Hellobee

Little Oats’ eating habits are a go-to topic of conversation among family and friends. At almost two, she eats a LOT, and is very vocal about her likes and dislikes. But she hasn’t always been this way, and I’m certain she won’t always be this way. I’ve pulled together a little Q&A about our feeding experience — where we started, and where we’ve ended up.

Did you nurse, formula feed, bottle feed, etc?

We nursed exclusively, and while this was the thing I was most nervous about pre-baby, it went really well. The first two weeks were a constant flurry of cluster feeds – I spent more time on the couch nursing than doing anything else. Things really got into a rhythm around 6 weeks when my supply was fully established and LO didn’t need constant repositioning to latch properly. She wouldn’t take a bottle or a pacifier, so for many months, I WAS her pacifier – she comfort nursed nearly as much as she nursed for nourishment. She was glued to my side until she started solids regularly.

When did you start solids? What was her first food?

At LO’s four month appointment, her doctor suggested that we start giving her some rice cereal to get her weight up. I (naively) hoped that a meal of rice cereal before bed would help her sleep longer, so we gave it a try. LO LOVED her cereal – she devoured each spoonful like she was starving. But after about a week or so, we noticed that she was increasingly gassy, and her stomach appeared to be in pain. We cut the rice cereal, and she improved dramatically. At that point, since it was Christmas and we were traveling, we figured we’d save the solids for a little later – after all, she wasn’t underweight, just petite.

At 6 months, we decided to start with solids again. Her first non-cereal food was sweet potatoes, and we progressed to avocado, carrots, pears, apples, bananas, and squash. For the first month, she enjoyed trying her food, but went on a bit of a puree strike around 7 months. If she couldn’t feed herself, she didn’t want it. I wrote here about our accidental baby-led weaning, and it worked really, really well.

Which meal did you start with?

Initially, we started with dinner, because the doctor mentioned it might help her sleep longer. When all it did was make her gassy and uncomfortable, we switched to breakfast. This way, she could start her day with food, we could gage her reactions throughout the day, and it was just easier to prepare foods first thing in the morning, for some reason.

Dinner was added next, and then lunch, for a full three meals around 10 or 11 months. By the time she started daycare at a year old, she was on three meals plus snacks, while still nursing in the morning and before bed.

When did you wean?

I went back to work when LO was 11 months old, and by that point we had dropped to nursing once in the morning, once when I got home from work and once before bed. Over time, we dropped the morning feed and the pre-dinner one, but since bedtime nursing was her favourite thing, that one was harder to let go of. By Christmas time, when she was 16 months old, we decided to stop all together – she wasn’t nursing to sleep any more, and she was eating enough solid food during the day that she really didn’t need milk any more. Plus, I’d dried up on one side, and it was getting difficult to wrangle a nursing toddler.

Did you introduce cow’s milk or a milk alternative?

We tried it all. First, we started with whole cow’s milk, knowing that our doctor recommended this first. She hated it – wouldn’t touch it, even when we added chocolate syrup. Then, we tried almond milk. Both Mr O and I have issues with dairy, so we always have almond milk on hand. Again, she wouldn’t drink it – even mixed half and half with breastmilk, or flavoured. Eventually, we realized that she LOVED to drink water – she would easily down 16 ounces in a day. Since she was getting her calcium from yogurt and cheese, we really didn’t worry about milk from that point on. Even now, at almost 2, she will drink chocolate milk or ‘cereal milk’ from her bowl occasionally, but really prefers water.

When did you switch to straight table food?

By the time we sorted out Little Oats’ aversion to purees, we started feeding her pieces of what we ate.  The timeline is a little foggy, but I know that once we stopped nursing at Christmas, we weren’t making her any special foods any longer – she got her own plate at the table, and ate what we were eating exclusively. If we have something spicy or difficult to chew…or mashed anything (she still hates purees), we’ll make her scrambled eggs and veggies. But 9 times out of 10, she eats what we’re eating.

Talk to me about utensils.

When Little Oats was about 18 months old, we started giving her a plate, a fork and a spoon (rather than just putting food on her high chair tray). She shocked us with her fork abilities – apparently, she’d been using a fork at daycare for quite awhile, and we just didn’t know. The best ones we’ve found are stainless steel, with grippy silicone/rubber handles.  I don’t love the all-plastic ones, because they tend to be harder to stab food with, and they certainly don’t last as long.

What are her eating habits like now at 23 months old?

Most of the time, LO is a great eater. She likes to snack, a lot, so while we give her breakfast, lunch and dinner, we know that by the evening, she’s probably not all that hungry. She eats either oatmeal, a waffle, or Cheerios and blueberries for breakfast, has a mid-morning snack at daycare, has lunch, a mid-afternoon snack at daycare, and most of the time wants a snack when she gets home. We protein-load her at dinner, knowing that even if she only eats a little bit, it will be enough to keep her full through the night. She’s not too keen on vegetables, but will eat cucumber, carrots, ‘french fries’ (any form of baked potato wedge, etc), corn, peas, and beets pretty readily. She’s not a fan of rice, mashed potatoes, or ‘squishy’ vegetables like squash, and she’ll eat salad, but only to suck the dressing off.

Knowing what I know now about her eating habits, I probably would have worried less in the beginning when she wouldn’t eat purees. I had grand plans to make the best tasting baby food ever…and she snubbed it all. But now, her tastes are fairly diverse, she is easy to feed at restaurants and other people’s houses, and she’s putting on an appropriate amount of weight.

How has your little one’s eating evolved over the years?