Taste Adventures

On July 20th Sam turned 6 months old (wow! I can not believe how fast it's gone!). Reaching this milestone means that Sam can now start trying solid foods. So far, it has been quite an adventure.

The first food we tried with Sam was sweet potato. He was a little bit perplexed by what to do with the food at first, and he played around with it in his mouth for a while. Eventually he got the hang of "this eating thing", and within a day or two he was readily opening his mouth when the spoon approached with sweet potato.

The next food we tried was avocado. Now Sam wasn't quite a big a fan of avocado as he was sweet potato, I think the creamier and slightly denser texture was a bit harder for him to figure out. But after a day or two of working with the texture, Sam was still fairly eager to eat off the spoon. The only difference was that when he got tired of the avocado, he would just start pushing it out of this mouth onto his face, the bib and everywhere else it landed.

Banana was the next food on the roster, and let me tell you, Sam LOVES banana. I've never seen my son open his mouth so eagerly or willingly as when you offer him banana. It was a hit from the start.

Food #4 wasn't quite the hit that I had hoped. I decided to try brown lentils with Sam next, as it is a good source of iron, fibre and an assortment of other nutrients. The first time I gave lentils to Sam, he eagerly opened his mouth, expecting his favorite food banana. He was sorely surprised and taken aback by the pasty, different-flavoured food that he received in his mouth. All versions of facial expressions, shudders and even some gags followed as I attempted to feed him his lentils. Sam learned some tricks very quickly. Such as clenching his mouth closed and sticking his tongue out ever so slightly to sample the food on the spoon, just to see if it was lentils. Or demanding to hold the spoon so that he didn't have to eat the offensive food. Or stuffing the bib in his mouth so that the lentils couldn't fit. Crying, turning his head away and/or sticking out his tongue and letting the food fall out altogether. Quite an adventure. :P

I tried mixing lentils with sweet potato or banana, and both had limited success. He'd eat a few bites, and then all of a sudden realize that there were lentils in the food, and the behaviors listed above would come out. However, I did learn a few tricks.

1. Alternate less appealing foods with mouthfuls of yummy foods. That way you get in half a dozen spoonfuls of the offensive food before he catches on and starts "taste testing" each bite.

2. Put a little bit of yummy food at the front of the spoon and the offensive food further back to fool the "taste testing" ploy.

3. Be patient. He seems to become a little more tolerant of the food with more attempts.

It's definitely an adventure! Today we will try some chicken. :P