Pancit, Baby! The Joy of Feeding AR...

Raising a bicultural/bilingual baby is more challenging than I originally thought. Heck, raising a kid is challenging enough without adding more ingredients to the mix.

One of the best words of advice that I recieved when I was pregnant with AR came from a dear high school friend who has 3 of his own. He must know what he's talking about. I have these words permanently engraved in my head: "You will receive a lot of advice from a lot of people. The only advice that I will give you is to follow your instincts and you will be fine".

Since then, I have listened to advice from my American friends, Spanish friends, my mother, my suegra, a couple of pediatricians, lab technicians etc. Sometimes I wonder if my instincts are right!

If that weren't enough, we have this wonderful invention called the internet which allows me to see what the trends are in the States as far as feeding baby and can compare them to trends here in Spain.

Mom was really surprised when AR's first solid meal (after cereal) was a puree of carrots, potatoes, leeks, zucchini, pumpkin and chicken. Here they follow the sink or swim protocol of feeding baby. All or nothing. None of this test each food separately, keeping a diary. After reading so many (American) magazines and websites, you can bet that I was just a bit uncertain. Heck this is all new to me. What do I know? I really wanted to follow the American trends, but then decided on the Spanish since our pediatrician is Spanish.

Moving to the solid food stage has been a real trial. And, as some of you know, there are the ongoing digestive/growth concerns as AR is very small for his age (yet very agile). We are currently undergoing many different tests and analyses to check for intolerance to gluten and/or lactose. Cereal still remains one of the most challenging foods to give him.

However, we are pleased to see that our little guy eats just about everything else! His initial favorites were chicken and rice and peas and ham. He has now matured to more complex tastes such as mommy's lentils with garlic and chorizo or hake with bechamel sauce (all purees, of course).

The other day when I was feeding him lunch, a puree of chicken and rice, he seemed far more interested with what was on my plate. I had just gotten ahold of Dad's pancit recipe the night before and had made batch of it that morning. Why not? I thought. I mean, what do babies in the Philippines eat, if not one of their national dishes?? So, I gave AR a long noodle appropriately seasoned with a bit of green onion, garlic and fish sauce. He didn't know what to do with it at first, but then copied me as I showed him how to shove it in his mouth. After that he continued to ask for more noodles!

Last week was full of new tastes for our growing explorer. First, papá Angel took him to a restaurant and invited him to a squid ring while he had a cup of coffee. Apparently AR loved gnoshing on that squid ring. Then, last weekend Angel made a rice curry with chicken and I pureed some of it a blender. AR scarfed that down as well!

Well, now it seems to be it was a lost cause. No going back to plain old chicken and rice for him! We have unintentionally converted him into a bonafide sybarite! What next? Bento boxes for daycare?