One In the Oven: Our Little Foodie

It's been a week since we introduced Kate to her first solid food. I think there are plenty of folks out there--some of you might even be reading this blog!--who are apprehensive about how we've chosen to transition Kate directly to table food. Well, I'm happy to say that so far it's been going great! Kate's had solid food each day this week. Until she really gets the hang of it, we have her doing milk feedings at school, but eventually we'll get her transitioned over there as well. In the course of the last week, Kate has tried the following foods:

- broccoli
- asparagus
- apple
- banana
- avocado
- pear
- cauliflower
- apple sauce
- rice cereal
- mango
- honeydew
- rice cake
- cucumber
- snap peas
- pear sauce (kind of like apple sauce, but with pears!)
- green beans
- oatmeal
- cheddar cheese
- banana yogurt
- cantaloupe
- carrots
- sweet potatoes

Sometimes Kate sits in the highchair to eat and sometimes she sits on my lap. We (quickly) discovered that it's much easier to strip her down before she eats, and then dunk her in the tub once she's finished. If she's tired, cranky or hungry, we skip the food. That's a little different from the normal "introduce food when they're hungry" mentality, but we really want Kate to "eat" for the learning and exploring experience at this point and not to get rid of her hunger. Sometimes she eats for upwards of 40 minutes--other times she only lasts about five minutes before she starts to fuss. She loves when we give her applesauce or yogurt. It's lots of fun to splat it all over the place. Copper has quickly learned that hanging out under the highchair results in lots of tasty treats. In fact, this evening, nearly five hours after Kate had some yogurt, we discovered that Copper was covered in it. He had dried clumps of banana yogurt all over him. He was in the drop zone under the chair while she was playing. Needless to say, someone will be getting a shower tonight.

Kate seems to really like green beans, and we've been working on drinking water from a cup. Right now it mostly dribbles down her chin, but we'll keep practicing. Thankfully, we haven't had any choking episodes (just like the book said we wouldn't), but there have been a few times where Kate has gagged a bit (just like the book says she would). My heart stops each time it happens, but she always works whatever it is out of her mouth, and I think she's started to realize that she needs to swallow. I've brushed up on my baby first aid just in case (we took a class before Kate was born that went over infant CPR and the Heimlich), but hope that I'll never need to use either. Kate is always supervised and is NEVER, EVER left alone with food in front of her. She's never given small pieces, and food is cooked so that it's soft enough to break down, but not so soft that it disintegrates when she puts it into her mouth. It's so much fun to watch her explore and learn. Sometimes she looks so serious and like she's deep in thought while she's smearing food all over the tray, and other times, she looks like she's just having a blast.

I've taken lots of pictures and videos, and I think that's the best way to share our little foodie in action. Enjoy!