::Yummy Tummy::

Hey y'all!

It seems that every once in a blue moon, I get a bug to post. Although, I'm definitely not complaining that I post infrequently because my reason is A-freaking-DORABLE! 

I mean... I can't get enough of this nugget!

Which brings us to today's post {and probably every post from here until the good Lord takes me}: Babies. Well, in today's case, baby food!

YUM!

Or not. 

The reason I say "Or not." is based on my experience with store bought baby food. At my baby shower, my lovely sister and best friend decided that the perfect game would be to blind fold my very pregnant self, make me taste baby food and guess what it was. Not only were these very common "flavors" unrecognizable to me, they almost* all made me gag {*Peas didn't make me gag. I do love peas!}. I mean, why would you want to feed your infant something that you couldn't choke down?

Another experience was buying some pouches for when we traveled. I always taste her food before her first time of having it, and I couldn't stomach how sweet this stuff was. Unfortunately, we were already at our destination, far away from my stock of baby food.

Since I am staying at home, I decided when Lemmon was 6 months to make all of her food. It saves on money for sure, it's super easy to make, but the main reason, is that I know what goes into it. One thing I didn't want was to give her fruit before she was 8 months old. VEGGIES ONLY! I'll explain why later.

Homemade Green Beans

She had green beans as her first veggie. Green beans twice a day, for 4 days. I have to admit, there were plenty of giggles over gags, faces, and the occasional shudder, but it passed. She began to enjoy the green beans. Her Ped told me that it can take 10-15 tries of a food before they know if they like it.  I can understand that going from only breast milk to this slightly thicker, very flavorful, most likely bitter veggie would be a game changer and take some getting used to. 

We held strong. 

On the fourth day, we introduced Purple Sweet Potatoes {I recommend these for everyone - slight bacon taste, awesome color, delicious when prepared a number of ways}.  The gags and shudders started all over again. It was a whole new texture and flavor she had never experienced before. Now they are one of her favorite veggies to eat. 

Anyways, back to the NO fruit part. My reasoning for this was not swayed by any  person or blog or nutritionist in particular. As I read about a million other mom's feeding schedules, I found that many held out on fruit for a while. Some even held out on the sweeter veggies, such as carrots, until right before introducing fruit. Since veggies are an important part of our household diet, I decided that I wanted to establish a "taste" for them. Of course, once I introduced fruit, she seemed to always  get more excited during that portion of the meal {mainly, because I cannot get it into her mouth fast enough}, but she always is willing and eager to eat her veggies first. 

Lemmon covered in in Green Beans and Kale when she was 6 mo. old!

The last of this "my way or the highway" talk going on here, is the NO sugar until she is a year old. When I say this, I mean no sugar other than fruit. This is honestly a personal decision based on my own hopes and dreams for Lemmon's future diet. I want her first processed sugar to be her birthday cake. After that, we'll probably just feed her fruity pebbles and candy bars for all meals. 

Kidding. Kidding. 

Honestly, there are times when I feel a bit like one of those crazy, health freak, my-kid-will-only-eat-grass-fed-lean-tofu-crap kind of moms. Well, thankfully for my sanity {and Lemmon} I am not that extreme. I do buy organic when possible, but it's not the end of the world if her green beans aren't organic!

Broccoli Rabe Snuggles! "Vegetables are friends AND food!"

I am in no way a nutritionist,  nor do I claim to be. I just did a lot of research on how other moms went about starting their kiddos on solid foods, as well as, spoke to a nutritionist and Lemmon's Ped for advice. I am not saying this will work for you, but it has DEFINITELY worked for me.