Eating "Real" Food

Boy, I was excited about James starting to eat real food. I could not wait to feed it to him! Even though he eats rice cereal in all his bottles because of his reflux, I couldn't wait to mix it up and feed him with a SPOON! Um, didn't quite go like I anticipated. I thought he was going to just gobble it right down. He didn't. These first two pictures are our first try at real food. Here's the before:

Here's the during:

He'd much rather eat the straps of his high chair in the picture above than his cereal. So, I got some tips. First of all, I know it's not that he needs the nutrition. So, no real pressure about whether or not he eats it. Also, I got some good advice about when to feed him so he'd be hungrier, etc. AND, it worked. So...slowly...after about two weeks of trying the rice cereal (with some applesauce mixed in), twice a day, he's really gotten the hang of it! He now eats oatmeal with bananas in the mornings (then his milk), a veggie for lunch (then his milk), and some rice cereal for dinner (then his milk) and two extra milk times in there :) He is doing great! Here he is yesterday...about to eat some carrots.

Here are the carrots:

Yum!

Eating is a messy job. The first time I gave him the carrots he sort of ate them and then turned his head and fake coughed a couple of times. Then, he kept eating them.

I think eating is going well. Next week we're going to try a new veggie...I'm thinking....maybe squash. :)