Sofia's broccoli diaries

Well we seem to be back on track, or maybe just having a good couple of days, I guess it'll be up and down for a while but when it goes well it's just great. Sofia has tried chicken,clementine, greek yogurt and eggy bread, wasn't too keen on chiken the first time but loved it the second time she tried it, she will eat any amount of yogurt I offer her it seems and had almost a whole slice of eggy bread this morning. She enjoyed her eggy bread so much that even Dan made a comment about how nice it was to see her feeding herself and enjoying her food, and even said that he had been converted to baby led weaning! she even had a little porridge (quinoa) and some broccoli today
All this food has however made her quite constipated and we're having to increase the water intake and I've been giving her dried apricots and have some prunes in the cupboard just in case. In any case her tiny 'roll of the nappy' poos are hilarious and don't seem to be causing her pain.

Had another try with pasta, this time spagetti with a tiny bit tomato and onion sauce I made, I thought she could try to grab handfulls of it and bring them to her mouth. Strangely she hated the way it felt to touch, everytime she tired to grab it she pulled a funny face and shuddered. She did give it a try though and loved it, I'm sure it was the sauce more than the pasta, but the pasta was a bit overcooked so it broke up nicely in her mouth. She preffered it if I held the spagetti in my hand and then she grabbed my hand and took it to her mouth, then she didn't have to touch it.
We have also been trying out porridge pancakes for breakfast and they have been a complete disaster, I just can't get the consisitency right, so they break up too easily, not had much luck with the taste either, she hated them plain but liked them with blueberries or banana. Baby porridge didn't work and neither did our normal porridge, but quinoa flakes seems to work a little better, still not good enough though and I have wated so much time and expressed milk that I've decided not to bother anymore, I'll probably offer quinoa porridge with fruit sometimes but not bother trying to make it into pancakes.
We also tried a tuna melt in pitta bread and it worked brilliantly as it went quite solid as it cooled, Sofia loved the taste and poilshed off about half a pitta by herself followed by a quarter of a pear.
I find it really strange how somethings she will eat lots of and other things she will chew or lick and then spit out, but she seems just as excited about them. I guess it's all about exploring tastes and textures.
She seems to have gone backwards a little in terms of her dexterity, she was doing very well picking things up, passing them from one hand to the other and even turning them around in her hand to get to the bit she wanted, she was also eating so well from a loaded spoon and now she seems to be struggling with it all again. I wonder whether it is just the foods that I've offered? or whether she just can't be bothered to try as hard?
I'm also concerned that all her favourite things seem to be very high in salt (bread, pitta and cheese which she seems to polish off in seconds) so will have to look for lower salt brands or try to limit the amount she has or how frequently I offer them.
Next on the list of things to try are chiken and yogurt, I love seeing her reaction when she tries new things, she screws up her face and shudders and then opens her eyes really wide and happily dives in.
After saying dada for a day she has not wanted to do it again, which is so frustrating because people don't believe me and my only witness (Dan) was half asleep when he heard her and says he can't be sure that she really said dada This week she prefers to scream and shriek constantly, my head hurts! although she has said ah-da a couple of times and once she said mummum very clearly but again I have no witnesses so will not brag about it until I do.

Funny how now she has tried other things she just won't touch broccoli, I'm going to have to change the name of this blog She enjoyed it so much when she first tried it, I'm so dissapointed that she won't eat it now, I'll keep offering it every now and then, maybe she'll change her mind.
We've tried lots of new things in the last two days, eggs (in a mini omelette), pasta (fusilli), cheese (mature cheddar), aubergine and asparagus. Eggs and cheese were a huge success, the other things ... not so much!
I added lots of blueberries to her cereal this morning but accidentally made baby rice instead of porridge, still, she fed herself a few loaded spoonfulls, not enough to make a full breakfast though. I will try with baby porridge tomorrow and if that doesn't work I think I will try normal adult porridge in case it is a texture thing.
So far this week she has eaten A LOT of papaya, it is probably her favourite thing, closely followed by toast, she also ate a lot of cheese although I've only offered it once, she ate most of the piece I gave her. Apple puree (loaded spoon)she also ate quite a bit of, and banana too. Although she loved eggs she didn't manage to swallow much, mostly just sucked, chewed and spat out. I was surprised that she didn't like pasta, but I guess it was plain and quite hard for her to pick up.
Oh and she also loooooves water, she's been drinking it out of a doidy cup and cannot get enough of it. I'm only letting her have sips though as I don't want her to fill up on water and not have her milk.

... Nearly forgot to write that she finally said dada yesterday, she said 3 times in the morning and a couple more times during the day, and typically, today she wouldn't say anything at all!

Sofia doesn't like cereal, I tried letting her feed herself some baby rice with milk, she had a taste and then clamped her mouth shut and wouldn't open it as long as the spoon was near her. I tried porridge with a similar result, so I decided to try making 'porridge pancakes' with some apple puree mixed in to sweeten them, unfortunately I think I added too much milk or maybe didn't make them thick enough as they fell apart way too easily. I don't think she was that keen though, she had two mouth fulls and then lost interest, I might try making them with less milk and with blueberries instead of apple puree, not holding out much hope though.
Since she's getting better with slippery things, I offered banana again and some papaya, both went down very well, she ate quite a bit and had her first solid poo today I don't think I'll give her banana's too often!
She also swiped my pitta bread this morning and loved it, it made her gag quite a bit though and I had to give her a couple of sips of water to help her swallow the dry bits that were stuck in her mouth, it might be easier for her to manage with something else, like a sauce or mashed avocado or something like that.
I want to try her with some egg, but she had a little rash on her face today and though I think it was just from the papaya juice I want to wait and make sure that it's not a reaction to something.
I also wanted to mention, Sofia is very close to saying her first word, she makes sounds like meh, moo, ba-ba-ba, ma and da, her favourite sound seems to be ba-ba and she says it constantly, unfotunately we've not had a mama or dad yet, although we had a 'ba-ma' this morning. Dan reckons she was trying to say Obama

I can't believe Sofia will be 6 months tomorrow! I'm sure it was only yesterday we brought her home from the hospital.
Weaning has been going well, I have tried to offer her something most days and it has made a huge difference to her hand-eye co-ordination, she is managing slippery things quite well now and though she still drops them and gets a little frustrated she usually manages to pick them back up and have a good go at them.
We have had huge success with avocado, butternut squash, potatoes (chips) and fried slices of apple and she has now tried some carrot even though previously she had refused to touch it.
Courgette wasn't so succesful, it made her gag a little, beetroot was very messy and though I thought she hadn't eaten any, her nappy showed otherwise.
We just had the best weekend though, Sofia and I went to visit my mum as we were going to a family wedding, my grandmother was there as well and both had expressed concerns about Sofia not getting purees, milk not being enough for her and about choking.
Well, my little girl decided to show off by eating quite a bit of melon (a couple of small gags but dealt with the bits really well and showed how well she can cope with lumps) and had her first taste of toast and ate quite a bit too. But most amazing of all she fed herself from a loaded spoon, up until now she had only been playing with a spoon and often put the wrong end in her mouth but this time I thought I'd offer Sofia some fruit mush to make the grandmothers feel better and as I brought the spoon near her she reached out for it, put it straight in her mouth and fed herself as if she'd been doing it for ages, she then took the spoon out and rubbed it all over her face, but I kept passing her loaded spoonfulls and she did it again and again, it wasn't even as messy as I thought it would be, except for when she accidentally flicked the spoon. My mum and grandmother where so impressed and I felt so proud!
BLW is great and I can't believe how well it's going and how quickly she is getting the hang of it.

We have been taking things slowly as planned, in the last week Sofia has tried some pear and some sweet potato.
The pear was not as popular as I thought it would be, she struggled to hold on to it, wasn't too excited about the taste, but managed to eat a tiny amount.
The sweet potato on the other hand was a huge hit. I cut the sweet potato with a crinkle cutter to make it easier for her to grip, and roasted it in the oven. Sofia loved the taste and I could tell she was eating it, as she managed to squeeze the mushy middle out kind of like toothpaste from a tube, she smeared it across her face, neck, ears, tray etc... but some of it made it into her mouth.
unfortunately, this morning the sweet potato reappeared in her worst nappy to date, she had clearly eaten LOTS of it and it gave her diarrhea. Poor baby, I thought with this BLW she would know when she'd had enough!?
It probably wasn't anymore than a baby who's being spoon fed puree would have had though, so it's probably just her digestive system getting used to the food, it does seem that whenever she manages to ingest some food she poos for England, and she didn't seem to be in a pain or uncomfortable.
Milk only day today to give her tummy a break after all the sweet potato. I've been offering her food a couple of times a week which I was hoping would be a nice slow introduction to food, I wasn't counting on her being so greedy!

From the beginning

Sofia is 5 months and 1 week old and has been breastfed exclusively until now. In the last 3 weeks or so she has become very interested in food, she watches us eat and makes chewing motions with her mouth, she also manages to look a little sad as if to say, 'mummy why are you starving me?' or at least that's what I imagine she's thinking.
We are planning to do baby-led weaning which means letting Sofia set the pace, the idea is that babies will feed themselves when they are developmentally ready to do so, and this happens at around 6 months of age.
Since Sofia seemed so interested, last saturday I offered her some food to play with, I started by placing some steamed broccoli florets on the tray of her bumbo, she immediately picked one up and started noisily sucking on it, chewing and swallowing, she gagged a little bit, then carried on.
It was evident from the contents of her nappy the following morning that she had eaten a fair bit.
After the broccoli feast I became a bit nervous, surely she is too young to be eating, but if she is actually chewing and swallowing then she must be ready to start, what if she chokes? I know she is less likely to choke if she is in control of what goes in her mouth but the thought just terrifies me.
A couple of days later I offered her a piece of roast parsnip which she also seemed to love and ate a fair amount. I have since then tried banana, plum and nectarine, none of which she managed to eat, they were just too slippery and she got very frustrated by not being able to keep hold of them. She loved the taste of the plum though and got very excited trying to eat it, but also very upset everytime it came flying out of her hands.
I am concerned about what effects the food that she is eating could have on her tummy so my plan is to take things very slowly and only offer food every few days if she seems interested, and only fruit and vegetables until she is 6 months old.
I thought I'd also mention that friday (16th) was the first time that Sofia sat unsupported, all by herself for a good 5 minutes, I'm a very proud mummy!
Today Sofia had a rice cake, to show grandma how well she can eat on her own, cue lots of gagging and panic from grandma who I had to stop from sticking her fingers down Sofia's throat, I have to say I panicked too but tried my best not to show it and Sofia brought the bit of rice cake back up, chewed it some more and swallowed it. My mum left thinking I'm going to let her granddaughter choke, and I have to say it has knocked my confidence a bit.
Sofia also sucked on a slice of cucumber and a slice of tomato whithout the seeds. She seemed to love both, and got very upset when they got taken away from her, we were in an Indian restaurant.
She has been a little sicky today, she's brought a little milk back up twice which is so unlike her. Wondering if it could be because of the solids?... I don't think she has actually ingested much though, the only things she has definitely eaten are broccoli and parsnip and that was a few days ago.
I think we'll have a milk only day tomorrow and see what happens.
Here are some pictures of the broccoli feast: