In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early (36 weeks and 2 days) and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
He was tiny little baby; 18″ tall, weighing 5 lb 6 oz…
Day 302..
Today, he tried English muffin (plain one cut up into dice and soaked in breast milk and cooked in the pan).He liked it.
I did not want to start with cereal but since he now can enjoy wider variety of carbohydrate,mineral/vitamin source, protein source, I decided to introduce western food a bit.
He tried corn flakes last week and he can have it.However, finding the corn flakes without preservative such as BHT or coloring, corn syrup, sugar was the hardest part.
I wanted to get corn flakes which is corn and salt are the only ingredient but our grocery store and other stores that we looked at did not carry it so, I settled with While Foods Market’s 365 corn flakes that had less ingredients without preservatives, coloring,corn syrup or sugar (365 corn flakes used cane sugar so I compromised on that).
Anyway, his breakfast menu include….
Creamy Kabocha soup (Japanese pumpkin soup)
How to make: Mix 2 tsp mashed kabocha pumpkin (or you could use acorn squash) and 2 tsp breast milk (or formula) and add 1/4 tsp corn starch and microwave about 23-25 seconds mixing the soup at about 12 seconds time
Sea bass cucumber salad
English muffin
Corn flakes with yogurt (this was served with breast milk mixed in right before he eats it 🙂
I got a lot of excitement gesture from Liam today.Especially the soup.He loved pumpkin soup!He leaned forward with mouth open very very wide while he is buckled up in the high chair.
Day 307..
Here are today’s meal.
#1; Somen noodle with red pepper in Dashi soup, Strawberry salmon, and orange #2 English muffin with kinako (roasted soy flour), Tomato-spinach-carrot vegetable soup
#3 Corn flakes, Cottage cheese with Ahi tuna, ,Acorn squash with onion, and strawberry
Today, he was playing with English muffin a bit.I saw him playing with it a bit then hold his arm to the side and dropped the bread.
Of course, who else would be happy for the unexpected treats on the floor? Yes, Palette came and cleaned the area up very good.I think she loved his food too!Her nose was very wet.
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early (36 weeks and 2 days) and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
He was tiny little baby; 18″ tall, weighing 5 lb 6 oz…
Day 296..
Today, I weighed him and he weighed 17.5 lb. He sits steady if he is having his hands on the floor but he has not sat without support yet.
As for solid food adventure, he had green beans. He had it this morning and he liked it:-) So far, cantaloupe is the only food he is bit iffy about to eat on its own (probably not the texture he can smash with his gum yet. He will eat it if mixed with cottage cheese or yogurt, but not on its own) .
Day 298..
I needed to make Liam’s broccoli and he cannot have stem part just yet, I ate the stem part (steamed) from his broccoli making.
Nothing shall be wasted,lol.
It was busy morning.. I made…. edamame new batch, onion new batch, broccoli new batch, and new fish for him tomorrow. When I look at the clock.it was close to noon already…
Liam just had his lunch after batch cooking and, he was so funny.It was oatmeal dish served with side veg dish; pinto bean, kabocha pumpkin, carrot, and flounder and every time he finishes chewing and swallow, he opened his mouth real big and lean forward while straps on the high chair is keeping him so he would not lean forward too much.
His legs were kicking and arms were looking like riding on the motorcycle and he made sound too!
Solid food time is very interesting and fun time!
Liam’s breakfast today.He had Mickey mouse,lol.
Menu include: Potato, creamy tomato soup, 5 bai gayu (porridge made with ratio water 5 rice 1) ,and green bean-tofu-flounder.
Tomorrow, he will be trying out Ahi Tuna. Since he cannot eat it raw, I have cooked up all the way with konbu. Hope he likes it:-)
Day 299…
Day 300…
Liam’s breakfast today. The meal from today will be a bit more fancier than a week before.He gets to explore more flavor and number of dishes:-)
Since he does good on yogurt and cottage cheese, he is now can try out butter. So, I have whipped up the white sauce in small amount and made Macaroni with white sauce:-)
Macaroni pasta’s chunk gets bigger from today from 2-3mm to 5mm.He did ok on that.He loved his new macaroni dish.The dish was topped off with corn.
