Re Baby Fussy Eating
THank you mommies for all your inputs. It was a busy 2 weeks for me. I felt so helpless, with my mom or maid calling me at work and saying "he refused x, so now feed what?" and "1.5 hours already, only half bowl..." He would stare at the mee sua for 5 seconds and then decided he didn't want that alien stuff. Same with star pasta, even though i think the pasta sauce i cooked was ultra yummy with flavorful herbs and even, salt! I thought maybe porridge texture too wet for him, so try rice. Wow, it's forever in his mouth man... To give bb variety and free myself from telling maid every detail of what to cook, i actually ordered a few frozen sets from
www.petitbowl.com. He ate there once many weeks ago and it was ok. But he just clamps his mouth at the sight of the spoon!
To see if he's going thru self-feeding phase, i put his hand on the spoon. He seemed open to the idea, but wanted independence yet can't really control well.. In the end, the battle became such a mess and he decided not to eat. Then I put boiled carrot, sweet potato cubes and some chopped leafy greens in a bowl for him to feed himself (colorful right??? got green and orange), but he just glanced at the bowl and ignored it thereafter, didnt even attempt to play with his food. The saving grace was Gerber's star puffs. We inserted some in between or under the veggie cubes, and he would skillfully pick out ONLY the star puffs (peeling away any leafy veg stuck to the puffs) and feed himself just that. When we saw that we were like, warrao, so clever for the wrong reason.
Finally, we saw a Nutritionist at KK - I dunno lah, felt like a waste of time and money. Told me things i read online like, keep meals to 20 to 30min (he'd hv eaten only 1 baby bite biscuit lor), instead of forcing him to finish his food which may take us 1-1.5 hrs. She also told me to add 1 tsp of oil to all his meals, cos he could do with more calories, but doesnt help me 'cos he refuses food that requires spoon. At the same time, I was shocked that our 13month babies are supposed to be able to eat normal adult food, just maybe cut into smaller pieces. aiyoh, my little boy doesn't really chew unless it's a biscuit/bread leh...
In the end, I did keep to the 30 min of feeding, and because he may not have even started on his food then, I would just feed 120ml milk at the end of the 30 min to top up. Didn't feel right that our 13month old was being fed mainly milk for days. But all for our sanity's sake lah.
He became open to the spoon again just the last weekend, but still not finishing his usual portions. I think he's gradually getting over this phase. See how lah.. What gives me comfort is that he's otherwise an active and happy/cheeky boy. Really thanks for all your advice, Pomme, OP, Leobaby, PHyphy. And Aishite, thanks so much for that link too. Printed a couple of recipes for the maid.