debating

I have seen some infant cereals that are non fortified, but I can't remember their names. They were at whole foods and were organic. But, being fortified is just ONE of issues. I think we all need to eat whole grain foods, not just our infants, and infant cereals are so over processed that the box they come in would probably be more nutritious. I plan to introduce whole brown rice as her "cereal", and probably not until the end of her first year.

As for first foods, well, Ava will be 6 months old tomorrow and is for the most part, still exclusively breastfed. Here's my take on introducing solids - when they can pick it up, put it in their mouth, chew it, move it to the back of their mouth, and swallow it, THEN they are ready to eat solid foods. I also think they don't have teeth for a reason. A baby who is toothless and still has their tongue thrust reflex is one who is meant to be on a liquid diet, yet I know many people who push the solid foods because you must "TEACH" a child to eat. What horse pucky. Ava never touched solid food until I handed her that banana the other day and she went to town on it like she'd been doing it for months.


I am taking the self feed approach, and this week I've let her eat a piece of banana (big mistake, stinky stinky stinky farts, I'm actually dreading the first banana poop..lol). She got a few good nibbles of it, and actually stopped to chew it, then put it back to her mouth. I was surprised how well she did with no prior "experience". LOL

Avocado, slices of peaches, slices of apples, bananas, pears, green beans, soft cooked carrot slices, chunks of baked sweet potato. These will all be her first foods, and yes, she'll feed them to herself. I put her in the high chair and put the food on her tray. If she eats it, great. If not, that's fine too.

I'm not making purees for her. I don't think force feeding mush promotes healthy eating habits. I want her to eat on her own accord, not on my schedule, or at my discretion. I want her to learn to put food down when she's full. Most infants will push the spoon away way past when they would have stopped eating on their own.

I also don't expect her to do much serious "eating" for another few months yet. And that's fine. Solid foods for the first year are for practice, not nutrition.

Plus, spending the time doing special shopping and cooking, then pureeing and freezing and reheating and spoon feeding... oi! It would seem so much easier to just set aside some plain unseasoned veggies from our dinner and put them on her tray. She's much happier this way too, she doesn't like it when you put things in her mouth.