A little Steemian's food journal

in #food8 years ago

Hello everyone,
if you follow my blog, you will know that I am an Asian living in Germany, I am married, I live to eat and now, one more thing about me : I am a mother of a 2-year-old boy ^^
Being a mother with a great passion with food, I was very excited when my little son reached his 7th month, since it was time to introduce him new dishes other than mother milk. I have made many food journals for myself and there is no doubt that I will create a food journal for my little son, too. After going through several books and documents about baby weaning period, I came up with a decision that we would start with the Japanese weaning style. In this entry, I will introduce this weaning method to Steemians who are mothers or mothers-to-be. It is great to share experiences and I hope some of you might find these information useful.

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The principle
Japanese weaning method emphasizes on natural foods, for example vegetables, fresh fruits, fish, meat, bulbs and so on. Instant foods and canned foods are not so favorable. When your baby begins his weaning time, you should feed him something bland or even tasteless. Let me tell you why, if you let your child eat unseasoned foods, it will be easy to adjust later on. On the other hand, if you give him delicious dishes first, he will get used to them and may refuse bland foods such as vegetables after that, which is NOT good at all. The first thing my son tasted besides mother milk was 1:10 rice porridge (1:10 is the dimension between rice and water- 1 rice and 10 water). And this is what I have made:
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Rice porridge
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After 2-3 days of eating rice porridge, I introduced him with carrot puree
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… and then broccoli puree

Eating separately for the first month
During the first few weeks, it is necessary for you to let your baby eat all the foods separately. By that I mean we should not mix veggie, meat/fish and rice together in this period. The purpose of it is to stimulate the child’s taste, let him know “wow, this is rice, it is bland”, “this is carrot, it is naturally sweet, I like it” or “this is fish, it is a little bit stinking but it is good”. By cooking the foods separately, you will help your baby to realize different flavors, and from that he might show his interest in some particular dishes and unwillingness to consume the other ones. Mothers should know their children’ appetite in order to feed them properly.
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One of his meals at the 3rd week of weaning: simply rice porridge, carrot puree and veggie soup
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Mother milk + mashed sweet potato
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Introducing fish for the first time- week 4 of the weaning: fish (steamed, mashed)- rice porridge- pumpkin puree

More vegetables
One of the reasons why I chose the Japanese weaning style is that I found myself having the same expectations as many Japanese parents. I want my baby to develop normally, I want him to be healthy and get fit instead of being fat or even obese. Looking through the menu of Japanese weaning, it can be seen that there are a lot of vegetables, other factors including protein, vitamin and flour are well- balanced, especially protein tends to be lessened. Sugar is totally not recommended.
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His meals 7-8th month: spinach soup and asparagus salad – blueberry and pear oat puree
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Sweet pea porridge
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... and many more meals with vegetable to be the main ingredient :)

Respect your baby
The first 3 months are the time for babies to LEARN how to eat. It is such a milestone that he needs to try so hard to overcome. Therefore, as parents, you have to be patient and respect your babies. Babies should be considered members of the family and you need to pay attention to their psychology. Each baby has dissimilar characteristics and they will also vary over time. As a result, it is necessary for mothers to understand, direct and even comply with their children. Remember to be flexible as well :)
One more special thing about Japanese weaning method is that it encourages baby to eat roughly on time. Puree, blended and smashed dishes are introduced during the first month, and then the rough level will begin to increase gradually so that after 18th month, babies can eat rough foods with the whole family (parents’ foods are cut into smaller pieces, of course). However, to help babies learning to eat rough foods, mothers need to have patience and determination. Do not compare your baby’s performance with others, adjust a rough level that is suitable for your child and patiently walk with him through this difficult period. I am sure it will be worth it because I gave it a try and was successful. Although for the first period, we had met several difficulties (my baby did not cooperate and as a young mother, I was totally lack of experiences), we still made it to the final goal: My son actually ate rice when he was one and now at 22nd month, he can probably sit and eat with his parents.
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A typical lunch of my son at 18 months: fried rice with seafood and vegetable soup
Last but not least, another factor of respecting your children is the way you feed them. It is highly recommended that mothers should pay attention to the decoration of the meals and other surrounding elements such as background, color and air. They will surprisingly make impact on babies’ eating. It is up to you to create different unique ways to encourage babies to eat. To me, eating is not obligatory, it is fun, it is a great experience and this is how I have made my little son to feel the same way: not only tasty foods, but also lovely decoration ^^
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Mother’s style gnocchi
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Grilled egg with cheese and spinach
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Pumpkin and yogurt pancake
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Mama’s style wonton noodle soup
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A colorful lovely lunch <3

