Day 35 – Breakfast

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.

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.

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.

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.

Day 34 – Breakfast

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.

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.

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.

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!

-Erica

Day 33 – Breakfast

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.

Now who wants to guess what baby girl went for first?

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.

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.

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!

-Erica

Day 32 – Breakfast

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.

And being that the strawberries were prominent and she’d had some the day before, Malina went for the first.

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.

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!

-Erica

Day 31 – Breakfast

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).

And Malina went for the ham right away which was not what I expected.

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.

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!

-Erica

Day 30 – Breakfast

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.

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.

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.

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!

-Erica

Day 29 – Breakfast

Malina was sick and recovering all day Saturday starting a few hours after breakfast. It was the same thing as last time and she was better by early evening, though we kept her low energy and relaxed. As a result I didn’t notice that I hadn’t submitted the previous post or the summary post. Then I ran out of time to write this one up and get it up. So I’m a bit behind.

For breakfast we started our ‘new’ allergen, peanuts! The best way to do this is using peanut butter and other smooth, ground, or powdered sources of peanut since the whole but is a choking hazard. I wanted to introduce it in a new way though and quickly came to a solution.

Waffles. Peanut butter waffles.

So I made my normal waffle batter and then incorporated some thinned and softened peanut butter into the mixture.

Note: to soften and thin peanut butter I mixed equal parts hot water and peanut butter together. It’s less sticky and easier to incorporate into the recipe this way.

Then I heated up the waffle iron and moved onto our sides.

I’ve had a hard time working in vegetables lately, and ran into the same dilemma today. So instead I decided to not worry about it and got some frozen banana and put it in the silicone feeder. Then I fried up an egg for a more familiar protein and called it good.

The first thing Malina went for was her bananas.

She focused on them until she was finished with them and I bet you can guess where the feeder ended up.

On the floor.

Classic Malina. Finished the food and tossed the leftovers to Pluto. He hasn’t gotten fat yet, but he is trying.

The next thing she went for was the waffles, but I forgot to take pictures as things divulged into a sticky mess because I gave her a small amount of maple syrup with the waffles.

She liked the waffles though and ate about three squares worth of the sticks.

She did not attempt to eat the eggs today and instead flipped the plate onto the floor.

I must have not secured it to the tray right, and what a mess that was.

Still, she ate the waffles and seemed to like them a lot. So that is something I’ll be repeating, since I personally prefer waffles to pancakes any day.

So remember, even when there are too many messes and they are just popping up everywhere, you’re doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 28 – Breakfast

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today is also the last day of week four and I am hesitant to say it but the end of our fish allergen introduction. Malina’s eaten enough of the fish the last few times and not had a reaction. I’m going to still find other ways to work different fish in and hopefully we find something that we can use often enough to keep an eye on her exposure, since fish is not a regular part of our diet, yet.

That being said, today’s breakfast was a repeat of our previous success, trout cakes. I served it along side frozen strawberries (because teething), lime yogurt, and potato latkes.

Malina was really irritable this morning though and being extra clingy. These have been good indicators that she might be teething again, as we’ve been able to see a second tooth poking up under the gums, and so I set her up with her frozen strawberries right away.

She loved them. By the time I got the rest of her breakfast in front of her the two strawberries inside the feeder were almost completely gone.

If only she liked the frozen blueberries I have an entire bag of 😭

With her meal set down she grabbed a latke right away. It’s been awhile, but I think she remembered them.

Yeah, she loves these still too. Smashing them in her mouth and tearing them apart with her tooth. That tooth is scary by the way and it’s not even halfway out. I can’t begin to imagine how it will be when she has two.

She took a break from the potato latkes to eat a trout cake next.

“Someone said something about plenty of fish, but I like my trout well enough.”

She was a little hesitant but she still was willing to eat the trout cakes. Which makes me happy and hopeful as trout isn’t too hard to get.

Last we had the lime yogurt. I gave Malina her spoon with some on it and let her set the pace.

“This is the type of bittersweet I like.”

She liked it. I wasn’t too surprised as she’s been gravitating towards sour and bitter foods. It also gives me an idea for future vegetables to try that kids normally don’t like because they are bitter. (Hint: bell-peppers)

She ate a couple spoonfuls and smashed, tore, and nibbled on the rest of her food until she was done and started to play with what was left. so I chalk this up to a good food day and a nice completion of the month.

