States of Matter

In the promising first few days of my son's birth, I had fleeting thoughts about wow, I am going to raise a boy; and man, can boys eat!  Truth be told, he has always been a fantastic nurser, even though I have berated myself for his turtle-like progression on the scary doctor growth charts. All signs point to the fact that this child likes to eat.   I had little qualms when it came to moving into the next stage: solids.  Mind you, I was a wreck when it came to coming to this huge decision.  One school of thought damns you if you give them solids too early that they are destined to a life of eating lunch in solitary confinement due to raging allergies.  On the other hand, I also read that early introduction could benefit a child and ensure that peanut butter, milk, and scrambled eggs are on the menu.  So as a the age range of solid introduction is 4-6 months, I started at 5 months to be sure. 
First, lets clarify the term 'solids'.  We are not moving from a dairy diet to one of straight up turkey sandwiches. No, you take perfectly good food and water it down to a thin liquid so that the baby thinks they are still eating milk but it has a funny flavor.  You could almost stick it in a bottle and call it a day.
Most 'books' tell you to start with rice cereal so I broke down and bought some nasty rice cereal dust that you mix with water or breast milk until it is the same consistency of slightly thickened milk.  He ate it once he realized that there was milk in it and let me tell you that this stuff stains clothes with a quickness.  I am so glad I invested in extra bibs for this one.  Yet, I found that the volume of spit up and filled pants were not worth the sound advice of my mother.  I halted all rice powder and moved on to the healthy stuff.
 In any case, we have been moving through the rainbow of fruits and veggies, me lovingly pureeing them to a liquid texture so that he can slurp them off a spoon.  Each time I introduce a food, I hear my friends in the background telling me how much their breastfed child hates 'insert veggie here' and a fear rises in me that I am going to soon be covered in a slobbery mess of sweet potatoes.  Then I remember that I gave birth to a boy, a boy who has always loved food and has yet to disappoint me on that measure.  The child is infatuated with bananas so much that I had to do an intervention last week and now only give them to him once or twice a week. I keep telling my husband that between the both of them we will be eaten out of house and home!
So far so good: sweet potatoes, butternut squash, green beans, peas, carrots, apples, bananas, papaya, pears and mangoes.



Green Beans are messy!