Baby shuns mushy foods
This week Baby Brother did not seem overly interested in his dinners, whether cereal or the varieties of jarred stage 2 dinners. We even tried stage 3 mushy dinners with tiny floating chunks but his response was the same. Perhaps it’s because he’s teething. He’s had a fever, maybe he’s fighting off something and is experiencing a loss of appetite. But even before then, his interest in food seemed to have decreased. He still drank his milk so I wasn’t worried.
When I sat him in his seat at the dinner table and cooed and cooed, trying to get him to eat some mixed cereal and fruit combo and he stubbornly resisted by averting his mouth from the spoon, I concluded that he was not hungry, that he had no appetite. So when Adoring Father joined us at the table with a plate of ogbonno (a West African soup) and Baby Brother practically leaped out of his seat towards daddy’s plate, I was surprised. “Could he want that?”, I wondered aloud. Adoring Father gave him a chunk of something from the soup and the boy mashed it down with his gums and two teeths and called for more. I was shocked. Not because I can’t stand ogbonno (it has a strong odor aroma) but because I didn’t realize an 8 month old baby could be that selective.
Could he be bored with baby food? Could he be ready for bigger-boy culinary delights? Could I really serve him from our dinner plate? I hadn’t experienced this with his older sister as she ate within my dictated guidelines till age one when I removed all restrictions and fed her from anything we ate. I remember she was very delighted to join us at dinner but she was one year old. I didn’t have to worry about sharing an omelet with her since egg whites were now okay. And I was a lot less worried about her choking on food bits.
Now that I know that baby’s not “not hungry” when he turns his mouth away from his chicken noodle dinner, macaroni and cheese (which was a favorite), sweet pototoes in pureed form, I’m trying to cook baby-friendly meals that he can eat. I found a baby food guide at WholesomeBabyFood.com and I improvised with foods I have at hand.
So far he’s done very well with my home cooked meals. He’s cleaned up his bowls and ‘asked’ for seconds. We’ve had:
- Spinach rice - very soft boiled rice, added a dash of leftover stew (tomatoes, onions and peppers), crumbled spinach into it and crumbled in a boiled egg yolk.
- Egg noodles - Noodles boiled very soft, added dash of leftover stew, added a crumbled egg yolk.
- Cheesy egg noodles - Noodles boiled very soft, added mozarella cheese
I need to go grocery shopping with baby in mind and expand our food repertoir while he’s very interested lest he grows up to be a picky eater like his sister is (or like I was once).
