Category Archives: Solids

For the birds

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The changes in Sweet Pea continue to happen at rapid speed!

Last month I remember I wrote that she still seemed so much like a baby to me since she wasn’t yet mobile.

She is learning to get around now and pretty much no longer stays in the spot you put her in on the floor. Let the fun begin. Smile

And then, the day she turned 11 months old, she decided pureed baby food is for the birds and she much prefers table foods! She started batting at the spoon as I was trying to feed her. If I did happen to get a spoonful in her mouth she would spray it back out like a water fountain.

I had been offering her table foods at dinner time but that day I decided to make her a plate of what Little Bug and I were having for lunch.

 

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Baked ziti, peas and banana – Sweet Pea’s first complete meal of table foods!

She was so excited about this!

This is new territory for me because, at this age, Little Bug was gagging on every single bite of table food I would offer and ended up having to go to therapy to learn to move food off her tongue, chew and swallow.

I’m glad Sweet Pea has mastered table foods.

However… she doesn’t self feed yet. I put food on her tray and she plays in it without bringing it to her mouth to eat. I know she has got to now learn how to pick up food and get it to her mouth.

I also worry that she doesn’t eat enough when she only eats table foods because it is hard to really tell just how much she is eating. So I do still feed her some purees because she isn’t flat out refusing them…yet!

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Although one morning her Daddy was feeding her breakfast and he told me that he fed her one spoonful of green beans and then she signed to him, “All done”!!

That’s another thing she has started doing since turning 11 months! She signs “more” and “all done” consistently.

She has also started the whine/yell when she wants something (while eating), so now we are working on saying “Please”.

This baby is fast approaching toddlerhood…

It is amazing how quickly they grow and develop. It is a process that I LOVE watching unfold.

Fruit!

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Sweet Pea has really started to eat well in the past couple of weeks or so. When we first started solids at 6 months old, she would only take about 3-5 bites per feed and that was it.

Gradually, she did start eating about 1 ounce (half a stage one baby food container!) of solids per day for lunch.

Around that time I started giving her variety. Instead of just offering one veggie, I would offer two veggies and alternate bites of the veggies. She seemed to really like tasting two different foods at the same meal and that helped her start eating a little more per meal as well.

Sweet Pea had her first taste of fruit on March 28th. She had pears and seemed to enjoy them! She has since also had banana and she is a fan!

 

Sweet Pea’s first taste of fruit: pears!

Sweet Pea has two veggies for breakfast and a veggie and fruit for lunch. If she starts refusing her veggies like her sister did at around 9 months of age, I will take her off fruits completely until she starts liking her veggies again! Worked like a charm for Little Bug.

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Please pass the baby food.

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I was afraid we would run into the same problems we had with Little Bug and solids with Sweet Pea.

I don’t think I have anything to worry about.

This was February 10th. Sweet Pea’s 3rd experience with solids. The bowl was completely covered with squash and you see how much she ate!

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Next up was peas on February 11th. Always a funny face at first but then…

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…smiles!!

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And notice how she is sitting up and not leaning back in her seat. This day, she was eager to eat!

 

Peas for Sweet Pea!!

She had green beans for the first time on February 18th.

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She wasn’t a huge fan of green beans as you can tell by the amount of green beans that didn’t make it in her mouth! Yesterday she tolerated the green beans a little better.

Two weeks into solids, squash is her favorite, followed by peas and then green beans.

Smack those lips!

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Big girl ready to eat her some solids!!

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February 8th Sweet Pea had her first taste of solids!

She had squash.

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She made the typical funny faces.

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She seemed to enjoy the four spoons of squash. The first bite didn’t end up in her mouth much, but by the last bite, she was actually swallowing more than was making its way back out.

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I am hopeful that starting solids is going to go well with Sweet Pea!

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Little Bug wanted to eat some, too. I let her. Is that odd?

Here is a video of her first bite:

Sweet Pea’s first time eating solids (squash) on February 8th.

I am starting with veggies first, as is suggested by my pediatrician. The idea is to program the brain while itty bitty to want veggies. Once she is eating her veggies well, I will add in fruits as a dessert. This will probably be 4-6 weeks from now. The idea is to have her eating two veggies to one fruit once all foods have been introduced.

There was a time (around 9 months old) that I had to take Little Bug completely off fruits because that is what she preferred over veggies. For a whole month, she was only offered veggies and…she started eating them again! Then, I introduced fruits back into her diet. She hasn’t refused veggies since.

This method of introducing solids to Little Bug (once she started being able to eat well) totally worked. I have a 2.5 year old that will eat practically anything offered to her. The standing joke is that Little Bug eats more than I do.

I hope I have the same awesome results with Sweet Pea!

