jules nora yati

A couple of days ago, I took the steamer out of the cupboard. I bought it a couple of years ago when I decided (and failed) to be healthy. It has spent most of the time in the cupboard collecting dust. I did think about putting it on ebay or freecycle but I’m glad I didn’t.

After giving it a quick wash, yesterday I cut up some carrot sticks and broccoli florets and put it in the steamer.

I went to the chippy before that. Jules had sausage and chips, I had fish and chips… and Nora had steam vegetables. How fair is that? Well, do as I say not do as I do! My Nora will grow up with healthy food!

Don’t get me wrong… I am starting to cook more healthily to get ready for the time when Nora could start eating the food that we eat. That moment will be very soon as I am doing the baby-led weaning. So, I don’t cook with salt anymore. If Jules and I need any salt, we add it on the table.

As for sweet snacks, I haven’t bought chocolates for ages and I am cutting down on biscuits. I will start baking again… and reduce the amount of sugar in my baking.

I think Nora is developing a sweet tooth, even though she has no teeth yet! It’s just that she seem to prefer her apple slices rather than her vegetable. But hey… kids go through phases.

I know Nora is not exactly six months yet but I’m getting excited to start on this baby-led weaning thing!

As you know, I have been giving Nora raw carrots to gnaw on to sooth her gums. Yesterday, after visiting a nursery (which is sooooooooo lovely that I will sign up for the waiting list), I bought a cucumber and she started chomping on cucumber sticks for tea.

This morning she had her raw carrots sticks and cucumber sticks to chomp on as ‘breakfast’.

While I was preparing brunch for Jules and me, I decided to boil an egg for Nora so she could join us at our little dining table. It was really fun… and totally messy. It is the first time she had slices of boiled egg so she haven’t figured out how firmly to grip it yet. So she crushed most of the egg and there was crumbs every where! I think she managed to eat 0.01% of the egg!! Still… what an achievement.

We didn’t really coax her. We just left her to play with her egg and kept putting bits back on her tray when she swipe it off. She has to learn to coordinate her hands all on her own… and it is so much fun to watch!

And while I had a cup of tea and biscuits at around 4pm, I made apple sticks for her… which she munched on and gagged a few times. But I’m not too worried. She has to learn to move food in her mouth.

Yes, it’s been a messy day and I had to change her clothes a couple of times but it will all be worth it. Today, for the first time, she had breakfast, lunch and tea. She must have enjoyed feeling the different textures of different food, plus they must have tasted better than plastic. I’ve decided not to get her any teething toys… carrots and cucumbers will do her fine.

Nora was bored with carrot sticks but I didn’t have any peppers, so I gave her a piece of lettuce leaf. I guess it feels different and she loved it.

Gnaw… gnaw… gnaw…

And suddenly

Cough… cough… sputter…

She managed to tear a bit of the leaf and it gagged her. I wasn’t worried as I was confident that she wouldn’t choke as babies who are less than six months has this gag reflex that activates further forward than adults.

All I had to do was wait until she stops gagging for a second and fish the piece of leaf out of her mouth.

When that was done, I was glad that she wasn’t scared and picked up the remaining lettuce leaf and started chomping on it again.

If it happens again, I’ll do the same… and Nora will just have to learn from her mistakes.

That’s what I’ve been giving Nora past couple of days.

After her breakfast feed, I’ll sit her in her Bumbo seat on the kitchen table and give her a carrot stick. She’d gnaw on it as I have a biscuit with my tea/coffee and then get on with the dishes or laundry.

It’s great! The past couple of weeks she’s been sitting there and chucking her toys away that I had to keep stopping doing what I’m doing and pick up her toys to pass them back to her. Now she sits there with her carrot stick and I’ll just get on with what I do.

When she’s tired… she lets me know and I pick her up.

She gnaw for 15 minutes which gives me 15 minutes cleaning time. Everyone’s happy!

PLEASE NOTE : If you want to try this with a five month old baby who you think is teething, please make sure that it’s raw carrot stick. It is not recommended for babies under six months to have any food. They should only digest milk. Raw carrot sticks are good as the babies could gnaw their gums on it and it won’t turn into mush for them to swallow.

We went out for lunch again today and as we didn’t bring the pushchair, Nora sat on my lap. She still can’t sit on her own on a highchair but soon come.

When lunch arrived… I don’t like cucumber and Jules doesn’t like tomato so we picked them out of our lunch. Then I had a thought… I know that babies shouldn’t be fed until six months but they don’t really eat anything at five months, they just play… so I thought why not let her experiment.

I gave her my cucumber.

She started gnawing it but it was a bit too big for her hand. I passed her the tomato. Bad idea as it’s soft so she could actually chomp on it so I took it away from her and gave her a salad leaf instead.

Perfect. She held it and gnawed on it until I finished my lunch.

I did give her a piece of pepper a couple of days ago… which she licked… made a face and threw it to the floor.

I’ve noticed her copying chewing motion… so I think this baby-led weaning thing will actually work.

And she’s fascinated every time I take a sip from my cup. So when I have tea, I give her her little cup so she could imitate me.

*sigh* My little baby is growing up.