Feeding our kid in public - The Battle rages on

Inga just turned 9 months this past Sunday, so she has been eating solid foods for about 3 months now.
Who knew that feeding your kid had the potential for such disagreement with other parents.

It started out great, just like my previous post had shown, with a great video of her first time eating some banana and just loving it. That continued for a couple weeks. We only had her eat once a day as to not overwhelm her stomach. As you can see from the video it was very telling of what was to come in the next few months. She was pretty meh about the mushed up banana and just wanted the banana itself. She did seem to enjoy holding onto the spoon but that soon turned into wanting the bowl that the puree was in.
Fast forward to now - she ate purees for about 2 weeks, then we just switched and gave her whole food and that seems to be the way that she wants to roll. And that is great! We gave her the tools and the choices and chose correctly. What can I say? She is gifted I guess ha! /sarcasm.
Before we started solid foods, I had wanted to do Baby Led Weaning. I had bought the book and was all prepared, but I was extremely nervous on the possibility of her choking of a whole piece of banana so we decided to be a bit half-ass about it. She pretty much decided for us that that was the way she preferred. I feel like babies need to learn how to chew/mush something before they can swallow it and starting with purees seems a bit back assward.
We have yet to just give her everything that we eat but she does try almost everything at least once whether it is just sucking on it or playing with it in her hands. This seems to be the issue when feeding her out in public. Sometimes when we give her something, we get the hover parents looking at us like,
"OMG she is going to choke. Why would ever give a baby that?"
"Does she ever eat baby food?"
"Is she even eating any of it?"
No she is not going to choke. She might gag, but she isn't dying and will spit it out. No we don't feed her baby food. Have you tried that shit? Hmmm jarred chicken dinner or a chicken drumstick?
Who cares if she is actually eating any of it?
Food is supposed to just be fun and a learning experience until they are one anyways so don't put so much pressure on them to eat.
Some people just have to have an opinion on everything and everyone and because of our parenting style, we probably just need to get over the fact that helicopter parents are going to give us the business.
She does still gag on certain foods, and that can be scary but she is not choking and she has to learn. Like my dad said that you can just go to the court house and get an eating permit lol
Some of Inga's favorite things to eat are:
Orange segments - she can eat about half an orange and her poo smells like oranges haha
Blueberries - she eats lots of blueberries at Grandma's house
Mcvities Digestive crackers - she shares these with the dog every time
Watermelon - these are a new favorite
Tomatoes - She sucks and pulls all the meat and juice out of them like a champ
Cheese - This is one of the dog's favorites haha
What are your little nugget's favorite things to eat? Any suggestions on getting whole grains - since she doesn't really care for oatmeal? Leave comments!

First Day of Solids and it was Glorious

I don't even really need to write all that much. All I need to do is post the video of Inga eating her very first solid food and you will see the gloriousness of it all. 

We gave her a spoon for about 3 weeks before she actually ate food and we think that helped out with her not gagging on the spoon and food. 

Some of the prep we did that seemed to help out was to basically get her naked except for her diaper. That definitely made clean up easier, but she still could have used a bath. 

Oh! And we had Elsa, our bulldog, handy for clean up. I already think of the second day that she is a bit bored of eating ground banana but she isn't too picky. 

Now I don't know how most sessions of starting solids works so we just kind of went with the flow. We gave her the spoon, gave her the bowl, tried putting it just on her tray...then we got brave and just gave her a chunk of whole banana. As you can see in the video is went amazing. She mashed the whole chunk in her hand and if she got a piece too big she spit it out. 

However, I will say that the idea of Baby Led Weaning does not sound like it is for us. This morning on her second day of banana, it was a bit less ripe and the whole chunk of banana we gave her didn't moosh up and I got nervous and pulled a little chunk out of her mouth. Then a couple minutes later she did the same thing but guess what......she spit it out herself without my hovering help. 

I think we have decided that we like the steps we are taking of starting slow and if she seems confident, maybe give her a chunk of food to nom on. 

Anyways, here is the video. 

And the aftermath.....

How did your first day of solids go with your babe?

Pets & Babies can go together like Peas & Carrots

Most couples have dogs. Or pets in general. I read an article that said that most couples my age start with dogs as their "first born children". Elsa is definitely our first born. Yes, we had two cats first, but they don't count. Cats can be fairly self reliant so it is just not the same. 

This might not be so much about advice to introducing pets to babies, but rather what we didn't do and how it all played out. 

