Nov 23, 2009

Fun with Food

We introduced Jane to cereal last week... first try, she took it happily. Second try onward, she turns her head away, closes her mouth and screams if I put the spoon near her mouth! :p Awesome! I only wish I had the same aversion to solid foods!

I keep trying every other day, hoping she'll surprise me one day and enjoy it. I even mixed in some apple sauce on Friday and it worked for a spoonful or two and then it was over again.

I'm mixing it with breastmilk, thinking that this will make it taste more like what she's used to and, thus, more open to eating it. Stupidly, I wanted to taste the cereal last week, not thinking "oh, my breastmilk is in this" and the result - YUCK! It's not only that I was a little turned off by the fact that I tasted my own milk, it's that it tasted disgusting!

In this article on Baby Center about introducing first foods it says to breastfeed first until baby is almost full, then feed the cereal... here's my issue - when I ask Jane if she is almost full, she never responds! I mean you think the child would say "hey Mom, I'm ready for that cereal now" or something. :p How the heck am I supposed to know when Jane's "almost full". If you're bottle feeding or formula feeding, fine, you know how much your babe typically eats during a feed and you can cut 'um off when they're almost done - not the case with the boob! I have no clue how much Jane eats during a feed. I've timed it before but as if I have the brain power to figure that out... tee hee hee.

Jane's only 5 and a half months, so we started trying the "solids" a few weeks early. I'm not really worried about it at this point because she's still seeming very satisfied with milk alone. Anybody have any tips on introducing cereals and solids that may help?

Jen

PS - Obviously this picture was taken on day one of the cereal intro... because she's eating it!

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4 comments:

Mandi Miller said...

My daughter didn't take to cereal either. We went to puree around 5 1/2 months too. I would breastfeed her then let her try some sweet potatoes which is all she ate for like 2 weeks! Once we got to fruits she was more open to eating. But your right, if she is satisfied on breast milk then I wouldn't worry. She will eat when she is ready.

Heather Weisse Walsh said...

Try mixing a little infant pear juice into the cereal w/ the milk (makes it a little sweet)... and Lila likes oatmeal cereal better than rice cereal... so maybe try that? Lila HATED the cereal for two weeks after we tried it, too. :0)

Sarah said...

Hi! I just started reading your blog, and I enjoy it :) My son is about 7 mths now, we started cereal at 6 mths, and he has always liked it! I am going to start veggies this week and see how that goes. A website I found helpful is kellymom.com, for breastfeeding moms, it has some different info about solids. I think it was this site that said to wait about an hour or so after breastmilk feeding to offer cereal, because then baby wont be too full for it, but the cereal wont replace a feeding...seems to be working for Charlie, I wait between 1-2 hours after he breastfeeds to offer the cereal, he eats it and often wants to breastfeed again, he likes to eat, lol. So maybe try waiting a bit after a breastfeed to offer the cereal? Also solids are just for practise right now, so I wouldnt worry too much, she will eat them eventually :) Maybe try a different flavour of cereal? Charlie likes rice and oatmeal right now...

Jen said...

Thanks everyone for your advice - you're awesome!

Funnily enough, Jane ate her cereal this morning, no problems! We'll see if it continues. If it doesn't, I'll be sure to try all of your suggestions.

You are the best!