Dolly Eats

There is this one particular aspect of my Dolly that I feel deserves some attention and special mention in this blog (so I will never forget!). :)

My little Dolly is a WONDERFUL, wonderful eater! She is such a delight to feed!! It has been so at every meal, since she was 6 months old. This really makes me so happy.

After my overall 'painful' experiences with the boys when they were younger, especially with the first-born, part of me still wanted to remain optimistic that it would be different this time. But I figured in the end that it was best to just stop hoping.

So the week when Dolly turned 6 months, I dragged my feet to the kitchen to check out my stash of supplies that I used for making purees for the boys and dug out my Annabel Karmel recipe books and trusty copy of Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron.

The first two weeks of initial weaning to solids were not very fun for me, especially since I had to express a little milk to accompany her iron-fortified cereal. Then I started pureeing single food in batches and freezing them in ice-cube trays. It felt more like a chore than real joy, and a big part of me was wondering how much of those purees would end up in the bin.

At 6 months, she still had a bit of the tongue-thrust reflex, which means she wasn't entirely ready. I went really slow, offering just a few baby spoons. More to introduce the act of spoon-feeding than anything else.

But by the time she was 7 months, she started eating a lot more. I followed the 4-day rule, which I also did when weaning the boys, and introduced a new food every 4 days. As the list of food introduced gets longer, it also means I can be more creative in her menu planning. That was when the fun began.

What I didn't expect was the quantity she could eat at 8-months-old and just how eager she was to tuck into her meal, especially since my boys ate like a bird. Maybe Chippy ate more than M, but still, I didn't remember him eating this much at this tender age. So you can imagine my pleasant surprise when Dolly opened her mouth promptly to slurp up every spoonful and when I could not served her fast enough, she would utter sharp 'ahhh' and hit the table in protest. Heehee. She could easily finish up 80g of thick pureed food in under 10 min.

Now, my 9-month-old eats about 120g per meal, sometimes in just 5 min and spends the remaining 20 min at her high chair nibbling on a buffet of organic snacks. Her current favourites are Organix Sweetcorn Rings and Carrot Sticks. The latter is incredibly yummy!




Except for the 5 organic egg yolks a week, she has been on a vegetarian diet so far, with main sources of protein from avocado, whole grains and tofu. A week ago, she tasted cheddar cheese in her wholewheat pasta for the first time and yesterday, she had her first fishy meals (fish with mashed potatoes and peas for lunch and fish with broccoli and brown rice for dinner). She loves them all!

Now I can't wait to have more fun in the kitchen whipping up colourful meals for her.