Solid Foods For Coco... Day 11 Updates & Questions
If you haven't seen the earlier post on our weaning experience, here's a little summary of where we are at:
Coco's solid food stats
When: We started solid foods on Wednesday, 21 Jan
What age: Coco is nearly 5 months and was on breastmilk before we got started
First food: Homemade brown rice cereal with milk & water (recipe here)
Other food tasted: Orange, Cucumber, Lemon - just so I could see that sour face :)
Water: Yes, after rice cereal
First reaction: Indifferent. She did not refuse it, but didn't exactly look like she was in food heaven
Since my last post, heres whats been up:
On Poo
Yes, its true what they say about how poo changes when your baby starts solids. I noticed a change from Day 2. At the risk of sharing too much information (move to next point now if you're squeamish about that), its greener and smellier. The consistency has also changed, where before it was grainy and watery and sometimes translucent, now its very thick and gooey. Given that she only has one teaspoon of rice cereal a day, which is diluted with water and milk, it's really interesting that we see such a big effect already.
On Water
I got the Tommee Tippee cup from Superdrug for very little, a little over a pound. Well, it is turning out to be quite an investment, as she absolutely loves the cup and enjoys drinking water out of it. She moves her mouth up closer to the cup as soon as I bring it out and sucks through the beaker well. In the last two months she has refused to take expressed milk from the bottle, so now, I am now thinking of trying expressed milk in the sippy cup.
On Response
I suspect Coco may know what is coming when I put on her bib and approach her with the bowl of cereal. Today, was the first time she actually looked like she was really interested and didn't make a face when she tasted the rice cereal. As I spooned it while singing (in hopes that makes the experience more fun), she lapped it up and almost seemed to enjoy it. I think we've really got into a routine with this and I am very keen to try (and persist with) introducing fruit and vegetables now. Maybe initially, mix them in with the rice cereal, since we've had success with that.
On Trying Vegetables and Fruits
I tried to give Coco vegetables on Day 6 or 7. I mashed sweet potatoes with milk. She was not interested. She was asleep about 10 minutes later, so I suspect she was tired. I am keen to try these again and see if the right time makes the difference.
On Sleep
When I researched the weaning recommendations in terms of what signs you should look out for that your baby is ready to sleep in this post, the advice seemed to be that there was no evidence solid foods makes your baby sleep for longer.
Now, with these things, I know that it is almost impossible to point at one thing having an effect on sleep, but over the last ten days since we started solids, Coco has slept for longer during the night. In this time, I have also brought her bath time forward as recommended by another Mum (thank you!) and also here, so she goes stop sleep at 7pm, where before it was 9pm and sometimes even later 10pm/11pm.
We have also gotten into a good day time sleep routine, where when I know she is tired, I put her down awake, rather than try to rock her (which worked in the past). She has fallen asleep in my arms, maybe once in the last two weeks, but now it seems to only happen when she's super exhausted. Other times, she's fallen right to sleep whilst or just after a feed. But with the exception of those moments, I put her down when she acts cranky and I think she's tired, and she does sleep after little bit of a complaining cry.
Yesterday afternoon, I knew she was tired but she was all giggling and playing. I tried to put her down but she cried so I gave her food, just in case she was hungry. Right after I did that she was all smiles and playing agin so I put her down, turned on the video monitor and left the room. She lay there and continued to play. Well as I watched her, she went from giggling and blabbering to falling asleep just like that, on her own, without tears, no white noise, bat on the bum required, etc. Now, if she would only do that every time she was tired, right?
On Introducing sweet fruits
Has anyone given their child sweet fruits and then they have refused to eat vegetables or anything that's not sweet after? I say this because I let Coco taste a bit of orange (just licking on it, while I held the orange segment in my hand) and she loved it. I was not surprised, as it was quite sweet, but alarm bells did ring. I hope she doesn't think every thing she eats is going to be this sweet. She had rice cereal today, no problem, so we're hopefully good, but I just wonder how strict I should be about sweet fruits and whether I should just cut it out completely un till she happily eats a range of non- sweet fruits and vegetables.
I ask is becuase if I do wait to introduce later, couldn't she just as easily turn around then and think, wow, sweet taste, this is what I have been missing and reject non sweet things from then on. Am I over thinking things here? Mums how did you introduce sweet things? Does timing of that matter?
Happy Monday
x
Solid Foods For Coco... Day 11 Updates & Questions
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