At Lucy's 4-month check up, the pediatrician said we could start spoon feeding Lucy some rice cereal mixed with breast milk. He said it was about getting her used to texture rather than supplementing her diet for nutritional reasons. So we tried it. Lucy loved the spoon--she was willing to sip breast milk or herbal tea from a spoon--but she kept spitting out the rice cereal. We tried it again a few days later and a time or two after that, but she didn't like it.
I did let her start tasting liquids: beef broth, fresh lemon juice, Candycane Lane herbal tea. She liked them all. So when she showed interest in my pureed squash soup, I gave her a little. She loved it! She even sucked the dried bits off the spoon. I was impressed, especially since I had added sweet curry powder to the soup to make it more interesting. (There's a certain line of cooks in my family who like to experiment to make things "interesting.") The next day I added more curry powder to my soup, and when she tried it, she still really liked it. The next day I had ginger carrot soup, which she also liked. That's how I figured out that she just didn't like plain rice cereal. After that she tried and liked cran-apple and cran-grape juices. I would have thought the cranberry would be too bitter, but she thought it was great. So we decided it was OK to try solids other than rice cereal.
Avocado
When we went out for Mexican food, Lucy wanted to eat, too, so I mashed up some of the avocado that Matt didn't want on his fish tacos. Success! We took the leftover avocado home and fed it to her for a few days. I even tried mixing some rice cereal into the avocado, and she ate it.
Oatmeal Cereal
On my sister Kristin's advice, I bought Lucy some baby oatmeal cereal. Unlike the rice cereal, she would eat that plain.
Sweet Potatoes
Next I mashed some sweet potatoes for her. She wasn't impressed even after I added curry powder. We'll try it again sometime.
Peaches
I looked at what baby food flavors Kroger had that looked good. I bought two jars each of peach and mango. They sounded good to me. We tried the peach, and Lucy liked it. I then tried mixing in some oatmeal cereal, and that was a huge hit. It makes sense. I really like Quaker's peach almond oatmeal and granola bars. A week or two later I served her a pouch version of peach baby food, and she ate the whole pouch in two days. She never eats that much. She really likes peaches.
Squash
Kristin had given me several jars of unopened baby food that my nephew Alton didn't need, so I got those out of the closet. Lucy liked squash baby food, especially with curry powder and rice cereal mixed in. It made her smell like an Indian restaurant, partially because she got it on her ear and under her chin and we didn't find it until bathtime.
Kiwi
At church on Sundays, we have food and fellowship after service. This week there was kiwi fruit, so I mashed up some of the part without seeds and fed it to her. She liked it. I watched her pretty closely after that one. I know of people with kiwi allergies. But Lucy had no reaction.
Apple
When we were at Target in Louisville, I bought some apple baby food in a pouch and got an attachable spoon. It's pretty handy for on-the-go feeding. I fed Lucy apples between shopping stops, and she loved it. However, she seems to have eaten too much and to have inherited my family's reaction to apples. She had the biggest diaper blow out ever. I had to clean poop off of her legs, down to her calves, before actually opening the diaper. So we're cautious with the apples now.
Mango
Lucy LOVES mango! Her first taste was a pineapple mango smoothie from McDonald's. The post-apple diaper blowout was cleaned up in a McDonald's bathroom, and it was so traumatic for both of us that I bought and shared a smoothie. She loved it. Several days later she was getting fussy at Walmart and we still had errands to run, so I bought and shared a mango juice drink. She loved it. And I bought a different mango juice brand on sale yesterday and put it in a cup with a straw. She learned to drink from a straw just so she could get to the mango juice. This morning I gave her some mango baby food. She's not a big fan of that. I can't blame her. It tastes really processed and not fresh, especially compared to the good mango drinks she's had.
Banana
Matt and I don't like bananas, so I tried really hard to sell them as yummy. I want her to like everything if possible. I don't want our preferences to limit her. But she doesn't like bananas much either. The first time she tried them, she spit them out. The second time she swallowed a little. And every time since she's mostly spit them out. I'll try mixing them with oatmeal and/or adding spices to see if we get a different result.
Carrots
She liked them just fine. The last time I served them with ginger powder mixed in, and she liked them even more.
Pears
She likes them. She makes faces when she eats them, but she keeps opening her mouth for more. That means she really likes them. The last time I served them with pumpkin pie spice mixed in. She liked her "fancy pears." I liked them, too.
Green Beans
Baby food green beans have the same problem as mango. All the happy vegetable freshness is missing. She ate green beans but wasn't excited about them. I tried mixing in garlic powder, but she didn't care. She hasn't eaten much baby food for a couple of days. I'm not sure if the problem is the food or her appetite. I'll certainly try green beans again. I thought the garlic helped them quite a bit.
Apple Blueberry
I expected a better response. She was willing to eat a little but wasn't eager. I tried mixing it with oatmeal and didn't get a better response. I'm not sure if it's appetite or taste preference that caused her lack of enthusiasm. I didn't push her to eat much. I remember the last apple incident.
What's Next?
Now that she's tried quite a few things, I can give her some mixtures that will allow her to try new foods with old ones we know she can tolerate. I've got jars or pouches of pear-spinach, carrot-corn, apple-guava, pear-peach-strawberry, and apple-broccoli. I also found some green pea and mint baby food at Big Lots. That's a classic combination I'd like to sample. I'll try other herbs and spices. I've got quite a few. Sage would be good with the squash. Perhaps cilantro in some avocado. I've considered making a tea of herbs and using it to thin the food instead of adding fibrous herbs directly to the baby food. I'll try cooking and mashing some fresh veggies to see if she likes that better than the jarred baby food. And who knows what we may come across at a restaurant. Ethiopian greens or cabbage? A taste of hummus or falafel? We're excited that she seems to be an adventurous eater because we like all kinds of food. Eventually, she should be able to eat produce from my garden: turnips, peas, green beans. That's one of the things I'm looking forward to most.
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