Another side dish you see here is Ahi tuna and Asparagus in one, and Spinach soup in the other. The spinach soup was with Konbu dashi plus water from long simmered onion making.Liam loves the soup base combo too.
His lunch is based around Oatmeal, and dinner is based around bread gayu (rough torn bread without crust soaked in breast milk and cooked).
I am currently making 5 bai gayu (porridge made with water 5 rice 1 ratio) for Liam tomorrow.I made Potato for Liam in the morning. I am his personal chef,lol.
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early (36 weeks and 2 days) and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
He was tiny little baby; 18″ tall, weighing 5 lb 6 oz…
Day 283..
Liam tried salmon for the first time….The food is #35.
Day 285…
Liam had macaroni chicken soup with nappa cabbage along with orange salmon.He had macaroni soup with konbu dashi base.
He really like macaroni soup and opens up his mouth enough to make me think that his jaw might break,lol
He loves his food very much as much as fruits coated fish like orange salmon;simply mix orange with salmon.
Day 287..
Liam’s solid food today was both hit!
He opened his mouth enough to make me think his jaw would drop to the floor and he was moving his legs up and down restlessly with clapping hands.
Yes,he really loved these meals.
3 dish picture was breakfast and it include sweet potato pangayu with cantalope ( pangayu is bread tore into small bits without crust cooked in breast milk) , chicken soup with onion carrot edamame, and his dessert was Kinako Fuji apple (kinako is roasted soybean flour often used to coat Japanese sweets)
2 dish meal was his dinner and it is 7bai gayu with nappa cabbage (7 bai gayu is the porridge made with ratio water 7 rice 1.Rice itself is not mashed at all) served with Orange salmon salad (Salmon,cucumber,orange is mixed together). I find that he likes fish mixed with fruits like orange.
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early (36 weeks and 2 days) and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
He was tiny little baby; 18″ tall, weighing 5 lb 6 oz…
Day 277..
Today,when we went to Genetic doctor, he weighed a little over 17 lb.Liam is getting heavier each day.
On our way back, we stopped by zoo and we had great time there.
Me and my father fed giraffe and goat:-)
Feeding such a big animal is something we cannot do back home so, I think it was something unique thing my father could experience.
Then, took him to steakhouse where he gets to pick the steak he wants to cook. He was surprised with the size of the meal (steak itself) but he enjoyed the American plate:-)
Liam had long day today and his day finished with skype with my mother.She put eye glasses case and dropped it to the desk and Liam was giggling so much but soon, he started leaning backward;meaning he got sleepy so he went to bed:-)
Oh,at the zoo, chimpanzee was gathering up the mud and tossing it to the crowd.we wanted to video him but by the time we decided we want to, he stopped tossing the mud to the crowd…
Day 279..
Another Liam’s favorite meal from this morning.
He had Kinako (roasted whole soybean flour called kinako, often used to coat mochi cake or ohagi sticky rice or dango or Japanese sweets), for the first time and he really liked it.
A couple of days ago, he tried rolled oats cooked in breast milk for the first time and today, he had that topped with kinako, orange flounder,and cucumber salad.
Rolled oat with Kinako was his favorite of all and he tried to nom my knuckle with big wide mouth (could not wait for me to get spoonful of another bite.He thought I was slow) and sometimes, he tried to put his finger in the oat meal:-)
He will have 7bai gayu; porridge made with rice 1 vs water 7 ratio with almost whole shape of rice and no complete mash,less water than before.His food is getting for bigger kid:-)
More on Kinako here. Kinako is Iron rich,nutritious food and many babies in Japan try that in solid food phase around 2nd months.You will find that kinako is used so much in Japanese cuisine.
Day 281..
My father is now in the plane flying back to Japan. It was such a great time together but I felt time passed by so fast!
