Food Glorious Food

We are busy packing up to move, here, and Geoff is off in Florida taking the boards, but the process of growing up waits for no one.

Hazel is six months now and started on solids last week. I had decided to do six months of only breast milk with Hazel as long as she seemed to be doing well on it. (I had started Cora on solids at five months in hopes it would help her terrible sleep, but it did not.) At Hazel's six-month check-up her pediatrician recommended not waiting any longer to introduce solids, though, lest she develop an aversion to the feel and taste of the other foods.

That rang true, since she already has an aversion to pacifiers and bottle nipples. We had introduced bottles within the recommended window of opportunity, but we weren't diligent enough in continuing to make sure she had a bottle regularly for practice, and soon we had an adamant bottle-rejecter on our hands. If I could go back, I'd change that.


So I started her on oatmeal mixed with breast milk and she did not seem to like it at all. With unhappy visions running through my mind of being this kid's sole food source for another six months, the next day I pulled out the big guns and went straight for mashed banana, beloved by babies everywhere. That she accepted. After a few days she got the hang of the spoon and the swallowing and the opening up for another bite and all that, so I tried the oatmeal again, and now she's eating both foods enthusiastically. Thank goodness!

I'll try to get a couple more new foods into her during the course of this move, and then get down to business with trying a new food every three days and the whole program I enjoyed so much last time.


P.S. As of her six-month check, she continues to hold her growth curves of 50th percentile for weight, and 90th for height.