How to get your baby's meals aligned with yours??

[alkagift]

Satter says that when you graduate to table food, you serve approximately what you're having and feed the baby when you eat yourself. HOW?? In the morning I can't seem to get it together to eat and get him fed at the same time--and I can't feed him what I eat, I'm eating cold cereal. At lunch I'm better organized, but I don't think giving him my veggie burger or last night's leftovers are too nutritious, so I end up making something seperate for him and then I eat lunch during his afternoon nap. I will eventually get these meals in line with his, if I can get him eating more variety but dinner is impossible. DS goes to bed by 6 and I can't even start MAKING dinner until 5:30--hubby and I sit down between 6:30 and 7:00.

What do you guys do? Help!


Allison
Mom to Matthew Clayton, 5/19/03

[amp]

Well, none of this may work for you w/ your son's schedule, but here's what I do. I am a SAHM, so when DH is getting ready to walk out the door to work, I am in the process of pulling together DS's breakfast. Sometimes we eat the same thing (frozen pancakes, toast, banana, cheerios) but sometimes he has something different (diced apples, pears, grapes, etc).

Lunch and dinner are most often whatever we are eating. If we are eating something we can't feed him, we still try to coincide the mealtimes. Although, I admit, we often get DS started before we can actually sit down. He just gets too hungry and we he starts seeing and smelling it, he gets pretty anxious to eat. But our mealtimes do coincide for the most part. DS doesn't go to bed until at least 7pm, so dinner at 6pm works fine. We thrive on and rely on food we've prepared and frozen though. We marinate, season & cook chicken and beef and freeze to later use in our meals. It saves a lot of time.

[Rachels]

It's a guideline, not a hard and fast rule. :) It took me a while to get our schedules coordinated, and I ALWAYS err on the side of giving her regular meals at about the same times, whether or not I'm able to eat then, too. As she has gotten older and more predictable, our schedules have synchronized. Don't panic. :) Maybe just start with sitting down with him and having a light snack, and then as you guys get the hang of it all, you'll slowly find that you're eating together. In our case, it took four or five months for that to become the norm.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[mharling]

Lane & I come downstairs and start breakfast while dh gets ready for work. I give him something he can eat by himself (banana, grapes or Cheerios usually) while I pull everything else together. We usually have some combination of pancakes, frozen waffles, scrambled eggs, Cheerios, fruit or yogurt.

For lunch, we usually eat the same thing. Today it was leftover meatloaf and scalloped corn. Lane also got toast and I fed him yogurt when I was done eating. One thing I do frequently is make a cheese quesidalla; Lane eats 1/4 and I eat 3/4 and then we have some fruit in addition to that.

Dinner is tough, because dh gets home late and I feed Lane by himself. This is the meal I scramble the most to put together and it frequently does not resemble a meal, kwim? We do all eat together on the weekends and Lane usually has what we have. Pork tenderloin, chili, veggies, bread, even pizza. Aside from super-spicy foods or the foods he can't have yet (nuts, nut butters, honey, etc), there's not much we won't offer him.

To be honest, feeding Lane has made me more conscious about when and what I eat. Aligning your meals *should* make things easier for you. Good luck!

Mary
Lane 4/6/03

[alkagift]

Thanks everyone, I re-read my message and the distinctive "freakout" tone is there! I guess I was having a bad mommy moment--this issue is making me crazy. I realized that part of the problem is that he's not eating enough variety yet to make it easy for us to eat what he eats, so I'm trying to up the exposure.

Typically what's happening is that I eat before he gets up (DH is out the door at 5:30) and then I have coffee and toast with Matt--he sometimes eats toast too, since I introduced wheat this week. For lunch I live on veggie burgers. I have come to realize that I don't eat enough vegetables--Matt eats them more often than me! So, I guess I could add whatever veggie he's eating to my meal too. I also get him started early on Cheerios to keep him occupied while the food is heated.

I tried to have DH and I eat appetizers with Matt while dinner was simmering and we fed Matt at 5:30. However, he went nuts howling to have chips and salsa--even though he had his favorites in front of him. So, I had to stop that until I can get him exposed to more things. I wish the bedtime could be later but if we try that he is a crankpot and won't eat.

I noticed a lot of people feed cheese--I thought that cow's milk stuff was out until 12 months. When did you introduce cheese?

Thanks!
Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, 5/19/03

[amp]

We don't feed milk directly, but we introduced cheese and full fat yogurt around 6 or 7 mths or so. He loves it and luckily hasn't had any reactions.

[mharling]

If there is a family history of allergies, you would probably want to wait to introduce dairy. I also think that part of the 12-month recommendation is to make sure that people don't think they can offer cow's milk to replace breastmilk or formula.

We started Lane on yogurt around 8 months and cheese shortly thereafter. He loves both!

Mary
Lane 4/6/03

[stillplayswithbarbies]

the problem with cow's milk is that the proteins in cow's milk are too large to be digested by babies until they are about 12 months old.

Cooking the milk, or apparently making cheese or yogurt out of it, breaks down the proteins so they can be digested. This is why babies can drink formula, because it is cooked as part of the manufacturing process. (and why foundling babies used to be fed on canned milk and Kayro syrup in the old days)

This is also why some babies can tolerate goat's milk. The smaller the animal, the smaller the proteins in their milk.

...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03

[JElaineB]

<<This is also why some babies can tolerate goat's milk. The smaller the animal, the smaller the proteins in their milk.>>

Smaller animals do not necessarily have smaller proteins. For example, Alpha-S1 casein, a major allergen in cow's milk, is the same size in goat's milk as in cow's milk (214 amino acids long from what I can tell). Goat's milk just has a lot less of this protein in it, which is why some people who are allergic to cow's milk can drink goat's milk. The overall protein composition of goat's milk is different than cow's milk; because of this it forms softer curds in the stomach than cow's milk, making it easier to digest.

More info on goat's milk:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T032400.asp

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[houseof3boys]

Allison try the yo baby yogurt or stonyfield farms plain yogurt and see how Matthew does with that. I give Ryan about half of a small container and add wheat germ for texture and more vitamins and he gobbles it up! I give it to him every other day (dont' remember where I read that)since he is not a fan of cheese yet.

What are Matthew's stats these days? Ryan is still a stick and he's now 10th percentile for weight so I'm trying to fatten him up. I did give him a nibble of my Garden burger the other day, but he snubbed his nose at me. :)

[MartiesMom2B]

Debbi:

That's a good idea regarding the wheat germ. I'll have to grab some for Martie and see if she likes it. I'm sure she'll eat anything with the yo baby though.

Sonia
Proud Mommy to Martie 4/6/03

[houseof3boys]

It's actually pretty darn tasty. I bought the toasted wheat germ and it has a really nice flavor to it. I'm sure that Martie will love it. I tried it with plain Stonyfield Farms yogurt and some pear and he gobbled it up. :)

[alkagift]

Debbi,
Matt's 30 1/2 inches long--way huge in that department and just under 50th percentile on the weight, which is making pants a bit of a challenge--they keep falling off, so he's living in overalls! I have to say that I am really trying not to off-load my own "low fat" issues on Matt, so I appreciate how concious (sp?) it is to make sure that the fat is there for Ryan. He is such a cutie!

The wheat germ is an excellent idea, I hadn't thought of that before but I will try that! The whole milk yogurt is a hit!! YAY!

Allison
Mommy to Matthew Clayton, 5/19/03