What I Ate (12 month old edition)

I’m starting this post with an 11 month old but I have no faith in my timeliness so I’m titling it as if she’s 1.  It’s soon!

6 am: wake up and nurse

8 am: breakfast
This is a smallish meal for her since she has usually just nursed and will nurse again after her morning nap.

• fruit (right now it’s alllll about blueberries but bananas, melon, and apples work too)
• home-made puree (#1) of some kind

930-1000: wake up from first nap and nurse

1130-1200: lunch
I try to make this mostly finger food that she can eat on her own while I make P’s lunch.

• protein and starch with substance (sweet potato, butternut squash, peas, beans, chickpeas, tofu)
• fruit (something different from her breakfast)
• veggie (that’s different from whatever is in her morning puree)

1 pm: nurse after mid day nap

3 pm: nurse after afternoon nap

5-5:45 pm: dinner
I aim for lots of fat and satiating foods in this meal because I want it to hold her over through the night.

• avocado
• home-made puree (#2) of some kind

She goes to bed around 6 pm and then we eat dinner as a family of three.  P is generally a slow eater and so I take the 30 or so minutes after Kyle and I finish eating to prep for the next day’s meals and such.  I pack Kyle’s lunch first, because that usually involves leftovers of the meal we just ate.  Then I make oatmeal or pancake/waffle batter (for me and P and sometimes V).  And then I make purees for V.  We mostly do (did) baby led wean gin (BLW) but in order to fill her up I supplemented with pureed stuff after letting her dabble in self feeding.  The purees I make all follow the basic formula of grain/protein + veggie with a sweeter fruit to make it more palatable.  I try to puree things she wouldn’t otherwise be able to eat (meaning, things that aren’t finger friendly) but it just depends on what we have on hand.  Ideally, she will continue to get closer and closer to feeding herself entirely, which she already has, and that will mean less pureed stuff from a spoon and more self feeding.  I started out with BLW approach the same as I did with P, but in those early weeks/months it’s mostly just play.  That said, she definitely prefers doing things on her own as opposed to being fed.  From 7-9 months of age I did 50/50 purees and finger food.  Since then, I have been following her lead.  Sometimes she wants to do everything herself and refuses the spoon, and sometimes she realizes it’s easy and delicious to let mama feed her.  She’s the boss.

I always have two different mason jars of pureed food in the fridge (sometimes more if I have a good chunk of time to prep stuff).  One is grain based and then other is (vegetarian) protein based.  I always write the contents on the jar out of habit because my memory is not at all reliable and it’s necessary (a) in case there’s a reaction so I know exactly what the possible culprits are and (b) to keep me aware of what needs extra caution around P (if there’s breast milk, dairy, or wheat I make different decisions in feeding her).

I try to write other notes to myself throughout the week to keep myself organized and streamline the prep – like when I need extra of various ingredients for her purees (rice or quinoa from our dinner) or when I need to cook carrots or sweet potatoes.  I have a mini slow cooker that’s great for hands off steaming.  I alternate which liquids I use between soy milk, almond milk, and occasionally breast milk.  I have MONTHS and MONTHS of breast milk frozen.  I almost always add flax or chia seeds to thicken things up so they have a nice texture for V.

In terms of allergens, V hasn’t had any reactions yet but she still has several foods to try, including peanuts, sesame, certain tree nuts, fish and shell fish.  She had a touch of ground beef a few weeks ago when I was making some for the whole family, but otherwise is basically vegan/vegetarian.  I don’t really know where I see our family’s diet going in the future.  My only goal is to make one thing for us all to eat.  Until she has enough teeth for that, I will continue to feed her as similarly as P and Kyle and I eat as possible.  Since Kyle eats wheat and dairy, she occasionally has access to those foods, but I don’t seek them out for her.  I have to be strategic if I’m giving her cow’s milk yogurt or whatever because she shares toys with P and there’s always a risk for exposure (to him) with that.

Another thing to note is that I am very committed to eating seasonally, so the organic produce that we have access to now isn’t as plentiful as it may be once summer arrives.  In order to keep our diets both organic and affordable, I either omit out of season produce from the grocery list entirely (i.e. strawberries, grapes) or buy it frozen (i.e. green beans).

Below are some examples of purees:

• squash/white bean/spinach/apple (I use frozen squash in a pinch and applesauce)
• coconut milk/hemp seed/carrot/date
• soy milk/raisin/oat/pumpkin
• rice/almond milk/banana/chia seed
• green bean/flax/apple
• sweet potato/pear/chia seed/breast milk
• kale/quinoa/apricot/soy milk (I soak dried fruit before pureeing so it’s soft and easy to blend)

8 pm: I pump and freeze my milk because she doesn’t nurse after 3 pm and I would wake up crazy engorged if I went all that time without relieving myself.  She only recently dropped her 5 pm nursing session so this is still a work in progress as we figure out the best system.  Also worth noting is her wonky nap schedule.  She takes 3 short naps and it’s not really ideal, if I’m being honest.  She seems to want something different (probably two longer naps that are more evenly spaced apart) but thanks to P’s activities, it’s difficult to do.  I don’t remember what I was doing with P at this same age, which may be for the better because each kid is so different, it’s better for me to just tune into her cues as best I can.