Being a first-time parent, I obviously worry whether Bubba has enough to drink and eat. I wonder if her food intake is sufficient. The teachers at school were shocked when they realised I haven’t started Bubba on porridge and when they tried feeding her, they were surprised at how little she eats. By their standards, she’s apparently supposed to be eating at least half a bowl of porridge. If you ask me, that’s a lot. I was honestly happy when she could finish 2 to 4 tablespoons of cereal.
So I tried to up her intake of porridge. Tried to feed her the same porridge along with some Green Medley puree (mixture of peas and capsicums puree) from Petit Bowl. The combo did not go too well with Bubba. She spat out a fair amount of what I tried to feed her and was far more interested playing with her sippy cup rather than ingesting the food.
Case in point, the porridge was on the table with the rest of the food all over the bib. I was obviously exasperated but what could I do? My sis did share that when it comes to introducing new flavours into a baby’s diet, the result could either be a hit or miss. So I shouldn’t fret too much if baby doesn’t want to eat. The important thing is that she’s still getting her nutrients from milk and I should just keep trying with the new flavours to expand her food repertoire.
Being a full-time working mom and even with the help that I’m getting at home, I really do feel extremely tired. I’m usually flat out on bed by like 9.30 or 10pm. I do wish I have more energy to experiment with making the meals for Bubba but the flesh is weak. Plus, I did try and Bubba wasn’t keen on eating much of what I made after a couple of spoons of the porridge. That’s when I realised how much work and effort actually goes into making that tiny bit of porridge for Bubba. Great if she eats, but if she doesn’t then guess who has to eat up everything?! I wasn’t ready to eat porridge everyday if that was the case.
So what did I do? Upon my sister’s recommendation, I decided to check out Petit Bowl with her over the weekend.
Petit Bowl provides meals for children aged 4 months to 6 years old and is a feeding solution for parents:
- Who are travelling
- With busy schedules
- Whose kids are picky eaters
- Who wish to lighten grandparents’ care giving load
- With domestic helpers who do not know how to cook the child’s meal well.
- Who wish for alternative meals to complement home cook food for their little one.
These meals known as “frozen solutions” are prepared by blending and mixing fruits, vegetable and grains together with fresh meat and fish without added salt, sugar or artificial flavourings into delightful combinations. Any Petit Bowl meals can be consumed by the child with simple heating or kept frozen and store for future meal times.
After consulting with them, I went home with 2 weeks supply of petite meals for Bubba. I paid about $80+ for everything and even though it may seem like a relatively large amount to pay for a tiny tike’s meals. But if you really think about it, making everything from scratch don’t come cheap either. If I were to make an assorted soup stock, I would have to purchase the different vegetables or meat to be placed in the slow-cooker. And let’s not forget the electricity cost. Plus the different meals that I got for Bubba from Petit Bowl will allow her to explore the different flavours in petite sizes without me slogging in the kitchen.
So what am I doing now with Bubba’s meals for the next 2 weeks? Trying out a new flavour every 2 days for now. Her first was the Creamy Green Bowl which she kinda sampled and swallowed the first day I gave it to her and then decided she didn’t like it at all on the second day.
Today, I gave her the Sweet Medley combo which is a mixture of carrots, parsnip, potato and milk. Parsnips have a sweet, nutty taste which babies love and is a great source of beta carotene, vitamin C and essential minerals. The serving size is 4 ounce which is a nice size to feed babies who are starting on their food journey. Bubba finished 3/4 of this along with 2 tablespoons of multi-grain cereal. She doesn’t like porridge all that much, so I will just play around with her intake of carbo by rotating between cereal, porridge and pasta for now till I find out what she enjoys the best.
Weeknight dinners are sorted out with options from Petit Bowl. Will use the weekend to whip up meals for her then. Wish us luck!
lady J's musings 