Menu plan

With the lack of weight gain in the past 3 months on Micah's part (well I haven't gained any weight either for that matter but I haven't lost it at the rate I'd like to. Maybe I should take Micah's approach to eating and activity?) I've been paying a lot more attention to what he eats, finding lots of new things to try and analyzing (or maybe over analyzing!) everything he eats or doesn't eat in the past 10 days since his appointment. I read a post by another blogger with all the foods her little one eats and I'm now going to borrow the idea and use it here. 


So here's a run down of what he likes to eat. I usually feed him the same things we are eating, with maybe a few different things thrown in if he can't eat some part of what the rest of us are having.


{Breakfast}    
pancakes 
waffles 
toast (whole gain - occasionally made into cinnamon toast)
fruit 
yogurt (I've started feeding him Greek yogurt as it has more fat than whole milk yogurt) 
cereal (cheerios - not a favorite anymore though as he's tired of them!)
granola 
cereal bar (the more natural kind with no HFCS ect) - for mornings we are more rushed


{Lunch} 
these tend to be pretty basic most days
turkey 
homemade baked chicken tenders
pasta 
peanut butter roll up (peanut butter thinly spread on a tortilla rolled and sliced)
leftovers
yogurt 
yogurt melts
fruit
veggie
baked Alexis brand oven fries
raisins 
applesauce
cheese (he usually eats shredded cheese the best)


other things I've tried that don't go over as well: quesadilla 


{Dinner}
Pieces of what we are eating including: 
chicken
pork chops/tenderloin
steak
hamburger
meatballs 
pasta 
home made pizza
veggie 
cheese 
rice




{Snacks}
goldfish (I've started buying the garden veggie kind - makes them a little healthier right?)
Just Tomatos or Target brand freeze dried fruits
graham crackers 
fruit 
peanut butter on crackers
string cheese 
New things I've found and added: 
Plum Organics mishmash - basically pureed fruit like baby food but it comes in a packaged with a closable top that can act as a straw/squeeze thing so Micah can feed it to himself, it is healthy (fruit puree), easily portable. 
PlumTots fiddlesticks - easy for Micah to hold and eat on his own and he seems to really like them

I know the snack section seems pretty big compared to the meals but since Micah doesn't always want to eat his meals I do like to give him a snack in between when he starts to get fussy because I know he is probably hungry and because I need to get some calories in him. He's so active and so doesn't aways want to sit at meal times and eat that I need to feed him when I can so I try to make sure the snack options are pretty healthy as well. 

{Fruit}
strawberries 
apples 
grapes (cut in half) 
clementines 
pears 
watermelon
cantaloupe 
pineapple 
blueberries 
blackberries 


{Veggies}
broccoli - possibly his favorite 
green beans 
peas 
corn (not as nutrient packed as others but we all love it around here)
potatoes (regular and sweet potatoes) 
squash 
carrots 


Yesterday he ended up having an excellent day for him eating wise and ate a lot (for him) without leaving a big mess. See usually if he doesn't like something or decides not to eat it he'll spit it out of his mouth where it will then usually fall down into his lap or on the bottom part of his high chair. Yesterday there was hardly anything down on the bottom of his high chair. Today not as good. He ate a bunch of strawberries for lunch but no pasta or any of the Jammy Sammy that I bought for him to try (like a cross between a sandwich and cereal bar exactly not quite as bready - which he's not huge on bread so that's good - and not as sticky as a cereal bar with the filling can be.) Then dinner all he wanted to eat was the corn - no chicken, potatoes, crawfish.... 

Not Me!

It's that time again! Time to tell about what we did not do this week! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This week I surely did not give Micah a slice of apple on to chew on after he grabbed it from my hand so that I could sit him in the bumbo and eat my lunch with two hands. Nope not me!

And since I did not do that, I certainly did not put that slice of apple into a mesh feeder while we went to play out side after lunch to keep him content so I could clean out the car (which also certainly was not a mess!) Nope not me!

We certainly did play poker with our 3 year old just because she wanted to play 'cards' like Daddy and couldn't remember how to play Go Fish. Nope, not me! 

So what did you not do this week? 

Baby-led vs Purees

Ever since last Sunday when Micah really starting making a fuss when people ate food in front of him I've been putting off really starting solids with him - trying to hold out until 6 months. I did however buy some avocados this past week and have been deliberating between baby-led solids or making his baby food purees. Baby-led weaning/feeding is giving the baby food he can pick up and bring to his mouth to chew and swallow. Babies who have the coordination to grab and bring the food to their mouths also tend to have the skills to chew and swallow said food. They also then are in control of how much they want to eat similar to how a babe nurses because when they nurse they control the flow of milk and can change from nutritive sucking to non-nutritive comfort sucking when they are full. I'm intrigued by this method of letting a young baby have larger pieces of food instead of making the purees. This would save me the step of pureeing/freezing the food as I plan to make all of Micah's food as I did for Abby. In baby-led I would still steam or roast harder foods to make them easy to Micah to chew and eat. 

So back to the avocados... I decided to give the baby-led a shot - nothing to lose there. So we got Micah all situated (stripped down to a diaper and bib and sitting in his bumbo) and gave him the avocado in two halves - large pieces that would be easy for him to grip - or at least as easy as an avocado can be. 

Hmm... maybe not so easy to grab. It does however prove to be quite the amusing item to push and shove around and kept him occupied so I could eat my dinner take pictures of him. 

Since dinner was calling my name at this point, I decided to put some of the avocado in his mesh feeder so he could finally get a taste as I was getting tired of picking the avocado up from his lap between eating bites of my food. He seemed to like it okay but also enjoyed checking on the handle side of the mesh feeder almost as much. Then again I guess that side had avocado all over it as well since his hands, tray, lap, bumbo and table were all covered in avocado by this point. 

After we were all done eating I contemplated how I was going to get the avocado covered baby upstairs and into the tub without leaving a trail of avocado through the house. Plus it wasn't quite bath time yet and he is pretty used to our routine of bath, books with sister and bed. So we opted for option k.

His first (and probably not last) kitchen sink bath. 

I'm now thinking we may stick with purees but am still some what undecided at this point. I did however get to enjoy a full meal without a baby in my lap!

Food

Today after church we headed out to a spaghetti lunch with Grandma and Grandpa. Micah slept on the way there but it wasn't as much of a nap as he needed. He was trying to grab hold of everything he could reach and his boring old toys just weren't what he wanted, I nursed him but he was still fussy until......

he managed to grab a piece of my roll. Then he became as content as he could be. He was so happy to have that roll and was so mad I took it away. So daddy gave it back to him when I passed him off to daddy so I could eat without a baby trying to stick his fingers in my plate (or dropping food on his head.)

So after eating some ice cream with the grandparents (again with Micah getting frustrated that he wasn't getting anything) We headed to BRU since it was in the same shopping center and picked up some ice cube trays for making baby food, a sippy cup and some soft spoons. I'm going to start with making him some breast milk cubes to put in his mesh feeder (which I had picked up the other day at Target) since I'm not ready to deal with the mess (and diapers) that come from solid foods and see if that can buy me at least another week or two if not until 6 months before starting the 'real' stuff. It at least buys me more time to research on baby lead weaning/eating instead of the mushy stuff and see what I want to do. It sounds cool (and like less work) so we'll see.

We tried out the sippy cup with a little bit of water tonight. He mainly chewed on the cup and played around with it but he was happy. We'll keep trying - maybe just maybe he'll take some milk from it and mommy can get away for a little longer!