Solids 101: Pro Tips

After many weeks of dragging my feet, I finally started Camille on solids.  And wow, is she loving it.  That girl can eat more than my other kids combined.  It was pretty awesome, too, because our first round of trying out real food was the worst I've ever seen (and not to brag, but when it comes to babies, I've been around the block a few times now).  I honestly don't think she managed to swallow ANY of the oatmeal I shoved into her mouth!  It was so bad that it took me two weeks to bother trying again.  But I guess something clicked during those two weeks, because our second attempt was a raging success, as has been every feeding since then.  Huzzah!

Gumming Gumby!

Now, I'm pretty sure that what's really going on here is that Camille is a good eater and was more than ready to begin eating.  So I certainly can't take much credit for her here.  But.  I have figured out a few things that I think help the process along.  So I'm going to share these tips here:


1)  Give your baby spoons to play with before you start with solids.  Let them get used to the taste of metal in their mouth before you try adding oatmeal and swallowing to the mix, too.  (Same applies if you're using a rubber tipped spoon or whatever.  I prefer to use a regular old metal spoon because they're better for scraping baby's face clean as you go, but other than that I doubt it matters very much what kind of spoon you use.)

2)  Ignore that advice about adding breast milk to the rice cereal.  It is WAY too much work to pump breast milk and THEN mix it in with cereal and THEN try to get your baby to eat it.  If you've got a baby who's nursing and about to be eating solids, you've got enough on your plate already and plain old water will work just fine, thankyouverymuch.

3)  Also ignore that advice about making the cereal as watery as possible.  That just makes it even harder for baby to keep it in her mouth.  They'll be just fine if it's a bit thick.  I'm not talking like cement or anything, but if there's a little substance I think it's easier for your baby.

4)  When you actually spoon food into your baby's mouth, let the spoon stay there for a bit so your baby has time to gum the cereal off the spoon.  I think I used to try and dart the spoon in and out as fast as I could, hoping that then it wouldn't be as messy or something?  But that's just stupid.  Babies are learning a new skill-- you can't expect them to be fast about it, too!

5)  If you see a sneeze coming, WAIT.  Don't see that wide open mouth as a great chance to shovel more food in-- it will all end up sprayed all over you.  If you've already put food in baby's mouth before you realized a sneeze was imminent, keep the spoon there to lessen the raspberry-blowing effect.  The spoon will also act as a (very small) shield.  You'll need it.

6) Keep the food on the tip of the spoon, so you're not sticking the entire thing into her mouth.   Less chance of gagging that way.  Or use those little tiny spoons, but for some reason those never seem to work as well for me...


I think that's about it.  Happy feeding time, everyone! 

(And much thanks to Kendra for capturing Camille's first feeding on my phone for me!  My hands were otherwise occupied...)