We keep feeding Ben more – but not more ENOUGH. Ben is a growing boy. And, although he is a solid little guy, he is also not a very chubby baby. He only has one chin most of the time, and never developed any rolls of chub. I have always had to supplement with formula, and now that he is on solid food, we are finding that we keep having to add more and more to keep up with demand.
Today, Ben consumed:
– a wake-up nursing session
– a 4oz jar of banana-apricot-mixed grain baby food
– a mommy & me movie time nursing session
– a 4oz jar of peas-rice-turkey baby food
– a 4oz bottle of formula (I was at the office & couldn’t whip out a boob)
– an upon-return-home nursing session
– a 4oz jar of sweet potatoes
– half an avocado (he usually gets 1/4, but he has been waking up hungry at midnight, so I wanted to try giving him a calorie-dense dinner)
– miscellaneous rice rusks and puffs
– a bedtime nursing session
I am trying to replace the formula with foods where possible. We have also fed Ben baby yogurt before, but ran out & kept forgetting to buy more. And one of my other challenges is to start preparing dinner earlier so we can all eat as a family. Then we can start sharing whatever we are eating with Ben – provided it is pureed.
I also bought a RIDICULOUS amount of baby food on Amazon.com this month. The Earth’s Best brand was on sale, and when you add in the subscription discount, it works out to about 30% off grocery store prices. I was planning to be one of those moms who actually makes their kids baby food, but right now, I can only handle taking care of Paul and myself, plus my work, keeping the house clean, and being Ben’s mommy. I consider spending the extra cash on jarred food to be just fine because it saves me time & stress. Perhaps I will start making more Ben food when he is bigger.
Still, it seems like just yesterday that Ben was a little baby who only consumed liquids, or, at most, a little rice cereal. Now he is a big boy who eats like a champ. We are planning to roll yogurt back in tomorrow, so he will get three big-boy meals a day. I will try giving him (or having his daycare give him) his fruit and cereal (usually a 4oz jar plus 2oz of cereal) in the morning, a baby meal at lunch (ie. one of the ones with chicken in it) and a vegetable plus more fat at night (avocado, full-fat baby yogurt, etc). All this plus his nursing, and formula supplementation when necessary, and the dissolve-in-mouth rice snacks we give him to gnaw on. He must be a quickly growing boy.
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