Food for thought.

I had always thought that I would exclusively breastfeed Ava until she was 6 months of age (per AAP's recommendations), but of course as I became a mom my pediatrician-rigidity went out the window.  I know this is a hot topic, so just hear me out.  I did some literature searching my self, and found that there really is not any good evidence supporting either waiting or starting food early.  Here was my thought process: Infant's do not need anything other than breastmilk/formula for the first 6 months of life, and I did not want food to take the place of her milk intake.  I am a strong believer that mommy's milk is perfect for her and exactly what she needs.  Secondly, there is research suggesting that starting foods after 4 months but before 6 months decreases the risk of developing food allergies (which run in my family).  I also spoke with some women in child care who noticed that children who had started solids before 6 months seemed to take solids more readily, even at 9+ months.  So we decided to start a small amount of cereal a few times a week.  Not enough to decrease her milk intake, but just enough to allow Ava to practice eating and experiencing textures and tastes.  

(Ava eating cereal for the first time at 41/2 months) 

At first, she spit out most everything that was placed in her mouth, but after a few weeks she started to get the hang of it.  
(Eating at 5 months of age)

At 6 months, we started introducing vegetables and fruits.  I spent an evening making her baby food - it was so much fun!!  I used a website that I highly recommend for the baby food recipes: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/.  There is a ton of great information on this site!  Anyway, I baked and boiled peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and carrots and blended them in my handy-dandy new food processor.  Then I froze them in ice cube trays and placed them in zip-lock baggies.  Now we have a couple months of food in the freezer!  And of course, I had to try it and it was all super yummy.  I'm now trying to figure out how to add more butternut squash and sweet potatoes into our diet!

(Not loving the peas!)

 

So far, her favorites are bananas and avocados, followed closely by sweet potatoes.  The squash and green beans are tolerable, but she purses her lips and turns her head if offered peas!  Recently I made a great discovery: hide the foods she doesn't like in bananas and she'll eat it up!  Tonight, we are going to try carrots; next week I will be making homemade applesauce and pearsauce, and we are going to try turkey and peaches as well! Yum!  Over the last 2 weeks her milk intake has increased dramatically (from 5 ounces to 7 ounces a feeding), so it's time to amp up the food intake - now we are doing two meals a day! Watch out!

(6 1/2 months old, loving avocados!)

She did make mommy proud - her favorite is Chipotle's guacamole!  LOVES it!  Although last week she did get a spice in her bite of food and made some funny faces for about 5 minutes.  Ooops.