Banana, Watermelon, and Cheese Please!

So after a few months of eating solid foods there appear to be three foods in which Nate certainly shows a preference. I think if we just fed him banana, watermelon, and cheese cubes he would be very happy. Nate eats solid food very well and will eat most of the food we put in front of him. One of the foods he really likes that still surprises me a little is this mixture of lentils and pinto beans that we've made up for him

Nate is just over 10 months and he is at a stage where he wants to do things himself. So in order to get him to eat, small chunks of food he can pickup himself are best. He is no where near being able to use a spoon himself and he is starting to get to a point where he doesn't want to have someone else feed him with a spoon. We are getting to the point where we are feeding him a lot of the same things we are eating, just cut up into smaller pieces.

Nate has really been easy to feed and rarely turns down anything. He still gets a lot of nutrition from formula/breastmilk, but he is certainly eating enough that I would guess he is getting about 50% or maybe a little more of his nutrition from solid foods. Nate is such an active kid that I'm not worried that he is not eating well. Being happy and active seems to be the best signs young kids are getting appropriate nutrition. If they seem lethargic, very discontent, or aren't wetting diapers then there might be something to look into. I think we are all good here....

Things have calmed down

It has been a whirlwind of late. I've been putting together this long list of topics to talk about, but for some reason nothing has seem to been written down.

So here is the full update. My wife was offered a great opportunity in Houston, TX. She had been staying at home with Nate while I was working. So we made the decision that she would accept job in Houston and I would significantly cut back my work to pretty much zero and concentrate on taking care of Nate, selling the house, and moving to Houston.

So I've become a stay-at-home dad (at least temporarily). He is a handful especially now that he has become more mobile. Besides taking care of Nate full-time, I've been back and forth with Nate between Houston and Austin taking care of cleaning up house, taking care of all the things needed to sell the house, trying to get us set up in Houston, and looking for employment for myself on top of all this. I think I've worked harder than I have in a long time. I felt exhausted after every day.

So last week we got a contract on the house in Austin and the inspection went well. Those were huge milestones in my book. I briefly met the buyers and they seemed like a really nice couple. I feel really good about them buying the house. I put a lot of sweat equity into that house and while I would sell it to anyone it feels good when the right people for the house end up buying the place. The area was great and we'll miss it. We were a little outside of Austin (almost Lakeway) and the Hill Country and lakes were right there. It really is a wonderful area. The area had changed over the years with more houses and much more retail. The schools were great. There was an exemplary elementary school in which you could watch your kid walk to school. It was a combination that will be difficult to beat.

When we initially moved to Houston we were able to stay with some of my wife's relatives. That was such a blessing. It made that transition so much easier. We have found an apartment to stay in for a few months. This gives us time to get our lives straightened out, close on the house in Austin, and not be in rush to find a house in Houston.

So being around Nate more has been wonderful. While staying home with Nate was not part of my plan it has been a wonderful opportunity. I had tried to be pretty active when I could with Nate, but mom was almost always there. When we made the switchover to her working there was no longer the safety net and there were many days in which we were in Austin and she was in Houston. I know it was a little tough on her not being around her son she had been around 24/7 for the first 7+ months.

So Nate is doing great. At his nine month check-up he was right at 20 lbs (actually 1 oz under, but close enough). He is not only crawling, but he is crawling really fast. He is getting into everything he can. I've spent a lot of time babyproofing and moving things so he can't reach them. He still finds things or gets into things I was not expecting. He is trying to pull up on everything. We've had to put stuff away as he has pulled numerous things down on himself. He has started doing a little cruising and we think walking will come soon.

Nate has been eating well. He was a puff-a-holic for a while, now he can't get enough cheerios. His mother makes sure he gets lots of fruits and veges, which he eats with no problem. We've moved to partial formula and the wife keeps threatening to completely ween Nate every time is uses his teeth.

We still have to get everything moved out of house in Austin, but I think we've settled down a little and I can get back to a more regular cadence of posting things. We'll have a lot of new things to explore as Nate grows up. Hopefully, some of my job leads will come through soon. It will be sad if I don't spend as much time with Nate. We'll have to deal with all the issues of day care, but I'm pretty sure Nate is very resilient and he'll probably do better with all the changes than his mom and I.

Nate has been eating

Nate has been adjusting well to solid foods. Actually I'm not sure that they are all that solid. By the time they are mashed, pureed, and mixed they are pretty soft. We been adding an additional item about every 3-4 days. So far there have been no adverse reactions at all. Generally he has liked (or at least eaten) everything we have put in front of him. The plain cereals (rice & oatmeal) are probably his least favorite. I'd have to agree they aren't that good. I've taken some little tastes and I can see why he likes then much better when they are mixed with something else.

So far Nate has experienced the following: rice, oatmeal, avocado, banana, squash, green beans, apple, and carrots. I still think avocado is one of his favorites. Some of the items to try in the near future are sweet potato, pear, mango, and peaches. We've been impressed that he seems to eat lots of the food and hasn't really rejected anything. We had read that many babies will have to try things multiple times before they will accept them. He has given some funny faces when first putting some food in his mouth. All those different tastes and textures have to be confusing when all you have previously known is milk. Nate still gets most of his nourishment from breast milk, but he is getting more and more solids every day.

Nate's First Six Months

I thought I would reflect a little on the first six month's of Nate's life.

I didn't write for the first month of Nate's life. Most of the first month we were struggling with getting Nate home, dealing with the constant feedings, and the wonderful change to our lives. Nate started small, but he was a very good eater (after some initial difficulties). That first month is still quite a blur.

Breastfeeding - I'm still glad that we choose to breastfeed Nate. I never realized that mom and baby had to work so hard to get breastfeeding to go smoothly. It was a struggle at first. I can see where people may give up or move to formula at least part-time. Nate has been a very healthy and happy baby. I believe that breastfeeding helped on the health and growth side. It also meant that Nate and mom got to spend a lot of quality time close together. While we have started Nate on some solid foods, at six months Nate is still getting the majority of his nutrition through breast milk. Another great benefit to breastfeeding, his poop has very low odor which makes changing diapers much more pleasant.

Diapers - Wow, a baby goes through a lot of diapers. I went from basically never changed a diaper to where I can almost change a diaper in my sleep. We decided to use cloth diapers and while they can be a hassle I still believe it is a good decision. Also never realized how much poop can come out of such a small kid. As Nate has started to eat solid foods his poop has started to change. I'm afraid the days of very low odor poop are almost over. Poop has started to change as solid foods have been introduced. It is interesting to see how different foods go through Nate. For example, I never realized out fibrous bananas are.

Hiccups - Interesting how much Nate hiccups. His hiccups have decreased over time, but he still has them quite often. For the first couple months the hiccups didn't seem to bother Nate at all, but now the hiccups seem to be a little annoying.

Sleep - This is still one of the areas that we struggle. Nate sleeps reasonably well, but he still wakes up at night more than we would like. This means that we are still not getting the sleep we would like. The regular sleep deprivation is something we are looking forward to getting over at some point. While Nate has proven he can sleep over 8 hours at a time, that is more the exception not the rule. And even when he does sleep long periods it is on his schedule (not necessarily ours).

Teething - At six months, Nate has one tooth and another will come through any day now. Nate has cried a lot when as these teeth have come in over the last month. He also produced amazing amounts of drool. We believe that teething may be behind some of the recent sleep issues and certainly makes Nate fussy at times.

Gas - We were lucky that Nate did not have colic, but he did have a lot of gas. He now handles the gas with no problem, but there was time where he didn't sleep well and was rather uncomfortable because of gas. We spent a lot of time in first couple months trying to figure out how to prevent and relieve gas pains. In the end, time seemed to be the best cure.

Food - We started Nate on some solid foods at about five months. We've fed him rice, oatmeal, banana, avocado, squash, and apples so far. Nate eats pretty well and hasn't turned down any type of food, but the plain rice and oatmeal are certainly not his favorites. Of late, Nate seems to be spitting up less, but we still have cloths/rags scattered everywhere around the house to always be prepared for when Nate spits up next. I will say that the wood floors in the house have been great as it makes cleaning up really easy.

After six months Nate has gone from rather small (6lb 2oz, 19") to a healthy, growing (17lb 15oz, 26"), and smiling baby.

Nate at Birth	Nate at Six Months

Nate has been a blessing. We never expected Nate to be easy and his first six months have certainly had its ups and downs. The positives certainly outweigh the negatives. His smile and laugh make the difficult times melt away. Seeing those firsts (smile, laugh, turn over, sit up, etc) have all been exciting. Then there are the firsts to come (crawling, words, walking, etc) that we are looking forward to experiencing. The next six months should be exciting.

