We are 5 months into first-time parenthood and settling into that groove where we somewhat look a little like people who might know a tiny bit about what they’re doing.
We can resettle Lachie at 1am in a flash, nappies get whipped on and off with streamlined frisbee-esque aplomb, we even manage to get the odd email written in the middle of the day.
We have found a routine. And honestly life is starting to feel smooth for the first time in a while.
But as we all know, it’s just when you get the hang of things that life decides to throw you into the big-kid pool and you level-up.
Yep, we’re talking about solids.
We’ve put it off for as long as can, following the wisdom of many-a frazzled park-parent as they absentmindedly scrape dried puree off their shirts.
But we’re in the stage now where a bottle is no contest for a spoonful of room-temp mush and we enter a whole new world of parent anxiety: What to feed him.
Dom and I are lucky in that we have the flexibility to work from home and we try to blend our own baby food as much as possible.
Okay, that’s the Instagram-parent version. That WAS the plan.
The reality has been somewhat more ad-hoc.
Our home recipes aren’t exactly Cordon-Bleu-interesting, we normally end up blending too much sweet potato and the poor tyke has to consume that same thing for a week.
And trust us, we can tell by his face he’s not stoked about it.
Or, we get slammed with shoots and we end up having to run to a random supermarket that has limited range and just grabbing a pouch of something we don’t feel great about but have to make do with.
And we feel a little guilty with every mouthful because we want to give him the best we possibly can.
Lately we’ve been experimenting with Bubs Organic, which is a small family-owned baby food company, which means they knows all of the feelings we shared above well.
Their philosophy also ticks off a number of things for us:
Bubs Organic is made in Australia and sourced from sustainable organic farms.
No GMOs.
No artificial colours.
No added salt or sugar.
Or any thickeners or fillers.
There’s also a range of recipes (such as Sweetcorn Pumpkin and Chia pouches, which have been a hit) so we can start exposing Lachie’s tastebuds to as many flavours as possible.
And most importantly, they’re available in Coles so they’re easy access.
The real proof for us though is how Lachie reacted.
We’re first-time parents here so bear with the over-the-top enthusiasm for extremely small wins—we felt like absolute heros when Lachie reached out for the spoon. “More!”
This was major. For weeks he’d kind of been resisting the whole food concept, opting for tears to explain his hunger but not exactly happy with our choice of blend.
Suddenly mealtime feels more fun and bonding.
He’s smiling and engaging with the pouches, we’re relieved because now he’s not crying anymore, the dog’s happy because she has a tasty post-fed baby face to lick, the dining table is a mess (but who cares, the house is contentedly silent again!).
We can see this routine becoming more relaxed, less-messy and a total piece of cake.
That is until the next milestone…
PS: Bubs Organic also have a genuinely fantastic blog on their site which covers feeding tips from real mums, recipes and ideas for playtime with your baby. We visit it a lot, because we need help. (Haha, kidding. But seriously, what are we doing?)
