Solid Foods...Maybe

Layla has been eying food and beverages a lot lately and she makes chewing motions with her mouth all the time, so after talking to her pediatrician we decided to start her on some solid foods. Her first experience came in the form of rice cereal. I do believe this is the standard choice for babies first food. I mixed up a bit with some breast milk, sat her in the Bumbo, tied on a bib, and gave it a try. She seemed to take to it quite well. Every bite she seemed to get the whole idea of eating down a little better. The only difficult part is sometimes when she sits in the Bumbo she gets a bit of a lean going (we call it her gangster lean). When she does this, her head is so tilted that it makes it somewhat of a challenge to feed her. Once she sits up on her own a bit better using the high chair might be easier.

Layla's Gangster Lean

I made the rice cereal rather soupy for the first try, which made for quite the messy situation. Especially because she grabbed the bowl at one point so a bunch ended up all over her foot. Plus sometimes she tries to suck on the spoon as opposed to open her mouth for it, and that makes most of it just pour down the handle of the spoon. I guess that is the fun of the whole infant eating experience, though.

Taking some of her first bites

Since trying the rice cereal for a few days, it seemed that it made her rather gassy. She is pretty gassy anyway, but it seemed like it was getting worse. Poor thing. I hate when she is in pain. So we decided to switch and start her on some veggies instead. I started a marathon baby food making session. It is very addicting for some reason. Now we have some green beans, peas, carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, and blueberries all made up and in the freezer. Not sure about the blueberries, though, as all those tiny seeds make for quite the gritty texture. Perhaps we will wait until she can eat those whole since I don't have a way to remove the seeds.

Our first veggie attempt was with some sweet peas. Unfortunately, that didn't go over so well. Although, she was quite overtired, gassy, and not in the best of moods at the time, so that could definitely be a factor. So then we went on to butternut squash. Not so much. So next we tried some sweet potatoes. She wasn't too into that so I mixed a bit of banana in with it. It took a couple bites in before she stopped making that disgusted face and then she was loving it. I was excited that she was finally enjoying it.

Unfortunately, she seems to still be having some major gassy issues and I am sure that digesting new foods isn't helping the situation. So I think that we are going to take a few days off and try and get her system back in order. I still don't think that I will give her the rice cereal again, but we might try the oatmeal. She is making the chewing motion all the time and she is such a good eater (as long as she likes it), but I think that her system isn't quite as ready as her mouth is.

One thing with my Layla bug is she has never made the whole eating process easy for me. In the last month or so, whenever she takes her bottle it is like she is watching a tennis match. She turns her head side to side and is always fidgeting, pulling at my hands and the bottle, and sometimes pulls away like she is going to choke on the milk. And when she nurses she is constantly moving her arms and pushing against me. My arms are getting a workout just trying to keep her in place.

I'm trying not to get discouraged by all of this, though sometimes it is rather trying. Her gassiness is so difficult to remedy because it seems to be rather inconsistent. I don't know if it is my milk, the formula, the solids, or a mix of all of it, or just the way she is. Everything with raising a little one is such a learning experience, especially in patience. So hopefully soon we will have some better luck with her eating and digestion. Luckily, besides that she is such a happy little girl, which is good because I can't get enough of that big smile and those adorable giggles.