Squash is a hit

Monday, March 19th, 2007, 12:53 am

Well, after the banana disaster, I was about to give it up. I was starting to doubt whether Sasha was ready for solids or not....maybe she just wasn't ready?

But I decided to give another food a try. My main hesitation at trying another food was I thought it wasn't a good idea to try another food so close to trying her first food...what if she showed an allergy? I wouldn't know which food caused the allergy.

Well, squash was Sasha's second food. And she LOVED it. Squash (or SKWAAASH as we fondly call it) was the very first baby food I made when I started getting foods ready a month ago. I steamed the squash in my rice cooker/steamer and I was so surprised at how smooth it pureed...and the color was such a pretty orange-yellow. The frozen baby food squares of it looked so pretty in my freezer.

I was surprised at how quickly Sasha and I learned to communicate with each other while feeding her. I've noticed she likes to alternate bites of food with a sip from her sippy cup. Even though I try to use sign language with her, I've noticed she bangs her right fist on her high chair table when she wants a sip of milk from her sippy cup. She loves to sing whenever she has food in her mouth and she shakes her head back and forth with her mouth open when she really wants another bite of squash. I was determined to NEVER force food into her mouth unless she opens her mouth willingly for it. This policy makes feeding her take forever, but I think it will be good for us in the long run. I'm hoping to make feeding time a happy and stress-free experience for both of us without any power struggles.

I remember being so frustrated feeding my first child and hope to avoid the mistakes I made. It's so strange to me. My first child was about figuring out how to take care of her. Now I find my second child is about correcting the mistakes I made with my first. Many of the mistakes I made with my first dd centered around food and feeding time. Feeding was frustrating, like I said. Also, I fed my first child too much, too often, and too soon. She has always had an 'almost weight problem'...very chubby just barely bordering on overweight and I know that my early feeding mistakes with her were to blame.