Roman has had his first taste of something other than breast milk; he has started eating solids, or at least liquidy-solids. Well... saying that he's "eating" may be a bit generous for what has actually been happening in our house. He's more spitting out all of the cereal that we put in his mouth, but I figure it's a start. And I love that first picture of him because he was watching me the entire time I was mixing up his cereal, and I could tell that he was just thinking, "What is she up to over there?" Michelle recommended a wonderful book about baby food, and this is the checklist the author provides to decide whether or not to start solids:
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At least 4 months old: check.
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Weighs twice as much as his birth weight: check.
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Weighs at least 13-15 pounds: check.
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Can sit with support: check.
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Has control over his neck muscles: check.
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Is breastfeeding 8-10 times per 24 hours and still wants more: check.
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Can bring an object in his hand directly to his mouth: check.
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Shows interest in others eating food: check.
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Sleeping periods are becoming shorter instead of longer: that's a big check.
The only item on the checklist that he doesn't meet is that he still has the "extrusion reflex" (pushing food right out with his tongue), so he's really just playing with the food and not eating it. But he has plenty of time to learn, and we're really only having him try a few spoonfuls each time, so I am not worried about him not eating just yet. This week he's starting with brown rice cereal (actually it's organic whole grain brown rice cereal, which is apparently exactly what Gentry had as a first meal), and I am hoping that he'll start figuring out this whole eating thing by the end of the week so that he can try some avocado soon! But we'll see how it goes. And anyone who really knows me knows that I HATE food and mess on people's faces; it makes me want to vomit, so there aren't many pictures of that nonsense, but I do have a couple of pictures of Rome from the last couple of days trying to eat. Doesn't he just look thrilled to have cereal in his mouth? And look Auntie Rin!! We're using our Dolphins bib! Oh, and he also spilled his cereal in about two seconds. Placing a bowl of food near a flailing infant arm is a bad idea. Lesson learned.
