We waited until Asher was 6 months old before feeding him solids.  I agonized over what to give him first.  I wanted it to be something flavorful and with a high nutrient content and the standard rice cereal just wasn’t cutting it.  I went back and forth between avocado and egg yolk.  Ultimately, egg yolk won out.

So I carefully boiled an egg, removed all the egg white and then blended the yolk with some breast milk.  Asher was more than eager for me to feed him this new and exciting concoction.  He had been studying us closely whenever we ate anything and was clearly excited to experience this intriguing process for himself.

I scooped out a spoonful of the egg yolk and as the spoon approached his mouth, he leaned forward and opened up as wide as he could.  He then closed his mouth on the spoon and a look of sheer befuddlement flashed over his face, to quickly be replaced with one of absolute disgust and indignation as he promptly began gagging in an attempt to expel the vial substance from his mouth.

This was our first introduction into solids.  Not to worry though, things steadily improved from there.  Although, admittedly, after such a start it could only get better.

As recommended by his pediatrician, we did single introduction, however I didn’t wait 4 days for most foods.  If I was giving him something that was more allergenic then I definitely waited longer, but otherwise I’d give him something new every 1-2 days.  Since we waited until he was 6 months old to introduce foods to him, his pediatrician assured us that we could give him anything and everything.

I was determined to make my own baby food and since we were gifted with a Baby Bullet by a dear friend it was such a breeze.  We used it for a solid 2 months and Asher was sucking food down like he was hollow, so I was using it a lot!  Whoever said that a baby will let you know when they are full by pushing food out of their mouth, obviously hadn’t met my son.  Asher would eat and eat until he had stuffed himself so much that he vomited all over the place.  After this happened once on Raf’s watch and once on mine, we quickly learnt that we couldn’t rely on him to send us any signals and thus adjusted accordingly.

Even though I made the majority of his food, I tended to throw a baby food pouch in my bag for when we were out of the house, because they were SO convenient and easy.  I really loved the ones by Plum Organics, but there are lots of different brands and they all come in TONS of flavors.  They also made introducing new foods super easy and simple.

When Asher was 7 months old I began tentatively attempting to give him food that was more textured but he flat out refused to eat anything that wasn’t pureed.  He even began smelling his food before deciding whether or not to open his mouth, in fact he would only eat certain vegetables if they had been roasted and seasoned (frankly I don’t blame him).  Shortly after he turned 8 months old I just decided one day that he was perfectly capable of finger feeding himself (since he was rather adept with the puffs), so I stopped blending his food and simply gave him small chunks of stuff that were on the softer side and lo and behold he happily fed himself!

Some of his first foods:  egg, avocado, banana, sweet potato, yam, multi-grain cereal, rice cereal, peas, squash, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, blueberry, pear, peach, pasta, chicken, beef, cheese, greek yogurt, hummus, black beans, watermelon, plum, quinoa, spinach, kale, asparagus, nectarine, carrot, bread.

He now eats whatever we are eating and pretty much loves it all.  We’re so lucky and I can only hope he continues to be such an easy going eater, especially considering that we have adopted a plant based diet, but more on that later.