Now he is not at home, I feel like home is empty.I would like to see him again soon… Too bad he is not living in the same country where we can meet anytime we want to..
At the Airport, since my father was using the Airline I was working for, I got to talk to ex boss and, I got to meet one other co-worker there plus one I know ;the Vietnamese travel agent who help Vietnamese passengers and such.
They were like “Awwww.. Cute! Look at that long eye lashes (it seems that everyone notices)” with big big smiles.
There were not many passengers in line trying to checking in, still at the time my father has checked in so, we four got to chat a bit and Liam got more persons to meet.
It has been about 7-8 years since I left the work to continue trying IVF and I did not find many faces that I recognize.
The boss said to me that when we go back to Japan next time, she will get us family support service;help carrying all luggage , escorting gate to gate etc..
It is nice to meet people from old times:-) It brings memories.I remember I was making boarding announcement, or checking passengers in, escorting high rank passengers or simply helping around….
I loved watching our plane taking off to the sky everyday..
If you like to go visit Japan, All Nippon Airways is very good. They do not serve nuts but rice crackers and flight menu is varied and you get to taste Japanese noodle (Japanese style meal) or western style meal.One thing that I was impressed with with the Airline that I worked for was that the bathroom floor was free of toilet papers which I normally find bunch of toilet papers on the floor with other airlines and always neat,tidy and clean.
I liked that, and service is good.My husband says service he gets in Japan or All Nippon Airways is better, too. Day 282..
After the milk time, he is drinking boiled cool water for dental hygiene,and when I made funny sound,he cracked up very big and the water came out from his mouth when giggle,lol.
He made squeaky sound with giggle and clapped his hands.I think I hit his giggle spot!
For now, he got 4 bottom teeth and no top teeth yet.
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early (36 weeks and 2 days) and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
He was tiny little baby; 18″ tall, weighing 5 lb 6 oz…
Day 268..
Liam’s solid food today was noodle:-)
Liam had… vegetable macaroni soup (with carrot and onion) and chicken tender and apple for breakfast
For night, He had Udon soup with corn, cod with acorn squash and shanghai bok choy for dinner.
His meal is a little bit developed and he now can eat more various protein and carbohydrate ingredient:-)
Day 270..
Liam did skype with his cousin Aito (1 year 6 months old) in Japan and his sister Ria and my parents.
Today, my sister’s 2nd kid (son) has ceremony to get into the kindergarten so my parents were her kids’ baby sitter.
My mother and Ria put something on top of their head and bowed so it would drop and it made Liam big giggles;-)
He never missed giggling.
Day 271..
We have introduced new solid food item:cucumber.
Day 275..
When your little ones are old enough to start eating solid food that include chicken (white meat) and other vegetables (probably 3rd months on solid food where food are served in size of 2mm-3mm fine chop rather than paste) that I am using in the recipe, you can try Liam’s fav dish.
Here is the short baby’s solid food version recipe “chicken noodle soup” if you like to try.
<Make chicken broth>
1. Cut 2/3 chicken breast (skinless, boneless) into smaller rough pieces,and put it into the food processor to make your own ground chicken.
Pulse the food processor and grind them until the meat gets one solid ball of ground meat but not too pasty
2. In the sauce pan, add 200 cc water and 50gram (about 2 oz) peeled and thinly sliced carrot and 50 g ( about 2 oz) sweet onion sliced and all the ground chicken breast and let it come to boil and turn the heat down a bit to simmer once boiled for about 15 minutes or so until vegetables gets tender enough to be able to mash with back of the spoon
3. Drain the broth into small container (Now you got the broth)
4. Remove the vegetables;carrot and onion, and put it onto the cutting board and fine chop them into the size of 2mm-3mm bits and use that for later for another day when you want to make veg soup or some sort for the little ones;you can add chicken broth you made or you can make konbu dashi or you can use liquid you cooked white fish with as soup base
<Make macaroni;Good from 3rd months on solid food>
1. cook the macaroni (I overcook the macaroni a bit) and drain the water and fine chop macaroni into 2mm-3mm bits (about the size of sesame seed)
<Assemble>
1. Put Macaroni on the bottom, top it with vegetables (His today is tomato which was boiled and chopped (Make X mark on the bottom of the tomato and remove the stem and cook the whole tomato in rapid boiling water for about.. 3-5 minutes and peel would come off easy.
