Less than a week before we are on a plane to the States!!! I am so excited, as always, to come home.
The Sprout has made the leap to solid food in the past couple of weeks and did so easily. I curiously started with finely ground brown rice that was watered down with breast milk. At first this was not received well. But you can't just try a couple of times (the health visitor said it can take 16 times before they will decide to take something, so you can't give up and just assume they don't like it). After I showed him how yummy it was and continued to put it up to his lips, he finally decided it was ok.
We didn't dwindle on the rice for long. I quickly introduced mashed sweet potato and then bananas. Each time I changed it a little, I had to repeat the routine of showing him I liked it and kept putting it up to his lips, leaving a little that he could play with (it has become a bit of a trust thing). Now we do multiple combinations of bananas, sweet potato, potato, carrot, spinach, pear, apple and oatmeal. He can eat 4-5 cubes in a sitting 3 times a day. I love food time because it is so messy. He likes to feed himself and if I don't let him have the spoon, he uses his hand to shovel it in.
My mom asked what made me think he was ready. I hadn't really thought of this in a logical way, but after thinking about it, there were a couple of reasons.
- I had been considering for awhile that maybe his constipation problems would be solved by hard food, and they were. Instead of pooping once every 7-10 days, he goes 3 times a day (he has a new game called "how close can I come to pooing on mom").
- Since he was born, he had been on the 50% with his weight and all of a sudden it went below.
- Honestly I felt that he was bored and hungry. About an hour after nursing, he was cranky but wouldn't nurse and he didn't want to play and didn't necessarily want to be carried around. On the particular day I tried it, I was bored too, and it seemed to be the right thing to do. His behaviour has changed for the better though he still throws bordem tantrums and doesn't take naps unless he is being nursed, and strangely enough, he started waking in the night which he had stopped doing, but he is more happy and content.
I still plan to nurse for as long as he wants because we like it and he still needs it, but it is fun to be able to feed him other food. It is actually quite a creative process.
3 comments:
I can't believe he's already eating solids! So exciting! It sounds like it was a great time to introduce food to him. As always we can't wait to see you 3 next weekend!
My Dr said at our visit yesterday that whenever I thought he was ready Mason could try some solid food. I smiled and said OK. But inside I was about in tears! "NO! My little tiny baby boy is not ready for solids YET!!!" He isn't, but more accurately I am not ready. D
I know how you feel D. Before he was 6 months I rolled my eyes at the weaning sessions, but since I tried it, it has become so exciting and he absolutely loves it, plus he seems to feel better. But he lights up when I put him in the car seat to be fed. He smiles and wiggles his legs about.
Now I cringe when I am asked about reducing his milk feeds. I am thinking, he will let me know when he doesn't need to nurse.
The one thing that was stressful though is the thought that I have to consciously prepare food at certain times. I liked that nursing meant never really having to think about food, or that it needs to be prepared and I didn't need to have anything extra on me.
I was worried about finding suitable pre-made food for the airplane trip over and I was able to find jar food that was totally organic (Organix)and doesn't have ANYTHING in it but fruit and vegetables, I was relieved, and he really likes it (something I was worried about), he likes it almost too much.
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