magician at breakfast

i think she was trying to magic the dried apricot away by repeatedly tapping it with the end of her bread stick. she then got a bit carried away and hit the tray so hard that the breadstick shattered and flew off in all directions. a look of suprise was quickly followed by a pouty face and a howl as she looked at her tray and just saw a big squashed apricot and no bread. i think she REALLY loves breadsticks!

i'll try to get a pic uploaded at some point.

her cold is still bad, we all had an unsettled night so needless to say we are both a bit grumpy and i'm guessing tom probably is too. oh, and she has kindly shared her cold with me so we are both hacking like we smoke 60-a-day now. how pleasant.

pitta bread and avocado

a winner, she actually ate some of the bread and avocado before she threw it on the floor. i also gave her some steamed courgette which she ate too. i'm so pleased with her. must remember to make that meal again!

banana on toast for breakfast

i'm trying to contain the giggling, as this was by far the funniest game she has played with food. a piece of toast in each hand, she took it in turns to swing them around her head like a lassoo until the end of the toast (quite soggy by now) flew off onto the floor. i don't think she ate anything, but it was the best entertainment! she's still really snotty so maybe not really up for food at the moment.

turkey and courgette

nice dinner if you ask me. c wasn't so sure about the turkey, she gave it a quick suck and dumped it in favour of the courgette. with one piece in each mitt she had a lot of fun squishing the two together and then pulverising them on the tray. she has this habit of flicking the food around the tray when she's had enough, if i'm not quick, on to the carpet it goes.

she had avocado and rice cakes for lunch and a bread stick for breakfast. she's done really well today as she was awake a lot in the night and very grumpy today due to a streaming cold. poor baby is really snotty (i've never seen anything like it!).

anyway, i'm still fuming about the health visitor. i think i may write a letter of complaint.

further language info

just a quick addition to the "R" debate from yesterday. i had a message from a linguist who said that pronunciation of the letter r is not related to how a baby feeds. i have linked to the forum post as i think it is interesting (i hope you don't mind Nicki):
language development post from Nicki on babycentre

i have a good mind to go back to the health visitor and make a fuss about this. it's terrible that this kind of ignorance is being passed on to mums as gospel.

un-health-y visitor

grrrr. as i hadn't had charlotte weighed for a while, i thought it would be a good idea to go see the health visitor today. she is a very healthy 15lb 13oz and following the same line on the chart that she has been on since birth. all good, except the health visitor then proceeded to give me some (un-asked for) advice. "i know you have enjoyed breastfeeding up to now, but you really need to start cutting back and getting her to eat more solids". what? what happened to milk being the main food for the first year? she was acting like i'm indulging myself by choosing to breast feed my baby!

so that annoyed me, to say the least.....THEN she came up with the best part. apparently i'm not getting enough solids into her by baby led weaning, and if she's not getting lots of solids she's not going to develop her facial muscles properly which could result in her having speech problems... "not being able to pronounce letters like r properly" apparently. i inwardly laughed at this, but also wondered where this could have come from. it was discussed on the babycentre forums and it seems she was confused between bottle feeding (which doesn't work the jaw muscles) and breast feeding which does. no excuse when you think that she is dishing out this ludicrous advice willy nilly to the good people of ------ (nearly told you where i live!).

anyway, charlotte enjoyed her mushroom on toast (the juice made the toast all soggy)for breakfast, especially once she bothered to pick it up and stopped just licking it on the tray...


we went to the south coast for the day with my parents and my grandmother. pub lunch where charlotte sat in the biggest high chair i have ever seen. she looked like a doll and couldn't reach over the lip to get to the food on the tray. on my mum's lap she had a chip and a dried apricot. unfortunately she threw her broccoli on the floor (don't blame her when there are chips about!)

she had a breadstick for dinner as we were running late and didn't have time for much else. i was suprised how much she ate of it (so there, health visitor!)

dinner last night

i had to add a picture of charlotte demolishing a jelly for dinner last night. i saw it on baby billy's blog and thought it looked like fun. none was eaten, but she thoroughly enjoyed slapping it so it splashed everywhere. never again!

soya a go-go

hooray! she had soya yoghurt and mashed banana for dinner last night and no reaction at all. i have been showing my solidarity by swapping milk in my cooking and my tea for soya milk. i might as well start getting used to it as cooking in the future will be with soya by the looks of things.

nearly forgot, she had a bagel with avocado for lunch. it was good because she had a hunk of bagel to hold while she licked off the avocado. once she's eating more, i think bagel may be a bit too salty for her though.

wedding

we went to my sister's wedding in london yesterday. it was in a thai restaurant, so unfortunately there was nothing on the menu for charlotte. she had rice cakes and dried fruit, but was more interested in our food, and who can blame her? i'm going to try her with some soya yoghurt and fruit puree this afternoon. not much else to say, just fingers crossed for a good reaction with the soya...

early weaning and crohn disease

i just wanted to add a link to baby banana's diary, as this is something that i had no idea about until today. again, i am so glad we waited until 6 months to wean...

http://babybanana2.blogspot.com/2007/03/crohn-disease-linked-to-early-weaning.html

gagging

we just had our first serious gagging incident. i was a bit worried, but i held it together and just encouraged her with smiles and praise. she got a big chunk of bread into her mouth and couldn't swallow it. she made some funny faces and gagged a few times before bringing up some of the water she had been drinking and the bread came with it. phew. i'm glad that's happened now as i have a bit more confidence in her ability to prevent herself from choking. i am glad i give her water with her food, as i'm not sure what would have happened otherwise. she has a little beaker which sits just out of her reach (she can't be trusted with it just yet). when she wants some she reaches for it and i hold it for her. it works pretty well as less gets spilled with me holding it, but at the same time she chooses when to have some.

