What The Baby Ate Wednesday- First Food!!!

It was clear...

I couldn't put it off any longer.

Just short of 6 months and the baby was pretty much begging for food. He was staring us down. I'd look into his sweet little face and when he looked back I could swear he was saying, "Feed me!!"

I wasn't ready. I planned to wait until at least 6 months, and although I knew what I had done in the past and have even written an article about feeding babies so that they learn to be good eaters, I didn't really have a plan yet.

Though it didn't last long, even go particularly well, I still started with rice cereal with my other kiddos (well, at least the first two, I honestly can't remember what I did with the last one!)

One of my friends was really dreading "baby food," with her fourth a few months ago and I found a blog post on Amy's Finer Things asking what people fed their babies and when they started solids. I was surprised to discover how many people bypassed rice cereal, and how many people basically followed the baby's lead.

I wondered if this was a new trend, or perhaps a trend among "bloggy moms," so I went straight to the source and crowd sourced my Facebook friends.

It turns out that most of my friends tossed the so-called "rules" out the window (including one who said that her baby's first food was wings and chili dogs... I assume she was kidding??) But the thought buzzing around in my mind is that people have been feeding babies for thousands of years. And for most of that time, rice cereal, as well as, all baby food as we know it, did not exist. (For an interesting article about why rice cereal may not be the best first food, check out First Food for Baby.)

So... here I go, off on the adventure of feeding an all new eater. Inspired by "What I Ate Wedensday," and so that you can follow my journey, I'll be posting once a week about what the baby ate.

We started with sweet potatoes, lunch only (baked, refrigerated, and then boiled in a little hot water and cooled.) He LOVES them but I'm afraid that I created a monster because he cries if I don't feed him fast enough!!

Oh... and in the interest of full disclosure... it's not really his first food. Last week I tried watermelon a few times. He seemed to be teething and I thought that some cool watermelon would feel good on his gums. I tried it three times and all three times he acted like his stomach was upset. I didn't believe it the first few times because it was just a little bit of juice really, but think I'll wait a while before I try that again.


I'd love to hear your thoughts. What were the first foods that you fed your baby? Do you think that how they ate as babies relates to how they eat now?





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