Day 41 – Breakfast

I’ve fallen behind with these posts. Sorry to anyone who’s actually keeping up, but I’ve just been really tired and trying to relax more lately. That and I got really into a Korean Historical Drama and spent a lot of my free time watching that. It’s over now though and even though I’m still tired (I’m sure I won’t be again someday) I’m trying to get back on top of this.

So on Thursday we were still doing shellfish and I decided to do double hidden shrimp for our breakfast.

The first thing was seafood Korean pancakes with shrimp and squid, the second was a shrimp furikake omelet, then a few strips of cheddar cheese, and a strawberry.

And Malina has a newish favorite, the whole strawberry. She went for it first and thanks to her two teeth she’s able to scrape off good sized chunks.

The next thing she went for was the seafood pancakes. We’ve had the scallion ones before and these ones I got at our local oriental market. I’m adventurous and can read the packaging, but after we started to eat it I knew for sure there was squid and shrimp in these. Also little red hot peppers, but baby didn’t mind.

She might be a spice head like me.

The next thing she tried was the cheddar cheese strips. She wasn’t really a fan though. She put the pieces in her mouth and then she spat them out.

To be fair, the cheese was sharper than I expected and she probably didn’t like the flavor.

Finally, she tried the egg omelet.

If you remember, Malina is not a fan of eggs very many ways. The omelet eggs were one of the ones she did not care for. That being said, I thought now that there had been time between then and now that she might have changed her stance.

She did try it and she did seem to be okay with it up until I took the picture.

So maybe egg omelets are still a no go but I’ll try again. It’s better to keep exposing her to the different textures.

So remember, it’s okay to introduce new and old things baby might not like it is all for their benefit after all, so you are 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

Day 25 – Breakfast

Meal prep is amazing. I knew it was. I still remember how happy I was when Malina was born that I’d done enough meal prep while still pregnant to cover dinner for the first three months. Yeah, that was amazing.

I’ll probably do something similar later when I get a better idea of what things Malina likes. Also, I still have these allergens to introduce and make sure nothing surprises us.

So I did meal prep for this week. Yesterday evening I spent about an hour making our fish for this week. We are doing more tuna and trout. I’ll probably give her some sockeye salmon too, but I didn’t get to dealing with that yesterday.

So today we are trying tuna again and this time it’s in these mini cake patties that I made in my mini muffin tin. These things are made with tuna, potatoes, spinach, sour cream, green onion, and egg. So there is a lot of good stuff here.

The second part of breakfast this morning was banana rolled in crusted animal crackers. The crumbs make it easier for baby to grab and hold.

Malina wasn’t really into breakfast this morning however.

It too some time and a lot of miming, but she did inevitably try the bananas after about ten minutes.

She ate about two, maybe three, bites of the banana before it devolved into smashing.

The smashing turned into throwing though and that is what ended up happing to the rest of her breakfast. That was one mess I couldn’t use the dog for.

So today was a bad day for food and we still haven’t gotten her to try the fish we’ve offered. I’m still hopeful and hope that persistence will win out.

So just remember, even when baby destroys the kitchen redecorating, you’re doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 24 – Breakfast

Our fish today is sardines. I love fish, but it wasn’t until I was in college that I got to try sardines and anchovies (probably will introduce time Malina in the future, just not this week). I found out I liked them both and wondered why my family acted like they were bad.

I hope by introducing them to Malina that she will make her own decisions about it and have a more open mind to food as she grows up.

The rest of breakfast is as follows: sardines in water, steamed broccoli, blackberries, and cinnamon bread.

Eric made us cinnamon rolls and before we iced them I tore off two of the tails of the buns to offer to Malina. The sardines were from a can. The rest is fairly straight forward.

Malina touched everything on her plate when I set it down. Toying with me about what she would try first. Looking more for my reaction than caring about the food.

What she decided on though was her broccoli. But she had a hard time grabbing it at first and attempted to get it directly to her mouth in what she thought would be an easier way.

She had little luck though and tried again with her hands, finally getting one of the green trees with a little help.

She liked her broccoli. It had been a while but she still liked the tops more than the stalk. Still, she tried to eat them whole as we watched on.

Malina went for her cinnamon bread next. Grabbing one piece and chucking it off the side before grabbing the other and tasting it.

Her enjoyment probably made her regret her first reaction to the pastry but I couldn’t know for sure. She ate about an inch off the end, doing a good job of chewing and softening one end as she ate it.

The next thing she tried was her blackberries.

She did not seem to like them as much today or even be too interested in them. She popped two in her mouth and that was the end of that.

Malina does a lot of touching her food. She runs her hands through it, rips it apart, and tosses pieces to Pluto. She did this with the sardines throughout breakfast. I figured she wasn’t going to even try the fish today and started to look for signs that she was finished eating as we came up on 30 minutes since we started breakfast. Then Malina surprised me. She grabbed a piece of the fish and ate it.

She did not hate it but I’m not sure she liked it either. She ate the small piece though and soon after we called breakfast as being done.

So remember, even when baby doesn’t eat what you want them too, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica