I struggled for months with breastfeeding and finally had to admit defeat when my body required medication, I tended to every need my daughter had, lovingly changing nappies, sticking my hand out to catch sick and calming her through her clingy spells (generally when she teethes).
I also carefully prepared healthy and nutritious home cooked meals for her as I didn’t want to give her shop bought baby food, putting her on to formula for me was already a step to far.
All was going swimmingly well until Baby Piglet caught the dreaded gastroenteritis (which she kindly shared with me). After recovering she wouldn’t eat. I saw plate after plate of food I had so painstakingly prepared pushed away in disgust. She gagged, cried and shook her head in order to make me understand that she was having none of it.
Desperate and tired after being sick myself, I was in the supermarket racking my brains as to what I could prepare for her. “What’s the point?” I said to myself whilst scanning the baby food aisle for ideas. “She’s only going to spit it out again” I muttered whilst picking up a few jars of baby food and plonking them into my basket.
I reasoned with myself that she wasn’t going to eat them anyway so took them home, unpacked them and served up her first baby food meal of chicken and potato.
There was no pushing away, no spitting and no gagging. Baby Piglet’s mouth kept opening, wider and wider. Shell shocked, I tasted the food, delicious would be an exaggeration but it was certainly tasty. What had they put in this? The ingredient list revealed nothing untoward so I carried on feeding her.
With her appetite back, that evening I attempted another home cooked meal but was met with “boo-uh, boo-uh” – this was Baby Piglet’s way of expressing her dissatisfaction! “Great! So it really is my cooking that she doesn’t like” I thought to myself, all whilst feeling deflated, incompetent, a bad Mum and to top it off a bad cook!
The next day she had more shop bought food and then the day after some of my Mum’s Shepherds Pie which she loved. I tried some of my cooking again and was once again greeted with THE LOOK.
What a wonderful way to make you feel deflated, defeated and worthless. I had heard that being a Mother is a thankless task but my darling daughter had always been so gracious and loved my food!
So Baby Piglet spent a week of eating my Mum’s cooking, shop bought purees and bread until I plucked up courage to try and make her some salmon, potatoes and broccoli. Thankfully she gobbled it up so it seems as if I’m winning again.
You love your daughter and that is what counts. Don’t make a big deal of what she is eating or when. Little ones will eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full. It is when we get frustrated and exasperated does it become an issue. She will sense that. Her tummy is still healing let her take the lead. From your post you can tell you are a fantastic mom. Cut yourself some slack and just relax and enjoy your beautiful baby, life would not be interesting with out the hiccups!
I have teenage boys and I will tell you I would love to go back to the vomit and smelly diaper stage……their problems are soooo much bigger now! LOL
Keep smiling girl!
Thanks for your kind words and support Tammie. I can only imagine the problems teenage boys can have, I have twin brothers and they did get up to some mischief as teenagers!
Amazing how rejection of food we have prepared can hurt us.
Yes! My food actually made her cry 😦
Don’t take it personally. My toddler is going through picky stages, where he’ll reject all my home cooked meals in favour of “pasta and cheese”…. It’s not a reflection on your cooking or your parenting skills. I’ve got lots of friends whose babies have done the same. I spend my time stopping him from throwing food at the kitten, or rubbing it in his hair, or pushing his plate away saying “all done”, when it was something he LOVED a week or two ago, and then ten minutes later he’s trying to climb in the cupboard to get “bic-bics” (what he calls oatcakes/rice cakes) It’ll pass. Hang in there. I pride myself on feeding my kids healthily, that they eat stuff other kids won’t, and I BLW both of mine, yet some days, they just won’t eat my food. I try not to stress too much! 🙂
sounds like he knows what’s good “pasta and cheese” LOL, at least that’s what Mr Piglet would say. We’re trying everything at the moment, BLW, purees, finger foods, you name it. We’re getting there though.
Your baby is gorgeous! I had to laugh though as I recalled my own days as a young mother – (my baby is 23) – and worries over feeding him. When I found something he loved, I pureed it and put it in ice cube trays to freeze. I figured my frozen was better than the jars in the store. Plus you have fall back options if the current meal doesn’t meet baby’s approval. Good luck.
ahh thank you 🙂 I think she is gorgeous too but I am ever so biased!
I do exactly the same thing with the stuff she likes, my freezer is often full of her dishes and it also helps save me time as well. Except on this occasion she just didn’t want any of them.
There were times my three would rather have starved than eat my cooking! It’s just a kid thing – babies are preprogrammed to make mums feel hopeless. But rest assured, Baby Piglet adores you and always will! Even now, my kids (20, 17 and 10) will suddenly come out with ‘I love you, Mum’ or will give me a hug out of the blue! I hope I don’t look too alarmed when it happens.
Kids are cool.
awwww that is so cute, I can’t wait for my first “I love you, Mum” 🙂
I feel your pain. My youngest at one point flatly refused my cooking and would only eat jars. It happens to us all. I was put out but decided to go with the flow, and did come back to my cooking eventually.
