our little man

4.20.2007

cereal!

ben's very first bite of cereal
ben had his first taste of "real" food today. even a few weeks ago, we didn't notice any readiness for solid foods, but since then he has been showing more and more signs. besides reaching out for our food and utensils (he's reaching out for just about everything right now, so i don't think that's much of a sign!), he has been really paying attention at meal times and studies us as we're eating. just like with sophie, we had planned to wait until 6 months to introduce solids, unless he showed readiness sooner. in the last week he seemed more and more ready, so we decided to give it a go.

we chose to start out with rice cereal as we had with sophie. because rice and oatmeal cereals are the least of the allergenic grains, that's what most babies start with. once he's used to the rice, we'll try the oatmeal... then move onto some veggies. he did really well. granted it was extremely thin - about 3 tablespoons of breastmilk and a little less than a tablespoon of cereal - but the biggest challenge was really just getting him used to the taste and the concept of the spoon. he did a lot of just chewing on the spoon at first, and he kept reaching out for it and wanting to hold it himself, but he did get the hang of it for the most part. he drooled a good bit of it down his chin, but he was eating it as well.

sophie loved watching and she even helped me feed him a few spoonfuls. then she went and got her bear, lala, and pretended to feed her. she was very patient and excited to watch ben doing something new. she especially liked helping with the bath that he needed after he ended up wearing so much of the cereal.

post-cereal... pre-bath
we'll go pretty slow with the solid food for now. he doesn't need anything other than breastmilk for the first year - any solids given before then are really just training. it helps babies get accustomed to the actual practice of eating, the different tastes and textures, and so forth. but it isn't as though they are depending on the nutrients, so i think its best to just go slow and let him learn gradually. after a few weeks of cereal, we'll probably introduce something new - likely avocado like we did with sophie. from there, it will be a new food every 4 or 5 days, waiting as is suggested to watch for allergy or tolerance problems.

i have to say i'm excited to start making his food. i really enjoyed making all of sophie's baby food and am proud to have done so. i liked knowing exactly what she was eating and being able to customize it specifically for her. its a fun process, and i think she'll enjoy helping me this time as we make ben's food.

i can't believe he's big enough for this already. adam and i were talking while we were feeding him - its crazy that he's this old already. where did our tiny baby go?

posted at 10:23 PM by aimee // 0 comments