Week 3 - Chewing and eating (maybe)

We've been up and down with the eating over the last week, Jacob seems to have had a mild case of chickenpox (I say mild, as the spots are few and far between and the jury is out as to whether they're just baby pimples) and that combined with the teething has meant that he's been very fussy and not overly keen on being strapped into a highchair.

Having said that, he is very enthusiastic when he's in the mood, happily chewing or sucking on larger pieces of food, and at least liberally smearing his face when given a loaded spoon, if not actually eating it. He seems to have stopped gagging so much (our pantomimes of chewing have got better and now stop him mid-gag so he can have a good giggle at our idiocy) and we've seen evidence of Things passing through him (nobody ever told me parenthood = getting excited about the contents of dirty nappies).

I wrote the following list of foods he's tried down for a friend, so thought I'd post it here as I was quite impressed when confronted with the whole thing:

Banana (easy and yummy)
Cucumber (easy and good for teething)
Peach (stabbed a bit onto a baby fork and he had no trouble)
Mini shredded wheat (dry or soaked in formula)
Lettuce
Cherry tomato
Grated carrot
Mashed potato
Mango, Melon and Pineapple (supermarkets often sell these presliced for £1 for lots of slices, almost as cheap as buying the whole fruit, easier and less waste and effort! Perfect for holding).
Toast (spread with unsalted butter, or cream cheese, or puree [free samples of, I hasten to add])
Red pepper (raw, sliced)
Rice cake (plain or with butter or with cream cheese)
Crumpet (with butter or puree)
Strawberry
Lasagne (Jacob just stripped each layer off and sucked it, he completely demolished it)
Easy-peasy breakfast biscuits (see recipe on the BLW forum, use more flour as they're sticky. I made loads and froze them, they're brilliant for breakfast if you can't think of anything else).
Pitta bread (with houmous)
Pear
Plain yoghurt (or with puree mixed in)
Porridge (or porridge pancakes, see BLW forum for recipe)
Roast butternut squash/sweet potato
Salmon
Broccoli (steamed)
Apple fried in cinnamon
Soup (with bread to mop up).
Drop scones (i've made banana or blackberry)

Mostly, we're having lots of fun with trying things. He's dropped his milk intake quite dramatically, but I think this is more to do with the discomfort from his teeth, combined with the chickenpox, and an increased interest in what's going on around him which is distracting him from his food.

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