I read a few books when we started our Baby Led Weaning [BLW] & I linked them here. They said that babies will decide what their bodies need. And I’ve seen this with FITbaby since we started Baby Led Weaning at 6 months old back in December. She goes through weeks where she loves broccoli, days where she loves asparagus, and months where she loves chicken. She used to love apples all the time, lately she loves berries all the time. But there are times I think I know better 
and I want her to eat one of the food groups she’s missing…mostly her greens for fiber. I discovered a few things in the last few weeks with BLW that I thought I’d share. Check out BLW Part II if you missed it.
I love new perspectives! I love new ideas! We have a nanny [who we love love love] who comes to help me a few hours a week. She helps me with the house and plays with Samantha while I work. She’s a blessing. I can’t say enough about what a blessing she is. Anyway…I love her perspective. She is a dietetics major in college…no wonder I love her, right? She fed FITbaby lunch the other day and since she appeared to be on a green veggie strike, she gave her only broccoli first and guess what? She ate it!!!
So, my old method was to put a little of everything on her tray and let her decide what she wants to eat….minus the fruit. She would have eaten only apples had I kept adding them to her tray so I saved her fruit for the end of her meal. And, now I feed her in three courses….we start with broccoli, peas, asparagus and sweet potatoes. And, after she’s eaten some of that I give her the chicken and egg yolks she adores. And, then the fruit she adores equally. What a genius idea!
New Ideas on Feeding Bebe
I think I annoy my friends talking about how much I loved the book Bringing up Bebe. I just loved it. It gave me a fresh perspective on motherhood. I LOVE a fresh perspective on motherhood. There are many different topics covered in that book, but one of them is food. I love a few of the ideas that we have or plan to apply in our house.
- Courses. Start with the veggie course while the rest of the meal is being prepared. It’s like an appetizer. But it’s veggies. And, they’re hungry. Brilliant.
- Snacking. The book makes fun of Americans and our snacks at the park. I don’t have a toddler yet so I don’t know how we’ll be or what we’ll eat. I assume that we’ll have “meals” every 3-4 hours.
- Variety. Many of us fail at this in America. FIThubby and I are ridiculously picky. I hate it. I want better for FITbaby. I want her to know and love lots of foods I have never tasted. The French are great at this from an early age.
- Try it. Rather than making kids clean their plates, they must try everything on their plate. Just try it. Then, they can leave. I love this idea! It forces them to taste different foods, a number of times. It doesn’t force them to overeat if not hungry.
Some new food ideas!
Lately I’ve discovered frozen fruit for FITbaby. We hit up Costco and got bags of frozen fruit for us and a lightbulb went off! When I run out of fresh fruit and don’t make it to the market, why not frozen fruit?! Frozen fruit is perfect! When it’s fully thawed it’s mushy. Too mushy for me, but perfect for her. And, when it’s just partially thawed, it’s also great and she loves it!
So, when I get her food tray out of the fridge, I also take out some frozen berries from the freezer. By the time we’re read for Course 3, they’re the perfect consistency. They aren’t frozen. They aren’t mushy and thawed. They’re perfect and she loves them. WARNING: They’re messy in any form….fresh, frozen, thawed. But, the mess is Oh. So. Worth. It. She loves them and they’re so good for her. I just love all the color on her tray and I eat a few berries with her.
We also added in cut up strawberries and grapes this last week and she’s loving them! Oh, we tried Spinach too and she enjoyed that….some. Not nearly as much as the new fruits.
And new to our world is being VERY aware of what mommy & daddy are eating. So, we are becoming more aware as well and thinking about what we want her to be eating…and eating that ourselves!
I’ll keep reporting back as time goes on….as FITbaby grows up and I learn what works for us. Things change. Babies grow & change.
Share your favorite healthy foods & snacks for baby!
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
How did you do your spinach? My little one is really good at manipulating food in his mouth, but he gets choked up on spinach. It’s like it gets all strung up together and he can’t chew it well enough to swallow it. I have only successfully had spinach pureed with him and it’s a pain so I don’t usually do it. He does LOVE a green smoothie for breakfast though so sometimes he gets one of those as a treat!
How old is he? We have that problem w/ asparagus so I cut each piece into pieces. What kind of spinach? I used frozen spinach and microwaved. Not ideal but she loved it. And, it didn’t seem to give her trouble. You could probably chop it with scissors or cut it up a bit so it wasn’t such large pieces that way though. Let me know if you find a solution!
I have used frozen chopped spinach (we use raw for the smoothies though). I might try putting it in something for a bit to see if he can get used to it in a soup or stew first and then try again with just spinach. He is 14 months old and that is really the only food we have run into that he has a really hard time with.
We do something similar with Ansley. I used to put all her food on her tray at once and of course she ate only the things she loved. Now, I put her “main course” out first and keep the things she loves in the kitchen. If she can see fruit or cheese or anything else she loves she will NOT eat anyting else. I also try to only put one thing on her tray at a time, when she has too many choices she gets distracted and she ends up throwing her food on the floor. Ansley is great at sitting in her high chair, we all eat at the table for all of our meals. This is something that you are even more thankful for when you are around friends that have children that won’t sit in a highchair for more than a few minutes. I’m sure she is also great at this. It really makes going out to eat a lot easier!
I am so thankful that we enjoy mealtimes! I wonder why that is! I always wonder what accounts for the vast differences in children…nature v. nurture? I’m sure it’s a complicated combo of both! And, I’m learning that our girl is the same as yours!