Since the last post, we've introduced Michael to egg yolks. My understanding that his Gramps (Ben's dad) has a mild reaction to eggs, so I'm keeping an eye on Michael. I eat a lot of eggs, so if he doesn't have a reaction, that would make coordinating our meals together a lot easier, especially once I can give him egg whites! (I've heard of egg white omelettes... but what about egg yolk omelettes?)
For the first time ever, I sprung for the expensive, organic, omega-3 enriched eggs at Trader Joe's. It's for the boy!
He really enjoyed two of his three meals yesterday: breakfast (sweet potatoes mashed with blackstrap molasses, and pears, both of which I posted pictures of) and lunch (egg yolk, avocado, cooked swiss chard). The chard he mostly gummed, but he did eat some of the egg and avocado and spent quite a long time playing with his lunch.
Dinner was Indian Tomato Chicken again, since he enjoyed it so much last week. We had some friends over (Mary Ann and Rosalie) and it was a little late for dinner, and we also cooked it differently. All those factors combined... he barely tasted the chicken before he screamed and wanted to be held by mommy. However, while I was snacking on an after-dinner watermelon, he lunged for it, and I reluctantly gave it to him. My reluctance was based on the fact that I didn't wash the rind off before I cut it (since Rosalie brought over a halved watermelon with exposed flesh) and also I didn't want him getting full on basically water, since babies need calories. Still, I let him have a bit and he enjoyed that.
As a side note, he has this thing where he'll occasionally wail when people laugh. This happened at least twice with MA&R over, once right before dinner, so he might have been in a sour mood because of that. We think maybe the laughing surprises him....?
We had a little more watermelon for breakfast this morning. I wasn't going to give him any, again, but he kept eyeing me while I was eating it and smacking his lips, so I couldn't deny him! We also had oatmeal (with blackstrap molasses) and cooked cauliflower. A nice iron/Vitamin C combo. I scooped oatmeal onto baby spoons and placed the spoons on his tray, and he spooned the oatmeal into his mouth and mostly knew what end of the spoon to suck on. :-)
He makes a sour face after he tastes anything, but then he excitedly digs in for more! Well, most of the time! This morning, he made a face after tasting each of his foods, but he wanted more of everything. He decidedly did not want more beans anytime I offered those, and I don't force it.
He likes artichoke hearts (I just microwaved some frozen ones) and cooked carrots.
I've read several times to expect a baby-led weaner to gag, and I've also read that it's alarming but important so that they learn how much food they can put in their mouths. Gagging is a safety mechanism, but the gag reflex moves further back in the mouth as babies get older and have learned how much food they can have in their mouths. Michael has had a couple of gagging incidents recently, and each time it is scary, but he coughs up some food and then continues on like nothing happened. Sometimes I pat his back to help him work through it. This morning, he threw up a bit after eating some cauliflower, which was a little weird. He didn't cough or gag first.
Lunch today was a mini version of my salad: cooked chard, egg yolk, avocado. Same as yesterday. :-( (My salad included raw chard and other mixed greens, plus onions, marinated mushrooms and carrots, and Mexican cheese. My salads never have a theme, just whatever I have I throw on there. I guess you could say the theme is "The Kitchen Sink.") He practically toppled over his Exersaucer to play with my popcorn, but I couldn't let him (choking hazard).
I'm finding the biggest challenge to the baby-led weaning (well, besides the massive cleanup of him, his seat, the chair, and his trays and utensils) to be providing enough variety for him. Variety is important because there is a theory that babies instinctively know what nutrients they are lacking and they will opt for whatever foods contain them, provided those foods are actually offered! I've started keeping a food log just to try to track whether I'm being too repetitive.
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