Via Food Politics, see this study on health claims on foods marketed to children.  Hey, guess what? If it's marketed to kids as healthy, it probably isn't.

Table manners. Sort of.

1. She went through a phase a couple of months back where she tossed everything over the side if she didn't want it. I would have to try to catch it in my hand to teach her to give it to me, or to put it in the little cup holder area of her tray as a special place for undesirable morsels. It mostly worked, although stuff still goes over, particularly when she REALLY doesn't want it and is tying to be emphatic (No, Mommy, I really don't want any of the orange stuff. Really! *toss*), or when we're at a restaurant and she's all done and bored but the rest of us are still eating.

2. Spoons. No real development on this front. She's always been good with taking a loaded spoon and navigating it into her mouth if she's sufficiently interested in what's on it. Sometimes she gets too excited about having a spoon and wants to wave it about in celebratory fashion before putting it in her mouth. That doesn't work so well. Can't get her to try the whole dipping-and-scooping procedure herself, though she does like to take the handle end and bash things with it pestle-style. I think they should make a kayak-paddle type spoon with scoops at both ends.

3. Plates and bowls. I've been giving them to her with a few pieces of this and that on them, hoping that eventually the novelty will wear off and she'll get on with eating off of them. She doesn't knock them onto the floor or anything dramatic like you see in paper towel commercials, but she is far too interested in them as objects and wants to pick them up and turn them over and so on. Still working on this, in other words.

4. Forks.  Haven't tried it yet, but as soon as I see a plausible toddler fork, I'll give it a go. Why not?

5. When she's getting full and/or bored, she tends to pick up pieces of food, get them most of the way to her mouth, and then drop them in her lap. Very little ends up on the floor, lots in her lap and in the chair. And it's harder to tell when she's getting full, because stuff keeps disappearing. I keep telling her she can leave it if she doesn't want it, but I suppose that won't be a useful instruction until she can understand what I'm saying.

Still here!

Did you miss us? We're still here, still eating, if blogging (and reading blogs) a lot less frequently. I haven't quit on you! Mae is turning into a very busy little toddler. She had her first birthday recently, and has started to walk.  She's got a few words now, too-- besides some approximation of 'mama' and 'daddy', she produces 'uh-oh', and 'kitty' (pronunciation may vary, and I have a newfound respect for child language acquisition researchers who have to be able to transcribe this stuff and try to assign it a meaning). She stacks blocks, works on baby puzzles, and puts her toys through the cat door down the steps to the garage.

Foodwise, we're still going strong. She's not quite the chowhound she once was-- she balks a little at carrots, sweet potatoes, and brussels sprouts, and doesn't wolf down a peach the way she used to (maybe it's the out-of-season peaches). Doesn't care for the stewed apples of her youth, either, although she enjoys a slice of fresh apple for an afternoon snack. But she still loves avocado, peas, broccoli, meat of all sorts (still no sausage). Bread, pasta (but not soba, puzzlingly enough), beans, anything garlicky, all sorts of cheese (cheddar, blue, anything really).

My determination to keep exposing her to new foods at home has not waned, although my ability to do so has suffered what with lack of time to think of new dishes to try.  as she gets more active, she eats more, and it's all I can do to keep up with 3 meals and two snacks. Breakfast is usually one or more of the following: eggs (fried or scrambled), banana, avocado, or orange, toast, pancakes, 10-grain cereal with dried fruit, or toasted oatmeal in plain yogurt.  Lunch is leftovers from the last night's dinner, or soup. Yesterday we had roasted veggies-- sweet potatos (which she had about 2 slices of before losing interest), and roasted garlic mushrooms. She surprised me by eating mushroom after mushroom. Sometimes she hasn't the slightest interest in them, then other times...!  Just goes to show, never give up on offering certain foods. You never know when they'll develop a (perhaps temporary) enthusiasm for something.

Snacks: cheese, fresh bread or muffin if I've got it on hand, apple. Still no Goldfish! Still no Cheerios! Though I do understand others giving those out. It's hard to find neat, handy snacks that you can tote around without them going bad or stale on you.

She had a taste of pound cake at New Year's, and on her birthday, an entire mini-cupcake all to herself. Brown sugar, brown butter with orange frosting, thank you very much. Yeah, she liked it. As if there was any doubt? Got it on video, but no still photos, alas, so I can't put one up.

More on how her table manners are developing in the next post.