The rest of the first week

Thursday
Feeling a little more adventurous after Wednesday night, I gave Heath a small slice of avocado at lunch. I expected it to be too slippery for him, but he managed to pick it up really well. He sucked small pieces and made a lot of green drool. Nice!

For dinner, we had chicken stir-fry and Heath got a mini fillet of plain chicken breast cooked in mild olive oil. He seemed to like it a lot sucked it very enthusiastically. I thought we were going to have our first gagging incident when he broke off a large piece and it went to the back of his mouth. He didn’t gag though; the chicken just came back to the front of the mouth and he dropped it out.

[6 months 2 days]

Friday
On Friday morning, while we ate cereal for breakfast, Heath tried fromage frais again with a little more success. I loaded a weaning spoon with the fromage frais and put it on the table to see what would happen. I was amazed by how well he could pick it up and eat from it on his own.

At lunchtime I grabbed myself a roll in Greenwich Market. I had him, as usual, on my front in a woven wrap and, to stop him grabbing him my lunch, I got a couple of pieces of rocket from the stall where I’d bought my roll and gave them to Heath to play with. He seemed to like the taste and sucked very happily on the leaves while I ate in peace.

[6 months 3 days]

On Saturday we had a really busy day out of the house and when we got home Heath nursed and then slept. Nothing to report.

This morning we tried putting fromage frais on a spoon for him again.

In case you were wondering, “around 6 feet” is the answer to the question “How far can a baby flick a spoon loaded with fromage frais across a room?”

[6 months 5 days]

Mmm, broccoli

I think we’re onto a winner!

We had such a good time at dinner tonight. We had broccoli and Heath really got into it and enjoyed himself. Lots of fun, although I still have to clean up …

[6 months 1 day]

Getting organised

The last few days have been pretty quiet on the food front.

On Sunday morning we gave Heath a piece of banana to try. He squished it around, but I think he managed to taste some. On Monday and Tuesday he just chewed on some more lettuce. Poor child, I would say, but he seems to enjoy it.

Today, I got my act together and went shopping. I bought broccoli (for us to have with our dinner) for him to try, rice cakes (thought they’d be easier for him to pick up), sweet potato (for roasting and mashing with a small amount of olive oil), butternut squash (yum), Sainsbury’s own brand fromage frais and a wipeable table cloth to go on the carpet under his seat.

On a slight tangent, we were surprised when we looked at Sainsbury’s a few weeks ago to find that, with the exception of Sainsbury’s ‘Kids’ and Rachel’s Organic, all of the fromage frais or yogurts meant for babies or children contained either sugar or artificial sweetener.

Shopping is tiring business so when we got home Heath had a long nap, but after that I offered him the rice cakes and fromage frais. He put his fingers into the fromage frais, but didn’t lick or suck them. He showed no interest at all in it after that. The rice cakes were a little bit more of a success. He could pick them up quite well and gnaw on them. Whenever he tastes anything he screws up his face as if he’s just sucked a lemon, but it doesn’t seem to deter him.

[6 months 1 day]

First food!

Heath turns 6 months old on Monday. He’s been making attempts to grab the food on our plates for over a month and I think he’s been developmentally ready to eat for a little while now. We were going to wait until after Monday, but he managed to convince us that he really did want to play with these funny toys.

At lunchtime I sat down with a chicken and salad roll. Heath was playing on the carpet with some toys. He stopped what he was doing, crawled over to me and started crying to be picked up. Once on my lap, he started making pretty acrobatic lunges towards my food. He then turned his attention to his dad’s plate, at which point we started wondering whether we should just go for it. We decided that we would.

I hadn’t decided on his first food yet, but I was thinking of things like pear, banana or a broccoli stem. Of course, we had none of those things in the house and we’d just returned from the shop so we gave him a strawberry because that’s what we did have. It turned out not to be such a great choice because it was so slippery that the poor baby really struggled to pick it up. He got a small taste, but that’s about it.

I should point out that strawberries can be allergenic and some sources recommend that children aren’t given any berries until they are 12, or even 18, months old.

We also offered him a piece of lettuce which he was able to pick up and suck on briefly.

This evening we let him have a pear and he managed to get actual bits of pear into his mouth. He didn’t know quite what to make of it and alternated between attacking the pear with great enthusiasm and pulling funny faces. At one point he gagged very slightly and spat out a small piece.

I can’t believe how quickly my little baby is turning into a little boy!

[5 Months 4 Weeks]