Jude tried solids

Ready to try this eating thing!

Although our pediatrician had suggested we try introducing Jude to solid foods after our four-month check-up (in order to get more calories into him), we decided to stick with our plan to delay solids until six months, continuing to reap the health benefits of breast milk, minimizing the development of food allergies that are sometimes tied to an early introduction of solids, and maintaining my supply. We had introduced Jonah to solids after six months and felt that it had worked well with him and that we would repeat it this time around. While Jude's weight gain has been very slow, and he continues to be at the absolute bottom of the charts for weight (just 11 pounds 5 ounces at his 6-month check-up today), he's been on track developmentally. Although we were concerned about his weight, we felt the benefits of continuing with the original plan were worth it.

Whereas Jonah had not necessarily shown a lot of interest in eating solid food before we introduced it, Jude has been showing some signs that he has been ready. He watches us eat and occasionally grabs at our silverware and plates when he sits on our laps at a meal. He often stares at Jonah during meal times as well. We've had Jude sitting in the table in the high chair at meals with us for about a month, and while he tends to slouch to one side, he can support himself just fine.

What is going on here?

We'd planned to offer Jude solids for the first time last Saturday and opted to start with sweet potatoes again as they are a staple in our house and the avocados weren't yet ripe. We weren't quite sure how Jonah might react to all of the attention we knew we were going to give Jude when he had this experience. Jonah sometimes exhibits some signs of jealousy, and we knew we needed to be sensitive to his feelings but also true to our desire to document the moment as we wanted. We lucked out in that Jonah had resisted his nap earlier in the afternoon and ended up falling asleep on the couch while I read to him late in the afternoon. He slept on the couch while we took our time feeding Jude. A win-win for all!

I'm supposed to eat this, right?

Trying to figure this out...

Not so sure about this any more...

Jude has been doing remarkably well with the solids! While he's still trying to figure out how to work the food to the back of his mouth, and it has a tendency to come back out, he's actually had a pretty decent intake. We did three days of sweet potatoes before offering him avocado at dinner time yesterday, and I actually had to prepare additional avocado for him. He had avocado again tonight and ate a generous amount. We may find that we can move much more quickly through a variety of textures with Jude. While I don't mind making purees, it's nice to be able to serve table-type food as well!

Ben caught it on video (while also taking photos):

Here's a link for a look back at  Jonah's first experience with solids.