Thursday, November 8, 2012

Eleanor & Sweet Potatoes

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Eleanor has officially started food!!! :)

We waited until 6 months to give her the first taste of it.  No real reason….we just waited.  Her doctor said we were welcome to start earlier if we wanted as Eleanor seemed ready. 

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Oh and we had a gift card left from one of her showers, and we were able to get this highchair!  It is the cutest thing! We decided to go with the kind that sits in your dining room chair.  We don’t have a huge house, so we didn’t really want a free standing one hanging around.  It has worked out great!  When we have people over and need the chair, we just take it off the chair and sit peanut in her excersaucer! 

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This was E’s first bite of food!  We decided to skip rice cereal and go straight for the sweet potatoes! :) nom nom.  We toyed around with trying Baby Led Weaning and I just couldn’t get over the fear of choking.  (even though they say it hardly happens)  It just bothered me.  Though….she already has 3 teeth so I think we will start letting her explore soft finger foods in the near future! 

E’s first food experience was funny.  I think she enjoyed the taste of the sweet potatoes…..but she kept trying to grab the spoon and put it in her mouth herself!  Oh boy it was a challenge.  She wanted that spoon by golly!  haha!  (another reason I think we will start finger foods soon! ha! girlfriend wants to help!)  Since that feeding, she has gotten soooooo much better at allowing us to feed her!  And she has finally started figuring out how to eat rather than pushing the food out with her tongue. 

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Here she is trying to help! Precious thing.

So what kind of food did we feed her?

I really wanted to make her food for several reasons.  (Though I’m not against jar food at all….she has already had some!)  I wanted to make her food because it is cheaper, I’m at home most of the time, and I can control what goes in it!  We started out with just a blender.  It did the job but it was not easy!  We really had to work on getting the sweet potato smooth.  One sweet potato made a ton of servings!!!!  We froze them in ice cube trays, then popped them out and put them in freezer bags.  Then we just thaw however many cubes she needs for that day!  It is awesome. 

My mom surprised us with the Baby Bullet this week!!!!! yay!!!! I can’t wait to try it out!  I know it is going to work much better than my blender. 

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So far our little peanut has tried:  sweet potatoes, applesauce, pears, oatmeal and peas!  We have had success with all of them except the oatmeal.  But thanks to several of you ladies….you suggested mixing it with fruit and I know she will like that much better. 

I’m still doing a ton of research about baby food stuff.  It is kind of just figuring things out as you go right?  If anyone has a favorite website or book on this topic….I will love to know!!!! 

Well, that is the latest on Eleanor! 

Oh and I have a song on my heart….so I thought I would share.  No video of me singing it! haha!  Just the lyrics….

In Christ alone my hope is found, He is my light, my strength, my song.

This Cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought or storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease

My comforter, my all in all

Here in the love of Christ I STAND!

Hugs!

AMANDA

11 comments:

Katie said...

I can't believe E already has 3 teeth! What a big girl :) We're still gums over here!

I make all of J's baby food as well, and I love this site: http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/

The baby bullet is awesome! Makes it so easy!

Kristin said...

We have the same type of high chair and waited until 7ish months to give Tanner his first taste of food! Since I was still nursing (I think you are too), the progression once we started was really slow and it worked perfectly for him :) Just remember that first year she is getting her sole nutrition from you (if you are able to keep nursing) :) Keeping that in the back of my mind relieved a lot of (oh my gosh, what do I feed him next?) stress! You're doing great!

Theresa said...

I've never seen that type of highchair before, how neat!
I recommend the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. It was a big help to me.
I remember giving my babies a spoon to hold while I tried to feed them. It seemed to work :)

Beth Ann said...

Sweet girl! I'm surprised she liked the peas- Holden never was a fan of those! They caused lots of gags and sour faces! Haha. Interesting that that song has been on your heart- similar to me this week- this old hymn has been going through my head constantly the past few days- "On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand...all other ground is sinking sand." :)

Amanda said...

We are kind of doing a hybrid type of baby-led weaning. I liked the idea of giving Natalie a taste of whatever we were eating instead of feeding her jarred food (the smell gags me). I still puree most of her food at least until it has a semi-smooth texture because she didn't have any teeth until now, at 10.5 months. She handles chunks of banana and pears no problem, although she tries to stuff her mouth full and gags herself sometimes. She loved her sweet potatoes, too!

Lauren said...

as Katie recommended above, I LIVED by wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com! It's a great site and gives preparation details on so many different foods!

I sort of did a modified BLW, Elyse is eating practically anything she wants now. we just try to do her veggies first so she gets those in...good luck with making your own, it was one of the best decisions I've ever made! And I still am cooking chunks of squash, sweet potato, carrots, etc. and freezing those--perfect for on the go!

Jessica said...

So awesome!! Glad she enjoyed it! You could totally overcook some veggies until they're super soft and let her play with them or even thick oatmeal if you're afraid of her choking. Nothing wrong with doing purees at all! We do them sometimes, it all works! :D

Tami said...

She is just too precious!! Her little smile is so sweet. Yay for trying solid foods! I think that is such a fun milestone! We also made most of our baby food and I really loved doing it. And it does save a ton of money! You're going to love the spacesaver high chair. We have the same one and it has been perfect so far.

Rachel said...

Look at her! She's grown so much. Glad she's getting on so well with food!

Megan said...

She is SO adorable!! I'm so glad to know that y'all like that highchair! That is what we registered for, too!! I don't see a point in having one take up so much room!!

Callie said...

SHe is so cute! Good for you for making your own baby food - I could never quite get up the motivation to do it. :-)