Tags
allergies, baby, children, food, homemade food, motherhood, parenting, peanut butter, weaning
With my first, I was ALL about the homemade food. Making from scratch, poaching fish, roasting butternut squash and I generally became a minor kitchen genius (extremely out of character for me!) and had batches of food frozen in advance, defrosted and ready to go for every meal. I was also extremely paranoid and OTT about introducing new foods, you’d have thought she was the first child ever to taste food for the first time. I also nearly had an actual canary when my mum suggested GIVING HER AN EGG.
An egg?
An EGG?
What was the woman THINKING? Was she ‘effing well INSANE?
I had visions of allergies, epi pens and rushing to the emergency room. I was totally paranoid that my child would be the one with the allergies and I totally freaked out when my Mum gave her the traditional ‘egg-beat-up-in-a-cup’ and I’m ashamed to say I had to leave the room. Yes, I’m an idiot. She was fine, of course, and has eaten all sorts since, including peanut butter so thankfully, no allergies here.
Since number two child arrived, I’m definitely more relaxed. I’m not totally gung-ho; I’m not giving him random, scary foods every two minutes, but I’m certainly more easy going about giving him eggs (no allergies either!) and I’ve been braver about doing some aspects of baby-led weaning. My daughter found some foods hard to manage and she gagged occasionally, literally putting my heart in my mouth, never mind hers. But my little man is much better at this. He manages finger foods more easily and seems to prefer being able to feed himself, although he is okay about being spoon fed also. He hasn’t refused any food so far, and really enjoys eating, so I’m more relaxed too.
But I have to confess, I’m also more relaxed about what I’m cooking for him. Of course, he gets nutritious, homemade food, but gone are the days of me sweating it out in the kitchen, cooking special separate meals for baby compared to the rest of the family…I think mums get pushed into thinking they have to make these separate meals for their little ones, and it’s a lovely thing to do, (I did it myself), but it isn’t easy and it isn’t always necessary. Now; Adam gets to eat what we eat, and we are careful about the salt content and we make sure to make it edible for him. So, all in all I’ve learned a few things along the way. It is SO much more enjoyable the second time around!
Now I just have to pluck up the courage to give him some peanut butter…(gulp!)