When peel is removed, remove the seed and chop the tomato meat into bits), Broccoli (due to fiber content in the stem, you can use only flowery part /tip part. Cut off tip of the broccoli and stem them to tender and chop fine), and Asparagus (Same reason to broccoli. Only tip is ok with babies at 3rd months solid food eater. I steamed the tip in size of 2″ length or so and chopped the tip into fine bits), and ground chicken breast
2. When serve, pour the chicken broth to the macaroni; if macaroni was 8 tsp worth, then I find that 6 tsp of chicken broth added is good amount for the meal.The picture is before the broth is added.
Liam was so liking this dish that he leaned forward as if he is going to dive with huge itty bitty mouth opened,lol.His mouth was stalking the feeding spoon very very close.
I say this dish was super hit with him:-)
Now he got fish base,veg base, chicken base and konbu base stock for the soup he can have.
I am enjoying the slid food making for Liam.
Liam had Asparagus for the first time today (always start with small amount;1 tsp, with new food to test out the allergy issue),and I was afraid he might turns his nose up because it will be a bit bitter and has unique taste to it but he was fine.He was opening his mouth like little bird,lol.
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early (36 weeks and 2 days) and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
He was tiny little baby; 18″ tall, weighing 5 lb 6 oz…
Day 257..
Liam had Okra for the first time. Since he liked it so much that when I was trying to feed from potato dish, he tried to grab the container of this food and tried to eat it off from the container directly,lol.
Liam tried Okra for the first time….
Dinner for him was…. somen noodle with sea bass, cabbage soup and .. strawberry as dessert.
Day 260..
Liam sometimes start reaching for the food container after finish eating. I guess the container is good size for him to hold.He likes to grab it,bang it against the food tray and then…. toss onto the floor,which makes Palette runs for life and go hide under the bed.She hates Liam tossing toys around from high chair.
Do you know why babies likes to toss things to floors?
From eyes of adults, the act looks like they did on purpose maybe because no matter how many times you try to pick things up and give it back to them like spoon or plates,they tend to toss it again and again..
From eyes of babies, very first time, they drops spoon or plate to the floor by accident. Then, if your house was like wooded floor for example, it also makes sound of dropping more easily. Even on carpeted floor, it still makes noise when those drops. So, babies could think when they dropped items to floor, it made sound. Second time around, they wonder if they tries again, if it makes the same sound when they drop things to the floor so they try and see.
Then they notice dropping items indeed makes sound. Therefore, they starts try dropping items over and over again and yo go back and forth between kitchen sink and their high chair spot,lol. Part of growing issue of babies all mothers and fathers face.
Day 262..
Liam started voicing “dadada…bbababa”
Things that I read from Japanese magazine says… 0-4 months a,u e o etc..cooing,
4 month; vowel sound like a, 5 months; consonant practice pa,ki,pu, and 6 months; man-man-man; words are linked together .Then, 8 months;pa,ma sounds that will be made by closing lips.
10 months; being able to say “wan wan” for example (wan wan is the sound of dog barking ) ; taking pause in between one word,it says.
According to the research in Japan, top word the baby ‘s first word is “ma-n-ma;meaning “meal” and mama is 4th ranking, papa is 8th ranking.
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early (36 weeks and 2 days) and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
He was tiny little baby; 18″ tall, weighing 5 lb 6 oz…
Day 249..
Made 2 food ingredients for Liam this morning.One of them was bread;cut up bread without crust cooked in breast milk (since I cannot use cow milk) in the pan.It was smoothly mashed before but now he is getting big boy so,rough mash now:-) Pan gayu,which we call it is Liam’s fav solid food:-)
My mother told me once that I used to love pan gayu very very much as a baby. Palette came to visit the kitchen while little price is snoozing and got bit of bread to snack. Another one is tomorrow’s new food for Liam. Hope he likes it.
