Thursday, May 10, 2012

Starting Solids

There was a time I thought I would not feed my baby solids until he was at least six months old.  That changed like most of the stringent beliefs I have held about raising my child.  Around the 4 month mark when the pediatrician said I could begin and I was up each night to nurse 4 or more times, I began to come around. 

Everyone told me I would know when he was ready for food. They kept reassuring me, but I didn’t know.  It was not clear to me. Sure he was sitting in his high chair holding his head up and playing with a spoon, but he did not clearly tell me he was ready.  I believe it was I who was ready and we started with organic whole grain rice cereal. 

After the first go we determined it was not time quite yet and waited another week.  What a difference a week made.  He moved the food to the back of his mouth and swallowed leaving barely a remnant on his bib.  He grabbed the spoon and fed himself.  This was what people meant. He was ready.

I was thrilled by his reaction to food and even more that he dropped one nightly nursing session.  He ate his dinner while we ate ours and I was able to have family mealtime.  This time is special where we talk about our days and laugh and feed the baby. We took turns and my husband was finally able to be truly involved in the feeding process without a preceding pumping session.  He could prepare the meal and feed it to him with no involvement from me. 

Now people who know me know that I am a true food snob.  From the time I watched Food Inc I changed my ways and said goodbye to fast food and conventional produce. I became a Whole Foods shopper and frequented local farmers markets.  I do believe that Monsanto may in fact end the world as we know it if we are not careful with our approach to agriculture in this country. So clearly I was planning to make my own baby food.

I purchased the baby bullet after a failed experiment with my larger food processor.  I like having the right tools for the right job and for me the baby bullet is just right.  Carefully steaming carrots and peas and blending them to the perfect consistency for my baby is a joy like it is to prepare a meal for myself and my husband.  I freeze remaining portions and serve them up as needed.

The first vegetable Brenton tasted was carrots.  My kid loves carrots!  The second food was peas and my kid loves peas!  Then came avocado.  My kid does not like avocado!  At least not yet.  I refer to it as our first fail because not only did he spit it out he also vomited.  So no more avocado for Baby B for now.

There are so many rules to feeding babies that I never knew about.  You have to feed them only one new thing at a time to watch for allergies.  Common sense maybe, but it escaped me until I had my own child.

So far he has eaten, rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, peas, sweet potato, banana, avocado, peaches, pears, prunes, and blueberries.  As a side note when my baby eats blueberries it looks oddly like a murder has taken place and it is best of there are no clothes on except his bib. He likes to try to “help” with his hands causing the food to cover his face and arms.  Sometimes it will wind up on his forehead or in his nose. I just laugh at him and he laughs back at me.

I can say I do not believe we have a picky eater, but my husband and I are adventurous when it comes to food. Only time will tell if he follows in our footsteps. Until then we will introduce new foods one at a time and see how it goes. Who knows maybe one day he will even try avocado again and like it next time




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