Feeding Allison solid foods has made me nervous for a few months now. Perhaps my anxiety has more to do with being busy, or fearing change, or being high-strung in general, but let me explain the anxiety a bit and perhaps then you will sympathize. Before Allison was born we decided to breastfeed, which began a training regimen more rigorous than childbirth itself. We attended together a breastfeeding class in which we received a book, a feeding guide printed on a magnet, a chart to use to track Allison's feeding, and even photographs of baby poo so we would know what to expect. We watched a video and practiced "the holds" with a doll. We purchased gear: milk storage bags, nursing bras, nursing pads, hot/cold therapy pads, breast pump. In the hospital we received one-on-one counseling for hours with a lactation consultant and the phone number of a breastfeeding hotline at the hospital to answer our questions. A few months after Ally was born, I even went to a "Breastfeeding and the Working Mom" class to prepare for returning to work. So we were prepared.
At Allison's 4 month check-up with her pediatrician, I was asked whether we planned to start feeding solids, and I said no, we plan to wait until she is 6 months old. "No problem," we were told, and promised that when we were ready, we would be given some instructions. I went to Allison's 6 month check-up ready to hear my guidelines-- a pamphlet-- something. I heard, "Start with rice cereal. Wait 3 days before introducing new foods. Once you're ok with cereal, try fruits and vegetables. Feed her two meals a day." That was it. No handy feeding chart or magnet or anything.
Meanwhile, I've been reading two books on making baby food, Super Baby Food and Blender Baby Food. Super Baby Food is seriously stressing me out. First, it is 560 pages long... excluding the indices. There are chapters on baking bread for my baby, making homemade yogurt, and 15 pages of "Important Safety Warnings!" Meanwhile, I read that "...before you go wielding that baby spoon, you might want to become more aware of how important mealtimes are to your baby's intellectual, psychological, and emotional development, and to her development of self-confidence and feelings of trust and security. In other words, mealtimes can mess her up in more ways that one!" No pressure. If we felt unguided by our pediatrician, this book has overguided me with enough charts, tables, and recommendations to make me race to the food store and buy some mooshy peaches in a jar. She even recommends making your own dishwasher detergent. Seriously. Fortunately Blender Baby Food is more relaxed, with just one page of safety warnings and amusing recipes like "Guacamole for Beginners." For my own anxiety level, I think Super Baby Food is going to need to be put away for awhile.
So today is the day. We have our rice cereal in the cabinet and little rubber-coated spoons, and we put the high chair in the kitchen. Updates to come.
Solids with Ally have been going well so far. We have tried rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash. Today we took the plunge and tried our first green vegetable. I was a bit nervous about my homemade peas because they were not very smooth-- downright lumpy, in fact-- and they were a brilliant shade of green that brings to mind the green slime found in some toys. Much to our surprise Ally gobbled them up and responded to them more positively than bananas or apples. Huh.
Ally has the worst red-eye in photographs we've ever seen. Here's an undoctored photo from this evening's dinner.
