Carrot delight
So we started solids a few weeks ago. This was really the second attempt. The first time she was about 4 1/2 months old. She was sitting on her own, showing a healthy curiosity and reaching out to our food. We talked about it and I kept saying lets wait for 6 months because that’s the recommended. Karl said a few times his mother said to give her porridge, this was from about two months which I definitely felt was way too soon. Especially given her earlier digestion issues. Anyway, one morning we are having breakfast and she’s persistently reaching for the banana. So we mashed it up and gave it to her. She eagerly gobbled it all up, made a huge mess, stained her bib but she was happy as Larry. Since that went quite well and it was an organic banana I did it again a second day. For whatever reason I didn’t give her any on the third day and that is when the grunting kicked in … Poor baby was grunting and squirming to get her poos out. Bananas can cause constipation apparently, really? Karl and I both have one on a daily basis, never had these issues, maybe that’s cause we are more than 4 months old, hmmm… Research Fail modern-eco-mama!
She went from 8 poops a day to three! She cried sometimes when she was uncomfortable… OH MY WORD I damaged the baby! This carried on for 10 days, even in her sleep, needless to say I stopped the bananas and prayed for the squirming to stop. It did eventually, phew! No permanent damage (we hope). About a month later, after one of the nights when the night-feeding is every 2 hours I thought I would try solids again, maybe she’ll sleep better ( I have read any times that there is no connection between the two but I still hope it’ll make a difference ). So this time I am more prepared. I buy a hand blender, organic veggies, 2 oz containers for the freezer, we already have cutlery, plastic bibs and her high chair so we’re good to go. I spent a whole afternoon boiling , pureeing, portioning, cooling and freezing. We had carrots, mbambaira (sweet potatoes) and pears, avocados ready to mash and watermelon ready to chop. So because of food allergies you try one new thing for two or three days then move on to the next. Carrots started off well, then mbambaira but when we got to the pears ‘lemon face’ kicked in. She makes this face like you just gave her lemons, complete with the shoulder shuffle we all do when you taste something bitter… from then on it was a downward spiral…. I gave it a break for a day to and then went back to carrots that had been the most successful of all the experiments. Further reading indicated that one grain cereals were really the best thing to start off which. So organic-fresh-is-best mom gave her porridge rehupfu (mealie-meal porridge)! Success! It’s like manna from heaven! She gobbles it up and even opens her mouth for more….hmmmm…. she definitely African… or is the little bit of brown sugar in there…whatever it is, she’s sold on it and I probably should’ve listen to my mother-in-law earlier though I still maintain two months was too early!
An apple a day
So now we have porridge in the morning and veggies in the afternoon, fresh out of the pot and into the freezer today is potatoes and green beans. Hopefully Lemon-face doesn’t come back.. and oh she’s also into apples. The story is that her father was eating apples even before he had teeth, she is her fathers-daughter for sure!
kukura 