I have just given an overview of Japanese weaning method. There is a lot of helpful information that I have not gone through, but my post is pretty long already, so see you guys in another post. Our Steemian mothers, which weaning method did you choose to apply ? How do you think about this method? I am more than happy to read your comments.
Thank you for reading ^^

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Fascinating. I never even considered there was any difference. Also I have to commend you for your photos too. Each one is like a little work of art. That's one of the things I love about food photography and Japanese food!

Very good and helpful post!
My daughter is ten already, but who knows perhaps I will need all this info again... ;-)

You should have another baby @richman, a boy ? :D It is good for your daughter to have a little brother, I bet she will definitely like this idea :P

Yes, I love my daughter so much and it would be good to have a brother to her ;D

Very interesting and healthy dishes.

Yep, they are very healthy, especially good for babies ^^

I always enjoy your pictures ! Only an asian woman could use so cute pictures and plates etc.

wonderful ! hopefully we will learn more stuff about kids from you!

Thank you so much @knozaki2015 for your comment and encouraging me to write more posts. As a mother I am always busy with my little one and only in the late evening can I concentrate on other stuffs. But I'll try to share as many helpful experiences as I can ^^

Great amount of work eheh. Love it, keep steeming!

Thanks @mibenkito for sharing your parenting experiences. We have a two year old son too. Getting him to have a balanced diet is always a bit challenging.

Thanks for your comment @nextgen622, as parents we always do the best for our child. Your son looks so cute btw ^^

Thanks. Hehe, yes he's our little bundle of joy. After a stressful day, he always knows how to make us smile. I'm sure your son is incredibly cute and bring you guys heaps of joy too. :)

Yes, he is exactly 22 months now, going to be 2 soon and he is learning to speak. I gues your son is learning it too? I love the voice of my baby, so sweet and lovely. They will grow up soon, very fast and these moments are really precious, arent they? I want him to stay cute and little like this, when he grows up he will not be cute anymore haha

Yeah you should. You can show your son this beautiful country and where you studied. If you come to Melbourne, my wife and I can show you guys around or recommend you some nice restaurants. :)

Yep we live in Melbourne. Yeah Australia is beautiful. Haha your situation is sort of the reverse of Tammy. She studied in Europe and settled in Australia.

Yep, I miss Aussie much, maybe I'll come back next year 😁

That's a really fun age. When they are starting to speak and can't pronounce words properly, it's very cute. My son loves talking and singing , and does it non-stop. :) He is 28 months now.
Lol. That's exactly what my wife says too. She always says soon he will be grown up and he won't be cute like this, and won't need me any more. Hehe. That's why I wrote this post inspired by her comment. https://steemit.com/preciousmoments/@nextgen622/no-longer-will-i-get-to-hold-him-likehttps://steemit.com/preciousmoments/@nextgen622/no-longer-will-i-get-to-hold-him-like-this-againhttps://steemit.com/preciousmoments/@nextgen622/no-longer-will-i-get-to-hold-him-like-this-again-this-again

I read your post and upvoted last week, actually I read all of your post and enjoy them really much @nextgen622 ^^ when our sons grow up they will be stubborn and we'll not be able to hold them like when they are little, so sad huhu. I want to say hello to your wife ^^

Thank you very much @mibenkito. Yes I noticed all your votes. Really appreciate your support.
I told my wife, Tammy, you said hi, and showed her the pics in your post. She said the pics look so nice and delicious. If you would like to chat to her directly, I can PM you her details. :)

haha thank you. You two are living in Australia rite? I miss this country so much, I've spent 4 years in Sydney too. Australia is a peaceful country that is so easy to live. Nice choice !!!

Amazing post @mibenkito :)
You even made your sons dishes look beautiful and appetising! Thats the key, he will grow up a very well looked after child. That i know for sure :)

Thank you @b0y2k, my husband always said I spoil our little son though :P

excellent, beautiful work that has made congratulations

Thank you, I appreciate that <3

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