more of them as she moved on.
Next was the bell peppers.
“I’m regretting my decision to put everything in my mouth.”
She started to eat a yellow slice and seemed fine but she ended up spitting it out. She then began spreading the remaining peppers around and tossed a few to Pluto.
The last thing she tried was her cheese.
“Wanna see a trick? I can make the cheese ooze.”
She stuck her hand in it and brought a smudge of it to her mouth before she began to spit it back out.
I guess she doesn’t want the goat cheese today.
I wish today had been more successful, but you can’t win them all. Especially against a baby. Oh well.
So remember, even if baby doesn’t make it easy to feed them solids, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
We are starting the second from the last of our allergens: shellfish.
Now there are a lot of things that are considered shellfish. Shrimp, clams, muscles, scallops, lobster, crab, and many more than that.
I love seafood. It’s amazing and I love cooking it. But it’s hard to think of things to feed Malina that are easy for her to eat and easy for me to serve.
When I talked about it with her doctor he said there is no rush and just wait until she’s older and can handle shrimp easier. Because his thought on feeding shellfish was go inexpensive.
I don’t care if I pay for something like crab or lobster and she ‘wastes’ it. I got it for her to try and that’s the price so be it. It’s not like I’m giving her $20 or even $10 of food on her plate.
So I thought of ways to serve her shellfish and while at the store came across a solution.
Shrimp gyoza.
These things have a filling with small pieces of shrimp as well as vegetables. They steam fast and cool quickly. And they are soft enough for her to eat.
So breakfast today was these gyoza,thyme pan seared zucchini, and watermelon.
Malina’s breakfast
Malina has been the most interested in the new foods and was quick to pick up one of the gyoza.
(Note: I removed the watermelon fork so she would try the other foods first.)
“This tastes good. Still don’t see any shells, mama”
She loved it. She ended up eating the insides and then attempted to swallow the whole dumpling skin. This led to three rounds of gagging and eating again before she managed to eat it.
Next, after munching on the other gyoza pieces some, she went for her zucchini.
“What are those?”
She slapped the pieces around and only ate a couple small (even for her) bites. She did not outright seem to dislike it but she wasn’t interested in it either.
So I gave her the fork with watermelon last.
“WATERMELON!”
She really likes her watermelon. She nibbled the edges until the piece was rounded off and fell from the fork. It was really sticky too (did someone say bath day?).
I have to say that the pieces of watermelon we got were very good despite it not being in season yet.
So remember, it’s always good to try new things since you never know what baby will like and it’s also okay not to, either way you are doing great and you’ve got this!
So even though today is supposed to be the beginning of a new allergen we’re doing one more try of the peanut allergen since Malina’s been eating only a little. Plus more exposure is good.
So today’s breakfast consisted of banana pancakes with peanut butter, watermelon, and bacon.
Malina’s breakfast
Malina hasn’t been acting up with the throwing so we gave her the whole plate. There was also less food incase she started throwing and I was on high alert for signs of destruction.
Malina was more focused on her food and went for the watermelon first.
“I like water, maybe this won’t be too bad.”
She was enjoying the piece but it kept slipping from her grasp and she was getting frustrated. Then I had a good idea and got her one of her forks to use as a handle.
“This is so good.”
It was a great success as she was able to easily eat the watermelon and proceeded to enjoy her chunk of it for the next ten minutes.
When she’d eaten bites off of both pieces of her watermelon and discarded her fork she moved on to the pancakes.
“The combination is okay, mama.”
She seemed to like them and ate three small bites before she was through.
So remember, even if baby wants to spend most of the meal eating one thing, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
It’s good to know that even when I’m tired, have a headache, and still haven’t had my morning cup of tea I can still be quick on the draw.
We did sleep training a couple weekends ago, and if you don’t know about that it’s when you help your baby learn to sleep or go to sleep by themselves. It’s good for them to develop a healthy relationship with sleep and learn to self soothe. It’s a horrible time when your sleep, as the parent, goes back to that of the newborn stage. We got through it and Malina now, usually, wakes up once or sometimes twice but she only needs a little comforting, usually, and will go back to bed.
Last night was not the usual night. She woke up and started playing in her crib. I woke up maybe ten minutes later and she was full on awake by then. I tried to calm her and help her sooth back to sleep but no such luck. She was awake for the next hour and then she would wake up if I tried to go back to bed. So I was up for two hours.
This wouldn’t have been a problem before but I’ve gotten used to more sleep recently and it hurt just a bit. It’s probably also why I had a headache this morning.
The good news is I prepared for breakfast last night by putting some of our leftover beef stew pieces in a container for Malina to eat for breakfast.
The stew was awesome by the way and it’s actually an adapted recipe using four of my BLW recipe books to come up with. There is no added salt and it still tastes so good. I’ll make a separate post with my recipe soon. Also, it reheated well and I froze a batch to find out if it freezes well later.
