Solid feeding

 

6-months is such a big milestone for babies.  Not only do they learn how to roll over, they learn how to sit and begin teething, they now need to learn how to eat too.  Apparently, babies only know naturally how to suck.  So what we all think as a simple task of transporting food from the tip of the tongue to the back of the throat and then swallowing the food is actually a learned skill.  Babies need to learn how to do this.  When babies are too young, they have this tongue reflux that pushes the food out.  But when they are older, this tongue reflux disappears, they are now "ready" to eat solids.  

This whole solid feeding thingy is extremely confusing to me.  I don't know why! I actually tried to give Sarah rice cereal when she was 5-1/2 months.  The instructions on the box were 1 TBSP dry rice cereal, and 4 TBSP formula (or breastmilk).  The consistency is really really liquidy. It was barely a solid at all.  But either way, I fed that to her but didn't have much luck actually getting into her mouth.  She spit most of it back out so I thought maybe she's not ready.  I tried again a few days later, and it was still a disaster.  She also had some loose BM so I gave it a rest again. A week later, I gave her oat cereal. This time, I made the consistency a little bit thicker, so it felt a little more like porridge.  She ate the whole 2 TB I gave her!  I was super happy that this is finally going somewhere.  But then my happiness was short-lived.  She refused it the next day I gave it to her.  Sarah is all over-the-place when it comes to solid feeding.  One day she knows how to swallow and loves the cereal.  One day she forgets how to eat and pushes everything back out with her tongue. 

So far I am able to only get 1 solid feeding with Sarah a day.  I want to increase this to 2x a day, but so far haven't had much luck.  She is so good at keeping her lips tightly sealed when she doesn't want any or any more. So besides rice and oat cereal, I fed her peas.  She loved them 2 days ago (ate 2.5 TB), but rejected them this morning.  Ai-ya!! What a tough eater to please!  Please tell me that this is only a phase and that my baby will learn how to love everything I put into her mouth....    

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