Learning to Chew with Gerber Lil Bits
*Thank you, Gerber, for sponsoring today’s post!
Why must our little babies grow up so stinkin’ fast? Yesterday my little Maddie-Roo turned six months old; I blinked, and here we are, one day closer to her being a walking and talking toddler. Her pediatrician gave her the green light to start eating table food around four months, but I’ve been hanging on to keeping her baby-like for as long as possible, so I ignored his suggestion. The problem is, I could tell she was ready by the way she’d gaze longingly at the food we’d eat, so one day a few weeks ago we gave in and gave her some baby food.
Honestly? I cried. Dramatic? Yes, but I can’t help it. The good thing is that she seems to like it so far (except the carrots, she didn’t care for them).
So when Gerber asked me if I’d like to enroll Miss Madilyn in their Gerber Chew U so she could try out Gerber’s 3rd Foods® Lil Bits™ Recipes, I couldn’t help but say yes. The girls and I set out for Atlanta one morning last week and went to a tasting “class” with other tiny humans and their mamas. It was some serious cuteness overload. Don’t believe me? Check out this quick video I made:
(photo courtesy of Amy from Marvelous Mommy)
Just like in school, we learned all about Gerber’s 3rd Foods® Lil Bits™ Recipes, and several things really surprised me. (You really do learn something new everyday!)
For example, did you know that more than 80 taste testers tasted over 700 samples—and 30,000 spoonfuls—to make sure Lil’ Bits has a baby’s seal-of-approval? And, in order to get everything just right, experts spent more than 120,000 hours developing recipes. As a mom, I truly appreciate how much work and thought went into creating this new product.
It turns out that Madilyn is at the perfect stage—developmentally—for Lil’ Bits, because introducing pureed foods with textures is highly recommended once little ones start crawling. Being a “crawler” means they’re ready to explore and feel multiple textures in their mouths at the same time. It also turns out that kids who haven’t been exposed to “lumpy food”—food that requires mashing and chewing—before they’re 10 months old, experienced difficulties transitioning to more advanced food. And, as babies grow, they learn to move their tongue from side to side, which helps move small, soft pieces of food to their jawline for mashing, and the early skills of chewing.
So what did Maddie think of this? She loved it. She tried the Apple Blueberry flavor and went to town slurping it up. I was a little worried about the tiny pieces since she’s only had straight pureed food up until then, but she ended up doing just what Gerber explained—she moved it around in her mouth for a little bit, attempted to chew it, and then swallowed it!
(I’d just like to point out that my two and a half year old and my six month old are both wearing the same size shirt here. Yeah.)
(photo courtesy of Amy from Marvelous Mommy)
Julia also wanted in on the tasting, and actually asked for more! I’m not one to tell a picky toddler that she can’t have something, so she ate an entire serving. Before the girls tried it, I sampled it, too (because I think it’s important that their food actually tastes good), and I really, really liked it. It wasn’t too sweet, and I appreciated the additional texture from the lil’ bits.
(photo courtesy of Amy from Marvelous Mommy)
Gerber’s 3rd Foods® Lil Bits™ Recipes come in 10 different flavors, but I really want to get my hands on the Banana Apple Strawberry, Banana Apple Mango, and Sweet Potato Apple Carrots and Cinnamon.
If you have little ones running (sitting or crawling) around, make sure you enroll them in Gerber Chew U. You’ll have a chance to win some daily prizes through September 4, 2015!
*This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Gerber.