When I was pregnant, we had plenty of people that seemed concerned about how our dog Elsa or our cats would adjust to having a baby around. I usually just dismissed it as my hormones did not like advice at that time. "Don't tell me how to raise my family, " my hormones would rant. Looking back now with some sanity, I was a maniac in regards to that information. I will declare that I am an animal nut case. I love animals. I would rather spend time hanging out with animals than people so those comments really hit my hormones hard. 

We were told of how a cousin of a friend of a friend had a cat that smothered their baby to death. This usually comes from people that have never owned a cat. Most cats probably would think, "Hmmm a really loud smelly object is coming into the house. I don't want to go by that thing." The idea that a cat would come and lay by the baby to smother is an old wives tale that dates back to the Salem Witch Trials to say that the cat was trying to steal the babies soul. I am happy to say that Inga is soulful and happy when the cats come around. 

I decided to buy a book and read up on introducing your dog to a new baby. Elsa is a bulldog and has a tendency to forget how strong she is and the cats are huge and have a tendency to forget that they weigh 20 pounds. 

The book said to bring home a blanket after she was born and have the dog smell it. Didn't do it. When introducing the dog and the baby, the dog should be on a leash. Didn't do it. The dog should be kept out of the nursery to establish boundaries. Didn't do it. 

Anybody want to buy a book??

One thing we did was that when we bought our pack n' play for the bedroom, we set it up immediately to make sure the cats would become acquainted with it by the time Inga came. Our one cat, Boo, was somewhat interested and jumped in a couple times but after we put in the dreaded CAN O' PENNIES it was done. No more jumping in there. We also left the car seat sitting around the house and after a couple corrections from our other cat, Gus, he no longer tries to lay in there. Not that we thought that he would try to lay in there with her in it, but more so about the hair. 

So let's get to how they have reacted now that she is home. Let's just say that we were SHOCKED by how our little children responded.

Let's start with the middle child, Boo. He is a fairly normal cat. Sweet, snuggly and somewhat cautious. He just weighs about 20 pounds. His reaction to Inga was pure indifference and still is 4 months later. The first couple days that she was home, he just slept downstairs probably thinking that this screaming thing will leave in a couple days. Once he realized that she wasn't going anywhere he started sleeping upstairs again and could care less about her. He may get a sniff here and there but he really doesn't even care. 

Then there is Gus. He has boundary issues to put it lightly. He is the sweetest cat with a heart of gold, but like my Dad says....he is just dumb. He jumps and climbs on everything and tries to race you to whatever room you are going to. And he will trip you to get there first. We were not as concerned about him just because he has been around kids before and he didn't even care when they yanked on his tail. Just like Boo, he is totally indifferent towards her. Even more so than Boo. His demeanor has not changed at all. 

As long as your cat is not an asshole, I think you would be fine with them around. Most cats don't like hanging around loud noises and most will just avoid it based on what we have seen. 

Now let's move on to our first born, Elsa. We had a plethora of opinions regarding Elsa and I am glad to say she put all of them to shame. Some people were concerned that she would snap and bite her face off because she is a bully breed. I don't think we could have asked for a better reaction out of her. Pure love and admiration. All she wants to do is lick her to death, which we don't allow. We let her lick her feet but not her hands and her face. She simply adores her and follows us to whatever room she is in. Have to go change her diaper? Make sure to be aware that Elsa has followed you in her room and is laying down right behind you. She has even made the decision herself that when Inga is in the bed hanging out with us, she will sleep on the floor. We did not train that. It is just a respect thing. Now, I am not sure if this is from her training as a puppy or what but ever since Elsa was a puppy she won't sleep on my side of the bed. Even when I would travel for work, she would not sleep there. As the alpha-female, she respects my space and she has already learned to respect Inga's space. 

In the end, we have the happiest family with lots of animals and they all get along. I think if you raise your dog properly to be low in the pack totem pole, they will have no reaction to another pack member. They know they have no authority so they just let it happen. As soon as Inga can use her hands like a normal person, we will have her feed Elsa by hand as well. This will help with bonding them together and let's Elsa learn that Inga will be a provider for her and not a play toy. 

With cats, we might have just been lucky or else we prepared them properly for when the baby came. Try to setup as much baby furniture as possible before the baby comes so you can allow the cats to become accustomed to it. You don't want to setup the crib the day the baby comes home because the cats will just want to climb all over it. If your cat is not a dick, they should be fine with the baby because the baby smells like you and the cats like you, right?

How did your pets respond to a new baby or comment on what you did to introduce your pets to your baby.