Finger Food
Age = 1 year 1 month 9 days
Lately Linus has been enjoying lots of finger food and other foods that are chunkier than the food-processed veges that were his staple for his first few months of solids. The mashed and blended mixes still form a big part of his diet, but since he was about 11 months old we’ve been giving him tastes of anything and everything, and he’s well and truly on three meals a day (plus snacks and breastmilk).
He’s taken to food really well, and it has pluses and minuses.
Pluses
It’s great to be able to just give Linus a little piece of whatever we’re eating when he’s hungry, rather than have to get a special jar of baby food out or defrost some home-made veges from the freezer.
It’s also nice that I can make him foods that are more interesting (for both of us!). Over the past week or two he’s had scrambled egg, tinned spaghetti, corn fritters, and cinnamon french toast.
It also means that his leftovers can be quite tasty!
Minuses
The mess. As dexterous as Linus is becoming, he still drops quite a bit of food… banana, grated cheese, apricot slices, toast fingers, beef strips… they all end up on his clothes, his high chair, the floor around him, smeared on the table, and today I even found a couple of pieces of grated carrot down his nappy. When he’s had enough (and sometimes before he’s had enough), Linus also likes to throw his food on the floor.
It is also no longer possible for Daddy or me to eat much around Linus with him wanting a piece of the action. He knows what food is now and he’s not shy about letting us know that what’s ours is his.
We also have to think of food now whenever we go out. In the good old days, as long as Mummy was there, food was there. But now we really need to make sure we’ve thought of bringing some food along if we’re out for more than a couple of hours.
Feeding the Beast
Linus has his meals in a “high” chair that is actually a little chair that clamps onto our dining table. This means that in theory we can eat meals together, and while the three of us do manage porridge together most mornings, the other meals are rarely a family affair – it’s just too tricky to co-ordinate getting Linus ready (between nappy changes, naps, breastfeeds, baths, playtime) and doing household jobs and making our own meals and having visitors and eating our meals and feeding Linus. However as we eat more and more foods the same (i.e. are preparing fewer separate meals for Linus), this might get easier.
Linus is usually quite good at eating his food, but not as “hungry” as some other babies I know, in that he doesn’t seem to (thank goodness!) get desperate and start crying for his food as soon as he knows it’s on its way.
At the moment, he has a very cute habit… Once every few mouthfuls, he’ll decide to open his mouth really wide (SCARY wide!) while squinting. It’s so hard to describe these cute little faces in a blog, I really can’t do it justice 
As a family, we’re getting good at reading each other’s cues now, which is very satisfying. In particular, Bob and I are fairly confident that we know when Linus has had enough. (That sounds like we’re great parents and very in tune with our son’s subtle cues, but it sounds less impressive when you find out that his “I’m full” cue is to throw his food on the floor or swat the spoon away from his face.)