There’s nothing like a child for making you feeling like shit one day, euphoric the next. That is such a cute piccie of BabyPiglet. She is a real sweetie.
Thanks Sarah, she is very, very cute IMHO 🙂
They do like to keep us on our toes don’t they! Even now aged 11 it takes Ed ages to start to eat properly after the gastro (he is terrified of being sick). I’m sure your food will be top of her list again very soon. And totally agree with everyone else, she is gorgeous!
Good point Jacqui about being terrified of being sick, I hadn’t though of that.
There is nothing more finicky than a baby when it comes to eating !
They get these strange tastes for something and only want that one thing 3 times a day. Or they will not eat something that is a particular color .. yes, strange but true.
It is all about Baby learning the way of the world .. Eating, Tastes, it is all learned .. she is just learning.
My mother was the worst cook on the planet. . she would have won prizes for how she could ruin the simplest meal .. My brother loves fast food ( no wonder) and I became a cook .. not for a profession but I learned how to make things that taste good.
We all learn from babyhood .. you are doing fine.
Did your mom tell you how finicky you were when you were a baby ? lol ..
I’m not sure how I was as a baby, will have to ask! It must have been tough having a Mum that was a bad cook, did you dread mealtimes? I was lucky that my mum always cooked nicely although with 3 small children, a job and a house to run some of the meals were a bit dubious!
Fickle little beings, aren’t they? I don’t know what brand you decided to buy for her but I only buy Hipp AA for Victor and any of the brands that they sell at the bio shop. I taste everything before I give it to him to make sure it tastes how it should, and honestly it’s really not half bad. The spinach tastes just like spinach, pumpkin like pumpkin, so I don’t feel so bad giving him store-bought stuff (and I’m sure that there’s no allergens in it!). I bet if you give her another week she’ll be back to her normal self with her normal appetite. I’m starting to slowly branch out from jar food for V and sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not. i try not to take it personally.. we do the best we can, you know? Xx
Wise words Amber, I totally adhere to your philosophy on doing the best we can. I’m quite liking the liberty the jarred food gives me but Baby Piglet doesn’t seem to like the Hipp stuff so much. I’m switching between home cooked stuff and jarred stuff at the moment, she’s getting the best of both worlds and I’m getting a break 🙂
Best of luck with V, you’ve been through rough times so I hope the transition to normal food goes well for you. at least he’s eating food now 🙂
That hurts I am sure. But don’t forget those companies spend millions of Euros/Dollars trying to figure out what babies and toddlers will eat. So don’t take it personally. I have not had the same experience as you but as one who cooks often, it is painful to have your family not like something you labor over for several hours.
Yes! Of course! I had forgotten the research that goes into the “gloop”! How can I compete with that? LOL!
Babies are fickle, so don’t take it personally.
so true!
Ah yes, my son only ever ate ‘white food’ and lived off macaroni cheese, bananas and yoghurt for much of his toddler years…
My daughter was as picky as they come, pizza, fruit and cheese, she drove me totally nuts…
Now they’re in their early twenties and you should see them eat! They can demolish a plate of ‘fruits de mer’ in the time it takes me to pluck up the courage to pick up an oyster!
I think the trick is to pretend you don’t care, even while you are sobbing into the slops bucket, above all don’t let it become a battle because they will always win the war
But, you know don’t you, that your main job as a mother is to love every minute of your ‘work’ and to raise a happy, healthy, child who will become a decent, honest, caring adult, how you do it matters not in the slightest.
“But, you know don’t you, that your main job as a mother is to love every minute of your ‘work’ and to raise a happy, healthy, child who will become a decent, honest, caring adult, how you do it matters not in the slightest.”
So true! Very wise words and something I need to remind myself of!
How on earth did you manage on just white foods? What a strange combination! At least he eats well now 🙂
Look at the whole situation like this : now you can spare time and effort, and you won’t have to bother with cooking especially for her.
I ‘ve tried to cook healthy food for my familly for years, and my son still lives on fries, pork chops, pasta and he accepts only a limited range of food . I happen to be a very good cook and I like cooking for my family, I do it daily, so it drives me mad to see my son asking only for some dishes I find unhealthy but there is nothing in the world I can make to determine him even try what I cook for me and his father. He won’t even give it a look. The jar food for babies is healthy, that’s important. If she likes it, then your life can get more relaxed.
LOL Rosabell, your son sounds like a typical male! I am sure he appreciates your cooking even if he does like to eat junk food 🙂
I am enjoying not stressing if I don’t have anything cooked for her, getting rid of that stress is excellent news for my sanity and it means that when I do cook for her and she does eat it I enjoy it even more!
Baby Piglet is sooo cute! Don’t worry she should be back to eating your home cooked meals in no time. Sometimes something “new” to them is just what the doctor ordered. Maybe from now on you can just try a mix of both your home cooked and store bought. She would probably enjoy the mixture of the two then both you and her can feel happy about her eating habits.
Thanks Ashley! That’s exactly what we’re doing, some store bought and some home made, a great combination for both of us! She’s eating pretty much what we eat now as well so that makes life easier too!