So this morning all I had to do was bake pear slices and toast bread. Easy.
It took me 30 minutes and I was ready to serve baby. What she was getting were stewed beef, carrots, red potato, and zucchini. Then she got peanut butter toast and baked Bartlet pear.
Malina’s breakfast
I’m playing around with the size of her foods right now because she’s had issues with them not being long enough and or big enough pieces. Plus she’s growing and I have to adapt. Always adapting.
Malina was excited for her food today and it made me happy to see her so eager.
I did not know that she had something besides eating in mind though.
As soon as I say the plate down she grabbed the carrots and as I got ready to take a picture of her eating she swung wide and tossed them at me.
I got the plate from her as she went in for a second grab and we decided to do breakfast differently. If I can’t trust her with a plate of food anymore then she’s getting one piece at a time.
So I decided we would start with peanut butter toast.
“I’m fed up with the crunchy foods, mama.”
Malina touched it to her mouth and felt it but she did not try to take a bite at all. I am starting to think she might not like the crunchy texture right now and will have to take that into account the next few days. Luckily she did not throw it, I think she understood that throwing was bad, but maybe that’s wishful thinking.
The next thing I offered her was the red potato. I know it’s a huge chunk but it was falling apart and I’m tying new sizes for her food. It’s too large for her mouth so it’s not a choking hazard, still it’s always up to your best judgement and what you’re comfortable with as the parent.
“Oooo, ‘taters precious.”
She really liked her potato. She managed to bite off several small pieces and was smiling as she ate it.
When she’d broken the potato down to pieces too small for her to pick up and eat we moved on to our next item. Baked pears.
“Perfect pear.”
This was her first time eating pears and she loved them. She ate bites off of all three of the slices I offered and then she had trouble eating anymore because the pieces were now too short for her.
Before she could get too irritated we moved on to the next food, a piece of the stewed beef.
“Oh, so this is what you wouldn’t let me eat last night. I’m glad you changed your mind.”
Yay! She likes the beef! Honestly I was worried since this is only her second time being offered beef and she didn’t really try to eat the steak the other day. Today she munched on the stewed beef piece and pulled off smaller chunks that she gummed and swallowed. I’m so proud of her when she eats well and even more so when she actually swallows the foods. The pieces of stewed beef are super tender too and easy for her to eat so I’ll be pulling a couple pieces aside to offer tomorrow too.
I’m so happy, despite the mess I’m going to be cleaning up.
So remember, even when baby thinks it’s cute to throw their food and honestly it kinda is and you just have to embrace the mess, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
-Erica
Note: carrots did not survive being tossed and she was not interested in the zucchini and tossed those when offered.
So today was nice. Malina slept in until 7 for the first time in what feels like weeks and I actually got good sleep. Add that to having an idea of what breakfast was going to be and we were already on a good start.
So once we got through the morning routine, we headed to the kitchen and started preparing breakfast. Next great thing, it only took me thirty minutes. Yay!
So breakfast today was as follows: English muffins with butter, peanut Bambas, steamed asparagus, and cinnamon applesauce.
Malina’s breakfast
We ran out of peanut butter when I made the muffins on Monday and I haven’t had a chance to get some more yet. So I improvised our peanut food as the Bambas Malina snacks on occasionally.
“We meet again, peanut.”
That is probably why she went for them first and grabbed one to inspect. She ate it fine enough and when she realized it was just the regular Bamba she moved on.
She put her fingers in the applesauce and I handed her a spoon and helped her scoop a bite.
“I don’t like this very much right now.”
She was okay enough with it today. She ended up eating a couple bites before she turned to just chewing on her spoon and then the edge of the plate.
It was while she chewed on the plate that I think she noticed the asparagus and went for them.
“Eat the tops, they’re the best.”
I was happy to see she still liked the asparagus. She ate the heads off two of the spears before she decided she was done eating.
This was decided when she started picking her food up and dropping it down to Pluto.
I think they are in cahoots.
So remember, even when baby learns that the food can be dropped off the tray, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
I love not being stuck in the idea of what are breakfast foods and what aren’t. Like, if I want to eat something that is generally considered ‘lunch’ or ‘dinner’ foods for breakfast no one can actually stop me. So when we had steak for dinner I cut some up and put it aside for Malina to have with her breakfast. That also is a great thing, utilizing left overs from dinner the previous night as parts of our breakfast. I’m already thinking of more ways to do this too, since I only have time for meal prep on weekends sometimes.
Oh, I deliberately did not save some steak for me, though. I had plans involving some berry scones I made yesterday.
We also had steamed green beans, the last of the fresh strawberries, cream cheese, and the peanut butter oat muffins.
Malina’s breakfast
Now who wants to guess what baby girl went for first?
“Got to eat them berries.”
