I am slowly replacing Jia Huey's daily porridge with rice recently. It has been quite a challenging start to get Jia Huey familiarised with the effort to chew, compared to the easy-to-swallow porridge.
Since the beginning, I have been patiently feeding Jia Huey at every mealtime, side by side, telling stories and even let her watch her favourite cartoon's DVD as exchange. Of course I know, feeding in front of the tv is not a healthy habit. But I would give in if it means Jia Huey is willing to chew and swallow her scoop of rice that she has been keeping in her mouth since 15 minutes ago! On average, every mealtime takes 2 hours to complete.
From here, I slowly observe Jia Huey's preference, I found that she prefers softer rice.
- Thus I start to cooking softer steamed rice, with more water and a bit of sesame oil to stimulate appetite. Also, by steaming the rice, the ingredients on top will add good flavours to the rice. (Thanks Shaw Fern for this fantastic idea!)
- I use softer ingredients such as pumpkin, sweet potatoes, tomatoes or steamed eggs
- I chop all the ingredients into smaller pieces especially brocollis, carrots and baby corns to make it easier to chew.
- I substitute frozen fish with fresh fishes. In other words, I have been going to the market more frequently.
- Should I need to use pork as an alternative, I will mince it and marinate before cooking.
This has been going on for 2 weeks now, and her mealtime is shortened from 2 hours to 1.5, then 1.5 to 1 hour. My next target is to achieve 30 - 45 minutes each cycle.
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