wheat test

this morning we tried a wheat product for the first time (the disasterous rusk biscuit had been wheat free - oh, the irony!). fingers of bread with the trusty apricot compote on them. what a success! no obvious allergies and she seemed to eat a lot once it went all soggy. the picture shows her trying to give some to the cat - ahhhh, bless. she just had the same again for lunch as i'm going to make sure all is ok before i move on to something else. i am feeling triumphant as she ate loads again. hooray!

we went to sainsbury's to get some rice and soya products to try. i think rice this week then soya next week. one potential allergen at a time. at least wheat seems to be ok. they didn't sell the soya based cheese alternative, so i'll have to go to a health food shop to hunt some down.

on a more icky note, she definitely swallowed a lot more rice cake yesterday than ever before - i saw the evidence today when changing her nappy. mmmmmmmmmm!

allergy advice

we just got back from the doctors and she said that there is no need to do an allergy test, it's pretty clear that charlotte has a lactose allergy. we are going to try her with soya products for a week to make sure she is ok with that. if she is allergic to soya too, the doctor will refer us to a specialist. fair enough, i think.
so, tomorrow morning i'm off to get some soya milk, yoghurts etc. for her to try.
tom asked the doctor if goats milk would be ok for her, and she said it would be worth a try. i think i'll wait a bit before trying it though - one step at a time.

definitely allergic

well, i was doing so well today. charlotte had rice cakes and apricot again, which she still enjoys licking and sucking. unfortunately i made the mistake of thinking that she might like a rusk biscuit with her banana this afternoon. she loved the biscuit, which quickly went mushy and went everywhere, but i noticed that she was starting to get a rash on her face.....

aaarrrrrgh! there is milk protein in the rusk biscuits! i hadn't thought to look. after a swift clean up, the rash didn't progress too much, but i kicked myself for not looking at the ingredients. i am taking charlotte to the doctor tomorrow to discuss this milk allergy.

last weekend

i'm nearly caught up now. over the weekend she had the following:
broccoli, which she wasn't too impressed with. she definitely swallowed some, as i discovered the following day during a nappy change, but i think it was more luck than judgement!
on sunday, she had a bit of roast beef and roasted carrots. some of the beef came off as a chunk in her mouth, she spat a bit out and swallowed a bit. carrots were still not really enjoyed.
she also had a chip (shock horror!) in the pub. it was gummed to get all the soft potato out and then the outside was thrown on the floor. i think she enjoyed it.

disaster part 2

unfortunately, i gave charlotte a piece of cheese in the hope that she's be ok with it. she looked like she was really enjoying it, but the redness started around her mouth so i had to take it away. it looks like she has a dairy allergy.
she also had a piece of roast chicken. she sucked on it for ages making strange faces, but didn't eat any.

week 2 continues

so, after the formula disaster, i wasn't sure if it was the baby rice, formula or milk in general that had caused the allergic reaction. we stuck to safe products for the next couple of days:

banana and pear puree made into lollies (great for teething pains)
rice cakes with apricot compote (in a jar) spread on top, which has become a firm favorite in the licking stakes.
weetabix and expressed milk, which she turned her nose up at.
steamed parsnip, which was really squishy and she seemed to enjoy.

week 2 - disaster strikes...

a horrible, horrible day.
i boldly decided to give charlotte baby rice mixed with formula milk (she was handed a spoonful and licked it off the spoon). she seemed to like it, but then smacked the spoon into the side of her head. almost immediately, a red rash came up around her mouth and down the side of her face. it was like nasty nettle rash, and just got worse and worse. we wiped her hands and face and headed straight to our doctors surgery. the doctor saw her and gave us some antihistamine as this was apparently a typical allergic reaction. only problem was now working out what caused it.

week 2

monday
we tried dried apricot, turned inside out. she loved sucking on these but again didn't swallow much. she did dribble loads though. also steamed carrot which wasn't soft enough, so she didn't get on well with it.
the best food today was baby rice cakes and mashed avocado, which she licked profusely then threw on the floor once all the avocado had gone.

week 1

so, once we were started, we quickly moved on to the following foods in week 1:

big chunks of steamed butternut squash, which she definitely swallowed.
banana, which she seemed to like, and was expertly presented to her after (i'm sorry i can't remember who it was) someone explained to me how to do it (see picture).

apple, which she wasn't really bothered with.
steamed courgette, which was sucked for a long time.
asparagus, which she sucked on, but didn't seem to be swallowed.

the story so far....

ok, i have some catching up to do here.
my husband tom and i started charlotte on solid foods the day before she hit 6 months. she was showing all the signs of being ready to try something new, but without seeming starving hungry all the time.
she had been sitting in her high chair at the table and desperately reaching for our food. we started out with steamed pear, which we offered for 3 days - by the third day she was happily slurping on the juice, but not actually eating any. this was a good start. she was also nursing every 2 -3 hours in the day and waking at 10ish and 3ish in the night to feed.

to be continued...

the beginning

hello,
after discovering how few resources there are for people who are interested in baby led weaning, i have decided to join the community of bloggers who share their experiences online. i shall try to recap on the story so far...

hilly.