Remember back when Max turned five months and we started introducing food?
I think I lamented then about how messy the rice cereal was and probably
complained about it dribbling all over his body. Turns out - THAT WAS NOTHING.
What I mean by that is - feeding your almost ten month old son is not for the faint
of heart. The mess is easily ten fold what it was when we were spoon feeding
him cereal and pouch food. I didn't know how good I had it (neither did my poor kitchen
floors). There is literally no surface immune to the food flinging, sippy cup dropping, tornado of dinner time fury named Maxwell James.
It all started back at our nine month well check. Part of the discussion at the doctors office was starting more finger foods and solid foods. This was exciting in that pouch food is super expensive...so hey, if he could eat what we eat, I'm game. But, on the flip side - meal times are now three times as long because Max likes to "explore" if you will, his food. The doctor asked if he was eating puffs - to which we said - "like a champ!". So she gave us the green light to go ahead and let him try everything but nuts and honey. With special precautions around things like grapes and hot dogs (becuase of their size). Flash forward to dinner time.
We have always eaten together as a family - Max in his high chair and us in our chairs. I like that it sets a nice example of meal time for Max. Also, I think he learns a lot just from watching Papa Rob and I eat - the chewing motion, bringing food to our mouth, sipping from a cup etc. The next step was just to give him what we eat - simple right? Well no, turns out it's not. The food that we eat has texture and flavor! So, it pretty much goes that whatever we give him (cut in much smaller baby friendly pieces), he gleefully puts in his mouth, rolls it around a bit, chews it for a bit....then spits it back out. Once regurgitated - this food may remain on the high chair tray ....or he might put it in again and give it another go! So gross - but he's learning I guess. This past week, he has started to look in the "pouch" of his bib for any leftovers or things that didn't make it in his mouth the first go around (he's got about a 50/50 food to mouth ratio).
Breakfast is by far the best meal for us - Max is carb man! He loves all bread products...so he
will easily eat toast, bagels (with cream cheese!), and even pancakes! He also likes scrambled eggs quite a bit...and then sometimes we will put some fruit (mandarin oranges, raspberries etc.) in oatmeal. Of course, he doesn't eat all of this at one time... but those are just some of the things we have done.
Lunch is at "school" and he usually has some crackers, fruit (in the mesh teether), and yogurt. Although - he has tried lasagna (liked the marinara, spit out the noodles)! I think his teacher gives him things to try and just lets him go at it. I'm not too worried about lunch at this point because I know he eats a good breakfast and then I can always monitor dinner.
Then we get to dinner time. Usually, I have to think ahead and figure out what parts of our dinner he can have (as is) and then what to modify. For example - we are having tacos this week, so I will deconstruct them and feed him the cheese, meat, beans, and avacado. Since there is no fruit in that, I might add something else at the end. Meal planning has never come in more handy! And, Max eating what we're eating has really forced us to clean up what we eat too!
No matter what, dinner time is always a production! Things he has tried include - broccoli, carrots, avacado, banana, meatballs (loved em!), meatloaf, chicken, pasta shells (not so sure), asparagus, sweet potato, mashed potato, and cottage cheese. (Side note - did you know that you should offer your child something 12 times before really saying they "don't like it"). Of course, there are some things we still feed him on the spoon too. Oh the spoon! Another battle - in that - he likes to clamp down on it and not "give it back". He would really like to be feeding himself...but we're a ways off from that. So, we sometimes appease him by giving him one of his own to hold.
Overall, by the time dinner is over, the food is everywhere. And, I mean everywhere. Like in all the cracks and crevices of the high chair, stuck to his clothes, all over the bib, all over his face, in his neck rolls, and the best - in his hair!! And when he's done, he let's you know. He will just start shuffling the food all over his plate. His least favorite part of all of this - the clean up? He does NOT like to have his face cleaned.
This whole feeding thing requires such patience. I have to remind myself all the time not to get upset at the mess (it's just the floor for goodness sakes) - and I always try to make a happy/smiley face when he puts new foods in his mouth. I know Max is always looking to us and learning from us.
Keep your fingers crossed as we have Mexican food, noodles, and pizza on the menu for this week!
No comments:
Post a Comment