Introducing Solids – my turn to do some feeding
I’ve had it easy for the past six months. So easy, I didn’t even know it.
My beautiful wife, Love Buns, has been breastfeeding our baby, Sweet Cheeks, exclusively for the past six months. No pumping, no bottle, no nothing… just pure mother’s milk, straight from the source.
As you can imagine, that left me on easy street when it came to feeding time. I just handed Sweet Cheeks over and watched Love Buns work her breastly magic. Those good ol’ days are no more my friends. A couple of days ago, we decided to start introducing solids into Sweet Cheeks’s diet.
It wasn’t an easy decision. From our experience with our now toddler son, Smarty Pants, we knew that getting food into a baby’s mouth, and then actually getting the baby to swallow the food, is about as easy and fun as trying to get a nun to drink whiskey on the rocks. It just ain’t happening. And whatever goes in comes right back out. Somehow, and I don’t know exactly how, you end up with more food on you than you actually started with.
We thought since Love Buns has had the sole joy of nourishing our sweet little Sweet Cheeks these past six months, it was time for me to join in the joy and be the one to feed Sweet Cheeks her solid meal. If you can call it a meal. I’d actually call it: her solid attempt at a teaspoon of mush that ends up everywhere anyways.
We are introducing the solids gradually, of course. Sweet Cheeks still gets her full dose of breast milk daily from good ol’ (sorry… good young) mama, and in between, sometime during the day, we try and sneak in a bit of mushed up solids.
I enjoy it, really, I do. I am glad to be a part of her eating schedule now, and I enjoy a challenge. It is funny to see the expressions on her face when I actually manage to get a teensy weensy bit of food in her mouth. Picture Mother Theresa after hammering back a shot of Tequila. Then multiply the look of disgust by about 1000, and you have the expression on Sweet Cheeks’s face. That expression is followed shortly after by a slight gag, and the food coming back out again. After that, I will get the expression of disgust at the sight of the spoon alone.
Us dads get the short end of the stick in this respect. Moms who are able to breastfeed can enjoy a relaxing feeding time, with a pleased baby suckling warm, tasty breast milk right from the source, as nature intended it to be. Dads like me can look forward to trying to weasel some cold, bland mush into their baby’s mouth with a plastic spoon, only to have it spit right back at them. Payback for the easy first six months indeed.
But I like it, and I’m willing to accept the challenge. It will be rewarding to reach the point when only half of the amount we started with ends up on me. Then I will run through the halls shouting “Victory!” like Johnny Drama here.
How have you handled introducing solids with your baby, and did you have any better luck? Leave a comment and let me know!
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We must have really been blessed with our daughter, because transitioning her to solid foods was a breeze. She took to the baby food almost immediately.
The fun for us is now that she’s two, and knows its “naughty” to throw food on the floor… you know where this is going don’t you? It’s great when the kid looks you in the eye, flashes that grin, and chucks the carrot on the floor by your feet, then screams bloody murder as you haul her off to timeout. Oh the joy!
Jon @ DadTrek’s last blog post..Dads: If You Want Huge Muscles, Get P90X
@Jon, oh yeah, I can relate to that one! And lucky you that the transition was a breeze with your daughter! You saved yourself some looks of disgust for sure then!
Well, I wouldn’t call it a full transition, but our little one certainly enjoys the real food thing! We went for the most part with something like described here -> http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/ and it seems to be paying off.
We decided to hold back a few items due to the lack of teeth (which are now finally coming in at 10 months) but she is really into the real foods now. We try to give her more real food and very little of the jarred foods. And my wife and I taste the jarred stuff – if we wouldn’t eat it, what makes us think she should! A little manual grinder or a fork and spoon to mash things works well. A chunk of sweet potato or a banana makes a nice fun mess!
And for a little crunch, she likes her O’s. Not the cheery ones though – too much sugar in them for our liking.
Just look down the list, 3 ingredients deep…
“Purely O’s” ingredients: ORGANIC WHOLE GRAIN OAT FLOUR, ORGANIC WHOLE GRAIN BARLEY FLOUR, ORGANIC WHEAT STARCH,
Yellow box O’s: Whole Grain Oats, Modified Corn Starch, Sugar
Wow, 3rd ingredient. Kashi cereals are good as well. She enjoys the puffed plain 7 grain assortment as well.
To each his own – yeah, I had the yellow box growing up, and here I am, fine for the most part, but I thought we were supposed to learn things…so sorry, no yellow box O’s for us…oddly enough, both parent companies are the same…GM.
Enjoy your feedings…sounds like it is a zoo…which it can be
Joseph Hoetzl’s last blog post..Return to the site of the “white van” incident
@Joseph, man, I am starting to feel like the only one having difficulties here! Maybe my wife’s breast milk is super tasty
…or the food we are introducing is super bland 