You guessed it. The strawberries. I guess she really likes them. I’m going to have to make a plate of all her favorites and find out what she prefers when presented with all of the things she likes.
She’s gotten better at picking the strawberries up and putting them in her mouth. She’s actually started eating a new way too. She stuffs her mouth and chews and sucks on the foods. Then, after some time, she’ll swallow the bits or spit them out.
It’s been a little stressful to see her shove a whole berry slice in her mouth followed by a second one. But she doesn’t gag or choke and it seems fine for now.
She ate only ate one berry though before grabbing the next thing. A piece of steak.
“Moo?”
She picked up the piece and after looking at it she brought it to her mouth. Then she made a upset face and tossed it to Pluto. Then she got mad and tossed the second piece at me.
She then felt around on her plate, mashing up one of the muffins, and settled on the green beans next.
“These have a nice give and good flavor.”
Unlike the steak, she liked the green beans. I know I’ve given them to her before but I can’t remember right now if she liked them. But today she ate two of the beans and seemed to really enjoy them like her strawberries. Which she went back to and discovered the cream cheese next to them.
“This stuff feels interesting. I’m going to wipe it EVERYWHERE!”
The cream cheese I gave Malina was whipped, so it was not as thick as traditional cream cheese. I also only have her a small amount and wasn’t really sure if she’d mess with it let alone try it.
She found it next to the strawberries though and started to mix her fingers in it and spread it on her tray. She did try it a bit but she wasn’t too interested in eating it.
After a little more time she started to grunt, which I’m beginning to think is her way of showing annoyance and telling me she’s done, and shortly after she threw one of the muffins to the floor.
Clean up crew
I decided to show you our clean up crewman, Pluto, hard at work eating all the droppings.
After she threw the first muffin and started to try and throw the rest, I took the tray from her and we ended breakfast before it could get too messy.
So she ate her fruits and vegetables but not really anything else. I’m still happy though, despite her resistance to eating the peanut muffins, I know she’ll be willing to try them later and that is why half the batch is frozen.
So remember, even if the dog eats more than the baby, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
I did food prep yesterday and had breakfast ready to go with little to do this morning. since we’re doing the peanut allergen I made peanut butter muffins from one of my BLW cookbooks. I made a batch of 24 mini muffins and froze half of them for later. I also made corn fritters.
So our breakfast spread was the muffins, corn fritters, sour cream, and fresh strawberries.
Malina’s breakfast
And being that the strawberries were prominent and she’d had some the day before, Malina went for the first.
“Strawberries are yummy.”
She was quick to pick them up today and mash them into her mouth. She ate two whole slices right away and I was worried she would choke with the way she was eating. Luckily she is apparently good at eating them and I was worried for nothing.
She was all over her berries that it took a bit before she was interested in anything else.
When she was though, the next thing she went for was the corn fritters.
“Hey mama, catch!”
And this is where breakfast took a turn.
Malina was not pleased with the fritters. She was actually so upset that she threw them at me and proceeded to throw the rest of her food until she only had strawberries left. At least she looked happy as she did it.
Then she went back to her berries (I ended up giving her more) and ate another two.
To be fair, the fritters were not very good. The recipe was from one of the BLW cookbooks and I had high hopes, but it was really bad. Honestly, since I didn’t like it I should have expected her reaction. Oh well.
So today Malina only ate strawberries. You can’t win them all.
So remember, even if baby will only eat one thing, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
It’s been a long four weeks, but it’s also gone by really quickly. Malina’s food adventures are really just beginning to start and take off as we get through the allergens we can introduce more and more combo foods and different things.
Speaking of allergen foods. The plan was to have introduced four of the major eight food allergens by now and instead we’ve managed to introduce six of them! We started with eggs, our second week introduced dairy, our third we kinda double dipped into soy and wheat, and finally this last week we tackled fish. During this process though we’ve occasionally given Malina Peanut Bambas as a snack and she loves them. And that covers her peanut introduction, though I’ll probably do a week for it still unlike wheat.
During this time we’ve also seen her develop favorite/preferred as well as disliked foods.
For fruits: she likes raspberries, bananas, and mandarin oranges.
For vegetables: she likes broccoli, potatoes, and carrots.
For meats: she likes sausages, trout, and turkey.
Her favorite snack are the peanut bambas. She also really likes yogurt and whipped cream.
And she loves water.
During this first month we’ve introduced 55 foods to Malina. Of those she’s eaten some of them, sorry I just don’t have the time to go back over and count them right now. This means that she is about halfway through her food challenge, but that doesn’t mean she’ll stop getting new foods even when we get to 100 (which might be sooner than I thought).
This last month has been so exciting and fun. My favorite moments have been watching Malina achieve new skills and showing that she likes certain foods.
