Lily's first "solid" meal

Lily had her first solid meal on the 21st. Her 6-month well baby visit with her pediatrician is coming up so we wanted to start solids just before her visit in case anything came up. We've wanted to wait to feed Lily solids until 6 months because it lowers her risk of developing an allergic reaction to something she eats, she'll be less likely to develop diabetes and plus several other positive outcomes.

We decided to start her on an organic rice cereal just because it's easy and there's really no chance of an allergic reaction. Plus it's fortified with iron since she'll no longer get enough iron from me starting at around 6 months. Her cereal is mixed with breastmilk.

We're glad we waited until we did. Lily didn't have a tongue thrust reflex at all (younger babies will push the food back out of their mouths with their tongue because they don't know how to swallow yet). Lily figured it out from the first bite--in her typical over-achiever fashion.

Lily is eating one "meal" of solids right now. For quite some time, the solid food she's eating will just be to learn how to eat and won't really provide much for her. For her first year of life breastmilk will still be her main source of calories and nutrition, as is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Lily's first vegetable was carrots and her first fruit was bananas. She has also eaten pears. I will be making as much of Lily's food as possible. She is eating jarred carrots because carrots have a tendency to be high in nitrates which is dangerous for babies. Jarred carrots are tested to make sure their nitrate levels are safe. Lily is also eating an all-organic diet. We eat as much organic food as possible so it only makes sense that we'd want the same for Lily. We are especially concerned about keeping nasty pesticides and other chemicals out of her little body. Tests have been done on babies' blood looking at contaminates and the results were scary. No thanks!


Yum-O!

Messy face. Lily loves the Cat in the Hat.