"Solid" Foods

The term "introducing solid foods" is a joke, right?

When the pediatrician told us at the 4 month wellness visit that we can go ahead and introduce solid foods to the Grub, I cheerily skipped off to the supermarket to pick up some single grain rice cereal mix.  This is super exciting for me, since this child continues to refuse a bottle.  Basically,  she is glued to my side (and my boob) for "on demand feedings" 24/7.  When I try to leave the house for more than an hour, odds are that I'm going to return to a grumpy baby and a grumpy husband. But if someone other than me was able to successfully offer her a meal...oh, the possibilities! 

As visions of freedom danced in my head, I prepped the grub with a bib and carefully followed the directions on the package to mix up the first batch....and then re-checked the box....and then added a little more of the rice...stirred...hmmm...a little more??....

The resulting mixture is the opposite of solid.  It is liquid with some teeny tiny pieces of solids floating within.  I believe the term "slurry" can be loosely applied. But, having already nearly doubled the amount of the rice mix and increasingly nervous about ruining my child's first "meal," I resisted the urge to create a more oatmeal-like consistency.  

Then I tried to actually use the spoon to pick up some of this mixture.  A baby spoon is literally almost flat - very little concavity to the utensil! So basically, I was precariously balancing a tiny amount of liquid on an nearly flat surface.  When JK (who was hopping around in the background, entertaining Monica, and turning on the video camera) suggested that I "airplane" the food towards her, I just gave him the People's Eyebrow and continued about my business.  

Luckily, the fun was just beginning!  For those of you who haven't been around a four month old baby, all they want to do is grab EVERYTHING within their immediate reach put it in their mouths.  So every time I tried to approach her with the spoon, she would wildly wave her arms in attempt to grab the spoon.  I decided against restraining her arms for this exercise and plunged ahead, reminding myself that I am the adult and could most likely outmaneuver a four month old (she set me straight on that thought - thanks, Grub). 

After a few false starts, we found our rhythm, and I realized something - she was actually eating this stuff!  Despite the fact that the consistency is gross, and (to me) it tastes like crap, it appeared that she was actually swallowing more of the cereal than she was spitting out.  We'll ignore the amount that I was spilling onto her :)  

Side note - in this picture, that is her father feeding her.  No, I don't have man hands!

I was really on the fence about starting solids already, having heard conflicting information on the best time to start.  The pediatrician also warned me that she might not have outgrown the reflex to push the food out of her mouth, in which case we should wait.  But the Grub is doing just fine!  Although my initial inclination was to give in to my lazy nature and wait another month (as this is going to mean MORE laundry and MORE bathing), I think we're going to forge ahead and build this into our daily routine.

Happy Friday!

- Melissa