9 Month Foods

Cloth diapers are washed, chicken is baking, Jackson is napping and I am blogging (I should be steaming the yams but... I need a break). As much as I have complained about making Jackson's baby food, I am pretty proud of myself for sticking with it (not that I have much choice). I'm extremely proud in how healthy he eats. I love the fact that I don't have to worry about what preservatives are in his food. We just watched the documentary Forks over Knives, that will get you thinking. It also gives him a great variety of food and I think it saves money (I haven't sat down and calculated it but I'm sure it does). I really do like making it, especially now that he is napping and doing independent play. With this being said, I do not think that what we are doing is "better" it just works for us. So if you feed the jar stuff, I think that's great (you have more time to play and drink coffee :) )! There are pros and cons to everything and us mommies shouldn't judge other mommies!

When you hit the 9 month food mark things get a little tricky. 1. Baby can now have stage 3 and 2. You can start doing more finger foods that are soft. At this stage you aren't quite to the point of "here have what we eat" because they don't have a lot of teeth and are still learning to chew. There is also that list of "no" they can't have this and that yet.

Once we hit this stage I remember thinking ok well now what? Here is our meal plan (obviously you should consult your DR about foods etc):
*Note everything is cut up in small pieces

Breakfast: Homemade frozen waffles (no butter, no syrup) or oatmeal (he really is not a fan of it but we still give it a go every once in a while), Fruits (banana, blueberry, raspberry, peach, pear) or puree fruit (pears, grapes)

Lunch: Lunch meat (organic- I know that lunch meat isn't the best for you so I stick with the $5.00 organic kind) or beans (he hates beans but we have tried them), rice, bell peppers/avocado/ green beans, fruit, and we just started sandwich bread (homemade) torn in small pieces

Snack: Teething biscuit, puree fruit in a pouch- when fruit starts ripening too fast I puree and freeze in the pouches. He loves pouches! This also gives me one meal that I don't have to sweep the floor. Whew.

These things are great! $20.00 for four but you can reuse them/freeze. We are obsessed! It's so easy to travel with them- freeze them and then stick them in the diaper bag to thaw out. It can be a little slushy/smoothie. They are hard to clean but you can stick them in the dishwasher. I hand clean them and then sometimes stick them in the dishwasher to sterilize. 

These are the teething biscuits we get: Healthy Times. They are egg/diary/soy free and organic! I have been buying them at Native Sun or diapers.com but I just found on Amazon that they sell them in bulk! These things smell bad but Jackson loves them. I mean loves them. I hate them because they are super messy and he bites big chunks off but hey whatever. 

Dinner: Puree sweet potatoes and chicken with rice (I make it like a stage 3 food now), green beans, sometimes a fruit again

• We have a lot of fruit because we are still testing out the veggies 
• Soon we will be trying: peas, barley, pancakes, sun butter, tomatoes, kiwi, fish
• I would like to try hummus with pita bread (if I can make one egg free)
• Obviously if he could have cheese and dairy that would be added in as well.
• Eggs would be such an awesome food to have at this stage if Jackson wasn't allergic to them
• Jackson is finger feeding himself all the foods except purees
• I also keep a straw cup of formula or water on his tray that he will drink through out the meals
• We have tried pasta but he didn't really like it.. we will be trying that again when I can add a sauce to it

It's a work in progress but with trying only one food at a time things are slow! I hope this gave you some food ideas.