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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Backtrack 8: The food gourmet

(Delayed posting due to swine flu.)

Life goes on even when I could not access/update my blog – Rosabelle was trying a variety of different foods for the first time over the weeks.

Toe Ma Toe
During her bouts of non-poo (i.e. 5 days, 4 days at times), the nanny and I will feed her foods that aid in bowel movement, like spinach, banana,
peach and pear. On 17 May, the nanny pureed three cherry tomatoes for her. Maybe it’s not as sweet as the other fruits, and she grimaced a little, before going on to finish what looks like spaghetti bolognaise sauce.

Not a Teochew porridge fan
It was actually supper time on 17 May by the time she had her porridge as she slept from 6pm to 9pm, and was eagerly waiting for dinner after enjoying her bath.

Vanessa started Rachel on porridge, not rice cereals, as she said all commercialized rice cereals have sugar contents within. Maybe Rosabelle was used to the nice, sweet taste of cereals, and when we fed her porridge cooked with Chinese yam root for the first time, she had an extremely disgusted look, and wanted to retch at times.
The porridge was pureed and fine, so it’s not a case of choking, just a matter of the texture and (non) taste of the porridge. But the nanny commended her for eating at least 2 teaspoonfuls as babies will not normally take beyond the first serving after they find out how bland it is.

The next day, the nanny added some spinach into the porridge for taste, but got her at a bad time as she was sleepy and not in the mood for food. I ended up having to nurse her to supplement the meal on both days.

Maybe it’s because of the lack of proper meals, or the fact she’s started on solids and needs more water, but she has been waking up often at night for feeds, either due to thirst, or what I’m afraid is inadequate fullness from weaning feeds. But well, we have to take it slowly and increase her food intake and variety gradually, so as to make sure her little tummy can take it.

Since we started her evening porridge feeds, she has been cranky as I will normally nurse her to sleep after her bath, but her porridge time has inevitably clashed into a time when she is sleepy. I then decided to disappear from the living room on Tuesday, to see if she will cooperate and eat her porridge (nanny added apple and broccoli for taste), but she was crying throughout, and when I sneaked out to pass the nanny a fan that is her favourite toy these days, she actually cleverly looked around to see if I was the one passing the fan to her. Sigh, research has shown kids need to be fed a new item at least 10 times before taking to it, guess we still have a long way to go!

Sweet, sweet pear
After
almost choking on the fragrant pear previously, we pureed a large pear (smoother texture) for her, and she loved the sweet taste and thirst-quenching juice. As usual, with all new foods, especially those that will aid in bowel movement, we could not give her too much on her first try, and had to stop her from OD-ing on pear juice.

Cheery cherries
We made the mistake of not tasting the cherries before making into a puree of 3 cherries for her on 19 May. She took a first sip and screwed her face up immediately due to the sour taste. She enjoyed a few more teaspoonfuls before deciding enough was enough, and the nanny tasted the fruit – it was as sour as lemon, haha! Well, at least we’ve exposed her to some tastes other than just sweet, sweet fruits…heh!
Pooo tah toe
The nanny added mashed potato to her porridge on Wednesday night 20 May, as it’s supposed to give her energy and aid in metabolism of her little body (no wonder she was sweating that night and we had to switch on the fan for her!). However, she did not eat much as she was sleepy and grouchy, but on Thursday night, after we let her take a short nap after her bath and a short nursing bout, she woke up happy and cheery, and actually finished up a half-bowl of potato and carrots.

We’d been trying to figure out how to make dinner time happy for her as she will end up grouchy and sleepy as dinner time coincided with her nap time of around 7 pm, and tried shifting bath time around so she can eat first, and bathe later, but it ended up with her being unhappy at BOTH dinner AND bath times. She was also very sticky to me and seemingly not as energetic on a few days (probably due to not sleeping well because of a new dinner routine). However, we struck bingo on Thursday night, after we bathed her upon coming back from the evening walk, then I nursed her for awhile before she woke up happy, and with still the appetite for a good dinner (and she slept happily, and early enough, at 9:45 pm that night, for more than 12 hours – though she still woke up for feeds). She was happy as a lark after that! Looks like I still cannot deprive her of a habitual feed after her bath…
Meloney time
On 23 May, she enjoyed her first taste of pureed honeydew, and when she also tasted watermelon for the first time on 25 May, she just could not get enough of both. She ended up drinking directly from the bowl until she had a bowl-line depression on her right cheek! I was careful to observe for any bouts of diarrhoea or bowel movement change as melons are very cooling and might cause watery stools, but luckily the only thing affected was her taste buds, which have been welcoming new varieties of lovely foods and fruits, haha!
I wanna eat your tofu…
On 24 May, upon hitting 7 months old, the nanny made steamed egg (from egg yolk only) for her for lunch, but she was in a rather cranky mood and did not like it much (maybe the smell was too strong because it was one whole yolk?), only finishing about half of the serving. When she tried it again on 27 May (when she surprisingly woke up before 8 am and the nanny prepared ‘breakfast’ for her), she again did not take much, and the nanny even added small drops of children’s sauce and sesame oil, to no avail.

Then, at night, she had her first taste of white tofu, mashed into her porridge with some spinach, and was fine with it, until she decided that she wanted to be sticky to Mummy again (I almost definitely have to stay out of her sight when she’s eating, if not, she would start whimpering for me), and I ended up having to carry her at times when the nanny was feeding her (and getting food all over myself). She also had tofu for lunch the next day and actually finished up the whole bowl (I hid myself away this time, of course).
Nooooodle time!
On May 26, she enjoyed her first taste of noodle, cooked with tomato and spinach, and actually almost finished up the whole bowl – BURP! When there was a strand of noodle at the edge of her mouth, the nanny said she even stretched her tongue out sideways to lick at it, so cute!

Pumpkin patch kid
We finally managed to find a place selling large pumpkins in small pieces (the nanny says small pumpkins are not sweet and are hard) - we got them at the minimart just downstairs in my block, heh. The nanny cooked noodle and pumpkin with potato for her on 27 May but she did not eat as much as the noodles from the night before…hmmm… it smelt great to us adults though.


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