Baby Led Weaning Part III

Dear Baby,

Food choices have been more adventurous now. And you also learned that mommy and daddy sometimes have more interesting stuff on the plate. And mommy can officially say I have finished reading the BLW book from cover to cover. The book has now been borrowed by one of daddy's cousin who got a baby who is two months or so younger than you because she saw you eat a chicken drumstick which you picked up off daddy's plate one night at a family function and happily eating away sitting next to daddy. She was intrigued and amazed as it was always a battle with her and her baby when it comes to meal times. She read the first chapter that night.

Mommy tries to make sure your diet is varied and have lots of taste and textures. We have ventured out to curry chicken, gave you the drumstick after mommy gave it a quick rinse so the curry taste won't hit you by surprise. You tried lettuce and cabbage, crunchy food! Nini Noi's homemade burger patty, dim sum and a whole bunch of others that mommy just can't remember anymore... Snack food now consists of cucumber sticks and tomato slices, once in a while mummy will let you have half a wholemeal bun, I'm still wary with the amount of salt present in bread, so mommy make a note not to give you bread daily. I'm still trying to get you to try as many types of fruits as possible, waiting for the persimmon to ripen up and soften a bit that we bought last weekend...

Nenek asked if she could feed you cornflakes, and for a 150g box it contained 10g of sugar I said no, I rather you get fresh fruits as snack then some processed manufactured stuff. We're still laying your foundation for healthy wholesome food and we can't slack now.

Mommy and daddy like to eat out with you, and the restaurants we head to are places we like in terms of food, service and baby friendly. And you like going there too because you get entertained by the staff a lot. We have relatives that complain you look so serious, and we have the wait staff whom you'd give a ready smile to. I think the difference is that sometimes relatives don't play with you as much as others, heheheh...

You don't drop your food purposely anymore, now it's more of it fell out of your hands as you bring the food to your mouth. There are times when you don't want to hold the food but wants to eat it so we have to hold the food for you, it could be you don't like the feel of the texture. Another one you do is you'll eat the food, chew and then spit it out. I think it's the 'yay, good girl for eating' part, you like the acknowledgement but not necessarily the food, your grandparents tend to do that, and it is wrong and I remind them not to because by praising you for eating, you will learn to associate to get a praise, you must eat. So wrong. Very very wrong. They may not think it will do no harm, so said your nenek but mommy have learned a lot and experienced a lot when it comes to eating disorders, and it is a cycle that shouldn't be allowed to start to begin with.

Mommy plan on introducing you to food you can learn to use your fork and spoon with, we tried a bit last night, you would have the spoon in one hand, and you'd tried to get the food to your mouth, and then use your free hand to get more food into your mouth.

When we eat at your grandparents places, Nini Noi has learned to lessen the use of salt in the cooking so you can eat what everyone else is eating, so you get to eat a wide and varied taste and textures. At nenek's place, since nenek doesn't do the cooking anymore, the amah have been making the same stuff for you over and over. Your menu over there seems to be boiled vegetables, pumpkin soup, chicken soup and beef soup. In order to make sure you get a varied diet mommy would have to start packing food for you to bring over it seems.

Today Auntie Choo is coming over and we're going to make onigiri, and mommy wants to make some for you to try as well and maybe we'll have a picnic.

Mommy wants to introduce you to blueberries but I have to wait for the signs that you are ready for them. So many taste, texture and flavours for you to try out there!

Love,

Mommy