Maddie wasn’t worse this morning. So that’s…something. Ugh, I’m sick of worrying. Because of her varying discomforts (cough, teeth, PMS), she is not the biggest fan of eating. Mike is pretty sick of feeding her baby-bird style with a medicine dropper, although he would never admit it. We knew we had to think of something different.
Yesterday Maddie reached four months adjusted age. Dr. Looove said we could start feeding her baby food, but we’d decided we were going to wait. She’d had suspected NEC when she was in the NICU and we didn’t want to rush anything. Of course, we decided this BEFORE Maddie went on a hunger strike, so today we said screw it and I bought her some baby food.
Ready for my first big girl meal!
First bite! I don’t think I ordered rice cereal…
Apple Sauce! That’s more like it.
I need a breather!
Dad, is it an airplane or a spoon? Get your story straight and get back to me.
Rigby actually likes me!
I told Rigby I won’t eat her food if she won’t eat mine.
All done! And now my face is clean. Thanks Rigby!
I don’t know who liked solids more, Rigby or Maddie. She really despised the rice cereal. I don’t know if she didn’t like the texture or the taste. We would have put solids on the back burner if apple sauce hadn’t been a success, so I’m glad I got the apple on a lark.
We only plan on feeding her food once a day until we think she’s really getting a full meal out of it. Any flavor suggestions out there? Don’t worry, the dog will eat anything.
Bec says:
Many a day did we have to baby-bird feed Erin.
I’m glad she liked the apple, we didn’t like rice cereal either – still don’t. Sometimes, when I’m feeling a little sadistic I sometimes mix rice cereal in with other things just to see if she hates it.
Andrea says:
First time posting so I’ll start with Maddie is a doll (and I love the muppet rug! I want one!)
My youngest baby is almost 5 months and we started him on solids this week due to a food strike as well (no idea why but he is only eating abour 5 ounces all day – of course he nurses every 3 hours all night long to make up for it…)
ANYWAY, seeing as he’s my 3rd I skipped the rice altogether! No one liked it, it smells, and it is just filler. Bananas were his first and he loved them! I also bought the applesauce and sweet potatoes!
have fun feeding Maddie – I always get so excited to try something new with them!
April says:
My daughter loved the rice cereal but it’s not all fun and games – it gave her horrible constipation so we had to nix it. She also loved pears, applesauce, and peaches. Basically all the fruit! Good luck to you guys!! Get ready to really start doing some stained laundry with all the technicolor bibs!
Anna Marie says:
Peaches and apricots tend to be sorta tart so I’d save those for a while. For a couple of months when she first started solids Emerson would only eat bananas, or whatever I mixed with bananas. She was ALL BANANAS, ALL THE TIME.
Memphislis says:
Try avacado. It is easy to mush up and has an almost perfect combo of good fats and protein. Another good one is sweet potato. You can buy frozen yam patties (who knew) and mush them.
Mom24 says:
You have really been through a lot. I hope it gets easier for all of you soon. Did you try mixing the cereal with the applesauce? I don’t know too many babies who eat just the cereal. My kids have liked peaches, bananas, plums, carrots and sweet potatoes. Good luck.
She has the most beautiful eyes. They really grab you.
ash says:
I always mixed the rice with baby-fruit-juice, they seem to like that better. Also both my kids loved sweet potatoes. Good luck, she and the pup are such cuties!
hollibobolli says:
If you’re really, really interested – I worked with Faith’s pediatrician and used one book to make all of Faith’s baby food from organic fruits and vegetables. It sounds like a lot of work – but it ended up being easier than buying baby food once I got the hang of it (keep in mind I was working full-time and it was just me and Faith at the time, so I had negative hours to do anything other than take care of Faith when I got home from work). I still know which book I used.. it has everything you need to know about which foods you can introduce at which WEEK/month, etc.. how to pick them out, what nutritional supplements you can or can’t add – basically everything you would ever want to know about feeding a child. I loaned it to a friend and never got it back – but I was planning on repurchasing it because it has the most amazing section on how to pick out any type of fruit and vegetable at the grocery store.. plus it had some organic tips for killing bugs and stuff around babies so you don’t have to use pesticides.
okay, probably TMI – but Faith’s immune system was compromised when she was tiny.. so I got all fanatical about it.
Shauna says:
Love the commentary-hilarious! Maddie is so expressive, I love it. We had the camera all ready for Lucy’s first experience with solids, but she had absolutely no reaction at all (which actually is a pretty appropriate reaction to rice cereal, if you ask me).
