Chloe Eats: Breakfast

I know this is my third breakfast post but I swear one of these day's really soon I will remember to take pictures of what Chloe eats for lunch and dinner, I promise! 

This morning I made Chloe and I organic steel cut oatmeal with a little bit of butter and raw honey to taste. This is a super easy and nutritious breakfast that Chloe and I both love. The only thing I think I will change next time I make this is to add some dry fruit to it.

Chloe Eats: Breakfast

A typical breakfast for Chloe is usually scrambled eggs made with almond milk and a little bit of cheese, some fruit, and maybe a piece of toast. Chloe loves scrambled eggs and could probably eat them everyday!

The question I have for all of you is, what is your child's favorite fruit or fruits to eat? Chloe loves blueberries, grapes, blackberries and sometimes bananas and pears but I would love to get her to enjoy eating more fruit and have more of a variety in her diet.

Chloe Eats: Lunch

Chloe's lunch a few day's ago consisted of blackberries ( which she loves) , peas, corn, and for the first time ever I gave her organic unsalted peanut butter on a piece of whole wheat toast. She ate mostly everything except for the peas and corn which she only ate a little of. Chloe seemed to really love trying the peanut butter for the first time and I'm happy to say she isn't allergic to it!

Oh and that brown spot on Chloe's face is peanut butter! To make sure she wasn't allergic to it before I let her try some I just put a little dab of it on her cheek and left it on for 20 minutes to see if she would have any reaction to it. She didn't have any reaction to the peanut butter so I then let her try some on a piece of whole wheat toast! Thank you Leah for the great tip, Chloe absolutely loves peanut butter now!

I'd love to hear about what you give your child for lunch everyday, leave me a comment below!

Chloe Eats: Breakfast

I'm excited to announce that I am starting a new series here on the blog called Chloe Eats. I was inspired by the blog ohdeardrea after reading a few of her posts about what her daughter Marlowe eats. I'm always looking for new healthy foods to give Chloe so please feel free to share what your child eats for breakfast!

On this particular Saturday morning Chloe had blueberries, half a banana, and an organic flax seed waffle with organic coconut oil for breakfast. She ate everything except for the banana which she ended up sharing with my parents dog Ozzy! Bananas are a hit or miss with Chloe, some days she loves them and other days she wont even touch them, either way I still try to offer them to her from time to time.

On Baby Food

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Prebaby: I knew nothing about making your own baby food until I was around 19 years old. I was working at Whole Foods as a cashier at the time when a fellow employee came in my line with a bunch of fruit and vegetables, as I rang her up we chit chatted for a few minutes. She told me she had go home and puree all the fruits and veggies she just bought for her baby because she makes all her own baby food. I remember thinking that this was the greatest idea I had ever heard and one day when I had a baby of my own I was going to make all of his or her own food too!

Pregnancy: All throughout my pregnancy the plan was to make my own baby food for Chloe when the time came for her to start eating solids.

At 7 1/2 months in: When Chloe was around 3 months old I started researching more about making your own baby food, I wanted to know everything there was to know about starting solids when the time was right for us. That's when I learned about Baby Led Weaning. Both Mike and I were really interested in it and decided we wanted to at least give it a try. Now here we are at almost 8 months old, doing a combination of blw and jarred baby food. Chloe is one of those babies that just has no real interest in food and the only thing she wants is to nurse. I know that this is normal for some babies, and that food is just supposed to be for fun right now but I still cant help but feel a little worried. We gave Chloe baby oatmeal for the first time a few weeks ago and she loved it so I decided to try giving her a few different kinds of jarred pureed baby food as well to she if she likes food better that way. Chloe still doesn't seem crazy about food yet but she will eat a little bit of the purred food which is an improvement for her.

It's easy for me to feel like I failed when things don't go as planed. I'm learning that each child is unique and different in his or her own way and that parenthood isn't about following a set of rules, parenthood is about doing whats best for your child. What worked for others might not work for you and sometimes you just simply have to improvise and be ok with going with the flow!

Firsts: Solids & Baby Led Weaning

On Friday evening after Mike got home from work we decided to let Chloe try solid food for the first time. I mashed up a little bit of avocado and mixed in some breast milk to thin it out. We were both so excited that Chloe has now reached this exciting new milestone and we couldn't wait to see her reaction as she tasted the avocado for the first time. Right away we could tell that Chloe was not thrilled with the taste! She made the cutest, funniest faces and after a couple tastes turned her head away to signal she was done!

Tuesday evening we decided to give solid food a try again. This time we used banana and let Chloe feed herself instead of pureeing it. It was so much fun to be able to sit back and let Chloe have control. I loved seeing the excitement and curiosity in her eyes and she experienced the texture of the banana in her hands and tasted its sweetness on her tongue! 

Mike and I have been going back and forth between the idea of making Chloe's baby food ourselves or trying the baby led weaning approach to solids, but after experiencing both we know the right thing for Chloe and for us is to let her feed herself. Right now food is just for fun and will continue to be for fun until she's a year old. Chloe will still be getting the majority of her nutrition from breast milk. I know the older she gets the more food that will make it into her mouth instead of on the floor!

In a few days we are going to be trying avocado again but this time I will cut up a big enough piece for Chloe to hold by herself and just simply let her experience the texture and taste all on her on. I have a feeling she will like the avocado much more this way!

For anyone interested in learning more about baby led weaning or about making your own baby food here are a couple of links I found useful:

Wholesome Babyfood

Baby led weaning

Baby Centers baby led weaning group

That Mama Gretchen V. 1 , V. 2 , V. 3