Tuesday 10 May 2011

Weaning - two weeks

Watched a somewhat sad and rather scary TV programme, it was called "Fast Food Babies."
Yes, that's right. There actually are parents out there who, rather than putting in the effort and actually cooking, feed their little ones constant takeaways. One family had a bit of an excuse, the little boy had been very ill and although he was offered healthy food he refused it and in desperation the parents were turning to the one thing he would eat - chips!
Another was just simply lazy and, to be brutally honest, a bit thick. She'd never ever offered her three year old son any home cooked food at all and he lived on a diet of pizza, chips and kebabs. Why on earth would you give your three year old a kebab? I feel guilty if I eat one myself, you can see the cholesterol in it! She was a hard one to shift, kept moaning that the changes required "didn't fit into my lifestyle" which mostly involved going out with her friends, getting drunk and bemoaning her lot. Well dear, no-one forced you to become a mother.
I really did feel for the first family I mentioned, they were trying hard but were simply at a loss as to what to do. They did get help and the little boy ended up discovering a love of that much maligned vegetable - broccoli! It was very sweet to watch him tucking into it and the look of relief on the parents faces was quite something.
Joseph has been getting on well with his two portions of baby rice a day. He has one in the morning and one in the evening, each in the middle of his usual milk feeds. It seems the trick with baby rice is to make it up before you begin the milk feed and leave it, rather than making it up when it's time to start giving it to him. It seems to need a good few minutes to absorb liquid, the number of times we've made it to what seemed like the right consistency only to discover that it's gone too dry by the end of the feed! You add about ten times the volume of milk to rice and it seems way too much, but after a minute of solid stirring and several more left to sit, it's about right. We make it up in the cap from the bottle, it stops me making way too much and it's a good sterile container as he's still only five months old.
Lunchtime today was the time for his first go at "real" food, some mashed swede and potato (mixed with a little milk). I had earmarked this recipe ever since seeing my niece tuck into it with great gusto one Christmas. She was just over a year old at the time and she liked it so much she pulled herself forwards in the high chair to get more. My sister had never seen her do anything like that before.
I was expecting mess. I was expecting to have him spit most of it back out and I was expecting to end up throwing most of it away.
Well, I got mess. Quite a lot of it did end up all over his face and the first four or five spoonfuls were treated with a degree of caution. However, he suddenly decided that he liked the whole thing and started opening his mouth wide and lunging forward for the spoon. In the end he ate the whole bowlful and seemed a little disappointed that there wasn't any more! But then, that's just the size Boots made their weaning pots and I suspect that too much in one go will probably lead to problems.
I really am feeling quite optimistic now. I was planning on having one meal of mashed veg for lunch and two meals of rice for breakfast and supper for a whole week, but Joseph loved the veg so much I think I might try him on the free sample of Baby Fruity Porridge I was sent tomorrow morning.
Better go now, his lordship is getting cranky.

No comments:

Post a Comment