Nate takes on an avocado

This evening we decided that we wanted to get Nate started on another food. We've given Nate rice several times and he seems to handle the rice fine. We happened to have some avocado that we were putting on burgers we grilled this evening. Nate seemed rather interested in the avocado (see picture below). So we decided that this evening after his normal meal we would try some avocado. I spooned out some avocado and mashed it to make it nice and creamy. Not only did he eat some of the avocado, he ate all that I made for him. And when I say he ate all of it, he ate it all and had almost none left on his face. With the rice he had as much of it on his face as he had in his mouth. So I'm taking the clue that Nate likes avocados.

So we'll feed Nate avocado for the next couple days, then we'll try some oatmeal. The fact Nate seems to like a fruit I think that banana will be the next food after the oatmeal. We are very pleased that Nate is handling solid food well so far. Yes, we are only a couple days in to solid foods, but so far so good.

Avocados seem to be almost a perfect food for infants. They don't need to be cooked and are very easily prepared. It is easily digested (rice cereal may cause constipation in some infants), rarely causes any allergic reactions, and is packed full of healthy goodness. So if anyone is looking for food to feed to young infants, I recommend looking at avocados and while you are at it make a little guacamole for yourself.


Nate trying to eat an avocado

Nate eats rice

Yesterday we tried to feed Nate some solid food. We had been talking about doing this for the last month and finally decided it was time. We at least tried to give him some rice. I'm still not sure how much actually got eaten, but Nate actually seemed interested in eating or at least he wanted to put the spoon in his mouth.

The rice and breast milk mixture didn't look all that appetizing, but Nate seemed pretty interested in the mixture. If nothing else he got a little more milk for dessert. We'll continue to try and get Nate to eat the rice and breast milk mixture for the next two days. We are happy that he does seem interested in eating, but we'll have to give him some time to get used to eating from spoon and not pushing food out with his tongue. Next on this list to try will be some oats.

Below are a couple pictures of Nate eating.


Nate Eating for First Time


A lot ended up not in Nate's mouth and he was more interested in the spoon.

When are infants ready for solid food?

So our pediatrician gave us the go ahead to start giving Nate solid foods. I wanted to understand what was behind that recommendation. The main things that doctor was looking for was the following:

• Loss of tongue-thrust reflex
• Able to turn away (saying he is full)
• Hold head up unassisted (and sit up)

I trust our pediatrician, but when major organizations (AAP/CDC/WHO) keep recommending nothing but breast milk (or formula) until 6 months I have wonder at least a little.

Doing some research it seems as if it is difficult to really tell if a four month old has enough gastrointestinal maturity to handle solid food or not. At four months many infants still have what is considered an open gut. With an open gut an infants intestines could allow things into bloodstream that would stay in intestine with mature gut.

So while I don't believe we could do much harm by experimenting with some simple foods we'll certainly make breast milk his primary source of nutrition. We are in no hurry and we'll probably wait til fifth month to try some solid foods. At some point we'll probably experiment with some foods like rice, oats, bananas, or avocado. Those are some of the common first foods for infants.

Kellymom had a good list on introducing foods at six months and 12 months.

There are many reasons that 6 months of age is the "magical" age for introducing solids, here are a few

* Baby's intestines should be fully "closed"
* Babies are less likely to aspirate foods
* Baby is better able to recognize that she is full and regulate how much she needs to eat
* Baby is able to indicate she is full by turning away from food
* Baby should be have fully developed head control and be able to sit up with minimal assistance
* Baby has had breast milk or formula during the crucial first 6 months of life; giving him the healthiest start with optimal nutrients

There are many reasons that 12 months of age is the "magical" age for introducing "forbidden" solids; here are a few:

* Baby's system is less likely to think that foreign proteins, like the egg protein, need to be considered invaders and fought off. Creating an allergy is considerably reduced in older infants
* Baby has been sensitized to a variety of foods and allergies are less likely to be induced
* Baby's development is such that some forbidden foods, cow's milk for example, will not adversely affect health
* Baby's gastrointestinal system is better able to process pathogens, such as botulism spores in honey.

source: http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html