Thank you, Earth's Best Organic, for sponsoring this post, Transitioning to Solids with Earth's Best Organic. I was selected for this opportunity by Earth's Best Organic; the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
So Ollie is officially eating solids now. He actually has for awhile. Honestly though, it took a bit. You see, Ollie is a runt. A 2 percentile kiddo. A little nugget. And although I love aspects of it, it is really rough. People feel free to tell you how much your kid needs more milk, how you don't feed him enough, and in other words, how you are basically a terrible mom.
None of this was true though. I produced plenty of milk. He ate until he was full, and he was a happy, active baby. Nevertheless, I was excited to start solid foods. I was hoping that it would relieve some of the criticism of having a runt child, but it didn't. Ollie did not like pureed foods. I was devastated. We tried a whole load of them from homemade avocados mixed with breast milk to wonderful organic Earth's Best peas and carrots and apples. We tried for three weeks every night introducing new and different foods, the same food, doing everything the books said. Nothing worked.
Earth's Best Organic Baby Food comes in three stages and I just loved their awesome lineup of organic foods for Ollie spanning stages 1, 2, and 3. Their foods have a vast range of fruits and vegetables to suit even a very picky baby, with Stage 1 options like sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, apples, bananas, and prunes. These were what we started baby Ollie with... but nothing worked. I started to think that it was not necessarily the taste (because honestly, I tasted them and they were pretty yummy), but the texture.
So we attempted Earth's Best Organic Stage 2 options which are even more diverse, including even some exotic fruits and vegetables, fruit and veggie blends, and fruit and grain blends. These Earth's Best products are all organic, which that means no additives, no preservatives, and even no added salt or sugar. These are some of the best on the market and we have been consistently impressed with the quality and taste like I said before. Highly recommended, yet still no luck.
Again the criticism started. How he was seven months old and shouldn't he be bigger? How hard are we actually trying to get him to eat baby food? Why would he not eat baby food? What were we doing wrong? He was definitely interested in what we were eating, but he just would not take the food we were trying.
So we slowly started giving him our food from the table. Soon enough, we thought we were pretty much doing what the cool kids call "Baby Lead Weaning". I'm not making fun. I did a bunch of research and we aren't really doing BLW; however, we were giving Ollie only table foods and he's really been a great eater every since. He loves table food and loves to eat... and still a runt.
But then I was posed another problem. Baby food. I bought loads of Earth's Best Organic baby food along with a few others, trying to get him to like this kind or that kind. What do I do with it? I tried to give it away here and there, but now that Ollie is almost one years old we still have quite a bit. So I brainstormed and came up with two great ways that Ollie is eating all his purees and having a blast while doing it!
1. Baby Food "Ice"
As we learned, Ollie didn't dislike the taste, but he hated the texture. I bought these great chocolate candied molds (in cool shapes and sizes) and freeze his food into bite-sized pieces. They are great to weave two or three of these in with a meal and it makes sure that he gets a varied a foods during dinner!
2. Baby Food Popsicles
It's been a long time since I have made popsicles, but I found these great full sized popsicles containers to squeeze Ollie's food into. He's obsessed with ice cream so now while mom and dad have a snack, we can distract him with his own "popsicle" too -- just carrot flavored! He is just as happy as can be as we are loving him eating a more healthier option than us!
So if you are having trouble with your little one eating baby food, don't despair and keep trying. Go with your gut but allow others to help too! You have this momma!