Day 251..
Liam is now getting good at pivoting and 360 spin at least once a day now. Last night, after bathing him and putting him cream on his back by letting him on his belly, he put his head over his hands,looking toward sideways as if enjoying the cream time;massaging time like an old man,lol. Then, he decided he wants to look at me. So, while I was still working on his back of arms etc.. he started pivoting and 180 degree spin. Then, he decided it is tasty to nom on my PJ pants.
Other new stuff happening with him.. he says “hm-ma” a lot and sometimes, I feel like I am hearing him says “da da da” but it could be “ba-ba-ba”. I am not sure but he repeat the same sound a lot anyway. Then, his boom right now is to clap his hands,mimicking me clapping saying ; pa-chi-pa-chi (Japanese, the word is to be used to explain the sound of clapping). He smiles, squeak loud and clap a lot.
When I did skype with my mother and my grandmother the other day, he was mimicking my mother clapping her hands and he started shouting loud,squeaking,smiling and so active,energetic even though it was a couple of hours away from his bed time. My mother and Liam was doing the screaming match;when Liam squeaked, my mother mimicked him and squeaked,which was quite fun for me to watch her being silly:-)
She said “I am not going to loose,Liam” and squeaked. My grandmother was enjoying Liam’s endless clapping. It was very fun skype time. He kept clapping hands non stop whole day and he looks at me as if to say “it is your turn”, and then he claps his hands, and he looks at my husband and claps his hands saying “it is now your turn”.So fun!
Udon noodle with sea bass, spinach soup with tomato.
Day 254…
Little prince Liam tried solid food #21 ” Cauliflower “. Cauliflower got very distinctive texture, and thought I would try. I first cooked to soft and chopped to fine;2-3mm and I let him taste test just to give me info as to size of the bits and how he would take it but the bits of cauliflower 2-3mm on its own was hard for him to take. Therefore, I mashed it roughly, not smooth mash and that is how he is getting.
My husband did feeding of Liam’s second feeding and it was Liam’s first time to taste the cauliflower. Well, he said “He is making face and not eating the cauliflower. He might be not liking the cauliflower. Also, he stopped eating Apple even” I told him “Don’t quick to judge for like/dislike. Right now, he is exploring different kinds of texture and taste/flavor and also learning how to eat food (jaw/tongue motion) he might spit out the food or make face when he gets anything new to him.Cauliflower issue is probably size of bits; texture or something.”
Then, switched; I started feeding him. Well, he did not make face, he opened his mouth wide and ate everything clean. He was even squeaking,talking,energetic even….I do not know what the problem was. He had cauliflower this evening but he was fine,opening mouth wide and ate it without making face. Of course, I made sure the food was rough mashed. I would let him be rough mashed for cauliflower for a bit and then gradually switch to bigger bits.
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early (36 weeks and 2 days) and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
He was tiny little baby; 18″ tall, weighing 5 lb 6 oz…
Day 244..
Liam tried one level up big boy solid food meal;meal ingredients are now graduating from smooth paste to fine chop in size of 2 mm – 3 mm
Some of his food are still from frozen stock so those are still in paste state but, once stock are out, he would be eating fine chop size one. I made one level up size; fine chop. Today was with rough mashed porridge with less liquid called 7 bai gayu (porridge is made with 1 rice vs 7 water ratio and rough mashed) and finely chopped cooked sweet onion in 2 of his solid food meal. He did ok with both.
He will be on this size for next 2 months:-)
Day 245..
Liam’s breakfast today.
Menu; Pangayu (mashed breast milk soaked and cooked bread) with strawberry, and strawberry-acorn squash-cod side dish.
He liked both but he really really loved the pan gayu. My husband saw me plating his meal and said “Liam is not a dog”,lol.
