Madison eats her first solid food! Yum yum!
Madison knows what she wants. She’s stubborn. Based on our experiences with her so far, it’s no wonder we thought starting her on solids was going to be an adventure, to put it lightly. Imagine my surprise when she took to this new experience so well!
Much of what I’ve read suggests that parents should wait until 6 months to start their babies on solid food. However, some babies can be ready as early as four months of age. Some of the signs to look for that indicate that baby is ready for solids are:
- able to hold head upright
- can sit with assistance
- shows interest in parent’s food
- loses tongue thrust reflex (so baby doesn’t automatically push food out of her mouth)
Madison seemed to have all of these, but I couldn’t tell about the last one until we actually gave solid food a shot. Next up was deciding what to give her. It was between Heinz or Gerber rice cereal and decided to go with Gerber since it had less salt and sugar. Yup, mama is checking food labels already 🙂 I chose the type that you can mix with either breast milk or infant formula. I figured this would be the best choice since it would at least be based on something that tasted familiar to her.
I had waited about half and hour after I had nursed Madison, so that she was not hungry, but not too full, either. Grandma came over to help and we got all of our stuff ready. The Bumbo seat was set up, bowl and soft-coated spoon ready, bib selected, camera nearby…. I mixed the rice cereal with some milk that I had pumped the day before so that it was thin and close to what she was used to. I wasn’t sure what to expect – I had prepared myself for some fussing, crying and protesting, but none of that came to fruition! Instead, Madison opened her mouth willingly and took the first spoonful with no problem at all. She moved the food around in her mouth a little, then swallowed and looked at us, ready for more. Spoon after spoon went down and Madison really seemed to love it. She closed her mouth around the spoon and would swallow well. Several times, she even tried to hold the spoon herself so she could be in charge.
Oh miss Madison, you never cease to amaze me.
Mothering Madison 