nom nom nom

The topic of infant diet has been coming up in my circles a lot lately. Numerous friends are complaining that their infants – all Squirt’s age or older – refuse to eat solids. Some of these babies won’t touch veggies, some spit out meat, some only want to eat sweets, and none want to eat lumps or anything that remotely resembles “real” food. These repeated conversations have boosted my ego and I now find myself involuntarily trotting around on my high horse.

Things weren’t always this way. I exclusively breastfed Squirt until she was six months old then, I decided, I would begin introducing food. In the weeks leading up to the six month mark, I was a train wreck. I was so stressed out about her eating solids. What should I feed her? How should I feed her? Does feeding her mean she won’t nurse anymore? What if she doesn’t need me anymore? What if she chokes? What if she has an allergy? What if I feed her the wrong things and make her obese? What if what if what if… I finally decided to practice “baby-led” feedings. Essentially, you present your infant with whatever you’re eating and, when she’s ready, she will eat it. The belief is that an infant will not eat before she’s ready and will only eat things she can handle. It, supposedly, helps an infant to establish her own tastes and preferences, while teaching her from the start how to properly chew and swallow. Sounds easy enough.  But – at least at first – it wasn’t. Squirt didn’t want to eat anything I put in front of her. She would play with it, smoosh it around, throw it on the floor, but almost nothing made it to her mouth. I had to keep reminding myself that she would eat when she was ready, but I was feeling the pressure from my other parent friends, who were already feeding their infants three squares of purees with no problem. I began to question this whole “baby-led” idea. In a moment of weakness, I tried to spoon-feed Squirt some puree. No dice. I started to wonder if she would forever live off breastmilk…

Then, one fateful afternoon, daddy handed Squirt a strawberry. By his account, she played with it, smeared it around, and then tasted it. Her eyes popped wide open in surprise and excitement! She then annihilated that strawberry, gnawing away at its tangy flesh and sucking out all of the juice until she was left with just the hard pulp and stem. Victory! But not really… she would only eat strawberries. I continued to offer her a wide variety of foods, which she continued to throw on the floor. But she ate her strawberries.

We carried on like this for weeks. I began to wonder if humans could subsist on just strawberries… Then, near the end of her sixth month, Squirt started tasting the foods I put on her plate. At first, she never ate much, but a little bit of everything made it to her mouth. Before long, though, she began eating. She showed a strong preference for meat, often picking it out to eat first (much to daddy’s delight). She also demanded flavor, often crawling across the table to steal bites off my (more heavily seasoned) plate. Now she eats like a champ, though not most babies. She eats everything I do now – I just chop it up so it’s manageable, though that’s not always required. Now that she has her front teeth (she has five now!), she happily bites into apples or tears meat from her drumstick. Interestingly enough, she, so far, has never bitten off more than she could chew. She loves flavor and intensity, happily noshing on cooked, unsweetened cranberries, kale, and liver. Looking back, she has, in the past four months, eaten more variety than most adults – she has had mackerel, yak, liver, heart, various kinds of paté, romanesco cauliflower, rambutan, dragon fruit, and more vegetables than I can think to list.

The list of foods Squirt now eats could go on for pages. The list of things she hasn’t eaten is short. She has never eaten baby food and has never eaten cereals. She still has never eaten a puree and doesn’t eat those typical baby finger foods people think infants must have in order to gain finger dexterity (she gained that skill from picking up slippery cubes of avocado). Much to the annoyance of her caregivers at daycare, she picks the meat and veggies off of her plate and doesn’t eat the rice they offer (they have commented that she seems “bored” with their food). She loves trying new foods – she inspects it carefully, puts it in her mouth, and obviously contemplates it as she slowly chews it – all of this done with the most serious look on her face. If she doesn’t like it, she won’t take more. If she does like it, she will begin shoveling it in. Feeding her a favorite food is always so much fun. She grins and giggles the whole meal, babbling away as she cleans her plate.

So, no, we don’t have a problem with Squirt eating solids, a fact of which I am increasingly proud, especially as I hear of the challenges of other parents. I have no doubts that Miss Willfulness will go through picky stages as she traverses toddlerhood, but at least she has a strong foundation. Maybe she will only want to eat yak liver and red kale… who knows? I’m sure, though, that she will always love strawberries.

Strawberry! (About six months old.)

Happy, messy diner. (About seven months old.)

By the power of Grayskull!!! (About eight months old.) 

Eating her first whole apple. (About nine months old.)

Cave baby likes to gnaw on bones... (About ten months old.)

Note: Please forgive the blurry pictures. As one might imagine, Squirt does not sit still for very long...