I look forwards to next month as we finish up the allergen introductions of peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish. Once we’ve done all of these and seen no reaction we can relax a bit and enjoy this adventure. Plus next month is our last month of only doing breakfast! So in another month we will be starting lunches as well and that is both exciting and scary (meal planning is going to become imperative).
So that summarizes what we’ve done in the last month and what we have to look forwards to as we continue on.
As always, please remember that you’ve got this and you are doing great!
I’m behind and I feel the pressure of time on me with everything I do. Or maybe it’s in my head because I worry about being the best mama to Malina. Today started like one of those days that you are already ready for its end. You know?
Malina woke up early according to our monitor, but I was so tired that I didn’t get up until she was crying 30 minutes later. She was fine the whole time, keeping herself company in her crib, but I feel bad about it.
Then I had to rush to feed her because she’d been up and I felt bad. As a further result, everything of planned about her solid breakfast was jumbled in my mind and it took me the whole hour after she finished nursing to get everything together and ready for her.
And as I write this I realize that this is the second day I forgot to incorporate peanuts. Smh.
At least this is the allergen we’ve introduced before here and there, but still. My plans have been foiled again by myself.
Breakfast was still good though and I’m proud of it, even if I messed up, because we had vegetables and fruit today!
Breakfast today was raspberry turnovers, fresh strawberries, sautéed basil zucchini, and ham (triple checked to make sure there was no honey).
Malina’s breakfast
And Malina went for the ham right away which was not what I expected.
“Ham maw”
She grabbed a strip and shoved it in her mouth. She then treated it like her oranges and chewed on it to get the flavors out before she inevitably spat it out. Still, she seemed to really like it.
The next thing she tried eating was her turnover.
“Raspberries” ^0^
She gnawed on the pastry and got the raspberry filling everywhere. She managed a couple bites before tossing it. She definitely liked the filling though, enough to put it in her hair.
The next thing she tried were her strawberries.
“I call this move Malina paw, hidden strawberry.”
She had a little bit of difficulty getting the strawberries into her hand and then into her mouth but she ate two whole slice! I was really worried when she shoved the first one in her mouth. But then it was gone and she was eating the next one. My little girl loves her berries.
The final thing that she gave a try was the sautéd zucchini.
“Interesting flavor, but I don’t think I like it.”
Malina didn’t seem to like the zucchini. She put one in her mouth and then quickly spit it out. But then she grabbed another and chewed on it more before tossing it. She did this with most of the spears. So she tried them all but didn’t really eat any of them.
So with that we got her to eat everything but the zucchini. Which is a little upsetting since I actually served a vegetable today and she didn’t eat it. Oh well, I tried.
So remember, even when everything takes longer than expected, you are doing great and you’ve got this!
When baby has been sick you typically don’t sleep well. Either baby being upset, you worrying, or just everything will just about keep you awake most of the night. And not in a way that you get to binge Netflix or something either.
As a result, I burned what should have been a simple breakfast. We had left over waffles from yesterday and I popped them in the toaster oven to heat them up for us. I then went to grab yogurt as a side and figure out a fruits since I still wasn’t dealing with vegetables and wanted to keep things on the bland side for Malina.
The waffles became so hard and dark, I don’t know where my head was. I tried to make up for it with toast but found we were out of bread.
With being 2-0 I grabbed the easiest thing left. Plain cereal O’s. Fortified with Iron of course and with reduced sodium.
So that was breakfast. Cereal, strawberry yogurt, and blueberries in the silicone feeder. It took me an hour from getting up to do this too, so yeah. Not my best day.
Malina didn’t care though, she was happy to be feeling better and happy to see the food put down on her tray.
The little things make me feel better about the sucky parts.
Malina’s breakfast
I think she expects good things from the feeders because she’s started going for them first when offered. I was kinda worried though since these were blueberries and she hasn’t liked them at all.
“I don’t like blueberries. These aren’t blueberries, I’d know.”
Much to my surprise and great joy, she ate them and really liked them. It makes me think the problem might be the skins of the blueberries. Which means I have a way to deal with the bag of frozen blueberries now too. Win-win.
Next, Malina tried to eat the plain cereal O’s. She has gotten a lot more dexterous and is able to pick things up easier, but she’s still working on developing that pincer grasp. She did get a few o’s up though and into her mouth.
“Sprinkle these over here.”
I think she liked them but she was not happy with the challenge of eating them. She ate a couple and then threw and pushed the rest around.
So we moved on to her strawberry yogurt.
“I just want to eat the spoon.”
Haven’t found a flavor combination she doesn’t like for her yogurts yet. She seemed to enjoy the strawberry flavor and then moved on to chewing up her spoon.
Still, she ate some of everything and even though this was on the unplanned side of things she did well with it.
So remember, even when your exhausted and can’t cook to save your life, you’re doing great and you’ve got this!
Malina’s BLW Food Adventures 