Eating Solids

We tried to start EH on solids months ago, when he was around 4 months of age, on the recommendation of his pediatrician.  We started with rice cereal, which he hated, and then moved to oatmeal hoping he would like it more.  With both of those cereals, he usually just pushed it out of his mouth his with tongue, or gagged on it so badly that he would turn bright red, we would panic, and then quit with the cereal.

So after a few tries of that, we took a break on the solid foods.

Around his 6th month pediatrician visit we decided to give real food another try.  He still gagged on occasion but wasn't pushing it out of his mouth so much.  A couple of days before he started A-Care, he ate an entire serving of oatmeal without gagging! We were thrilled.

 Enjoying pears

Since then we've introduced a number of new foods.  Around 6.5 months old he was still a little hesitant about new tastes and textures, but now that he's 7 months old he is finally loving solid foods.  He smiles and laughs through his meal and we can introduce new foods without any problem.

I think in his case, he just wasn't ready for solids at 4 months of age, and I'm glad that we didn't push it too hard until closer to 6 months.  There's really no benefit to him eating solid foods, other than it's sort of fun for us and it saves us a few bucks a month on formula (since he eats ever-so-slightly less formula now that he's eating some solids.)

So here are the foods that EH has tried so far that he absolutely loves.

Successful First Foods:

1. Oatmeal

2. Apples
3. Sweet Potatoes

4. Pears
5. Mango
6. Zucchini
7. Rice Cereal
8. Tiramisu *
9. Yogurt
10. Squash

EH has tried the 4 foods below, but didn't really like them or gagged a lot on them, so we're going to reintroduce them to him in a couple of weeks now he's starting to tolerate other foods better.


Failed Foods (we're going to try all of these again in the future):
1. Avocado
2. Green Beans
3. Carrots

4. Bananas

The failed foods list all made him gag, I think because of the texture.  The foods that he really likes blended down into a softer, creamer puree, where as the beans and carrots were slightly chunky, and the avocado and banana seemed to thick for his liking.  Most of those made him throw up, and I don't mean spit up, I mean throw up. Like gut wrenching retching (say that five times fast), full stomach contents vomiting.  We're going to take that as a sign that he's not quite ready for those yet, and wait a few more weeks before trying again.  There's enough variety in what he does like to eat that I'm not force a few things on him that he doesn't seem to care for right now.

Of course, it seems like all he really wants is the stuff that we don't want him to have.  Including his daddy's cereal.

* Yes, you read number 7 on the "successful" list correctly.  EH has tried tiramisu.  Or really, he's tried the cream/icing part of the tiramisu (I was not interested in having a hyped-up, caffeinated baby!)  We were at a baby shower a couple of weekends ago and EH was being really fussy while we were eating.  He kept trying to grab at my food.  The dessert spoons were really tiny - baby sized, really - so I gave him a little taste of the icing to see if he liked.  Well, he's my kid so of COURSE he liked the icing.  He smiled, laughed, and then proceeded to reach and squawk loudly in delight, asking for more. It was super cute, and I only gave him a few bites, but I definitely did feel a little guilty.  After all, many people believe that you should only give your baby vegetables early on, because you don't want them to develop a preference for sweet things, like fruit. I have a feeling the doctor would recommend fruit over icing, but it was only once, and desperate times called for desperate measures.