As far as flavors, Lucy is always a bigger fan of the single ingredient foods, than the mixed stuff. It’s so fun when they start eating stuff, their reactions to new things are so fun. I also did a lot of mashing up whole bananas and avacados-easy when you run out of baby food.
I’m so glad she’s not any worse today-I was crossing my fingers for you guys. All this stress really has to beyond exhausting.
Oh, and did I mention I love the nursery? Alot.
Jen B says:
My daughter liked oatmeal much better than rice cereal, and we mixed it with the yummy stuff to disguise it.
The pics are too cute!
Katt says:
Just started solids with my six month old two weeks ago. So far I’ve been making all his food (except for the rice cereal of course). I think he’s going to be one of those baby’s that likes everything fortunately.
I mix fruits in with the rice cereal. So far mashed bananas, peaches and apricots. I peel and cut up the peach and apricot and microwaved them for 60 to 90 seconds, then used the hand blender to puree. He has also had sweet organic carrots which I steamed in the microwave and blended, and sweet pees (frozen organic from trader joes) which I steamed and blended.
The veggies I’ve made in bulk and freeze in ice cube trays, then pull out a cube or two to thaw. I usually cook them up while I’m making dinner for the rest of the family.
I plan on trying sweet potatoes and avacado next.
And I have to say again – she has to be one of the most beautiful babies I have ever seen! And I love the pics with your dog.
Stefanie says:
I’ve been doing it too. But I hadn’t realized so many people go right to the fruits. I’ve been too conservative! I’m going to mix some fruit in with Sadie’s oatmeal today. Grow babies, GROW. And, as you know, Maddie’s still kicking Sadie’s ass in weight gain. But, the race is still on.
Rachel says:
LG loves avocado, banana, applesauce, sweet potatoes and peaches.
He truly despises rice cereal plain which is fine because it also makes him constipated. He also hates potatoes, now I’m not sure he is really my son.
He is so so on oatmeal, but I mix it in with fruit every morning.
cindy w says:
We started with veggies before fruits. Cate loved all of the oranges (carrots, sweet potatoes, squash) and hated the greens (peas, beans). Fruits were always kind of hit-or-miss, she never consistently loved anything. Of course, now she can eat real fruit cut into tiny toddler-size pieces, which is pretty cool. Last night we shared some strawberries – she fed some to me and I fed some to her. So fun.
You could try the baby oatmeal or barley cereal if the rice cereal is a no-go. Also, remember that some kids need to be offered a new food 6-10 times before they decide that it’s ok.
Kristin.... says:
I also started with rice cereal, then moved right on to carrots or peas. The orange fruits and veggies are sweeter and the kiddos love them best, but as the peas/beans are more bitter, I was a HORRIBLE mom and made them eat those first to get used to the taste. All four kids LOVE LOVE LOVE peas now because of that. Rice cereal is really awful tasting (did you try it? it’s gross) but once they are used to a fruit or vegetable, mix them up. I always tried to get the kids used to the fruit/veggie/cereal alone before I mixed so I didn’t end up with a kid who wouldn’t try the food alone and it worked well for me.
I just want to eat Maddie up she’s so cute!
Backpacking Dad says:
We always mixed in some watered-down prune juice with my daughter’s rice cereal and oatmeal. Flavored it up and also helped with the early constipation. We stayed away from banans for a little while until she adjusted to the cereal (bananas are constipating too).
Aunt Becky says:
That may very well be the sweetest baby I have ever seen. Her eyes are so very bright and gorgeous. Seriously, she’s making me want to scrunch her up and snuggle her close.
Anonymous says:
My pediatrician said bananas & avocado have the most calories!
dana says:
My girls are practically grown up now, but I started my first on a mashed banana and rice cereal. She loved the banana and did not notice the cereal. I made all of her food. It really is so easy. Mash a banana, steam an apple, steam a pear, etc. Mush it all up and voila, food. I froze everything in ice cube trays and popped out a cube when ever it was time to eat. My kids loved sweet potatoes, again, mashed up. I did the same thing with the meat. I could not imagine the baby food meat, especially when it is SO easy to make your own. I would take a chicken breast, an onion, a sweet potato boil them and put it all in the cuisinart with some of the broth and again, into the ice cube trays and there we had food. So easy and my girls are great eaters. I attribute it to the no baby food thing. As soon as they were able they were eating little bites of cheese, turkety, yoghurt, cottage cheese, avocados (mashed) etc. I found that once we started the solids there was no stopping, especially because I tried to be consistent. Good luck. It will get easier