At seven months old, Sawyer is eating and drinking whatever he can get his mouth on. Still nursing but also bottle-feeding, spoon-feeding, and dabbling in finger food. And, as always, I have some very strong opinions! I have a whole new arsenal of baby feeding products in rotation so wanted to share a few of my favorites:
Milkmakers cookies. First of all, YUM! I was skeptical about these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that claim to boost milk production, but after trying five cookies, I give them two thumbs way up. These cookies are super tasty, almost like the ones I make at home. Since all baby mamas deserve a special treat, I think these would be a terrific gift. Since there are so many variables in play, I can’t say for sure if my production increased but I think it did a bit. If you want the stats, I can make a chart!
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The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet includes a heap of recipes for purees. I’m always looking for new inspiration and this book is focused on nutritious, quick, tasty baby food organized by month. Score. I also dig the cover and green tips. As a third-time-around baby-food-maker, I haven’t found much in there that I don’t already know, but if you’re a rookie, it’s a very handy reference.
Potato ricer. My Mother in Law got this kitchen gadget for us last Christmas to make the perfect mashed potatoes. I busted it out for the first time to convert sweet potato into baby food mush. It works just like a play-doh fun factory extruder (or a huge garlic press). It strains out skin and stringy bits for babies. And when we’re done using it to splooge out baby food, I hear it makes perfect mashed potatoes.
OXO tot feeding spoons. The shape and the squish of these spoons makes it easier to feed a new-to-solids eater. Though Sawyer is still covered with food by the meal’s end, these are my new favorite utensils for scooping and scraping drippy purees. You can’t see very well from the picture, but they’re shaped like spades, soft spades.
Other than these four recent discoveries, I find myself using a few tried-and-true techniques for blending up baby food with my stick mixer and ice cube trays. I will have to share a few of my cheats with you another time.
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I was sent the cookbook and cookies for review consideration.
I have only one child, but I am a huge fan of “Baby Led Weaning” by Gill Rapley. As you know there are a hundred factors at play, but among my friends who pureed I seemed to have had the easiest time introducing solids, and my daughter is by far the least picky eater of the bunch. And never once did I have to cook anything special for my daughter, or buy a special kitchen utensil I didn’t already have. At the very least, it is a very interesting read on the history of what babies eat, and even how the invention of formula changed how we feed our babies solids.
@tobasco, I’d love to hear more! I think we’ll be researching and profiling some weaners like you (sorry, couldn’t resist a juicy pun!)
LOL @ weaners like you. I was gung-ho about BLW, but my kid was not on board. She showed little/no interest in the finger-sized bits of gummable food, but went bananas when we finally tried jarred purees. The little stinker even turned up her nose at most of my homemade purees in the beginning! Maybe Baby 2 will lead us to the weaned land.
Can’t wait to try the OXO spoons… what a loser that I get excited about spoons these days!
I love “weaners” that totally made me smile!
Hollienoel – I have to admit it was such a success for me it was hard not to be pushy about it at first. But now with a few years under my belt, I understand a lot more about each child’s personality. And even in this case the personality of the parents. So I just like to put it out there at the very least because I think it’s an interesting read.
Ha! You would have probably had a sktroe watching Sawyer gnaw on broccoli and pork chop in the past few days. We are doing BLW, but you kind of have to have balls of steel, and faith in their ability to gag it out. Sawyer gags like a mad man when he is shoving stuff in his mouth, but that is a natural part of the process of learning to feed themselves. Have you taken infant CPR? If not, you really should, it will help give you the confidence that if they were to choke you know what to do to help them. As long as you aren’t feeding them really smooth and round or sticky foods, choking (on food) is really not that common in babies.