Hey you! Enough with the mashed vegetables...I want that sandwich!

We started Darwyn on solid foods (which is to say, we fed her pureed food that was not at all solid) at four months.  She was initially very excited, and approached the new foods with very amusing facial expressions and enthusiasm.  She has now decided that she is somewhat of a food connoisseur, which is a nice way of saying she is picky.

If I am sitting and eating my meal, she will reach for it eagerly, watch my every bite and smack her lips.  I usually jump up at this point, and whip up a nice bowl of pureed cauliflower.    I strap her into her chair and offer her a bite.  She regards the food with distaste and pursed lips.  I make a silly face, bobble my head back and forth and do a little jig.  Eventually she smiles or laughs at my antics and I ram the cauliflower into her mouth before she can close it again.  My daughter has a very sunny temperament and does not cry at my abuse.  Instead she gives me a toothless grin and then blows a raspberry, spraying pureed cauliflower all over my face and shirt.  She laughs gleefully reaches out and topples the bowl on the floor.  Then she looks back at my sandwich and smacks her lips.

Not to make the situation sound too grim.  Darwyn will eat a few select pureed foods, IF she is in the right mood and IF you make a complete idiot of yourself by making all manner of obnoxious noises and faces.  And if the puree is pear, apple or squash.

She is equally picky about breastfeeding.  She eats only if she is (a) on the verge of starvation AND (b) nothing else interesting is happening AND (c) the breast milk is flowing at exactly the right pace.  Otherwise, she arches her back, screams and bites and claws at my nipples.  I stare at this whole scene thinking about the wonderful bond that breastfeeding creates between mother and child.  I think I may wean her soon.

Darwyn's first experience with solids.


The video below is not very good, but it was her first try of pablem!

It seems that the end to the food related frustration is in sight, however.  We recently started giving Darwyn a few genuine solid foods that she can eat herself, including stringy rice noodles.  She largely failed to eat any of these, but found them very entertaining.  We also received a funky new device from Gus's mom that allows us to put chunks of food in a little mesh bag.  Darwyn can suck on the food without risk of choking.  We have stuffed hunks of orange and banana, as well as frozen pear puree ice cubes. inside this baggy.  Darwyn loves it.  She will eat things she wouldn't touch as a puree if you put it in the baggy.  Perhaps I will see if I can somehow incorporate the baggy into our breast feeding routine too.   I might be more successful at enjoying the bond that develops between child and baggy.

Oh well.  As Eyore is fond of saying, we can't all and some of us don't.