more new tastes

I'm always a bit concerned that Naomi's finicky eating means we've missed the best 'taste window' for getting her to eat new things easily. There is thinking that this is between 6 and 9 months or so. And yet there are things that you technically shouldn't feed to a baby before certain ages - shellfish and eggs before the age of 1 for instance. So it must be possible, I try and reassure myself, for new tastes to be accepted all the time.

Breakfast was a repeat of yesterday's fruit fest except with Weetabix this time. And when she'd cleared the bowl she then ate 3 whole strawberries by hand. Better make sure we have them in the house at all times over the summer then, shame ha ha.

For lunch then I decided to try her on an egg sandwich. She has had a lot of omelettes which she really likes and she will eat scrambled. So I hardboiled it for 7 minutes and mashed it with the tiniest scrape of salad cream. Spread onto the bread I pressed tiny bits of chopped up cucumber into it and hoped for the best. The first tastes were obviously 'interesting' as little bits of white came out again. But then she got the hang of it or couldn't be bothered to resist and ate the whole piece I had prepared for her. As we've now got her to eat ordinary flavoured yogurt - we have Yeo Valley Organic - I bought apricot this week and she devoured it plus 2nds and 3rds.

Mexican chicken was on the dinner menu. She's had it once before and really went for the kidney beans. No such luck this time, we had to get them in with the broccoli on the fork. Bit naughty I know as it means she's not totally in control but she was very accepting. She also loved the savoury rice we served it with, which was fantastic. We've had a big struggle getting her to accept rice at all but she was just asking and asking and asking for more. I'd cooked some gnocchi just in case she didn't want the rice, so we gave her some of those as well or else Daddy would have lost half his dinner to the little gannet.

She DIDN'T sleep through last night. A great time was NOT had by all between 3 and 4.45am, especially me who was up with her because I can't bear leaving her to cry. So lets hope tonight is better. We have cut her milk to 7oz and 8oz instead of 6,6, and 8 because I felt she might be having too much and thereby not eating enough solids. She gets plenty of cheese and yogurt so I'm not worried about her calcium. So we'll see. I won't switch her to cows milk until the reduction is accepted as its thinner. And I might leave the bedtime bottle as formula anyway given that her sleep is so prone to being knocked off balance.

But all in all, today has been good! She's eaten very well. Maybe no new grey hairs for me.