Alright, I must say -
Out of everything that I have learned in these last ten months of being a Mommy (and I have learned so much!! This job sure comes with a steep learning curve!), one of the hardest things has been how to properly feed my child (...and this is not related to his nursing strike, which he seems to have gotten over...)
This is not to say that Mason is not a good little eater - he has been. Up until this point, he has been most willing to eat almost everything I have thrown his way (except avocado and green beans!) However, since Day 1 of solids, I have been slightly overwhelmed with figuring out portions and combinations and variety. I have read books and followed the pamphlet that was handed out by my community health nurse. I have googled and read blogs and looked on websites. I measure everything carefully for each meal, and have been weary of overfeeding him and watchful of allergic reactions. But something tells me that I am supposed to be more relaxed than this!
Before he was born, I had the best intentions of making my own baby food. Fast forward a few months (...and a terrible experience with trying to buy a Beaba Babycook machine off of Ebay...which we never received...) I gave up and decided that I was going to buy jars, but go the organic route. He seemed to like it all and we had fallen into a good groove, although I had noticed that he tended not to be able to eat as much as the books say he should be eating by his age...
But after Christmas, we started in with more textured baby food - and let me tell you, it has been a challenge! He just cannot handle the chunkier textures - even if it is the tiniest bit of carrot or pasta noodle. My little man gags, heaves....and then throws up. And it has been about three weeks of this! Somedays there seems to be improvement...and other days, not so much...
My cyberfriend, Kate, over at Impatiently Waiting (http://impatientkate.blogspot.com/) seems to be able to feed her sweetie such wonderful things...and meanwhile Mason is still refusing anything not pureed.
I have resorted to mixing pureed sweet potato in with the chunkier meals (i.e. vegetable-beef-spaghetti) in order to entice him to eat (each day, I added more of the chunky, less of the puree...). But this only worked for so long before he would throw up again. Yesterday, at the end of what I thought was a great lunch feed, my little boy opened his mouth and HURLED!! It was the worst vomiting episode he had had to date and felt so bad for him that I started to tear up!
Any tips on making this easier for him would be so very appreciated...we need help! :)
3 comments:
Poor little guy! And poor Mum! K will gag a bit from time to time, but never vomits. I think it;s because she's never been allowed to get used to smooth purees. We started with the mashed avocado, banana, and sweet potatoes, and even they were not entirely smooth.
I think I'd just try things gradually. The chunkier 8 month jars of food I started off having to mush up the chunks for her, then slowly stopped mushing them so much.
Hope things improve soon. I agree that feeding them is one of the hardest things. I'm not even sure she has a really good balanced diet, nor do I know how much she should be eating.
I don't really have any advice but you're not alone! Sam has been the same way. He's gotten better now that he's 15 months old. He can move an unwanted chunk from the back of his mouth and spit it out without barfing most of the time. We always kept a sippy of water close at hand and would shove it in his mouth at the first sign of heaving. Also, I'm not sure how many teeth Mason has but Sam didn't get any until he was 11 months. Teeth have definitely helped with eating textures. Just keep trying!
We skipped the chunky baby food. Caileigh hated it and did a little baby led weaning giving hef chunks of food to pick up and eat herself. Lots of breads, cheerios, small bits of cheese. She also seems to not eat alot but when you add it up at the end of the day it sounds like tons. Maybe skip chunky food and move right to finger foods with yogurt by spoon or soups to 'fill him up.
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