What They Eat!

Since Gavin, Ava and Brayden have been eating solids I've been getting the question "so what are some things that they are eating"?  Their feeding schedule has changed a lot since I last posted the daily schedule.  They no longer have 10:00 or 3:00 "snack" bottles.  We knew that it was time to get rid of these because they weren't finishing their bottles and they were starving come time for lunch and dinner.  Here's an example of their daily feeding schedule these days:

7am: Breakfast (cut up pears, pureed fruit mixed with cereal and yogurt, graham crackers, 3 oz milk)

(nap from 8:30-10)

10am: Snack (cut up mozzarella cheese, cut up carrots, 3 oz milk)

12pm: Lunch (cup up vege burger, mandarin oranges, 3 oz milk)

(nap from 1-3)

3pm: Snack (cottage cheese mixed with pureed fruit, vanilla wafers, 3 oz milk)

5:30pm: Dinner (cut up turkey burger, peas, cut up peaches, 3 oz milk)

6:30pm: 6 oz bottle of milk during bed time routine

Some other foods that they like and are eating are:
mango
asparagus
green beans
squash
mashed potatoes
apples
bananas
lima beans
broccoli
sweet potatoes
blackberries
blueberries
strawberries
cherries

Turkey burger

They were  holding hands (or stealing eachother's food)!

They LOVE to eat!!

Most of the foods we are just steaming to soften and cutting them up for them to eat.  Fruits like blackberries or any others that have a tough skin we're still pureeing and combining with yogurt or cottage cheese.  There's really not any food that they don't like yet.  We love using the Morning Star Vege Burgers.  They're all organic and have a ton of protein in them.  We buy as many fruits and veges fresh but we haven't had the best experience up here with finding good quality produce so we also buy a lot that are frozen and some canned.  So hopefully this gives some ideas for all you Mommy's out there that are beginning the solid food stage.

We did a ton of research on when to begin solid feeding.  Our doctors were telling us to begin around 4 months but I found a great book as well as asked another mom of triplets (who is also a nutritionist)  her opinion on this.  Between the two there were a lot of statistics showing that it's better to wait until 6 months of age to avoid any increased links to childhood obesity.  Rice cereal is always the first "food" that doctors tell you to start with; however, a lot of people make the mistake of using it as food.  If you look at the nutritional content there is none! It's just empty carbs.  Really rice cereal should be used to teach them how to eat off of a spoon...NOT IN A BOTTLE! Putting it in a bottle can cause them to aspirate!  If you do start rice cereal at 4 months make sure you don't use it to replace a milk feeding so that you don't lose any nutritional value.  Everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion on this topic but this is ours based on lots of research, professional guidance and now our own experience. 

Great book full of research and sample menus!