I’ll be posting the summary shortly, but until then- Remember, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 27 – Breakfast

So last night we had sockeye salmon for dinner. I had the great idea to cut a small part of the fillet from the cooked meal and put it away for today’s breakfast for Malina.

What I did not think to do was cut myself a small fillet and so this morning she gets salmon while I sit back and have my own separate breakfast.

That’s one of those BLW ‘rules’ that I think get taken too seriously. “You eat what baby eats and baby eats what you eat”.

Everyone doesn’t always eat the same thing at every meal. There are diet restrictions, food limitations, and other things that get in the way. What I think is important is taking the time to sit and eat together.

But I totally would have eaten salmon this morning if there was some for me.

The salmon was steam baked with olive oil, parsley, and fennel. It reheated fine at a low temp in our toaster oven and the herbs smelled just as good as last night.

I blanked on making a veggie as I peeled some mandarins to go with the salmon and so Malina only had the fish and mandarins for her meal. I’d be more worried about something like this if she was relying on solids completely, but she isn’t and she doesn’t even eat most of her food anyways.

Baby girl knows what she likes and went for the mandarins right away.

“The last of the mandarins, so bitter sweet.”

She actually did what she did yesterday and focused on the mandarins until the salmon was the only thing left.

She even went through the same behaviors, picking up the salmon and smashing it before trying some of it.

“Oh, you wanted me to eat this salmon stuff. Okay.”

The salmon did not elicit a reaction from her like the trout, but she did eat two bites before deciding that the salmon was more fun to play with than to eat.

Can’t win them all.

She still liked the salmon more than the tuna and that is a place to start. So I’m going to mess with my preparations of it and we’ll see what Malina ends up liking.

So remember, even if you decide to eat something separate from baby, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 26 – Breakfast

Today is our fourth day trying the fish allergen. Malina hasn’t really eaten enough of any of the fish presented so far for me to rule out anything, but I had high hopes it would change today as we tried the trout cakes I mentioned yesterday.

The trout cakes utilize the same mix of ingredients as the tuna cakes except they have trout instead of tuna. This recipe is actually from one of my BLW cookbooks (—) and I altered the recipe to allow for the tuna cakes (halving all ingredients between two bowls and adding 1 egg). I also baked everything (350F for 30 minutes) instead of pan frying. I have to say though that these things have kept well in the fridge, reheated well, and taste good. Especially the trout ones.

I also served mandarin oranges today and lemon yogurt (being mindful of sugar and sodium).

I think Malina might be teething again, though not as bad and hard as when she cut her last tooth. It would explain her reluctance to eat that she’s displayed recently.

I coaxed her into starting breakfast by offering her a spoon of yogurt though and she was quick to take it and chewed on the spoon between bites.

She liked the lemon yogurt it seems. She ate about half of what I offered and even saved the spoon from an accidental fall all by herself.

Now that she was interested and eating she moved on to the mandarins herself.

She still loves those too. She chewed on them and ate the insides before discarding the pulp. I’m starting to feel like I should offer her more slices because the juices are not as filling, but I’m holding back until she’s eating more of everything on her plate.

She went through all her mandarin slices and then went back to the yogurt. Only when she’d eaten or dropped most of those did she turn her attention to the trout cakes.

Personally, I think she’s avoiding the fish on purpose. Probably because of the smell. I’m going to have to figure out another way of approaching this now that I think I know what’s going on.

“This fish is good. I only want good fish now.”

Malina was hesitant to bite into the trout cake even after she picked it up. She started to pull it apart first and smash it on her tray. But she did get curious enough to put a piece in her mouth.

Then there was a change.

She ate a bite and then put more of the cake in her mouth. She was eating it. Finally, she was actually eating fish! She then spent some time shoving pieces in her mouth, spitting out some of it, dropping other pieces, but still chewing and eating enough of it up for me to count this as a success.

Tuna, bad. Sardines, bad. Trout, good. Very good.

I’m so thrilled she ate the fish, but I’m also worried now because she has all day to have a reaction and to get through. I’m almost certain she’ll be fine though. She hasn’t had a reaction so far and breakfast is two hours behind us as I write this.

So remember, even if you have to try something over and over again to get a success, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica