It’s hard to believe the Bufflo Gals have gone from this:
To this:
And as they’ve grown, things have changed with the way we feed them around here. Some things have worked great, others haven’t worked out.
I really wanted to make my own baby food.
And then I met my babies. One wants nothing to do with being spoon fed (as I mentioned in an earlier post) and the other vomits the minute she tastes my homemade food. Not just spits it out. Vomits.
At first, I was sort of offended by this. I thought I had a picky baby, since she would happily gobble down jars of purees both veggie and fruit, and then immediately gag and choke on my homemade stuff that, to my eye, seemed exactly the same as the stuff in a jar. In fact, I remained irritated and offended by this for a few months.
And then I finally googled “spina bifida texture issues” and learned that this is common to many babies with spina bifida, and often requires occupational therapy to fix. And then I felt like a jerk.
We’re looking into our OT and PT options and will be getting a referral soon, but in the meantime, I have accepted that homemade baby food is just not our thing. I can make a few very thin varieties that she will eat (like tomato carrot!), but, since straining every puree through a fine mesh strainer is a huge hassle, I will just be buying jarred purees for Claire. There’s a huge variety of organic Earth’s Best foods available, so that’s mostly what we’re going with. I even got over my aversion to pureed meat, because if she’s gonna be on these things for longer than average, I want to let her have some proteins, and the only other option is lentil dinner.
Meanwhile, Etta is doing a sort of half-assed version of Baby Led Weaning. I haven’t read the books, but I’ve read about it on the internet, and, like most of the rest of my parenting, am sort of doing what feels right. She gets soft chunks of things cut into pieces she can hold in her fist. Sweet potato, pasta, carrot, watermelon, cantaloupe, cheese, and toast are all favorites. It’s going pretty well.
Next step: transitioning from formula to milk in about a month, and also trying to transition from bottles to sippy cups. Anyone have tips on that? Both of my girls still have issues with fast-flow nipples, and they nearly drown in sippy cups.
erniebufflo's south & west kitchen 
Try a Nuby sippy? It only flows if they kind of clamp down on the spout, so it gives them a little control. It’s not an ideal long term solution because it’s a bit like a bottle, but from what I’ve read, it’s a great transition sippy (Nuby has a line that progresses from stage 1-3 and gets progressively less bottle-like)
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I’ve been lurking for a while now, but thought I’d chime in on this one. My twin boys would NOT drink from a sippy cup even if I gave it to them in place of a bottle with the warmed formula (yes, I warmed it for them. I think it had to do with my mommy guilt when I stopped nursing them at about 7 months…) I offered them some regular milk at meal times to increase their interest in the cup while they still received formula in a bottle. Our pediatrician recommended offering a bottle of water if they wouldn’t drink from the cup. I followed their cues on how they wanted to drink and ended up using the Playtex straw cups. They have a valve and they don’t have to worry about tilting them (they never got to holding their own bottles.)
On another note, I did the transition cold-turkey since I realized there was a psychological attachment to the bottle when one of my boys would rather drink the plain water from a bottle than drink milk out of a cup (this was a couple of weeks after they turned 1.)
There are sooooo many cup options and you may end up buying a lot of different types before you find one that they like.
Best of luck with bottle weaning!
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We like the Nuk cups because they have a good progression of stages. It is so interesting to me how every child is so incredibly different and they already have their little quirks and tastes. Fisher refused all purees after 8 months and only wanted to feed himself. It was way frustrating, but he is a strong-willed child after my own heart. He also refused cow’s milk (would spit it straight out) from 1 yr until 3 weeks ago (19 months). One day he saw the jug in the fridge and asked for it and has been chugging it like a frat boy at a keg party ever since. So bizarre.
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does your target or wal mart or grocery store carry plum organics or happy baby or ellas? all those squeezy pouches are organic, come in amazing flavors and are pretty nice and thin. (dominicks, a regional grocery store, has their own line for super cheap- not sure who owns them for your local branch though) i found the squash ones a bit thicker. my daughter (9 mos) looooves them. were also about to move to sippys and im buying one of every single one on amazon (i have older kids but have tossed their sippys) and letting her figure it out. so far we just knaw on the ours too. i always do the transition to sippys first and then go cold turkey on bottles.
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A straw sippy cup did the trick for one of the 9mo old twin boys I nanny. One prefers the exact same one Etta is holding but the other likes the straw. Now if only I could get them to HOLD it…
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