Leo is an excellent eater. I'm not sure if that's a strong enough word for it. It's more like a passionate, overly excitable eater. All I have to say is "Do you want to eat?" and he runs clapping his hands into the kitchen. He goes right over to his high chair, babbling with enthusiasm. He's quite impatient and wants food in his hands immediately. Yums, ohs and ahs accompany pretty much anything I give him from bread or pasta to meatballs to sweet potatoes or peas. So do yelps and screams of joy. Leo really likes things with flavor, sometimes quite complex flavor. Nothing bland for this boy.

One day I was feeding him when Tom called from work. Leo was making so much noise while he was chowing down. All kinds of Ummmmms and sounds of pleasure were coming out of him. Tom asked what he was eating. "Broccoli," I answered, "can you believe it?!" Now I'm not sure if he was simply born with this insatiable appetite for just about any kind of food or if it's learned.

I did make his baby food (pureed fruits and veggies to start) and very much applied the 10 times rule. Basically, babies may need to taste something 10 times before it's acceptable to their palates. And believe me, there were many days that I was covered in the stuff I had made for him because he had just spit it out at me. But, true to the rule, by his 5th try there was less fussing and spitting. By the 8th try, he was eating more of it and by #10 he was actually enjoying it.

Now there are some down sides to have a baby who is a "foodie". For one I still make everything for him pretty much from scratch. Organic meatballs seasoned just like the ones I make for me, organic chicken marinated in lemon and rosemary, mashed rutabuga, kolrabi and leeks are all on his menu. Cooking for him takes up a good deal of my time and to be honest, lessens my enthusiasm for cooking for the hubby and I.

The second negative is that Leo will eat until he bursts. Seriously, he never willingly leaves a piece of anything uneaten. He does not have that "full" button. We learned this lesson the hard way one evening over a friend's house for dinner. We sat him at the table with us and he ate large portions of fish, portabello mushrooms, asparagus, bananas and cried for more. Well, he was up all night (as were we) with a belly ache after that one.

He's also a fast eater. He barely chews anything so all his food is cut into tiny pieces. Even with that we had an incident recently. Part of our morning routine after a bottle and playing is to watch a bit of Sesame Street. Elmo is Leo's favorite. I usually sit him down with a plastic bowl with small pieces of bread it in. Last week while he was doing that I went on my computer to see about flight delays. It was a windy, rainy day & Tom was due to fly back from a business trip. I was about 5 feet about from Leo. I'm not sure what made me look up at the exact moment I did, since he was not making a peep, but he was standing facing me with the strangest look on his face. And it hit me. He was choking. I ran to him and with my index finger hooked & pulled a wade of bread out of his throat. Leo then puked on me, himself and the carpet. He then gave me a hug and preceded to try to reach for the puke on the rug. It did have pieces of bread in it after all, but decided against it. Instead, he went right back to his bowl and the bread that was still left within it as if nothing had ever happened. Needless to say I'm still a bit shaken and no more bread during Elmo.

Posted by Dawn Falcone @ 8:04 PM 4 comments

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