Friday, December 3, 2010

Baby's First Taste

This week, Evelyn turns six months old. She has been very interested in our food when we eat, and will mimic chewing motions with her mouth when we are all together for meals. Our original plan was to wait until she was six months or sitting up on her own, before introducing her to purees. She has far surpassed the stage of sitting up, and is now crawling and pulling up on furniture. With her six month birthday in just days, we decided that it is time. She is definitely ready for babyfood!

We decided that we would start her on Avocado, the same as we did with Jonah. Avocado is very nutrient rich, has a mild flavor, and is even less likely to cause allergies than rice cereal which could cause grass allergies.
I mashed about a quarter of the avocado with a fork until it was very smooth. I then added breastmilk to thin it out, and also to add a familiar flavor to it. Evie waited very patiently in the high chair while I made her food!
I gave her the avocado using my finger (very well washed!) instead of a spoon, because I didn't want to introduce too many new textures into her mouth all at once. A spoon is a pretty foreign object to an infant, as is the baby food; whereas my finger is much more similar to what she is used to eating from (my breast) in texture and taste.
Using my finger also helped me make sure that the puree was the correct consistency. Even though I mashed it up really well, there were still a few chunks that I would not have noticed had I been feeding her with a spoon. Using my finger helped me find the offending chunky bits, and mash them further.

She really enjoyed her first food!

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