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Well my Gracie girl started eating at 5.5 months and hasn’t stopped. She loves food. We can not eat in front of her unless we plan to give her something. She gets soooo MAD. She basically is a lover of all food. There has not been a single thing that I’ve fed her that she has refused. My bottomless pit eater!
Once she reached 7 months, I started feeding her more solid food and really dove into the baby led weaning. She eats just about any fruit or vegetable and loves bread. Most recently learning about and going crazy for crescents and hard crusty bread heels. But who doesn’t!
When preparing her food, I usually just cut up her berries or other soft fruit into small enough pieces so that she can manipulate them. Usually not super small pieces otherwise she has trouble manipulating them. If she’s eating something like broccoli or beans, I steam them in my Instant Pot first for about 4 minutes. Then I cut the beans into 2 inch lengths and serve the broccoli as individual florets. She just bites small pieces off at a time and drops a lot into her bib. She’s now learned how to grab any lost food out of her bib to try again. Here are my two favorite bibs.(Waterproof Silicone Bib, BABYBJORN Soft Bib (affiliates). The Babybjorn, however, is not good for petite babies. It did not work for Elliana as she is much more petite than Grace and Boston, but the silicone bib worked well for all three.
By 8 months, I started feeding Grace meat. She loves chicken. I started with shredded chicken and then moved to Oscar Mayer Carving Board chicken. You can get in your deli department at your local grocery store. I, of course prefer to give her homemade shredded chicken, but this girl can eat and the deli chicken is so much easier!
At 8 months, she also started devouring eggs. She loves them; scrambled and hard boiled. I feed her the entire egg, whites and yolks. Although she prefers the egg whites over the yokes. She also LOVES peanut butter! She eats it on crackers, on toast, in her oatmeal… and sometimes even steals a small bite of her brother’s or sister’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
By the end of 8 months, she eats just about everything we eat EXCEPT dairy. I have yet to feed her yogurt or cheese. I am waiting until closer to mid 9 months to introduce any dairy. Although, her Papa did give her a little lick of ice cream about a week ago. The official recommendation is to wait to introduce dairy until between 8-10 months. So I am right there within that window and just plan to wait until the latter portion of it.
After every meal, I still offer her a purée or a pouch of organic baby food. Sometimes she gobbles it up, and other times she has had enough with her solids and only takes a few bites.. slurps??? Not sure what to call it.
As Grace started doing more baby led weaning, she became more and more interested in food and the social aspect of eating with the family. So we almost immediately, at 7 months, started feeding her 3 meals a day. At first she didn’t eat too much at any given meal. Most of the food made it’s way into her bib, high chair, or onto the floor (This Nuby Floor Splat Mat (affiliate) has been a total game changer). But she really enjoyed being able to eat with the family and try to manipulate her food. It has been such a joy to watch her mature and grow in her love for food.
If you are interested in more daily information on what Grace eats check out my Instagram account. I share daily stories on our snacks, meals, activities, and just daily life. It’s a lot of fun. Come check it out!
7 Month Foods
Fruits cut up into small bite size chucks
- peaches
- blueberries, raspberries, strawberries
- pears ~ ripened on the counter
- apples ~ cooked until just soft (Instant Pot or Boiled)
- bananas ~ continued from 6 months
Vegetables
- broccoli florets steamed
- green beans steamed
- carrots steamed (she wasn’t a fan)
- potatoes baked- sweet or white- I add butter as an extra treat
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- I just tried sautéing cubed sweet potatoes in a little butter and water. Perfection!
- avocado ~ continued from 6 months
Shredded Chicken/Deli Chicken
Grains
- the heal of a crusty bread
- whole wheat toast with butter, avocado, or peanut butter
8 Month Foods (Newly Introduced)
Fruits cut up into small bite size chunks
- grapes ~ I cut them into eights
- apples ~ not softend. She loves to gnaw on a whole apple. I usually take a few bites myself and hand it off to her.
Vegetables
- peas
- zucchini
- corn ~ it’s corn on the cob season, just sayin’
- pepers ~ slices. Great for gnawing
Eggs
- hard boiled ~ white and the yolk
- scrambled
Grains
- whole wheat or oat pancakes ~ no added sugar ~ plain or topped with peanut butter
- whole wheat noodles with butter
- crackers with hummus- ohhh hummus she loves hummus
- steel cut oats
Mama’s Must Haves
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