Yummy!

Micah has been struggling with tummy problems pretty much since he was born. We starting giving him prune juice when he was two months old. It worked for about a week, then he was having problems again. At his four month point, the pediatrician recommended we start him on solids. She told us to skip cereal because the iron in it can cause constipation, and go right to fruits, specifically pears, peaches, and prunes.

This was somewhat upsetting to me because I wanted to exclusively breastfeed until Micah was 6 months old. We were planning on doing "baby led weaning (BLW)." BLW is skipping purees and going right to solids, when the child is showing signs of readiness. You know the child is ready when he shows interest in your food, can sit up on his own, has lost the tongue-thrust reflex, and has a good pincer grip. We really liked the idea of BLW because it's easy and natural. Micah sits at the table with us and we offer him some of what we have. The key is to not cut it up too small so that the child chokes on it, but to cut it in strips that he can hold and gnaw on (think banana). Here are some sites that I've looked at as resources:

http://baby-led-solids.blogspot.com/
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/readyforsolids.htm

Anyway, Micah is too young to start this so we are forced to start on purees. I know it's not a big deal, but it's just not how I wanted to do it. I wasn't ready. I wanted to wait for Micah to show us he was ready. But none of that mattered. We were looking at this as more of a medicine so I resigned myself to doing what is best for Micah.

Once I got past my initial disappointment, I was excited for this next milestone. Brad and I decided we are going to make Micah's food. So, I went to the grocery store and bough pears, peaches, plums, and prunes to make food for Micah (the p's are supposedly good for constipation!). Brad pureed the pears and peaches and we gave Micah his first taste of real food. He did really well. It took a while, but most of the food actually made it into his mouth. By the second day we gave them to him, he knew to open his mouth and was pushing the food to the back of his mouth with no problem--he picked up on it real quick! So far he's had pears and peaches and loves them both! We usually give him the spoon with the last bite on it so that he can hold it. He's getting really good at bringing it to his mouth. He also takes a sippy cup with water. He knows how to drink out of the cup, but he hates water! Usually, he spits it all back out.

Even though it's not the way we wanted it, we are really enjoying this next stage of Micah's life. He is such a good eater and it is really working with his stomach problems!

Brad making pears: