We decided to start giving our daughter some “real” food last month. We previously had decided to wait until she was about a year old, but our curiosity got the best of us. Shortly after she passed the 8 month mark, we began the journey into the world of solids foods.
We bypassed the rice cereal and canned baby foods and went straight to making our own baby food. We had read online and heard from trusted acquaintances that avocados are the perfect food, for both babies and adults, so we decided avocados would be the first food hitting her taste buds.
It may be cliché, but before giving our baby her first bite, we prepared to capture the memory. Yep, Mom got the camera out, Dad got the video camera ready, and we made all sorts of high-pitched noises to get her to smile.
We couldn’t wait to see the excited, pleased look on her face when the spoon airplane made its landing on her tongue.
We didn’t get the reaction we expected, to say the least. When the avocado reached her mouth, she smacked her mouth open and closed a few times. An extremely confused look came over her face. “What is this stuff and why is it in my mouth?” she seemed to wonder. “Where’s my milk?”
She appeased us by dutifully taking a few more bites, but after that, she was done. When the airplane came in for a landing after that, it crashed into tightly-closed lips. Not wanting to force her to eat and create a negative association with food and eating, we gave up for the night.
We tried again a week later, and were met with a different reaction. This time, instead of looking confused, our baby looked happy after each bite. She made sounds like, “Num num num,” and smacked her lips together happily. When she saw the spoon coming, she eagerly opened her mouth. She resembled a hungry baby bird waiting for a big, juicy worm.
A couple of days later, we introduced her to sweet potatoes. Just like with her first taste of avocado, she seemed hesitant at first.
In fact, the next time we gave her avocado, she reverted to her confused, reluctant behavior.
We decided that there was no reason to force her into eating solids regularly if she wasn’t that excited about it, and have switched over to giving her a couple of bites a day of whatever baby-appropriate food we happen to be eating. Today, it was cooked carrots and mashed potatoes. A few days ago, it was applesauce.
Does this sound like your experience with starting your baby on solids?