Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Resolved With More Questions

Table

The sippy cup saga came to a successful close! After just a few nights of fussing about the new formula distribution system, we are officially done with bottles!!! Ms. K was right - after one week he was done. I did cheat a little a first and cut an extra slit in the nozzle to improve the flow, but gave Luke the unaltered version this weekend and he was fine with that. Now when I open up the kitchen cabinet I see the wasted remains of the battle. There were three types that I tried at various points along the way. All were failures.

Fail


Finally, this is the kind that worked. Many of you mentioned the Nuby brand cups. Is that what you were talking about?

Success

Thank you all so much for your encouragement and advice. It really helped. It's one of the reasons I love the support system of the blogging world. You're not done yet, though.

My next question is about food. Luke is a slow teether (he only has 2) so I have been slow with giving him finger foods, which was probably not a good move. He will eat Cheerios, puffs, crackers, etc.. until he pops, but his real nutrition is still coming from jarred food and formula. I have tried giving him pieces of bananas, which he likes purred, and avocados. However, as soon as he touches it, he gets grossed out. The squishiness is unappealing to him. Next week I am going to try pasta and see how that goes. I want to really start giving him a wider variety of food because in a few weeks he'll be off of formula and won't be getting those extra vitamins. Has anyone else come across this? Suggestions? Solutions?

There are a few blogger that I would love for you to visit, if you have the time. Cibele is having a really hard time right now. Her daughter is very sick with RSV and she will be in the hospital for a few more days. It's been a really tough road for her since Lyla was born. Please go over and offer some support.

Aunt Becky is also facing a really scary situation with her newborn daughter. Just two weeks after she was born she is going to have a cyst on her brain removed. Please go and let her know you're thinking of her.

Lastly, JJ and Mook welcomed Oliver into the world! JJ is one of those special people that puts in extra time to make sure we all feel connected. I have gotten so much encouragement and support from the Braces Bunch group that she organized and I couldn't be more thrilled for her. Congrats!!!!

14 comments:

Unknown said...

You could absolutely try a little fork. Put the food on the fork and then let him try and maneuver into his mouth.
Have you tried diced carrots or peas or corn? They aren't really slimy or anything like that.
We tried the gerber mini pastas...like the raviolis and things like that and my daughter was the same way. They were slimy to her and she didn't like picking them up. I found frozen mini raviolis and used regular pastas- like elbows or ditalini- and she was MUCH better with those!
I found my kids to be so much about texture and it was frustrating because once I got the food into their mouths, they generally enjoyed it. It was just that the trip from the table to their mouth was sometimes impossible!!

seussgirl said...

We also have some trouble with textures - more the Jumping Bean than the Nugget. Some foods that they have been successful at picking up are broccoli (although it doesn't always make it in the mouth!), shaved luncheon meat turkey, and most recently small squares of sandwiches. I toast bread (white or wheat), and then add turkey and american cheese and microwave just until the cheese is melted. They've gotten really good at eating those!

Aunt Becky said...

Nuby cups are the best! Seriously, had I been in my right mind, I'd have told you to try them, too.

With Alex, we tried yogurt first and moved our way to things like filled pastas which he loves. A good transitional food if you're looking for textures is mac-n-cheese. Kids love it. I second the corn idea and hm....does he like graham crackers?

Amanda said...

I am going to have to check back on the comments on this post. I don't know how you are supposed to know when your baby is ready to mov on to different types of foods. Brooklyn has only been taking the stage 2 baby foods for about a month and a half. And only one per day at that because of the weight gain problems. She doesnt have any doctors appts this month and I am panicking about her not having anything other than baby food prior to her birthday! She also has only 1 tooth. Sigh....

darcie said...

Since our kids were oh...say around 6 months old, we've always tried sharing what we were eating with them - one thing at a time so we could watch for allergies of course. But...if we had mashed taters on our plates, we would let our kids sample them, peas, pasta, anything they could gum or swallow...It was supposed to aid in the problem you have later on in life when your kid only wants to eat hot dogs and refuses to eat anything else EVER. That has since back fired and if I want my kids to eat anything it has to be hot dogs, ramen noodles or yogurt. They won't touch ANYTHING anymore, though they used to eat anything and everything their dad was eating...texture or no texture. I just keep putting it out there for them to try and pray that one day they will. This too shall pass - at least that's what keep telling myself!

Somewhat Ordinary said...

Wow, you got rid of the bottle totally! I'm impressed...you've inspired me. How many ounces of milk/formula a day is he drinking?

I'm not going to be much help with the feeding thing because Baby M will eat anything. On his daily report from day care they told me it was time to start finger foods because he kept taking food off of older kids trays. With my kid the mushier the better. One thing you could try are Gerber Graduate Raviolis. They are small although I cut them smaller and soft enough for little guys with only 2 teeth (that is all Baby M has, too).

Molly said...

A couple ideas:
Baby Safe Feeder - you know that thing with the mesh on the end that you shove food in, get them used to tastes that they might not otherwise have for fear of choking.

Soup - honestly, my kids loved soup at that age. I make large batches of minestrone or beef vegetable and have then eat that.

Similarly, diced, steamed veggies. Avocado is slimy, but diced carrots ot green beans steamed soft are pretty good.

Honestly, at this point teeth in the back don't matter too much for soft foods because they gum everything anyway. and justtry things several times, if they on't like it the first time, doesn't mean he won't like it three times from now!

Good luck, it is always a struggle!!

Katie said...

Patience and persistance.
My son (coincidentally, also named Luke, 11 months old, only two teeth) is pretty choosy too. I keep giving him a variety of table foods (even after he's rejected them) and he's getting better. I make sure all things are in small pieces and I watch the sodium.
My Luke likes: cheese and butter sandwiches, soups, blueberry muffins, jelly toast, baked potato, LOVES canned peas and carrots, pancakes.
He does NOT like (which my other kids loved) scrambled eggs and pasta.
Good luck and have fun!

Soralis said...

So glad to hear you solved the sippy cup issue. Good luck with food. Our boys were slow to get teeth so we just pureed everything for a while.

Take care and good luck

ms. c said...

Yes, that is the Nuby that we use. I am happy to report that yesterday Sacha took more than 3oz from his cup. Yay him.

And yay to Luke for making th transition.

As for table foods, it has been a very slow process with us. I keep just trying different things, and I try 2-3 times a day. Favorites are rice cakes and puffs (because they dissolve), but I have given Sacha cut up steamed carrots, cantaloupe, strawberries, banana... It's hit and miss, but I just keep trying!

AwkwardMoments said...

YAH for the sippy cup resolution. The cup you had succes with is the one we have been trying out since he was 6 months.

YAh for Luke. Good luck with the foods

MrsSpock said...

We are at the 9 months mark and I know I'll have to make the switch soon too. Glad this method worked- I'll have to try it.

We got a mesh feeder recently and my son will now eat foods he wouldn't touch before.

Anonymous said...

We're behind on teeth as well, but that has never stopped my kids from trying to swipe food from my plate. I just cut it to a large pea size and they'll eat most anything. My little girl has been on finger foods since having only two teeth -- she won't have anything to do with baby food anymore.

All I can suggest is to let him taste whatever he seems interested in. Utensils, though messy, can make eating more interesting too.

Delenn said...

I tagged you for Honest Scrap.