Mushy baby food is now on the menu
Another first – our boy is now eating some real food! He had his first real experience with food (mushed, of course) last night and loved it.
I was pretty proud to see this, a first step towards becoming a ‘big boy’, as they say in the classics.
There’s been quite a bit of discussion amongst us and relatives who’ve had babies before (either this generation or previously), about when is best to start feeding babies some food.
We were told by our midwife and maternal health nurse that 6 months is the age you start them on some pureed food. Those older than us say 4 months is best. And some who’ve had kids in the past few years say anywhere between 4-6 months. Given we’re talking about an extra 50% of our child’s life to date, we opted to go with the advice of those who were looking after our baby’s welfare and needs – the maternal health nurse & midwife.
This isn’t the first time that everyone’s been offering us heaps of different advice, with varying declarations of “what they did”. I’m beginning to discover that every parent does the best job they can at the time, and things are different for almost every baby.
It’s been a good realisation, as there’s a heck of a lot of pressure that you feel, from others and yourself, to look after tour baby properly and prove yourselves as responsible. I’m not suggesting anyone thought we weren’t up to it (my wife and I both have pretty good heads on our shoulders) but gentle ‘bits of advice’ can and do grate after a while, especially when you’ve addressed the issue with that person already…
But back to our boy and his food…
We waited until now, a week shy of his 6 month birthday, and gave him his first taste.
My wife peeled, cut up, boiled and then pureed some sweet potato and offered him a couple of spoons of it. The lad took it in, scrunched his face up and the sensation and then swallowed nice and easily! He seemed to really like it, and had another spoon of it, before he was full. Not being used to solid food, his stomach is small and he couldn’t eat a whole lot.
But seeing it happen fairly smoothly means we can start to give him some pureed vegetables with his dinner bottle, and gradually build up his stomach, tolerance and food palate – and if he’s anything like his father, he’ll never look back!
My wife has already made plans to buy a heap of vegetables and puree them in bulk, and freezing little containers. She’s in her element!
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