Introducing Solids

We rolled in Lulu's Half Birthday with the introduction of solid food.

Whoa, they're finally giving me "real" food.  

Oh God.  I hate it, I HATE IT!!!  Never again, please!

As you can see, it was not well received by Goosey Girl, and her attitude hasn't changed much over the last week... 

Lulu has been interested in food for months; but, Casey and I agreed to wait until she was at least 6 months old before introducing solids, because we read that introducing them too soon could cause problems (digestive system development, childhood obesity, rapid and unhealthy weight gain - and so on).  

Fun fact:  Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life increases protection against disease and improves the chances of continuing breastfeeding throughout the first 12 months of life.   

We gauged a lot of our decisions on the Wholesome Baby Food website - I highly recommend all mommas check that site out, if you haven't already!  They provide SO much information: from deciding if your baby is ready for solids, to baby food recipes, to allergies, and so much more.  We chose to introduce pears first, after reading the list of appropriate Stage 1 Foods.  To date, she has had pears, sweet po, and acorn squash.

I thought we were being progressive by skipping over cereal, and plunging into the fruits and vegetables; but, in retrospect, I think Lucy would have enjoyed solids more if we started with something that was mixed with breast milk.  I'm sure she'll eventually get over this aversion to all things solid, maybe once we introduce some bananas.

Fun fact #2:  Bananas are the solid food that taste closest to breast milk. (Thanks for that, Meg!)

For now we're abiding by the 3 day wait rule.  (Some people do 2 days, some do 4 days.)  Meaning we introduce one food at a time, for a period of 3 days; which gives us a chance to evaluate Lulu's reaction to the food and make sure there's no allergy or constipation.  Eventually, once we've gone through all the foods, we'll be able to serve multiple foods at one time.  Lulu hasn't had any constipation problems ::knocks on wood:: and that's something I hope to avoid completely.  

Fun fact #3:  Exclusively breastfed babies are more prone to constipation because their digestive systems are so used to processing breast milk, which is easily digested.  

I originally planned to combine two posts into one: telling you all about introducing solids and making homemade baby food; but, having typed it all out, I realize now that that would make for one verrry long post.  I'll leave you with a few more priceless photos from dinner - just look at her expression!