The LilyPad: First Foods

I mean to post something the first day that Quinn had a taste of solid foods.. and of course I didn't. Because I had no pictures! What's the sense of a post without pictures! Sigh. So now I have pictures, and I'm finally posting them.... weeks after they were taken. Yeah, I rock.

Anyway, the point is that Quinn is eating solids now. And honestly, I wasn't in a rush for it this time around. I mean it's really much easier to just sit down and unhook my nursing bra than to puree squash, freeze it, defrost it, pump milk for cereal, wash up the mess that ensues. (Ok so not all that is done at each meal... but you get the idea I hope.. otherwise you just think I'm a lunatic). But this boy - he's really into food. Soon after he hit 4 months he was reaching for my plate whenever I ate. Reaching for it and often getting his hand full of whatever I happened to be eating. Then he started watching me eat with such intensity that he would cry, literally cry, when the food was gone. It was like he spent my whole meal hoping I'd give him a morsel and the disappointment was just too much to handle when he realized that wasn't going to happen. So although I was all prepared to hold off on solids longer this time around - I just couldn't do it to him. We caved.

One complicating factor was Q's digestive works. I know, I know - TMI and all that - but really, what's a blog about babies without some talk of poop? So Q's been an infrequent pooper. And honestly - it's been great! We've used cloth diapers with him (yeah, yeah, got this whole post about THAT in my head too - whatever) and the fact that he only pooped once every 10 days or so was - just. awesome. But I worried that once he got solids he might get uncomfortably backed up. And at first, that seemed to happen. So we gave him some cereal for a day or two and then backed off when he seemed extra gassy/unhappy at night.

But eventually we got back to it and now he's eating once/day. We're staying away from potentially binding things like bananas and apples. He's had squash, sweet potatoes, rice cereal and oatmeal. We tried an avocado once but it just wasn't ripe enough. I also had the genius idea to give him prunes - to help with the pooping. And really, it was a good idea - and did help with the pooping. But it also gave him hives - like immediately. So... yeah, we'll back off on that for now. Any other suggestions for food that helps keep things moving?

And now that I've embarrassed him sufficiently by discussing his poop - let's talk about the eating. Really, this baby likes to eat. Lily enjoyed solids and all, but Quinn is a whole different story. The minute he *thinks* food is coming he starts getting all worked up. Pretty soon he's crying and you're begging the microwave to just HEAT FASTER. Then you get the bib on him - and he calms down a bit - and starts shoving it in his mouth hoping there's already been some food spilled on it that he can suck up. This activity buys you some time in the "getting the food ready" department.

Then, when you get to the business of actually feeding him - he goes bananas. Arms start flapping - he reaches for the spoon and does a combo jam your spoon-hand towards his mouth while bringing his face to the food. Immediately the food is gone and if there's not more soon -he'll cry. He likes to keep one hand on my spoon-hand the whole time - as if he wants to keep track of it in case I try to get away or something. If there's a lull in feeding he sucks anything that missed his mouth off of the bib or the bar in front of the Phil & Ted's Me Too clip on chair or the counter. He cries when the food is done - I'm still not sure how much would be "enough". Thankfully I've been successful with distraction techniques to ease the sting.