Well, dog bone shape is not for doggies, but cute for everyone’s meal,don’t you think?Lol.
Pangayu with strawberry, and strawberry-acorn squash-cod side dish
Day 246.. We have introduced Liam’s solid food #19.
Shanghai Bok choy
Day 248.
Little prince Liam had quite active morning today;watched me cook his food;stage 2 broccoli and 7 bau gayu (porridge) besides washing dishes and my husband’s lunch box etc.. After that, he pivoted on the floor playing with toy (he started pivoting more and smoothly) and then,I read him a couple of books (the books were written in English but I translated those into Japanese for him to read). After that, some more play time together.
At this point, he did not get tired or sleepy at all even if his usual nap time came. So, I pretended I was closing my eyes laying next to him and what he did? He played with my face and when I made face to him, he was giggling and no sign of nappy nap. So… I decided to have lunch and fed him and do my things in the kitchen. After that, I put him in his bed and he wanted to be hold so he cried. But then, as soon as I pick him up, he smiled and no tears. Well, in the end.. he decided mom is the best bed to sleep on. He decided to snore on my laps..
Our little prince Liam had today;Day 248….. AM: 7 bai gayu (porridge made with 1 rice 7 water ratio, rough mashed), shanghai bok choy, and carrot soup with onion before breakfast milk to finish his meal up.Liam loved his solid food.
PM; Somen noodle and cod with Konbu dashi, Acorn squash soup with corn Liam ate everything (somen noodle and cod with konbu dashi served with corn soup with acorn squash) with so much excitement and went to food coma;snoozing before bath time:-) He eats well.
We believe that taste buds are created while baby being introduced to solid food, most parents in Japan do not start with cereal or fruits juice or banana or avocado etc.. but rather, start with bland food like mashed porridge and then start adding vitamin mineral group food;fruits and veg without any seasoning so the babies can explore pure taste of food (fruits yes but not the one with bold strong taste fruits like banana right from the start), then start adding protein source ;white meat fish and then tofu, then white meat poultry like tender and then last is red meat.
We try aiming at letting babies to explore variety of tastes in early age and each meals are nutrition based. Our son now just turned 8 months can eat rice, bread,somen noodle, udon,sweet potato, cod,sea bass, flounder,onion,apple,carrot,shanghai bok choy,broccoli,acorn squash, cabbage, strawberries, corn, spinach,tomato, and more. He eats lots of veg and fruits. I hope he stays being a good eater.
Our pediatrician loved my solid food plan and encouraging me to keep doing what I am doing for our son:-)
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early (36 weeks and 2 days) and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
He was tiny little baby; 18″ tall, weighing 5 lb 6 oz…
Day 238..
Today, my husband was day off so, I told him, why not try feeding Liam his solid food because it is fun watching his reaction. He has not fed Liam solid food before. He fed Liam today for the second meal. Liam was very talkative with lots of expression and I think my husband had lots of fun feeding him:-)
Liam had…. Broccoli soup with cod and porridge with tomato.
Well, Liam really liked my broccoli soup.Big approval from him:-) The soup was made with pureed broccoli and homemade vegetable stock (just cook down carrot and onion with water and strain the liquid and freeze and remaining solid of carrot and onions are mashed separately and frozen so I can use it in place of carrot or onion and use it as vehicle for veg soup of other kind.) My husband laughed at my artwork on his solid food plate, but told him that Liam gets excited for the colorful plate and after bit of each bite of ingredients to taste the pure flavor and mix them up, he gets excited so, I am putting artwork on the plate.
Day 239..
This meal is one of Liam’s solid food for today. He was kicking his legs and banging his food tray with his tiny hands and opened his mouth as wide as he can. He ate it all in 5 minutes! What was his breakfast?
Creamy sweet potato onion soup with flounder and Fuji Apple as dessert.
Day 240..
We have introduced Liam solid food #17; corn!
Liam liked it:-)Only thing that I have to say for the corn to feed for first 1-2 months solid food eater is that, I had to remove all the skin off from corn kernel and was a bit time consuming even if I used kitchen sieve to remove the skin from the corn.
