Toddler Food: Confession of a Mommy

Hello,

As you know I was quite passionate when giving Khadeeja solid food for the first time. I was rather creative too! Initially I had wanted to get a recipe book for baby food but that cost a lot and I think I can do better hehe..

If you've read my previous post you would know that I've given Khadeeja homecooked food most of the time. Well, I did stock up on processed baby food in a jar but that is reserved for when we're travelling or jalan2. It's much more convenient. Khadeeja doesn't like the 'bancuh' type of food like Cerelac or Nestum.

When she was about 11 months old, she started to refuse those baby food in the jar. Kalau makan pun sikit2. Luckily at that time I was still actively keeping her frozen homemade food so takdela terdesak sangat kalau nak keluar jalan2.

By the time she turned one, I exposed her to some of adult food (very minimal salt still) such as rice and soup, spaghetti in tomato sauce, chicken stew and such. So if I'm too tired or lazy to cook separately for her then there should be something that she can eat as well. But her diet still consist mainly of rice congee and baby pasta.

I notice that she's starting to become quite picky now. She does eat her vege consistently but when I twist some recipes she won't finish them. That's like my biggest fear! I've read that toddler starts to become picky at this age so hopefully I'm prepared for that. Recently, I had to freeze her rice and pasta as we we're going out of town for a few days. There was no microwave oven to heat her food and I totally forgot about the food warmer, soI had to defrost her food way before her meal time. I don't know whether she was just too excited to jalan2 or her being picky, but she refused to eat all the food that I brought! Such a waste as there were 5 containers of food had to be thrown out.

 I'm trying hard to control Khadeeja from eating junk/processed food like crackers, cookies and such. But I do give her a taste of ice cream and cake occasionally, just a few spoonful for her to experience the taste. The other day, we had a huge family gathering and I tell you it was a junk food galore! You would not believe at the amount of junk food that were made into hampers. And all of the kids are eating were eating 'em left right and center (including babies below 1 year old)! It was horrifying for me to watch. Some of her toddler cousins offered her some candy bars, chocolate, and crackers. Luckily I was always by her side and told them that "she cannot eat those things yet" and yet her 9 months old cousin is happily sucking a lollipop.
I did get some sneered looks from other mommies, but hey, that's my child we're talking about so it's up to me to decide what she can or cannot eat.

Overall, I'm not against processed food as I myself eat it when I crave for some (which rarely happens). I'm not saying that my diet is perfect either, but I try to eat in moderation, you know some good food and some bad food. But I want Khadeeja to appreciate the taste of real good food so that when she's a little older she knows that junk food doesn't do any good.