Day 49 – Breakfast

Today marks the end of seven weeks into this food adventure. Malina is just a couple weeks away from being eight months old and starting to do two meal a day of solids.

Even though the technical point of two months will be the end of week eight, I plan to count by the actual day of the month to the following day of the next month as far as tracking from here on out.

With our major allergens all introduces I am also going to stop thinking about what week it is since now we have free reign. I’ll still be keeping an eye out for reactions of course, but being able to relax a little and not worry about making things around one ingredient will be a big relief as I serve Malina more food.

Doing eight allergens in seven weeks was interesting and exceeded the plan of eight weeks. But honestly that was a mistake on my part more than anything when I introduced wheat without giving it its own week.

So as our last day of tree nut introduction I wanted to do a mini celebration for Malina and made her something special.

Almond biscotti!

I love biscotti, they go great with tea, coffee, or just by themselves. They are a hard biscuit cookie that are a perfect size for Malina to pick up and hard enough that she’s not going to break off a piece easy or eat too much of it.

That being said, I did soften one slightly with hot water so she could get some of the exterior off easily and actually try it.

The rest of her breakfast was baked apple slices from yesterday, goat cheese, and mashed peas.

So as you can see in our first picture, Malina was eager to start breakfast. And the thing she was going for was the biscotti.

And apparently Malina preferred the hard biscotti to the one I softened for her. She gnawed on it until it got soft on the outsides and she ate what came apart. She really seemed to like it though and I am glad.

When she was done with the biscotti she moved onto the goat cheese.

Malina has gotten better at eating things like the goat cheese with her hands. She gets it on her fingers and brings it to her mouth well enough. She’s even figured out how to open her hand and put the food in her mouth. I’m so very proud of her and her progress.

Also, she liked the cheese.

After a little bit of time she decided to mix things up, literally mixing bites of cheese with the apple.

I did the same and it’s a great combination. The savory cheese brings out the apple sweetness while playing off its tang. It was so good.

Finally, when she seemed done with the apples and cheese I switched out her plate for the bowl of smashed peas.

She was not impressed with the peas. She ate the first bite and then played around with the mush. They were good peas, just not up to Malina’s high standards apparently.

So remember, even when baby is being more of a fine connoisseur, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 46 – Breakfast

Today I did not have anything planned.

So to clarify, I usually have a meal plan calendar. It’s 6 weeks long. We just hit week 7 though and I haven’t filled out a new calendar. This means that my planning, as little as it is, is basically nonexistent at this point.

So when I looked at the full calendar and realized there was no plan and that I did not really prepare anything I got creative.

Today for breakfast we are having Joe’s O’s mixed with mixed nut butter, Korean scallion pancakes, and frozen cherries in a silicone feeder.

While she was waiting I gave her the cherries.

Malina really likes her cherries. I think it goes beyond the fact that they are cold and feel good for her teething too.

She chewed on the feeder for five minutes while I finished preparing breakfast. By the time she tossed it aside there was only a small amount of cherry pulp left.

I am kinda curious how these things work but I haven’t had the time to try it out myself. I assume that the food gets pushed out the holes but I put fairly solid pieces of frozen fruit so I don’t know.

The next thing she went for were the scallion pancakes.

She still loves these things. I can’t blame her, so do I. The crunch, the savory onions and vegetables, and they have a surprisingly small amount of sodium.

She chewed on them for a while. I actually noticed today that Malina has been getting better at taking bites and chewing. She will do so and chew in an exaggerated manner while smirking at me. She shows me the food in her mouth and then either swallows or spits it out. But she’s learning.

I guess that whole mimicking “monkey see, monkey do” stuff works pretty well.

The last thing she tried was the cereal mixed with the nut butter.

Sadly she quickly decided that the work required to grab the cereal pieces and put them in her mouth wasn’t worth it. She picked up some cereal and at least one piece made it into her mouth, but she wasn’t interested enough to try for more.

So remember, even when baby doesn’t want to put in the work to eat the food, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 36 – Breakfast

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 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.

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.

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!

-Erica

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 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