Routines in the White House :: Meal times

The time has, unfortunately, come that we now need to put more into the babies via actual food than bottles; which means that I now have to figure out how to feed 3 babies at once. It isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible either

In addition to figuring out how to feed 3 babies at once, we also need to figure out what to feed 3 babies at once. With Ave we did a fair amount of Earth’s Best Organic Baby foods: They were quick, easy, and had a lot of variety.

I bought one box (12 jars) of baby food in the beginning, when we got to the point that Jamesie was finishing off a jar by himself and looking for more we knew that wasn’t going to work (not at $1+ per jar).

Making it ourselves was the only option. We started with the basics: Carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, kale etc. Then started getting a bit more intense – running homemade chicken soup, or steak, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots through the food processor; pretty much whatever we were eating for dinner (minus pastas and bread and things that were not made from scratch). My dad has taken this very much to heart and has been sending over food for the babies as well.

I started with just doing one meal a day, because, frankly, the idea of putting babies in seats, bibs, feeding, cleaning up was rather overwhelming. We decided on dinner, because that’s mostly the food we’ve made up; that and there are usually 2 of us here, one feeds babies while the other finishes cooking our dinner.

At first no one was liking it, but then slowly James caught on {and now loves it}, then Henry {he’s dealing with it}, and Ellie is still at the tolerating it phase {but she does like carrots}.

I’ve started doing breakfast this past week: Steal cut oats with a bit of mashed bananas and stewed plums. The one day we added some {cooked} egg yolks (which are rich in proteins and good fats – as my mom calls them “Brain Food”). For lunch today we had oatmeal, with butternut squash and creamed spinach.

There’s the what, now for the how.

We rearranged our house so that the babies seats could be at the table and we could eat as a family, but, of course, that is not where the babies get fed. The table is pushed to the side and for them to be seated we have to pull it away from the wall, which means removing the foam mat we have on the floor. Needless to say that isn’t happening 3 times a day.

Bumbos. We line the three of them up on the floor in their bumbos, then sit in the middle. Now, some people will probably denounce me for what comes next…using the same spoon and the same bowl we feed all three of them. We tried separate bowls and spoons, but it was chaos; plus it was really hard to keep things straight. We just keep shoveling into the mouth of whichever child is ready next {and yes, I do have a good idea of who is eating how much}.

Once they’re past the point of needing purees and being fed, then we’ll work on sitting around the table to eat. Right now purees is about what they can handle. If they get any kinds of chunks they really are at a loss of what to do with them and start gagging. I don’t think it helps that they only have their 2 bottom teeth.

And THAT is how we do it. Yea, it’s work, but it must be done. Kind of like changing three poopie diapers in a row.