In my last blog posts, I’ve been talking about how we’ve been feeding our baby foods that we prepare ourselves, so that we can better control what our little guy is consuming and so that we can introduce him to new varieties of food.
Now that he’s a little older, we can experiment with even more flavours and textures! These are exciting times!
A little later – 8-10 months
Well, now we’re in a great place, where the baby has some teeth, can chew (or mash) food, can use his thumb and forefinger to grasp things, and likes the idea of feeding himself. We’re still offering him some homemade pureed foods, but more and more, we’re offering him things that he can grip himself. I chop up the chicken now and put it on his high chair tray. The broccoli is chopped into mini-trees that he can pick up. Blueberries are cut into little quarters that he can grab, and little bits of whole grain bread are given to him so that he can keep tuning his fine motor skills. Be careful to cut up the food into little pieces that he can manage – and always, always be with your baby, supervising him when he eats.
We still puree many things, though, to make sure that he gets some sustenance. While he likes to grab food and feed himself, he also likes to drop it and is now learning to throw.
He’s loving his chicken, beef and pork, still, which we’re preparing in new ways, too. And he’ll also eat some fish. Who could ask for more?
Now we’re introducing new things to add to his food. He’s a big fan of hummus and tatziki, for example. We still rely on breastmilk and yogurt, too, but now we’re trying sour cream and things like that.
We’re also trying things like whole grain pasta stuffed with cheeses, meatballs, lentils and other legumes, egg yolk omelettes and more. I’ve even given him some baked goods (without egg whites or nuts, mind you) made with breastmilk! He loves those!
A rule I like to go by is to taste what I prepare myself – if I wouldn’t eat it (I have to get past the mushy texture thing, but if the flavour’s right, I mean), I won’t serve it.
