we'd been fairly lazy w/ the introducing misch to solid foods thing, since there's really no big rush at this age (and he's clearly getting enough to eat!), but we had been gradually trying a few things out, little by little, just to get him a little practice & some tastes of new things, since he'd been showing very intense interest in the foods we were eating for weeks. we had assumed that he'd be soooo excited to try new foods (since everything that comes near him goes straight to his mouth, and since he has a rather insatiable appetite), but sadly, he didnt seem to like anything we tried -- not rice cereal, bananas, sweet potatoes, avocado, or even applesauce. sweet potatoes he'd actually done ok with, as well as mushed carrots -- those two were the best, but still after a few bites he'd basically start shaking his head No and making scrunchy faces, like we were feeding him poison.
until... mushed pears!
we've found a winner.
one secret we discovered is that this kid, ever Mister Independent, does not want to be babied through anything -- he want to feed himSELF. so letting him take the spoon and feed himself with it made a big difference. and, being the pig he is, the two-spoon system worked best -- one spoon he got to hold on to (that i would periodically sneakily dip into the food, then he'd stick it back into his mouth), and one that i'd feed him with. and eventually, he wanted to feed himself with both spoons. success!
(we started out only using fresh foods, not jarred, & plan to ultimately make all our baby food ourselves using fresh ingredients rather than buying pre-prepared babyfoods, but the cute little tiny jars of Earth's Best Organic baby food from shane's work were on sale, and just made it easy to try a bunch of different things in small quantities during this initial picky phase).
of course just banging the spoons on the tray is always fun as well.
the other thing that made him turn from snooty picky scrunchy-faced non-eater to sudden devourer of the food in front of him, a week or two ago, was letting him just grab the jar of food with both hands and shove his mouth/tongue into it, lapping up the food like a cat. i'm guessing that is probably not the best way for us to be teaching him to eat. but, if you'd seen the relish with which he lapped up those mushed carrots, you'd want to let him keep doing it too! the turnaround in enthusiasm was striking -- one minute he was turning his head away from the spoon close-mouthed, avoiding it at all costs, the next minute he was panting with glee as he snarfed down half the jar of the remaining carrots in two seconds flat.
sticking his entire head into the bowl of rice cereal did prove a little messier -- the method certainly won't work with everything.
the experimenting continues...
