Eating

We started with rice cereal the weekend of his sixth month milestone.  A lot of people told me to start earlier, but I read that a lot of other people recommend waiting until six months.  It was easier anyway, so we waited. 

When we started, He was immediately in love.  I wasn't surprised because he had been seriously eyeing us down for awhile whenever we were eating.  Also I had a feeling he wouldn't be a picky eater.  He grabbed the spoon & put it in his mouth, grabbed the bowl, tried to put that in his mouth.  He just loved it. 

Unintentionally we moved on to oatmeal cereal, which was a pleasant surprise.  He ate it much faster, and it wasn't nearly as messy as the rice cereal.  We started with Happy Bellies but now use Earth's Best because they sell it at Walmart.  Unfortunately we weren't as consistent as I wanted to be.  Our schedules were crazy, so when it was inconvenient we just went back to the old faithfuls.  (My boobs).  

But for Christmas my older sister got me the best present ever, the Beaba Babycook!  I had been wanting it since before Isaiah was even born.  My mom asked me at Christmas whether I had started to introduce any food other than cereal.  No, I said, I was waiting to see if I was going to get a present that would help with that.  She smiled really really big.  Cause she knew I was getting it!

As soon as I felt better after being sick FOREVER, I had Marcus buy us some potatoes.  I was going to start with squash, and now after further reading, I probably should have, but...  I didn't.  It was late at night (around 9pm), and Marcus was annoyed that I was feeding him so late, but I was tired of things getting in the way, so I used it.  And he ate potatoes.  And it was good.

That was Friday night, and I've been going back & forth between potatoes & oatmeal cereal, and of course he still gets lots of milk.

I thought I had read that homemade baby food needed to be prepared without any kind of seasoning, so that's how we started. 

But my intuition was telling me that that seemed silly.  So I read some more, and it turns out that recent studies are showing that the call for bland baby food isn't really based on any research.  In fact, it might encourage adventurous eating to spice it up & mix it up.  So we've started to add a little flavor to his potatoes, and he loves them more.  He's not eating them as fast as the cereal though. 

I am adament to wait awhile (not sure how long) before I give him fruit because I want him to love his veggies first.  But I might be out of luck because his dad sneaks in tastes of ice cream & who knows what else when I'm not around.

We'll see how he likes the next menu item - yellow squash!  This time I might cook for the both of us at the same time & then puree his. 

Anyway...  Here is the picture - Isaiah eating his potatoes.  His favorite part is trying to eat the spoon & the bowl when we get done.  Actually bowls & spoons probably are the top of his list of favorite toys ever.