Serving my Little Gourmet PrinceYou are now 3 days before you are officially 9mths old. Looking back, its been quite a long way since the first day you tried your first taste of semi-solids. It was on CNY reunion dinner at Ah Ma/Ah Gong's place, on the 16 Feb 2006 (pls refer to earlier blog entry). It was Healthy Times Organic Brown Rice cereal. You gave me such a face when you were tasting the cereal, will never forget that look. That feed was just for reunion dinner sake, not a proper meal for u. :)
On exactly your 6mth birthday, you have already progressed to eating 3TBS of HT cereal for lunch. So that day was the first time you were introduced to FRUITs. and mommy chose avocado, mashed with a bit of breastmilk. And to my amazement, you love it on first taste!! I was amazed coz Mommy never like it, but Daddy does...
However, this early "success" can be misleading. As the weeks wore on, and I enthusaistically prepared fresh fruits/veges for you, I realised i have a fussy little eater on hand. Why did I say that? For one, you ONLY take fresh expressed breast milk, or those chilled for less than 36hours (Mommy discard chilled milk after 36-48hrs). YOU Flatly refused any milk that has been FROZEN. you will make a face, push the bottle away, and vomit it out. Mommy had to give those spare bags away. And secondly, you only like FRESH steamed potatoes. And certain foods with creamy textures. For spinach, you like Puay Leng (the one with more pesticides) and don't like Heng cai (chinese spinach which has more nutrients). You don't necessarily like sweet stuff, and can enjoy something one day but refused to eat it the next time. Mommy is sweating with anxiety everytime I try new things on you. And after literally sweating and slaving over the stove for 1/2 cooking something for you and you flatly refused to take or stop after a few spoons, it can be such a severe dissappointment. Fortunately, after some time, Mommy can more or less tell what kinda food you like.
Example, potatoes with spinach... :)
As I read that root vegetables are the safest first foods, by the time you were 7mths old, you have already tried Pumpkin, butternut squash, avocadoes, carrots, potato, sweet potatoes, apples, pears. How do I keep them nice and ready to feed during days I am at work? Food cubes! its a life saver for working moms who refused to compromise the nutritious value of homecooked foods even though they may not be the ones to feed their babies during the day. Mommy steam the vegetables (I never boil it coz you lose more nutrients that way), and puree it using a blender. The first blender was a huge philips one, which made me so fustrated coz more food is being splashed across the container then being worked by the blade. Then Mommy discovered a multifunction compact and verstaile blender U-Like, and realised I have a similar one in the storeroom bought many yrs back. Talk about being far sighted! hahahaa.
So, thanks to knowledge mommy gained from reading, internet and friends, you have a fresh supply of pureed safe vegetables for acompanying your cereal every lunch. I will bring 1-2 cubes of different kinds of vege to either Ah Ma (Wed-Fri) or Ma Ma's (Mon,Tue) place, they will heat it up by steaming, then feeding you with cereal. Sometimes you eat fresh avocadoes and pears with cereal instead. I made sure you don't eat the same thing for 2 consecutive days.
Spinach and squash
Food cubes in the freezer next to Mommy's FBM.
Spinach. Looks yucky isn't it? But its packed with iron and vitamin C okie!?
pumpkin and butternut squash and carrots - you don't have any extreme reaction to this, just wariness at the new taste.
apples - you HATE IT. you gave me the look "Mommy, are you trying to kill me with food?" kinda look. and you gagged. We tried all kinds, China, Fuji, Gala, South African....... no more apples for some time.
sweet potato - you didn't seem to like it. Probably coz it was too sweet. Yes, too sweet. that dispells the myth that babies usually love sweet things hahaha. Perhaps its coz the first time I cooked it, I used the japanese sweet potatoes which are purple skin and yellow flesh. I remembered feeling curious why the flesh is not orange. To my shock, after i steamed and mash it through the sieve, it turned green and the consistency of kaya!!! A frantic call to a friend for help revealed that it could have just oxidised, still safe to eat. Whew. I also learnt that jap sweet potatoes, being yellow, does not contain as much beta carotene and thus anti oxidants and nutrients as their orange (not as sweet) cousins, so from then onwards, Mommy bought more of the orange ones.
Pear - you didn't quite like it initially, though reaction not as extreme as with apples. But gradually, it became your favourite food.
Potatoes - you love these! BUT, you only likes FRESHLY steamed ones. Once Mommy transfer to the food cubes and freeze, you didn't like the taste! But Mommy had to freeze some, else how does Ah Ma and Ma Ma feed you vege/fruits with cereal. I have no intention to feed you jarred baby food if I can help it.
HT organic brown rice cereal - you started turning up your nose at it after a while. turns out you were only tolerating it. Mommy then tried Heinz baby 1st cereal (4-6mths), you seem okie with it then started to show signs of dislike. Mommy had to search very carefully for cereal to feed you. Though there were a lot on the market, but being total breastfed means you must take only those that doesn't contain milk. So Friso, Dumex and many kinds of Nestle is out. Many Heinz cereal contains wheat, oat or honey. And some HT ones contains Wheat, Oat and Barley, which are all gluten and thats a no-no for me till you are 9mths old. So it was Heinz organic rice cereal. And you love it at first taste! WOW! jackpot. Only thing is, this cereal is super hard to find. When you were 8mths old, we combed 3-4 cold storages and it was all out of stock! Once we find any place that have, we grabbed all left on the shelf. We don't wanna run the risk of you rejecting lunch just coz you cannot have your favourite cereal.
Just to make lunch time more sane for Mommy, I bought a tray especially to serve you in. Here is how your typical lunch looks like. :) there are toys at the side to entertain you. and a basin of water with hanky to clean up your spills, which is a lot for someone so small. Water to feed you with throughout the meal, and the bottle of breastmilk is warming in the metal container.
I am bibbed and throned. Give me my FEAST!
When you turned 7mths, there was spinach, papaya, brocoli, zuchinni (yummy italian cucumber), parsnip (I learn the existence of vegetables I didn't even know existed!), peas. And you tried poultry and pork. And started on porridge. Yummy!
For porridge, Mommy always use the fresh ingredients to cook it with on weekends. So every night, Mommy will pack the ingredients for porridge into a nice box to be brought over to Ah Ma or Ma Ma's place for them to cook porridge for you on weekdays. fortunately, you seem to love porridge. You can finish one chinese bowl of it without much fuss. Really an asian baby are you? :)
After 8months, you tried tofu (love it, you like to "chi dou fu", you notti boy!), yogurt (hate it), and Mommy plucked up courage to feed you apple again, and you were more receptive.
Some yummy combinations -
stewed chicken, potatos, carrots (you hated it)
steamed pork, garden peas and potato (you love this)
steam chicken breast with broccoli and sweet potato (you are fine with this)
avocadoes and papaya (you love this).
And now...FINALLY! you are hitting 9months soon, and vast possibilities of cuisine choices open up before me! Now, you can finally try asparagus, gluten meaning wheat (meaning many kinds of baby biscuits) or oat which means oatmeal cereal for breakfast, FISH (brain food!), egg YOLK (not egg white). The possibilies are endless! I am rubbing my hands in glee for the coming exciting cooking this weekend.
