Since the day Olivia arrived I've never pressured myself to continue to breastfeed her. I just took it one day at a time. I figured hey if it doesn't work out, then it doesn't work out. Well so far it's worked out great, as you've read in previous posts I love it! I never in a million years thought those words would EVER come out of my mouth. Well, I've been breastfeeding her I haven't really pushed solids until her last doctor appointment when her doctor told me she really needed to be on at least cereal by 5 months for the iron especially. So at 5 months I started her on Earth's Best oatmeal cereal. To my surprise she was more than ready for it! She opened her mouth like she knew exactly what she was supposed to do. She even loved the taste and swallowed most of it. This was a new experience for me because Hannah and I really struggled with cereal until I could mix it with some baby food. So a baby willing to eat it as easily as OK was, was a relief.
She'd been eating cereal for a couple of weeks and those two weeks I really put some thought into making her first foods myself. I wasn't sure I was up for the task, I mean honestly I'd never boiled any kind of fruit (ever, sad I know!) so I wasn't sure if it would be easy. I decided to give it a shot after watching a video on BabyCenter.com, I thought it looked easy enough. I packed up the girls and headed to the store on a random afternoon. Scanning through the produce I stared at the apples and pears thinking "I have no idea which apples would be the tastiest (cooked)" I decided to go with Red Delicious because they tasted the best uncooked. Evidently, they are supposedly not the best apples for cooking, as that was what several people had told me. I was debating on going back to the store to pick out something more suitable but then figured why? If she hates them I'll though it out and buy Golden Delicious or another kind. I boiled them (successfully, which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be) and then threw them in to a blender in the water which they were boiled (to try to keep some of the nutrients that cooked out of them) and pressed the button. They blended perfectly but I had to add a tiny bit of water to make them more runny so OK wouldn't choke. I poured them into ice cube trays but left some out for OK to sample. I of course tasted them first and to my surprise they tasted just like super sweet apples!!!! SCORE!!! I scooped up a spoonful and let OK try them next and she ate 1 oz and never spit it out, not even once! I was thrilled and when I did my happy dance she laughed and Hannah just looked at me and said "Mommy doing?" haha.
I then moved on to the pears they were actually a little more juicy or runny after they were blended so when I feed them to her I have to add cereal to them, she gobbled them right up as well! I poured all the blended goodies into my ice trays and stuck them in the freezer. Two apples and two pears gave me enough baby food for OK for at least a week! I cracked ice trays filled with the frozen baby food and placed them into a freezer safe bag and they are ready to go when I need it! All I have to do is take them out a little ahead of time and let them thaw to room temperature and there you have it! I can't wait to try more fruits and add veggies to her diet although I'm in no rush. The feeling of knowing exactly what your baby is eating and there are absolutely NO additional sugars and preservatives is amazing!
I honestly could not believe the flavor. I've tasted the jarred baby food when I fed Hannah and it didn't have much of a taste at all, more watered down in my opinion. I thought about even buying a few sucker sticks from Michael s and making fruit pops for Hannah this summer, even frozen they taste amazing.
Since I've been breastfeeding OK I'm on this all natural kick, but believe me I like a good cheeseburger and fries occasionally! I want to present my girls with healthy foods they can enjoy and it excites me knowing that I can do this! So we'll see how it goes. I'll admit I'm still tempted to just buy the jar of carrots or mango or whatever because it's right there... but I resist of course.
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