The other day, I called my pediatrician's office with some food-related questions. (Food and poop, food and poop -- I think I could write a whole baby blog just about food and poop.) I spoke to a nurse, and asked her the following questions:
1. Is it OK to give the girls baked/cooked foods that have honey as an ingredient, even though they're not supposed to have raw honey? (Answer: yes, if it's thoroughly cooked, it's fine)
2. Is it OK for them to have baked goods--i.e. perhaps a Christmas cookie or two -- made with eggs even though they're not supposed to have egg whites until over a year? (Answer: well, yes, what can you do...and they have to have cake on their birthday, right?)
3. When and how we should start introducing cow's milk? (Answer: we can start now if we want, mixing a little into their bottles of breastmilk or formula and gradually increasing the amount.)
My final question was about self-feeding. Both girls have gotten to be very adept at eating with their fingers/hands. And by "adept" I mean that slightly more food appears to be ending up in their mouths than in their hair, on their clothes, or on the floor. They are not starving. Anyway, I asked the nurse when we should start trying to get them to feed themselves with a spoon. Here is the conversation that ensued:
Nurse: They're not using a spoon yet?
Me: No, mostly they eat with their hands, or we feed them. We've tried giving them those curved, "first spoons" a few times, but it hasn't gone very well.
Nurse: What do you mean, they can't get the spoon to their mouths?
Me: Well, yeah, they can. They're just not very good at it. And they don't seem to quite get the idea of dipping the spoon back into the bowl to get more. They just stry to stick their hands in.
Nurse: (Sounding concerned) Well, you should keep trying. But if they don't get the hang of it, then it's something you should talk to their doctor about, because it could be a sign that there's some sort of developmental problem.
Me: (Pause) What the HELL is wrong with you, betch?
OK, that's not what I said. I said "sure, sure, right, right, thank you for your time," because I'm a sane and reasonable person and I know -- at least, I think -- that it's totally normal for 11-1/2 month olds not to be spoon-feeding themselves yet, and even if it isn't, I am not prone to getting freaked out if my children don't hit their developmental benchmarks exactly when the books -- or weird nurses -- say they're supposed to.
But imagine if I were a less informed, more nervous mother? And this idiot brings up the possibility of a developmental delay based on a few sentences over the phone? WTF? Frankly, it threw into question the validity of her earlier responses re. honey, eggs, and milk.
That being said, of course, I now feel compelled to start letting the girls try the spoon thing more often. So, today we gave it a shot, with baby cereal. The results were deliciously disgusting. As on past occasions, the girls were happy to hold the spoon and eat cereal off the end of it, but after that, they'd just stick their free hand into the cereal for another mouthful and, eventually, fling their spoons to the ground. I can't say I blame them. I mean, if you've got a perfectly good method for getting food into your mouth, why complicate it with utensils? Hell, in some cultures people only eat with their hands. Does that mean they're all developmentally delayed?
I will admit that I'm curious to know from you experienced moms out there when your little'uns got proficient with utensils, and how you convinced them that it was worth the trouble. In the meantime, here are the results of today's self-feeding with spoons. Glorious!
PS -- Quick dietary update, for those of you who recall my meat fears : The girls have eaten both turkey and chicken now, in the form of little shredded bits of it, and turkey meatballs. For some reason, once they both had two teeth and started spending more time standing upright and acting like little people, the thought of giving them meat didn't seem quite so...unsavory. And get this: they freakin' LOVE it. Sorry to all the vegevangelists out there -- looks like for the time being, anyway, these gals are carnivores.
PPS -- I'm still scared to give them pork.
