I haven't posted about BLW in quite awhile, mainly because there's not much to talk about. But tonight I'm going to.
Back around Christmas, I stopped directly breastfeeding. Between Charlie biting me constantly and his poor latch causing open sores on my nipples, I had just had enough. I couldn't relax, and I wasn't enjoying it anymore. So, I started pumping and mixing what I pumped with whole milk and giving him that in addition to his food.
In the past couple of months, because I'm getting ready to go back to work, we've actually gotten him onto a type of schedule and it works out really well for us.
When he wakes up early in the morning (usually between 6-7 a.m.) he has about 5-6 oz of milk and goes back to bed. We get up for the day around 8-8:30 and at that time he has a couple more ounces of milk, half a banana and a cup of Minigo yogurt.
Lunch is usually between 11:30 and 12:30 (depending on his morning nap) and consists of about 4-6 oz of milk followed by sharing whatever I'm eating for lunch that day. Admittedly, our lunches aren't usually that great (but I try). It's usually things like hot dogs, grilled cheese sandwiches, soup, macaroni and cheese (not KD, although he has had that too) or if I'm really lucky, something left over from supper the night before.
His afternoon snack is usually around 3-3:30 p.m. (again, depending on naps) and is usually another 4 or so ounces of milk along with a dish of applesauce or some canned fruit (such as peaches...he loves peaches...). If his nap is late and his snack ends up being late, I just give him the milk.
We all sit down for supper around 6:30ish every night. Charlie drinks another 4-6 oz of milk, and shares whatever we're having for supper. A typical supper meal for him will be about 5-10 bites of mashed potato or rice, some vegetables (we usually have either carrots or green/yellow beans...he will eat 5-10 bites) and 5-10 bites of whatever meat we're having. I never really count how many bites he eats. His favorites are pork and chicken. Pretty much immediately after supper is bedtime for Charlie...it's usually around 7 p.m. If he wakes in the evening (which he's been doing a lot of lately), sometimes I'll give him a couple ounces of milk, sometimes I won't.
He's not afraid of spicy stuff, either. He loves the Mexican and curry recipes on this blog. He might make a face the first time he tries something like that, but he has never turned down more.
He's been getting really, really good at feeding himself. I cut everything up into bite-sized pieces and let him feed it to himself. However, we learned the hard way that if we want him to eat (which we do) we can't put more than one piece of anything on his tray at one time, or 99% of it ends up on the floor. If we give him one piece at a time, he will eat most, if not all, of his meal. We also know when he's done: he starts playing with it and smushing it into his clothes. What a kid.
There are some things that I spoon-feed him: yogurt, mashed potatoes, soup, and applesauce. He likes to grab the spoon and help me do it, and I let him sometimes, but not all (depends on what it is he's eating and how much of a mess I have time to clean up). For instance, he fed himself his mashed potatoes last night, but I generally won't let him feed himself soup unless I know we have time for a bath (because he'll need it, especially if it's tomato or vegetable soup...it gets EVERYWHERE...).
I'm really, really happy that we went the BLW route for introducing solids to him, instead of going the pureed, jarred baby food route. I have a child that will eat pretty much anything (he doesn't like plain pasta, but if it's got cheese on it, he'll eat it) and who is a total foodie just like his parents. I also know that when I got back to work in a few short days (yikes!) and he starts spending most of his time with Nannie and Grampie, they won't (or shouldn't) run into any issues feeding him.
And that's pretty awesome.
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