He was so interested in watching us eat, I felt like I was keeping him away from food when he really wanted it. He would look longingly at me eating. He wanted to participate.
I saw on Mother-2-Mother.com a recipe for what they call the Momsicle (frozen breastmilk popsicles) and I thought that frozen milk could be a good way to involve Ewan in meal time without feeding him food yet.
When Ewan was just 5 months old, I froze some milk in a Medela bottle and transferred it to the fridge to thaw just a little for a few hours. Then, I scraped the slushy milk with a plastic baby spoon and fed it to him at Thanksgiving. He loved it! He was opening his mouth and grabbing the spoon. It was very cold, so I tried not to feed him too fast. We did this a number of times at meals to let him be involved.
This went so well that I started him on solid food a few weeks early. He seemed completely ready. The 6-month rule seems to be a good one, but every baby is different. Ewan was ready for food at 5 months.
We started with a ripe banana mushed up. He scrunched up his face and seemed to be thinking about this new taste in his mouth. He didn't seem to like it, so I mixed some milk in with it to soften the taste for him. He had to get used to eating something besides milk. New tastes were not accepted with a smile, but he would open his mouth eagerly to try.
Now, every time I introduce something new he scrunches up his face and spits some of the food back out. It helps if he sees me eat it. Just the other day I introduced a peas and carrots puree (he had carrots by themselves first) and he didn't seem to like the first bite. Then, I took a bite and modeled that it was good. He smiled and ate more.
He loves food and eats alot. I'm surprised at how much he wants to eat.
