Breaking the "rules"

So I’m pretty sure my seven-month-old, Lucy, thinks she is too “big” for baby food. The last month has been a lot of trial and error. At the rate she’s been going I’m pretty sure she could keep nursing till she’s 26! She has been a great eater and breast milk has more than agreed with her, look at those cheeks! When I learned that I would be staying at home, just after she was born, I was in no rush to introduce a bottle. Now you should know that my first born spent the first eight weeks of his life in the NICU which meant I spent eight weeks pumping every two hours, not even kidding. So I was more than excited NOT to pump this time around.

Needless to say seven months later and she won’t take a bottle. Way to go, Laine. It’s OK. I really don’t mind but it did made me curious how introducing a spoon with food on it would go. The first couple bites of very diluted rice cereal went great! We were both so excited. Well, that lasted about a week and then she was over it. So I tried feeding her at different times, maybe I was just trying when she was tired? I tried making sure she nursed beforehand so she didn’t feel like she was losing out on nursing time. I tried NOT feeding her before because maybe she was already full. It never seemed to work and after about three weeks of trying to get her to eat cereal twice a day I became very frustrated and so did she.

I remember calling my Mom, a nurse, and venting about it all and asked for any suggestions. She said to stop, take a break and maybe try some finger foods. She doesn’t have to eat baby cereal; it’s not some baby law you HAVE to follow. My response was something like this “what?!?!?!” I tend to be a rule follower, nursed exclusively for 6 months, practiced on-demand feeding, got all the vaccinations at the right time and so on. So she doesn’t have to have cereal, but she’s supposed to! Well I quickly got over that when Lucy almost ate her weight in cheerios.

It was a miracle! She loved them, the girl loves to chew! I take those little O’s, soak them in some breast milk with some veggie puree and she is all over it! She isn’t a huge fan of the spoon still, hopefully she isn’t traumatized from the cereal experience, but meal time has become a lot more fun for both of us, extremely messy but fun.

Now my two-year-old, Henry, was all about the baby food and cereal. So I just assumed Lucy would be too. Well you know what they say about those who assume (if you don’t, well I can’t really say it here). You would think by now I would stop thinking that Lucy will follow in the same footsteps of her brother, but I guess not!

I’ll keep you updated on Lucy and my food explorations because I have a feeling this is just the beginning.

How was introducing food for you and your little one? Did you follow the “rules” too?

Laine Moses is a stay-at-home-Mom to Henry and Lucy.