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 40 – Breakfast

So we can probably rule out a possible shellfish allergy but I am trying to be thorough so we are still introducing more , plus more exposure is supposed to be good in helping her not developing one as well supposedly.

So today we’re repeating the shrimp gyoza, with steamed green beans, and fresh strawberries.

All of these she’s had before now and she’s liked all of them so I was really curious what she’d go for first as well as how much she would eat today.

And the first thing she grabbed was a green bean.

She does the cutest thing when eating long foods, she’ll grab both ends in her hands and chomp on the middle. She really enjoyed her green beans again too. She munched on two of them before moving on.

Next was the gyoza.

Again she ate the insides and seemed to like it still. She ate most of the filling out of the first piece and then picked at the second.

The last thing she ate was her strawberries. She had a better time picking them up and eating them today. Whether that’s because of her skill or the size I don’t know.

So all in all a good and successful breakfast.

So remember, sometimes you have to just repeat what works and it’s okay to not always try new things, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 39 – Breakfast

The only problem I have with seafood is the occasional smells that can come from it, not the bad smells of fish turning but the strong smells from how it’s prepared or packaged.

That was probably Malina’s problem with the canned tuna. I was expecting to run into issues today as well since we were doing another canned item, oysters.

Now, I’ve never had canned oysters before. I have eaten plenty of oysters though. So I wasn’t sure what I was getting us into. They were smoked and on olive oil, both sounded good to me and so we opened the can and found a very light smell.

I was now not so worried.

The rest of our breakfast was toast with butter, banana, and grated mozzarella cheese.

And the first thing she went for was the banana. I tried cutting it the BLW suggested way and we had more success with it today than previously, probably because Malina’s hands are bigger now.

She was able to gnaw off chunks of it and stuck at it for a while, that is at lest until she got the idea to throw it at me.

I did not catch it.

And so the banana was gone, since it touched the floor I wasn’t going to give it back to her.

Malina didn’t seem too upset though as she went for her next item. Toast.

We’ve have on and off success with toast. Malina seems to like it when it has something on it more times that when it’s plain. She also seems to not like the crust as she makes a face when she tried to bite the ends that she doesn’t make when she bites the middle. She also seems to prefer the toast just lightly crispy verses toasted.

It’s really amazing how she communicates using body language and facial expressions. It’ll be interesting when she can actually give me more input as well. Right now it’s a lot of trial and error still and sometimes it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

But today she liked her toast. Was it the butter? Was it the right level of crispy? Or was it just because she seems to be done teething for now?

The next thing she picked up was one of the oysters.

“Look, I’m not trying to be shellfish here.”

She shoved the first one in her mouth and I waited.

Then she went for a second one and in it went.

Again I waited. I expected her to spit it out. Even just a small amount like almost every other food. Instead, she reached for the third one and I stopped her to make sure she wasn’t just stuffing her mouth like a chipmunk.

The oysters were already gone and the only sign was a bit of the munched up paste they became in her mouth.

So I guess she likes oysters. A lot.

I grabbed this picture as I realized my awe had interrupted taking photos and was amazed once again. She had no problem eating and swallowing the oysters. She always had some level of difficulty with swallowing, she’s still learning that part of eating, but with this it was easy.

She had messed with the cheese throughout the meal but never really tried to eat it. So we called breakfast as being over without it.

So remember, even baby can give you good surprises every now and again, but even if it’s not a good surprise you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 38 – Breakfast

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.

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.

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.

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!

-Erica

Day 37 – Breakfast

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 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.

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.

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!

-Erica