All About Parker - Part 3

The third installment of the "All About Parker" series is here!!

The Eating Machine

Parker loves to EAT! He still nurses about 4 times a day, but is, and has been, into food ever since we started him on solids. He definitely prefers his solid food over milk. And now he seems to favor foods he can feed himself over spoon-fed food.

Around 7 months (the beginning of December) I started giving him a few self feeding foods and he really took to the idea. I really want him to have a good relationship with food....I know this might sound weird, but Tristan is a super picky eater and I feel like maybe if I had exposed him to more foods early on (other than baby food...he was a great baby food eater) he wouldn't be this way. I tended to not give Tristan as many finger foods when he was littler for a few reasons: 1) he was my first and I was following the "book", 2) I was afraid he was going to choke and 3) I didn't want him to get super messy every time he ate.

With Parker I don't have as many "fears" and I now know what a "mess" can truly be and he doesn't rank up there yet! So that being said, Parker has been enjoying finger foods. He has had peas, carrots, pears, peaches, apples (all soft and diced), Chex rice ceral, rice krispie bar, cinnamon roll (minus the topping), waffles, Gerber puffs and other Gerber finger foods, mashed potatoes, sweet potato fries, vanilla wafers...basically I have been giving him pieces of what I am eating as long as it is soft enough and something he can reasonably eat.

The vanilla wafers were not my doing, they were actually his. One day Tristan had a small bowl of vanilla wafers in the living room for his snack and Parker got a hold of one and gnawed it down. I didn't realize it until about halfway through and by then figured he was okay to eat it. Obviously, the majority of his food is still baby food, which he definitely has preferences toward. He pretty much loves any kind of fruit and is not a huge fan of vegetables...UGH! He started out likeing all the yellow vegetables and wasn't too keen on the greens but now has started to not be such a big fan of the yellows either!

I guess the hardest part about the food thing is he has some allergy issues to deal with. I mentioned a while back that we also had him allergy tested but I never told you guys the results. According to the test, which has a 1-5 scale, 5 be the highest, Parker is allergic to cow's milk (4), peanuts (4), whole wheat (3), and eggs (2). I was extremely freaked out by these results but have since seen a really great allergist that has helped me calm some of fears and explain some things. I thought he wasn't going to be able to eat anything but he seems to be handling breads (which contain wheat flour) fine and doesn't have any skin reactions for the most part. We are taking things one day at a time and just trying things to see what his reaction will be and he may grown out of some of these allergies. For obvious reasons, we are staying away from peanuts (only 20% of people outgrow a peanut allergy and they can be extremely dangerous) and eggs which he couldn't have until he was 1 anyhow. Eggs in baked goods seem to be okay for right now. When he turn 1 he will go on soy milk instead of cow's milk.

He has a follow-up appointment in a few months with the allergist and more than likely he will be re-tested in a year, so until then we are just trying out foods and all seems to be going well!

Here's a few pictures and some video of my little eating machine!

A happy, and clean, shot of him prior to any self feeding!

Chowing down on some Zwieback toast

He got a lot in his mouth, but a lot on him and his bib too!

Look at the determination in his face to get those pieces

I think he got one

Yep, in the mouth!

Taking a break to look at Mommy

All that is left are those far away ones...he's trying to get them

Trying to drink his sippy cup

Fun video

This video is hilarious...he ATTACKS the puffs every time!