Richie passed another milestone this week: eating his first solid food.
I'm proud to say he's been 100% breastfed until now (a shout out to all the moms who stick with it, it's a tough job!). But starting about 2 weeks ago he started waking more often in the night, teething and most recently, mouthing while watching Mom eat (all signs that he's getting ready to start solids). So at 4 months and 3 weeks we gave him his first food: avocado.
Sure most babies start with baby rice but when avocados are in season and packed with lots of lovely nutrients and omega 3's why not give him more bang for his itty bitty bite? It's one of the "approved" first foods along with most root vegetables, apple and pears. Apparently it's harder to get them to eat veggies if you start them on sweet fruits, so we're going to give him veggies first and then will add in some fruits (again, lucky boy lives in the "Fruit Bowl of New Zealand" and will have his choice of peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, etc).
From what I've read and heard there is also some controversy about whether giving infants starches like rice before they have molars is a good idea as well. Some say they lack the enzyme necessary to properly digest starches until they have molars and hence get terrible gas, and others say giving them starches too soon makes them more likely to get colds. In any case, we decided to play it safe and go for a food with as much nutrition as he could get that was still safe for him to digest. And hey you can't get any easier than mashing up avocado for homemade baby food. (ok, I did add a bit of breast milk at first and water to thin it out and make it more palatable).
Below are pics from the first attempt on Dec 16th. He was a bit more interested in the spoon as a teething device but he did seem to know what to do with the food once it got in his mouth.
*Note that the food also matches his bib and chair. Momma ain't no fool.
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