3 Square Meals

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I had someone leave a comment asking what I feed Little Bug so she has 3 square meals a day. So I thought I’d make a post of it!

First, let me say that Little Bug eats just about everything. She does not turn her nose to many foods. I know some kids are just better eaters than others but I do believe the way my pediatrician taught me to introduce foods to her has A LOT to do with the fact that I now have a toddler that eats three square meals a day. I wrote a post about that here.

Now for what Little Bug eats…

Breakfast:

Little Bug loves whole wheat waffles with cream cheese. She also eats toast with cream cheese. Another favorite is whole wheat blueberry muffins (the Pillsbury ones). I usually make them after she goes to bed, have one or two for a snack, and then the next morning we have the rest for breakfast. Little Bug also enjoys eggs. There was a time when she did not like the texture of eggs, but now she will eat them.

Lunch and Dinner:

I always serve her the vegetable first. Veggies she eats are: broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, pinto beans, kidney beans. (I do realize the beans aren’t veggies, but I put them here anyway.)

Then she eats dairy, protein, pasta, wheats, starch: cheese, yogurt, chicken (cooked any way…rotisserie chicken, parmesan chicken, chicken nuggets), pork chops, ham, turkey, steak, pasta with chicken and cheese, spaghetti, whole wheat rice, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, grilled cheese sandwich, mac n cheese.

Fruits:

She eats fruit with every meal. Fruits she eats: banana, apples, cantaloupe, grapes, mandarin oranges, kiwi, pear, blueberries, mango, strawberries.

Tips to A Toddler eat three square meals:

1. Limit snacks. I don’t let Little Bug snack all day long. When it is meal time, she is good and hungry and ready to eat what is put in front of her. If kids snack all day long their meals become “snacks” as well. Right now, she typically has one snack after nap and before dinner (around 4pm). Her snack is usually raisins!

2. Limit bread. Many meals, with the exception of breakfast, bread is not served! When Little Bug started eating table foods bread was NOT a food I would give her. Bread is so filling and does not have the nutritional value that veggies and other foods have, so I don’t offer it often for lunch and dinner. A hungry kid is going to eat! If you put bread in front of them as they are learning to eat table foods, most likely they are going to eat it and love it. But if you put veggies in front of them from the start, they will learn to eat veggies instead of filling up on bread. At least that is what we did with Little Bug and I have seen nothing but positive results with it!

3. Limit juice. I still have not introduced juice to Little Bug! And she is almost 2 years old. Juice is empty calories and sugar, which is my next point!

4. NO SUGAR! Yep, you read that right. We do not give Little Bug any sweets. I get a lot of grief from this, but frankly, I don’t care. Smile During the first three years of life, I have the ability to train Little Bug’s brain to WANT the good stuff (like veggies) and I am going to do just that! Babies don’t know a thing about cake, cookies and cupcakes until they are introduced. Same goes for veggies. I just want to take advantage of these first three years and train her brain to desire the veggies, fruits, proteins…foods that are packed FULL of nutrition for her growing brain and body. I guess the way I see it is if I start giving her a cookie here and there, there is the potential to spiral out of control and all of a sudden that cookie that she had “every once in a while” has become a “pretty often” occurrence. It all goes back to protecting the power I have NOW to be able to train her brain to not desire all the sweets. It probably does help too that we don’t keep sweets in our house! It’s not a problem in our house. It is when we leave the house that it can become an issue because society is so set on filling kids up with sugar!

There are no guarantees, I know, that our 2nd baby will be a good eater like Little Bug, but this has certainly worked with Little Bug. It will be interesting to see what #2 does.

I had absolutely no control over what my daughter was exposed to in the womb (and she was exposed to some pretty harsh things for a developing little fetus!) but since she came home from the hospital, she has had nothing but GOOD enter her mouth!

Lots of Updates

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Baby Sunshine:

Baby Sunshine’s birth mother passed away. Please pray for the family as they grieve. Sin got ultimate victory in the life of this woman and it is just heartbreaking.

Uncle David:

Uncle David’s aneurysm was three months ago today. He wrote this today:

Little did I know 3 months ago from this very day that my life would change so drastically in such a short time.  Having had some headaches and back pain, I had no idea that anything so major was going on.  I am so thankful that by the grace of God I was at a doctor’s office that could take care of me immediately when I collapsed.  I am thankful as well for the countless doctors, nurses, and therapists that were instrumental in my recovery.

I am doing much better these days.  I am starting to get back to normal.  I finished up physical and occupational therapy last week.  I will still have speech therapy for a little while longer.    Hopefully I will be able to go back to work and to drive before too long.  

Thank you for all the support for Mary, Lauren and Sarah during this trying time in their lives and for the many prayers for my recovery.   I believe that God worked a miracle in my life and I am so thankful to be where I am today.