Day 241..
I have weighed Liam today and he was 16.5 lb! 1 lb more than last month I weighed him:-)
Breakfast: Liam had creamy sweet potato soup with carrot,sea bass, and spinach;
one plate meal for a change.He ate it in 5 min!He really really liked it!
Dinner: He will be having… Udon noodle with cod,and broccoli soup with corn.He will have it in just a min.I hope he would like it! He is, so far, a good eater:-)
To learn about babies development and care, I read Japanese e-magazine plus Mayo clinic baby guide book. Mayo book talked about how American babies are introduced to the food. I read that and took the idea as only grain of salt but I did not like as much as my sister has done with her kids back home in Japan.I also wanted to start him with healthier plan and I decided to go with Japanese way.
Japanese noodle does not use egg as opposed to Italian pasta so, I thought it would be a good stuff to start adding in to his diet. It got flour so, when I fed him Udon noodle, started him just one tea spoon to test with allergy with flour but he was fine so, he got udon in his diet. He will have Italian pasta a bit later to taste.Being Japanese, I could use Konbu Dashi to flavor vegitable here and there so that might be Japanese parents’ advantage.He is now in second month for his solid food, his menu is a bit more complex and with more variety, compared to his first month. I try to serve soup (basically I add vegetable stock or breast milk or fish stock or Dashi to change the flavor here and there) in one of his 2 meal time.
Day 142..
We have introduced solid food #18 somen noodle next
Solid food #18 somen noodle..
Liam ate somen this morning.I served it with warm Konbu dashi and he really loved it, enough to try to nom its container with his chomper,lol. Me and Liam did skype with my parents tonight and Liam was very talkative.When my father played harmonica, he was staring at him on the screen but after he finished playing, he sighed with voice and looked to the side instead of looking at him. My father was sad,lol. Liam was giggly after skype (when skyping, he smiled a bit but not voiced laugh/giggles) and he drunk all the milk and went to bed with no problems.Meanwhile, I made his new solid food ingredient for tomorrow. I wanted to cook acorn squash and cut to about 2-3 mm (itty bitty bits) but I couldn’t and it became mashed style… Oh well, he can try the mashed first then I could try cook less so it would not get too soft but not too firm.
Day 243.
Breakfast: Somen noodle with broccoli and cod
Dinner: Strawberry sweet potato with sea bass and Cabbage soup
Side picture of Strawberry sweet potato with sea bass
Liam especially loved the sweet potato menu. Since he seems to like fish with fruit combo, I have added that to his main sweet potato and he was kicking his legs like crazy and banging his food tray as if to say “Hmmm,Yum!”
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early (36 weeks and 2 days) and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
He was tiny little baby; 18″ tall, weighing 5 lb 6 oz…
Day 233..
Liam had his 14th new food item:Cabbage.
I was surprised to see how bright green it becomes when cabbages were cooked and mashed through kitchen sieve..He liked cabbage.
Day 233’s Menu include..
Breakfast: Creamy carrot shiroae soup with Udon and cabbage served with dashi (dashi was served in other container so,not shown in the picture).
I find that Liam get super excited and I get super curious look when I draw something on food and mix it right in front of him or pour dashi right in front of him so, I try to serve the food like this these days.
Shiroae is the dish whatever mixed with mashed tofu.Shiroae soup that I made up for Liam was simply carrot and tofu mixed together and made it creamy with breast milk a bit.
He gave me thumbs up.
Dinner: Flounder with Fuji apple sauce, and sweet potato topped with sweet onion
Liam loved dinner so much that he gave me sad face when I told him all gone,but he backed up to happy Liam when he saw the bottle of breast milk (he is mug training so,I put breast milk in the bottle and letting him feed himself now).
Liam liked carrot soup that I made for him this morning too.So far,he is eating very good.
