Monday, November 16, 2015

My Little Gourmand At Seven Months


The best laugh!


(Thanks Amy for inspiring me to write shorts posts on the small milestones!)

First barrette, first pincer grasp, first strawberry, first Cheerios!
A busy day for my girl!


Amelie has been an enthusiastic eater since she started solid foods at 5+ months, a little earlier than originally planned because I was worried about my milks supply. But she was such a sweet little baby about it all, noisily sucking food off her spoon as if it were a nipple. Rather early on, she grabbed the spoon and we traded back and forth -- one spoon for each of her two hands, and one (inevitably sticky) one for me.

Well. A week ago she couldn't do this, at all. But a piece of food dropped onto her tray this past weekend and she handily picked it up with a pincer grasp. A week ago she needed her fruit to be inside a mesh feeder, or else pureed... this past weekend she handily fed herself Cheerios and whole raspberries and large pieces of strawberry. Turns out large pieces are actually a lot easier than little tiny pieces.

I had wanted to do Baby Led Weaning with Calliope, but had to abandon my plan because girlfriend would cry and pull her hands away if I put food on her tray.

But oh, Amelie! She adores food! We went to a brunch last weekend and she out-ate everyone. Just kept on going. Another mom was trying to be restrained in feeding her baby... so her baby just crawled over to Amelie (sitting in her booster seat on the floor) and ate off of Amelie's tray. This other mom had never given her daughter Cheerios, and only gave her the tiniest pieces of food, like a raspberry split into four pieces (and to be fair, I was this way before this weekend)... she watched in awe as her daughter, too, ate whole raspberries and blackberries and Cheerios.

Her joy was a miracle to behold. I love it that I am challenging her by giving her real food! And happy she is getting to enjoy this pleasure at such a young age. So much fun to feed a baby who loves food!

Amazing big sister reads patiently who a squirmy audience who is less interested in
listening and more interesting in eating the book.





4 comments:

  1. My daughter-in-law has been really sweet to entertain my first time grandmother suggestions and has really bought into baby led weaning with my granddaughter, Cosette. She's 6.5 months old. Cosette's other grandparents are ... lets just call them less educated... and think it's ok to dip her pacifier in sweet tea and pop it in her mouth or feed her any random thing. But mom and dad are doing their best and are both really delighting in each new food Cosette tries. This morning my son called me ridiculously early to tell me she was using her pincer grasp. She's also loving her sippy cup with water and I think it's the cutest thing ever when she drinks from it. I have a feeling she's going to self-wean early because she won't nurse if there's anything going on that she thinks she might be missing out on. Anyways... sorry to rattle on... proud moms and proud grandmoms, you know!

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  2. I love this! I'm really, really hoping for a good eater the second time around. M isn't picky, but her appetite is really variable and definitely on the light side. So it's sort of a wild fantasy to have a baby who delights in food. I've also had to be SO cautious with what I give M because of her esophagus -- those pieces of strawberry on Amelie's tray would get stuck and come back up in an instant. I'm hoping that by the time New Baby is M's age, M will have learned how to chew better, and my days of mincing up food for other people will be over!

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    1. Anna, I really hope you get a good (and healthy) eater too! You've dealt with far more than your fair share of health challenges!

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