Ryan is five-and-a-half months old, and he's been eating rice cereal mixed with oat bran for more than two months now. That was to help with his reflux, but as the portions have gotten steadily larger we knew that he'd be ready soon for true solid food. I was waiting for a sign.
The sign came at the end of last week, when for the first time in months Ryan awoke twice in the night for full meals. Clearly he needs more calories, and Mean Mommy isn't getting up twice in the night to give them. When Ryan goes to college, he can eat middle-of-the-night snacks all he wants. But this is Mean Mommy's house, and we sleep at night.
So today, I made his first baby food: Carrot puree. I didn't want to use bananas, the traditional first food, because Ryan's bowels move at a pace rivaling glaciers or N.C. State basketball victories. Having him eat something that would slow them further was out of the question. And I wanted to start with vegetables instead of fruit anyway, because I couldn't wait to boss my own kid with "eat your vegetables."
Making his food was surprisingly fun and satisfying – I don't really like to cook just for the sake of it, but I enjoy cooking for people I love. Now that I've done it once, I'll be much faster at it next time. Plus I'll make less of a mess. (Note: Turn off the hand blender before pulling it out of the food. Just a tip from me to you.)
Ryan loved the carrots. He opened wide and reached for the spoon through the whole meal. Next up: Avocados!
2 comments:
We started with veggies as my mom said, "Once they have the sweet fruits, they won't want to eat the veggies as much!" Made sense, and it worked with both kids. Max's fave was peas and peaches. Cate's was carrots, squash and pears!
Just a hint that I heard somewhere, if he does get constipated, any "P" fruit will loosen him up (ie, peaches, pears, prunes, plums, pineapple)!
Did he constantly stick his fingers in his mouth too after a bite? Sophie did that and it was such a mess. We kept stopping her and then I found out later that it was a way to help her swallow. Oops! Glad he likes his food!
BTW - the Super Baby Food book has a really good reference list (page 86) on what foods to give when. We just followed along with that and it helped.
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