Porridge Fingers

Lena was a very tricky baby with solids. Baby led weaning was her worst nightmare. "Different textures.... on my fingers?!?! Are you BONKERS?!?!" Well, okay she never said those precise words, but her eyes sure did! We did wonderfully following the puree route. She had an adventurous palette. For a while I was in a blissful place. The solids had helped diminish her reflux with the milk and her appetite seemed great. I was a little peeved that friends didn't need to be head servant feeding their child, but could in fact hold their own spoon and feed themselves cereal of a morning whilst their little one 'explored' the delights of finger food. But hey, at least mine was eating.... then came the independence.

Lena decided she didn't want a servant, she wanted to feed herself. But here is the dilemma, how does a child who hates feeling food and doesn't yet have either the patience or the dexterity to use a spoon/fork feed themselves. In short they don't. During these tricky few months I was in hell. Her weight dropped. Her ribs and spine were visible and her night wakings became unbearable as she woke up screaming for milk. I cried. I cried a lot. Every meal became a stab to the heart. Whereas before she would hoover up my home made Gobi curry, now everything and anything was delicately touched between fingertips and then immediately flung across the room in rage. At one point she coped well with scrambled eggs, but that lasted for about a week, and then that was also flung across the room. My repertoire of delicacies to nourish my child with was getting smaller and smaller. But one of my go to recipes for breakfast was and still is these odd gelatinous porridge fingers a friend told me about. Apparently it is from the Baby Led Weaning cookbook. I can't vouch for this as I don't have it. Instead I have the amazing advice of my friend.

Porridge Fingers

What you need:
A small Tupperware box. Mine is just short of an iphone in size
3 level tbsps porridge oats
3 level tbsps whole milk
1 tbsp sultanas
3 finely chopped apricots

What to do:
Mix everything into your box. I added the dried fruit to up the fibre content. I then microwave for 2 minutes. But start checking after 1.5 minutes.
You want the mixture to solidify.
Remove the box from the microwave and cool in a bowl of cold water. It's really important that the mixture cools as this helps it to keep its shape. Then loosen the edges with a knife and flip it out onto a board as you would a cake. Slice or chop as desired.