I have been showing you how our son’s solid food adventure was like but, typical way to introduce food to babies back home in Japan is like this: start with mashed porridge called jyubai gayu and start with 1 tsp to start with and after that,gradually increase the amount of food,then about a couple of days on it ,you will introduce the new item with 1 tsp worth again.
I do not think there is specific detailed order but generally, after rice,you can introduce sweet potato,potato,udon noodle in the first month and second month,it is ok to introduce bread.
After some of carb group is introduced, introduce vitamin mineral group;fruits and veg (but veg is introduced more than fruits).
3rd week is introduce new protein source; white meat fish,tofu. 4th week, try the mixed dish with ratio of 5 tsp carb,4 tsp vit/mineral group, 1 protein group.
First month goal is to let the babies explore various kinds of food for texture,pure flavor on its own.Then, second month into it, continue letting the babies explore the food flavor and texture but start offering mixing food here and there,providing carb-protein-Vit/Mineral in one meal.
From second month, you will be able to introduce bread in carb group,which I did this week.Also, veg that has lots of fiber like cabbage from vit/mineral group.
For the second months, go from 1 meal solid food to 2 meals solid food a day and one meal is consists of carb-vit/mineral-protein in one meal to balance the nutrition from solid food.
That is why, you can see carb-protein-vit/mineral group is included in Liam’s solid food each time.Gradually, the amount of food increase over time too.
For fish, it is something with caution.It has to be white meat fish to introduce at first.Liam cannot have red meat fish like tuna or salmon just yet at this point.Starting from white meat fish first.
Day 235..
Liam and I did skype with my parents in Japan. He was super talkative and when my mother tried to entertain him with musical instrument she got such as castanets (she is a piano teacher and she got all sorts of musical instruments at home to teach kids how to play those besides piano.), Liam stared at it very closely with curious look and started smiling but,it had to be castanet to make him smile.
Other instruments, he is not so much smiley.
My mother said “Now I got to go find the castanet for Liam so his grandpa can bring it to him next month”.
They love and enjoy watching Liam over the skype and see his growth and the time they can entertain him through the internet.Wish everyone in my family could come over but it is not possible…
I am counting down for my father to come. Next month, he will be visiting us.I cannot wait!
My sister’s youngest son is finally catching up with growth chart thing in Japan and now he does not have to be weighed and measured so often.He is now 1 year and half.
Liam’s bottom 2 teeth is really getting whitish in the gum and right next to the bottom 2 seems to be a bit bubbly. No sign of teeth coming out on upper 2.
I told about it to my mother and she said she had never heard of this order of teeth coming out;next to the bottom 2 should be upper 2, but she said no worry.All teeth would come out in the end,lol.
Day 236..
Liam’s breakfast and dinner both were big hit.Especially he liked his
dinner and ate it all super fast.When told him all gone, a bit of sad
face shown,lol.
Menu today…
Breakfast: 10 bai gayu (mashed porridge), carrot and tofu with strawberry
Dinner: Onion and Fuji Apple served with pan gayu (bread which crust
cut off was torn into small bits and cooked in a sauce pan with breast
milk until no chunk left and thicken.Watch out for the heat level
because if you cook with high heat, it will scorch/burn) topped with
flounder
It will still be a long long way until he can eat the same stuff with
adult in the same texture and cut size without so limited food variety
he could have, but I am enjoying making his own food from scratch:-)
Day 238..
Today’s breakfast for Liam is a little dessert-like.He was flapping hands and banging the food tray in the high chair when he saw the menu.I think the more colorful the food is, the more positive reaction I get from him:-)
Menu include…
Cabbage soup with tofu and strawberry bread pudding baby version yassy’s way (just bread crust cut off is torn into itty bitty bits and cooked with my breast milk.Then, strained strawberry is drizzled over the bread)
If you got a little one who is on solid food regime, and can eat bread and strawberry with no problems,then,you can make one for yours too.Or you can use other fruits too.
Liam loves bread pudding baby version my way:-) He opens up his mouth as wide as he can and eat it with lots of smiles:-)
🙂
