The Secret Ingredient

Let me first exclaim that I know I'm not the first to figure this out or the last and I'm sure it isn't some super secret, but for me I had never heard about it so it is now my secret ingredient success story.

Nathaniel hasn't been a bad or good eater. I figure he probably falls somewhere in the middle. Sometimes he will quickly eat up his puree and other times not so much. To be fair to the little guy I'd say he eats good a lot more than he eats bad. When he eats poorly it is definitely a test of patience as you sit in the kitchen staring at each other as he spits it back at you or just flails his arms in some sort of baby revolt. His spitting is mostly just pushing the food back out of his mouth. This in turn gets all over his hands and usually ends up pretty much everywhere since he then rubs his eyes, his hair, etc. He does the spitting with all the food whether he likes it or not. Sometimes I guess he is just in a mood. The puree's he doesn't like he just gives stink face and pretty much turns his head from you.

He has been doing better with finger foods. I think he likes his independence. The problem with finger foods is that he tends to 'squirrel' a lot of the more starchy finger foods (pasta, bread). By squirreling I mean he just packs it in but doesn't swallow. Eventually he will have 10 pieces of pasta in his mouth. As he stuffs more in a few fall out, but overall his cheeks just get bigger and bigger.  He does eat beans, cheese, melons, blueberries and cheerios like a champ still. I haven't tried pasta or bread in a while so I might soon just to see if the 'squirreling' phase is over.

Ok, back to the puree's that get super stink face. Green beans, carrots and chicken are probably the worst offenders.

Quick side story. I go through some work to make homemade food for Nathaniel. I buy organically grown fresh veggies and fruit and I steam or bake them, puree then freeze. I use jarred or pouch foods if we aren't at home, if it is food that I don't know how to make *prunes* or if I leave Kevin home to feed him. Well, it always seems like Nathaniel gobbles up these foods much quicker than mine. Little punk! Maybe he likes them more because the consistency is smoother. Or maybe they just taste better... who knows. But, it is a little offensive ;) Even though on occasion I feel like just giving him the store bought organic food all of the time - I continue to primarily use the food I make because overall I think they retain more vitamins when compared to the jarred. I have been using more jars/pouches that have spinach mixed in the puree. I can't puree spinach and if you remember he is low on iron so I do add those store bought ones to the rotation. Ask me again in a few weeks and maybe I'll have transitioned to store bought haha.

On to the secret... not 'The Secret' the famous book by Rhonda Byrne... but my little secret.

So green beans (both jarred and mine - yes I performed a mini experiment), carrots and chicken are big stink face causers. But but but they go down successfully with my secret ingredient. Drum roll please........ pear or apple sauce. I add a tiny bit of pear puree to carrots and you'd think they were sweet potatoes (one of his favorites). A little bit of apple puree in broccoli and down the hatch it goes. Pear and green beans is a winning combination. The secret ingredient for chicken seems to be squash (not pear or apple, but I'll take it). I've decided to change the classic Mary Poppin song 'a little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down' to 'a little bit of apple or pear makes the veggies go down, the veggies go down, the veggies go down'

You might be thinking that I am going to run into trouble when he eats these veggies as real food since I can't mask the flavor. I figure I will tackle that problem when it comes. For now he is getting these essential veggies and learning to at least like the flavor even though it is slightly diluted since it is still primarily carrot or green bean, just with a ** shhhh** secret yummy ingredient.