Adventures in Solid Food

For a long time now Benjamin has been watching us eat. His unwavering gaze enviously follows the path of our food from our plates to our mouths. Accordingly, we thought it time to try some solids. We put Benjamin in the Bumbo seat and velcroed a bib around his neck. His eyes lit up as he saw the spoonfull of sweet potatoes coming toward his mouth. He opened his mouth to sample the delicacy... and then a look of horror came over his face. You could see his mind racing. "What are they trying to feed me? You mean this is what FOOD tastes like?" Out came the sweet potatoes.

We've tried a few different food with varying degrees of failure, and more recently, a modicum of success. He seemed very excited about eating tiny shreds of cheese, but he can't seem to maneuver them to the back of his mouth to swallow. Inevitably the soggy, gummy blobs find their way out to their final resting place on his chin.

(This picture must have been taken at the beginning of a feeding, because he's much too clean!)

A typical "feeding" goes something like this:
Spoon one: open mouth, let most of the food ooze back out.
Spoon two: open mouth, bite the spoon and make a mess.
Spoon three: open mouth, bite the spoon and blow bubbles.
Spoon four: open mouth, push food back out with tongue.
Spoon five: open mouth, take food in, purse lips, squirt food out.
Spoon six: open mouth, stick fingers in and smear food all over face.
Spoon seven: close mouth until parents open their mouths really wide and say "Ah!" while making a silly faces, then choose from the above options.
Continue until parents give up or all of the food has been relocated to face, bib and floor.

On the weekend we bought some teething biscuits and a little mesh feeder with a handle. The feeder is just big enough to put a chunk of apple in, and he can hold it himself and chew on it without us worrying about him choking. He absolutely loves it, so that's a step in the right direction. The teething biscuits dissolve even if the baby doesn't have teeth - they're the consistency of styrofoam. Ben is not sure what to think of those. We gave him a rice flavored one and he looked like he found it even less appetizing than sweet potato - yet he kept chewing on it! We laughed at him because he had a very baffled expression like he couldn't figure out who kept putting that disgusting thing back in his mouth!