David

As you can see Uncle David is doing remarkably well and we praise the Lord for performing this miracle in his life.

My parents, Little Bug and I are going to go visit Uncle David. Please pray Little Bug travels well on Saturday. We will be driving about 8 hours.

Little Bug:

Little Bug had her Feeding Evaluation yesterday. It went well. It seems Little Bug needs to get used to the feel of solid food in her mouth to help her overcome her sensitivity.

The therapist we saw said we need to stimulate the inside of her mouth as much as possible. This can be done by taking a toothbrush and rubbing it around her mouth and over her tongue.

We are also to start giving her solid food mashed up along with her pureed foods. If she gags on the solids we are to give her a couple of bites of pureed food and then try another bite of solid foods.

We have mashed a banana for her several times now. She gagged a few times on the banana at the appointment, but then later in the day when I fed her more banana she ate without one gag!

Then, tonight for dinner, I mashed up some green beans and she only gagged one time!

We will go back to see the therapist when we return from the trip. Little Bug is to see the therapist weekly.

While the therapist signed Little Bug up for 6 months of therapy (for insurance purposes), I am confident that we can solve this problem with hopefully not more than a month of therapy appointments. But we will take it one step at a time and see how Little Bug does.

Like my mom said (and I agree), Little Bug is a smart little girl and a fast learner and it won’t be long and she will learn to eat her solids!

Barium Swallow Update

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Thank you to everyone who said a prayer for Little Bug this morning!

The Barium Swallow was no big deal!

Little Bug sat in this seat for the x-ray that was sort of like a car seat. She even had a little seat belt. I had been worried about how in the world I was going to get her to be still long enough for the x-ray!

They had a bottle there for Little Bug to drink the barium out of but I brought one of Little Bug’s bottles since I thought she might drink better from one of her own bottles. They poured the barium mixture into her bottle and she only had to drink about 3-4 swallows of it!

It was fascinating to me to watch her little mouth/throat on the x-ray and see the barium go down as she swallowed.

Nothing physically seems to be wrong with Little Bug. So that is good news and news I expected to hear.

This all really seems to be related to Little Bug’s methadone exposure in the womb. But there is still good news here. This is a problem that can be fixed with therapy.

We will go for a “Feeding Evaluation” on April 28th and I assume the therapy will begin shortly after that.

Thank you again for praying!!

Barium Swallow Tomorrow for Little Bug

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I shared in an earlier post the feeding issues we are having with Little Bug.

In a nutshell: Little Bug is 10 months old and literally vomits if she eats anything beyond baby food from the jar. In other words, no table foods, no Gerber puffs, nothing that isn’t pureed.

In talking with a friend who has a baby who was also exposed to Methadone in the womb, I have concluded that Little Bug’s issues are a result of her Methadone exposure in the womb as well.

Basically, Little Bug needs to have therapy to learn to use her tongue muscles to move food from side to side and to be able to chew and then swallow. Right now, food gets stuck at the back of her tongue and makes her gag and then vomit.

At least that is my unprofessional mommy opinion.

Little Bug’s pediatrician wants her to have a Barium Swallow to rule out anything physically being wrong.

So, that will take place tomorrow at 10:30am.

Please say a prayer for us as I am sure getting a 10 month old to swallow barium will be a very difficult, if not impossible, task.

Little Bug has a therapy appointment for a “Feeding Evaluation” on April 28th. I am to bring 3 things: 1) a hungry baby, 2) something Little Bug eats well without vomiting and 3) something that Little Bug eats and then vomits.

Prayers are appreciated in all this! My friend has told me that if this is the problem, it can be overcome. Her little one now is eating solid foods well!

Somebody likes …

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… Sweet potatoes!!

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Little Bug likes her some sweet potatoes! She only eats about 5-6 bites and then is done. But it’s a start and because she is only 6 months old she doesn’t yet need solids nutritionally speaking so 5 bites is just fine!

I am going to introduce veggies next and then fruits. Once I introduce fruits, I may give rice cereal with fruit mixed in a try.

Any suggestions on what veggie to introduce next??

First taste of Solids!

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11 13 09 004Little Bug trying out her new chair

 11 13 09 007First taste of solid food – rice cereal!

 11 13 09 009Hmmmmm….

11 13 09 010YUCK!!

11 13 09 013 “I’d rather play with my feet than eat that stuff again!”

11 13 09 015Second bite…

11 13 09 017Little Bug definitely knows what to do with food in her mouth! She lets me put the spoon in her mouth, and as you can see from the pictures, does swallow it, but ….

11 13 09 018 … she apparently thinks rice cereal is disgusting!

 

I think we are going to let some time pass and then try sweet potatoes!