Feeding Baby

I had to laugh at an episode of “The Office” the other night when Dwight, in an effort to hammer out a contract to have a baby with his on-again off-again girlfriend Angela, stipulates in the agreement that the “baby will be breastfed until 6 months at which point he will be weaned to a nutritious winter vegetable mash.”  Dwight is such an eccentric that I was amused that we might take the same approach to feeding our babies. (His child is only in the planning phases, however. The idea was sparked by the fact that his colleagues, anticipating the arrival of their first child, are more successful at making sales when they talk about the upcoming event).

We knew Jack was ready to eat solids when he when he starting eating his own face (in addition to the more standard milestones of being able to sit upright in the high chair and his eyes  followed our utensils as we fed ourselves at the dinner table).   I was ready to start him on foods when it occurred to me that he might actually sleep through the night if he were fed something more solid than breast milk. This was at about 5 months of age.

I was torn at the prospect of losing the nursing bond with him, but as most things with child-rearing, this angst was only a problem in my own mind. He still loves to nurse (when really hungry, first thing in the morning – otherwise he nurses and plays simultaneously), and offering him solid foods has allowed us to have other options when it comes to feeding him.

We decided to experiment with making our own foods at home, and this has fun and fulfilling. It is very easy: cut vegetables (or fruit) in to pieces, steam them until soft, and then puree in a blender until the right consistency. To start, the foods are thinner in consistency, and then can be thicker as the baby gets more comfortable with the texture.  It has allowed me to add breast milk to thin the squash and sweet potatoes, which adds more nutrients and calories to the food.  We’ve expanded our own tastes and diets as we moved through the various root vegetables available this time of year: after starting out with single ingredient purees, we’ve started making mixes of rutabaga and carrot, rutabaga and sweet potato, carrots and green beans, and various winter squashes.  That and apple sauce, so far, have been the staples of his diet.

It took a few weeks for him to master eating, but now he screams with anticipation when we sit him in the high chair and he knows what is coming.