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 48 – Breakfast

Some days I feel like I have to do too many things and then other days I feel accomplished because I actually did so many things. Then I’ll feel accomplished just for getting through the day. Being a mom is hard, even when it’s not a hard day.

But today was a day that I planned to take on and get stuff done. I had laundry to fold (like a lot of if), laundry to clean, dishes go wash, and I was making dinner today too. Then Malina woke us up an hour early in preparation for daylight savings (which is still somehow a thing) and I had to be extra on top of things.

So first I had to start with our breakfast.

So today I decided to go easy on myself and we did toast with the mixed nut butter, steamed green beans, and baked pink lady apples.

Surprisingly, the first thing Malina went for was the toast.

“I’ll try it as many times as you make me I suppose.”

Malina has not had the best track record with toast. There are times when I don’t cook it just right and she hates it and then there are other factors that I don’t even know that make her not want to eat it.

So I was super surprised when she went for it first and even more so when she started to gnaw on it and actually eat it. She tore off a piece and chewed it up as she continued to mess with the stick of toast.

When she was ready to move on she went for the green beans.

“To green bean or to not green bean, that is the question.”

Malina still likes her green beans but she is at a stage where she stuffs the whole thing in her mouth and can’t quite figure out the next step since she only had the two bottom teeth and no way to break it up further once it’s in her mouth.

Still, she gnaws on it awhile before spitting it out and shoving the next thing in her mouth, apples.

There are so many types of apples. I know some of the ones I like and there are still so many more I haven’t tried. There was once a time that I categorized them by color but not anymore.

I don’t like the pink lady apples raw. They are too tart and grainy for me. So I had no problem tossing the apple in the oven and seeing how it came out.

Baking these things brings out the sweetness and I found myself appreciating the flavor of the baked apple.

Malina felt much the same. She definitely preferred this apple to the cosmic crisp she’d tried before and now I wonder if we shouldn’t try a few other apples to see how she does.

Malina’s next step was to then try and shove green beans and more apple in her mouth at the same time and we soon had a gagging episode that made me almost consider if I should treat it as choking, but she worked it out and soon showed signs she was finished.

So remember, even when baby shoves all the food in their mouth and gags a little, 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 44 – Breakfast

Today on our journey through tree nuts we have a special treat. I buy these frozen almond pastries and they are so good. So since almonds are a tree nut that’s what we’re having.

I also served up some sliced cherry tomatoes smashed blueberries to go alongside it.

The first thing Malina grabbed was the pastry. She’s had some practice with bread and rolls we’ve allowed her to slobber all over, but today was her chance to really go for it as she picked up the pastry.

She liked it, taking bites and chewing on it until it became a soggy mess. She definitely ate some of the almond filling as well.

The next thing she went for was the blue berries.

Sadly she still doesn’t like the blueberries when they are presented this way and she threw a mini for over it and refused to eat any more, effectively ending breakfast.

So remember, even when baby throws a tantrum, you are doing great and you’ve got this!

-Erica

Day 43 – Breakfast

There are some mornings that are harder than others for one reason or another with a baby.

Sometimes they wake up early by an hour. Sometimes they need to be changed twice back to back. Sometimes, they don’t want to cooperate when you are trying to help them.

Or sometimes you get so distracted with baby and keeping everything running smoothly with them that you burn the first batch of toast and it takes you twenty minutes to make toast at all.

Hi, I burned toast and waisted time.

But hey, we’re starting our next and last allergen today.

Tree Nuts!

So many nuts fall into tree nuts but then again a lot also don’t. It’s kinda odd. Another thing I’ve found out is you can be allergic to one nut but not the others in this group.

So I decided to throw caution to the wind and offer Malina a mixed nut butter with all of the tree nuts in it. Well, all besides pistachio because that’s just how it’s made.

So breakfast was toast with nut butter, strawberries, and asparagus.

But Malina couldn’t wait to start today since she’d been waiting through the toast incident and went straight for the berry.

For the record, these strawberries are super ripe and sweet. That’s what happens when there is a bumper crop of these things that don’t make the Valentine’s Day cut I suppose. Either way, these berries were really good.

Malina has a hard time with the pieces and so we’ve been using the fork with a giant berry. But as these are super ripe it fell off. She still went for it though because they are so good.

When she was done with the strawberry she moved on to the toast.

Something I’ve noticed is that Malina prefers her toast just warmed and a little crisp. She also doesn’t like the crust. I don’t know how she’s managed to develop these preferences but here we are.

She liked it well enough and got really sticky because of the nut butter. She also did not have any immediate reaction to it nor any reaction later on either.

So after making a mess and a light clean up, Malina moved on to the asparagus.

“I like these spear vegetables. They taste good.”

There she goes holding the ends and eating the middle again. She nibbled off the tops of the asparagus too as she went and I’m just so thrilled that she has so many different vegetables she likes.

So remember, even when it’s a burnt toast day, 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 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

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 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