dreaming of lullabies: Delilah Eats: Let the Adventure into Solids Begin!

The following was written in bed, in the dark, on my phone at 2 a.m. on April 21. #momlife #mombrain #thisiswhyIcantsleep ;)

I am getting excited — and admittedly a little anxious, but mostly excited — to introduce Delilah to "real" food! Over the past month or so, she's been watching my husband and I pretty intently while we eat. If she's playing, she just stops and stares. It is so interesting to her! And for weeks now she's expressed a strange enthusiasm for mugs and cups (and wine glasses!), following them with her eyes as we drink and even reaching out to touch them. But it wasn't until this past week, while out at restaurants, that she started to actually make grabs for our plates of food (and forks)! Clearly, this girl is ready to eat. And I'm feeling more confident that she is, in fact, ready for this next phase as her head and neck have gotten stronger and she attempts more and more to sit up.

Starting solids is something that holds special meaning to me, and likely other mamas too. Because food is more than food; it’s relational.

I'm a lover of gourmet eats and dining out — call me a foodie, if you must — and both my husband and I enjoy cooking. As such, long before I got pregnant, I would daydream about the types of breakfasts and after-school snacks I would make my kids and I'd wonder if my children would be fans of my favorite dinner dishes. (I hope Delilah will like black beans because they're a go-to!) I'd imagine holiday dinners with my family's traditional cuisine, such as rice pudding at Christmas. I couldn't wait to cook for my little one, to provide delicious, satisfying, nourishing and creative eats. And now that my baby is almost 6 months old, I'm highly anticipating our first family meal (at the dining table! Even though that means clearing it off and no longer using it as a catch-all).

I've given Delilah's first foray into foods probably more (no, scratch that — definitely more) thought than my hubby would have liked. I've read two books {this and this} and countless online articles, and I even took an e-course! I've debated high chairs, spoons and cups. I've carefully selected her very first foods. Oftentimes my tendency to examine and research and (over)analyze gets the better of me. But I just have this strong desire to "get it right." What do they call that? Worried first-time mama syndrome? Seriously though, I haven't always had the best relationship with food (eating when I'm bored/sad/stressed, eating until stuffed), and consequently my weight and self-image have suffered, and I want to help my daughter avoid that negativity if at all possible. If I can establish healthy eating habits and associations now, I'm all in.

Besides all that, it's gonna be FUN. I'm going to have to learn to let go a little because teaching a baby to eat is guaranteed to be messy, and flying food has the potential to drive me bonkers, but all the hilariously cute photo opps are sure to make the mess oh-so worth it.

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Fast-forward to today and guess what? We’re a week into our feeding adventure! We started slowly, with a few days of prep. Greg assembled the high chair on Sunday, April 22 (the day after I wrote the above prologue) and the next day I strapped Delilah in for a test run in which she got to munch on… spoons! Empty spoons. She checked out her new utensils {this and this} as well as her cup and she was pretty content just chew-chew-chewing away (those poor teething gums).

We “practiced” this way in the high chair every day for three days so that she could get used to the process and not feel overwhelmed once we introduced food. I planned to keep her “practicing” for about a week but by the third day she seemed to know there was supposed to be something more. I swear Delilah gave me these looks like, “hey ma, where’s the food?!” She was already sitting taller in the chair than on the first day so I decided it was time to give the girl what she wanted.

But, of course, the first meal didn’t go as planned.

The short story: She hated it.

Greg and I selected avocado as Delilah’s first food. The native Californians that we are, we love avocado and almost always have some in our kitchen. Avocados are healthy, too! Chock-full of good fats that support brain development. I simply mashed a ripe avocado with a fork, taking care to make sure it wasn’t too chunky. I loaded up the baby spoons and presented Delilah with her first bite. She eagerly grabbed the spoon and brought it to her tiny mouth. But her glee quickly turned to disgust! “What is THIS?” Her face was priceless. Funny even, initially. But after several attempts (including trying the other spoon) that led to the same reaction, her pouty cries turned to real upset. Greg and I comforted our babe, cleaned her up and took her out of the high chair.

I was disappointed, no doubt. I didn’t anticipate her hating her first food, but I knew I had no control over her reaction. And I also knew that it can take many tries for a baby to warm up to a new flavor or texture. All she’s ever had is (some) breastmilk and (lots of) formula. As much as she seemed ready and excited to eat, it’s really not surprising that she wasn’t into her very first taste of food. But we’ll keep trying avocado and hopefully after awhile she’ll join the bandwagon.

In the meantime, there are lots of other yummy things to eat! Delilah’s food diary thus far:

4/26 … mashed avocado // not a fan, quickly became upset

4/27 … mashed baked sweet potato // still apprehensive at the initial taste/texture, but liked it much better than avocado! // messily drank some water from her open cup for the first time

4/28 … leftover sweet potato, this time thinned with a bit of water and mixed with a pinch of cinnamon // improvement again! she ate/swallowed much of what was offered // drank beautifully from her cup, took four good sips

4/29 … mashed banana // definitely Delilah’s fave! hesitant at first, kept dropping spoon, but once she got a taste she couldn’t get enough. ate more than I expected and really seemed to enjoy it

4/30 … a little bit of everything: banana, sweet potato, and tried avocado again (sliced at first, then mashed) // didn’t eat as much as the day before, possibly overwhelmed by all the different flavors

4/30 (evening) … dinner with mom & dad: flaked salmon! // played with it at first, spreading it across her tray, but eventually grabbed a handful and attempted to bring it to her mouth. she then accepted my help and took a bite — didn't seem to love it but she didn’t hate it either

5/1 … plain full-fat Greek yogurt with a sprinkle of cinnamon, thinned slightly with water // made a face, probably due to the tartness of the yogurt, but kept going for more! // drank some water like usual, but she gets frustrated that mama won’t let her hold the cup by herself

5/1 (evening) … yellow bell pepper // munched on but didn’t actually eat a raw pepper slice that daddy was prepping for dinner (fajitas) // she seemed to like it, the cold hard vegetable likely felt good on her gums

5/2 … mashed steamed carrots mixed with a little water and melted butter to smooth it out, but it was still a little chunky // again, she seemed to like the taste but perhaps put off by the texture. will attempt to make her food a bit smoother in consistency and see how that goes!

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We’re still finding our way on this eating “real,” solid food adventure. I don’t rigidly subscribe to one particular feeding strategy. When it comes to traditional weaning vs. baby-led weaning I take a more middle-of-the-road approach. As much research as I’ve done, I’m still trying to figure it all out, honestly, and follow my baby’s lead. That is the one thing I am a big supporter of: baby-led feeding. I want to teach and encourage my daughter to feed herself from the start. And I want to be respectful of her and her body’s cues. When she’s full, she’s full. If she doesn’t like something, I’m not going to force it. At this point, food should be fun. She’s getting all the nutrition she needs in her bottles. Which means that mealtime in the high chair can focus on exploration and discovery: New tastes, textures, colors and smells; learning how to pick things up; learning how to navigate food in her mouth. Interestingly enough, actually eating isn’t so important right now, though Delilah has done a bit of that. What is important though, to me anyway, is the experience.

So here’s to many more fun food adventures with my gal, to family dinners, afternoon snacks and Sunday brunches, and to more adorably hilarious photo opps. Cheers!

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I've taken way too many photos over the past week! Here is a sampling from Delilah's first bites:

sweet potato