Introducing Solids Part Four - But How. . .? (and What to Eat Dice Game)

Over the last few weeks I've been sharing my thoughts about introducing solids. Here are the links to Part One, Part Two and Part Three.

One of the hardest things I found when I first started introducing solids to Miss M was deciding what to introduce & when. The 'rules' have relaxed a lot since then, so now you just have to decide where you want to start. Iron rich foods & veges get my vote.

It took some practice, but I finally got a system down with Miss M where I'd cook every three days for her. I'd make 6 Take & Toss bowls of veges that would serve as her lunch & dinner. I would generally create a 'rainbow' from seasonal vegetables, trying to introduce one new flavour every three days. Depending on how she was going (she's always been a big eater though) I'd peel & chop into large chip or wedge sized pieces five roughly fist sized vegetables. Then I'd pop them in a covered microwave dish (I love my Tupperware stack cooker for this) and zap with a little water for five minutes. Depending on the selection it may need a little more, but most times this was enough to cook them through. Those five I'd try to 'count a colour' - red, orange, yellow, green, white/blue/black/purple.

For breakfast each day it was overnight porridge with fruit puree. Snacks would be fruit, cheese and yoghurt. She'd also get yoghurt for 'dessert' most nights as she wasn't much of a milk drinker & I was concerned about her dairy intake. Mind you, I ended up mixing her dinner veges with the yoghurt to get her to eat them most nights. apparently pumpkin and yoghurt tastes great to a baby!

Then Honey came along and even though I'd intended to follow much the same route I quite simply haven't. The vast majority of her meals are variations on what we are having, even if that means I plan a few of our meals around hers. The early days were really easy. I'd save and reduce some of the water used to boil our vegetables and add that to her rice cereal each day.

 As she progressed through the textures I would simply mash the vegetables we were having and I'd freeze some in an ice cube tray.

This is how one of our typical family meals would be served to Miss M. I hope you can imagine a grown up version because I didn't photograph it :-). I will share a few of our 'three in one' meals as soon as I remember to take photos of them.

Now Honey is eating mostly what everyone else is, only I need she prefers to self feed so dishes like good old Spaghetti Bolognese can end quite messy. Breakfast most days is porridge with frozen fruit puree. Lunch is generally leftovers, and dinner is the family meal. I would share our meal plan only I've gotten quite slack and haven't done one for ages!

This is an excerpt from the current 'Eating for Children' brochure found here. The toddler (ages 1-2) recommended intake can be found here. The Eat for Health website is a great resource.

[EDIT] I forgot to add this photo to the original post - oops! This is a sample of what a full day's worth of food looks like for a Eat for Health 1-2 year old. 2 slices of bread, 1/2 cup cooked porridge, 1/2 cup cooked pasta, 1 1/2 cups cooked coloured vegetables, 2 large eggs, 1 kiwi fruit, 40g cheese.

What to eat dice game

For something a little different, here's a little dice game for you. Each square contains a suggestion for one recommended serving of that food group. Simply roll your dice for your number of recommended serving, and feel free to chop & change the results. I took these from the brochure above, but you can easily substitute your own. I have a few versions of this I've been toying with for the past few years, would you like to see some more?

Details of my tools & toys can be found on this page.
~J

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written for Loving Lunches. No product was received for this post. All opinions expressed are my own, based on personal experience with the product.