Brooklyn's Food Diversification

Brooklyn was born on August 13, 2020. As his very first Christmas approached, seeming to have no interest in food, his dad and I decided to make a first test puree on Christmas Day, he was then 4 and a half months old. 

We were very excited to feast at the table with our baby on Christmas Day by preparing a real small meal for him. Christmas is a holiday that we particularly like at home. 

Breastfed exclusively to this day, it was the first time he would eat anything other than breast milk. We offered him a nutmeg squash puree. A vegetable that I like very much and that I have eaten several times during my pregnancy.

Intrigued, my pretty baby ate 6 beautiful spoons making a grimace sometimes but enjoying this new flavor, all dressed in his little elf costume (my mom's heart exploded with love in front of so much cuteness)

After this rather conclusive trial we waited 3 more weeks for Brooklyn, happy with her mother's milk, to show a little more interest in food. It is therefore on Saturday, January 16 that Brooklyn really started its food diversification.

Her dad and I had chosen to exclusively prepare homemade purees and compotes to offer her meals free of unnecessary additives and to control the composition of her meals to protect her stomach, nourished only with breast milk until then. 

Every third Sunday, we spent a whole day in the kitchen peeling, cutting, cooking and mixing the food of our pretty baby. 

So we started with 60 grams of squash puree for 3 days, then we followed with zucchini puree for 3 days and so on. we chose to alternate vegetables every two or three days depending on the reactions of our marshmallow. BK loved discovering all these new flavors. He only ate a few spoons at first but quickly finished his 60 grams before moving on to a larger amount. 

Until he was 8 months old, Brooklyn only ate solid at noon, in the evening he drank my milk as dinner. 

During the first two weeks of food diversification, Brooklyn tended to fall asleep on the spoon before finishing his meal, a falling asleep due to the texture of the mash thicker than the breast milk he had been accustomed to until then. 

With the permission of the pediatrician, the introduction of the fruits did not take long, in fact, 9 small days after the start of the AD, our pretty baby discovered the fruits.The first compote we prepared for him was a compote of juicy pears! At the whim of the spoons, we saw him go from astonishment to perplexity and finally to delight! 

So we very quickly introduced a snack in the Brooklyn diet. 

For 4 months he enjoyed his meals and with the pieces of fruit that we put in his little snack as a dessert. 

However, around 8-9 months I noticed a weariness in baby who seemed to no longer like the consistency of the puree as much, we experienced a beat of two weeks during which he hesitated to eat, pushed back the spoon or ate only his yogurt or small piece of fruit in his snack. 

Very annoyed I started to offer him cookies and bread. It was a huge success, it is with a certain enthusiasm that my son regained the taste of food and began to learn to chew with his two teeth, with a disconcerting ease by the way. I gradually started to offer him sticks of vegetables and steamed potatoes which he liked a lot! I no longer mixed meat and fish, instead I proposed to him in small pieces to his delight! 

Brooklyn eats food in pieces and he is very happy to master the rhythm of his meal and choose what he wants to eat or not. He can hold his food, crush it, contemplate it, give a little to mom and dad, throw it on the ground (laughs)

So we started an DME around its 9 months without really realizing it. 

The DME came in a very natural way by simply trying to listen to the reactions of our beloved marshmallow. However, I am absolutely not closed to purees, Brooklyn continues to eat them several times a week and will continue to eat them for many years. 

We were very lucky in Brooklyn's food diversification which went wonderfully well from the first meal.