Mealtime for SW : at 10 Months

We finally visited the Health Visitor again. I managed to push myself going there eventhough we have postponed this trip 5 times in the past, always with an excuse (oh, the weather is too chilly. Oh, she is having the sniffles. Oh, it's on THUR. Etc etc). We finally did it on 22 May 2008. And after not visiting for 7 months, ALOT has changed. For one, there is a new HV. Yayy! And she proves to be much better, doing what a HV is supposed to do - giving me advice is useful.


Even the lady who weighs the babies has changed. Pity, because the previous one was so much more efficient (younger, faster!). This one, she is older (I am not being preijudiced against older generation) but she seems to like complaining.


Anyway, Shean Wenn weighs 8.18kg at 47 weeks (10.5 Months). According to the charts, she has veered below her percentile line during her "younger" days (which was at 25 percentile). Now she is at the 11th percentile. The HV didn't mention anything about her being underweight so I am not too worried.


She did give me some good advice about SW's meals - That I should start giving her more lumpy and "family" food. She can almost eat what we adults eat (minus the salt, sugar and "spices").


So that day for lunch, I have cooked this for her :
Stir-Fry Chicken with Potatoes and Peas served with rice



This is definitely lumpy food. I actually added some hot water to the cooked rice to make it slightly more soft as she needs to adjust to this new kind of food. I also used Organic Petit Pois (small green peas) instead of the normal Garden Peas.


Her reaction : She finished 3 quarter of it - which is fine with me.


(Note : It's been 2 weeks since, and I have been giving her more stir-fried meat usually cooked with garlic/shallots and oregano. And serving it with porridge-consistency of vegetables with rice. She likes this better - ie it's got lumpy bits of meat but still has that "soft mush" consistency)

Weaning : Porridge

My little darling has been eager to try out most of the food I cook for her. She has moved up from single-puree food, to double-puree food, to porridge now.

Summary :

(+8) Potato - She loves them.
(+1) Carrots - So-so, I noticed if I put more carrots in her food, she seems to have a slight aversion to it, and not finish up. So lesson learnt : Put less carrots.
(+6) Broccoli - Ok with it! Thumbs up! Good girl, at least she did not learn from her daddy and not eat broccoli.
(+10) Porridge - her absolute favourite is one cooked with ikan bilis (anchovies). The first time my sis TY made these for her, SW finished up ONE FULL Avent cup. I was so afraid she will be unconfortable. That day (her first day tasting anchovies porridge), she had 2 full cups of porridge (once for lunch and one for dinner). I decided to limit her intake the next few days... so she will not get too uncomfortable.

(Broccoli, carrots and pumpkin)

So far, she has been eating anchovies porridge and chicken porridge, both with veges - PUREED, of course (a combo of 2 or 3 veges of the following : pumpkin, spinach, broccoli, carrots, potato or sweet potato). She finished up everything that I gave her. When my sis TY feeds her, sometimes she gets impatient and cries whenever we tell her "Oops, no more porridge, Shean Wenn". Then, when we show her the cup again, she will lunge forward with mouth wide open! Must be my sister's superb cooking skills, even babies love her food. :)

(Patiently waiting for dinner wearing the bib I bought her - "We love to fly")

I use all organic vegetables. Although the rice isn't so. The store I go to does not have it in stock when I went there last week. Will try again next week.

Speaking of organic veges, there are 3 shops nearby selling organic produce. I love visiting two of them. One which has good merchandising standards - store is bright, well-stocked with interesting merchandise (they also have organic baby formula) - from groceries to non-perishables (candles and pots!), and the staff are helpful! Another shop I like going to has a restaurant that sells vegetarian dishes, I want to try one day. And their staff is SO HELPFUL. Makes shopping experience a joy.

Some of their vegetables are also imported - from Australia or America.

The 3rd shop is totally clueless - they don't stock a good variety and have poor merchandising standards : their shelves are so "clinical" - white shelves with each product facing of 1 and stock-depth of 2 or 3 each. That is just plain bad merchandising. Also, their products are everywhere not according to categories. Pooh! Really shows how merchandising can help a store create that wonderful ambience.

NEXT - Introducing fruits to her. I'm targetting Month 7 or 8, if I can help it.

Read updates on the weaning series (updated regularly later), as she progresses in this crucial stage.

Weaning : Part 2

This is a backdated post - see date above.

Week 2 of the first trials went very well.

On Mon, I got her sat down, put on TWO bibs around her neck (one slightly bigger at the bottom and the smaller one on top so that the mess she creates will be filtered and not dirty her top so much!), one hankerchief on her bottom half of the body (incase her wandering hands decides to smear food all on her thighs). She was quite happy and was really looking forward to "mumm mumm" time.

I gave her half a spoonful and she took to it like duck to water - munching and swallowing as though she's been doing this for awhile. Wow! I'm so proud of her, how and when did she learn this in the span of 3 days? Just last week she was not very excited about it. I would soon find out...

Then that night, she kinda coughed at around 4am. I woke up to check on her, and found her asleep... and practicing munching! That was just so funny! So now I know how she practices. This girl just amazes me - I did not noticed her interest at us eating (we sometimes put her sitting near us during dinner).. somehow, she must've learnt quietly.

FIVE SIGNS THAT SHE LOVES HER FOOD :
1. Leaning forward towards the spoon as I scoop her rice cereal.
2. She almost cried everytime I pulled the spoon away from her mouth to scoop for more.
3. Wanting to grab onto the spoon to stuff into her mouth, but in her haste to do so, she stuffed her own fingers instead! ..
4. .. and started to munch on them (the fingers!).
5. Crying for more despite having eaten almost one-third of rice cereal from the VIA Cup (50ml - every drop of it).


Then, when she had her 4th month vaccination and developed a fever, I decided to stop solid for the day until her fever subsided. It subsided the next day and from then, I have been feeding her solid once a day. Somehow, her sleeping schedule also became better and almost returned to "normal" (when she could sleep 6 to 8 hours at stretch - how I miss those days).


WHAT'S NEXT
Image taken from tesco.com

We bought this Braun handblender and I would be making some mashed potato puree next week for her!


Read updates on the weaning series (updated regularly later), as she progresses in this crucial stage.

Weaning : Part 1

Weaning means introducing solids to a baby. The NHS and even babycenter recommend that babies be weaned at about 6 months, or if needed to be done before 6 months, to do it not before 4 months.

As Shean Wenn turned 4 months and a week old last week (18 weeks), I did a pre-trial weaning to gauge her reaction to "solids" (or semi-solid, in this case). I used a gluten-free rice cereal mixed with some formula milk and blend into a runny consistency to feed her.

Feeding her the rice cereal
1st TRIAL : Thursday

I gave her a spoonful and she took to it quite happily, not knowing what to expect. Look at where the food ended up!

She's quite happy with it, but look at the mess!!

2nd TRIAL : Saturday

I thought I should try giving her the rice cereal again. This time, she grimaced but still took in half spoonfuls, three times. She spat out most of it, and together with her saliva, made a mess. She still has not learned the art of swallowing her semi-solid, but I know in due time she will... practice makes perfect!

Halfway through the feed, she got distracted by her toes!!

At week 18, I noticed her drooling has increased alot. She still loves sucking on her fingers or thumb (or both) and her drool will smear everywhere!

Read updates on the weaning series (updated regularly later), as she progresses in this crucial stage.