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):
Even though he still doesn't have any teeth, we've recently started giving Jonah baby puffs. They are kind of like star-shaped Cheerios with different flavors, but they melt in the mouth a little better. We still aren't sure what he really thinks about them, because he seems excited for them when we put them out for him. He likes to pick them up, and, as babies do, put the one he picks up in his mouth by putting his fingers as far in as they can go.
Here he is trying them for the first time.
Over the weekend, I gave him some, and he managed to get one down his shirt. Later, when I was changing his diaper, I felt something strange on his belly. I didn't know if his clothes were lumped funny or something was weird with his diaper. It turns out that one of the puffs had gotten down his shirt and lodged itself in his belly button. When I got his onesie open, he had a star impression around his belly button. No, I didn't take the opportunity to get a picture of that.
If you would like to see the star shapes a little better, though, he is pretty good about putting them on display.
After about a month of trying, though, Jonah is finally starting to warm up (a little, anyway) to eating solids. The first time we tried squash, he gulped at the first bite and gave the appearance of chewing some during the course of the "meal."
I'm sure none of this is news for other parents out there. It has just been fun (and sometimes a bit frustrating). Hopefully he will start to enjoy food more soon!
Wow, time sure is flying by! Jonah turned seven months old yesterday. We got some growth pictures with Tigger, but Jonah was much more interested in wrestling Tigger than he was with sitting with him. He also decided he had enough of getting his picture taken and started to make his way off the chair! No, he isn't quite crawling yet, but he sure is getting close. This was some pretty good moving around for him.
It is hard to believe he used to be smaller than Tigger!
Piledriver!
"How come you are always smiling??"
"I've had enough of this. I'm outta here!"
We did try to get some shots of him this morning with Tigger to see if we could get anything better. Jonah wanted to wrestle some more, though.
"I know how to take down Tigger. I'll start with his tail, because he likes to bounce..."
"...Then on to the ears..."
"Aw, c'mon, ref! I'm not breakin' any rules!" (This lip is finding cute new ways to stick out)
more biting
A triumphant Jonah pins Tigger
Anyway, it has been a big month for Jonah. He has started solids (or at least we put spoons of food in his mouth. I don't know how much he is actually consuming), he sits up without us worrying about him tumbling, and he rotates really well. No teeth yet, but they could show up any day now. He is also VERY close to crawling. Tonight he was actually crawling backwards. Unfortunately, he stopped doing it as soon as we tried to capture the moment on video. Sometimes he still gets a little camera shy.
