Not So Sweet

Today mommy tried an experiment: food! Little man has been eating the occasional rice cereal for the past few weeks (and when I say occasional I mean that he loved it for a few nights, refused to open his mouth for it a few nights, went back to liking it somewhat for a few nights, refused it again...) Introducing him to new things has been an interesting process. He isn't very gung-ho about experimenting... but I thought, why not try it?

I know a lot of moms gave their babies cereal earlier than I did, while others yell NO! Nothing but breastmilk for the first year! Well guess what, my milk dried up when Max was 3 months old (no, I did not meet with a lactation specialist. I just let it happen. Bite your tongues.) I go by what Max's doctor says. He recommended waiting until 4 months for cereal so that's what I did. At Max's 4 month check up I told him about our cereal progress and he gave me the green light to introduce new foods.. no more than 1 new food a week though, and no combination foods yet. I just nod and do what he says. Lately Max has seemed interested in our food and stares at us while we eat so I thought ok, let's try it!

First actual food: sweet potatoes. I steamed a sweet potato, scooped out the inside and blended it with some nursery water (got to use my Ninja food processor for the first time- yippee!) Look at me making my own little puree! I was proud of myself and stoked for Max to try it. Surely he will LOVE sweet potatoes! Mmm... not so much. Not really at all actually. First of all, he was being stubborn and wouldn't open his mouth so I decided to do the "spoon is an airplane" technique to get his attention. He opened his mouth and smiled with glee as he stared at the spoon. I went in for the kill. Just a little in his mouth. He just needs to TASTE it, then he will see that it's yummy. No. He made an awful face like I had squirted lemon juice into his mouth. Out came the sweet potatoes. He looked at me like "are you nuts mom?" I tried again. Just a little in his mouth. He licked his lips, made a sour face and swallowed. Yes! He swallowed! Victory is mine! Another spoon into his mouth. Out it came. Another spoon. Out it came. Gah! I tried again. Out it came. He made the lemon face again and shook his head. I tried again. This time he zeroed in on the spoon and grabbed. Oh geez, sweet potatoes everywhere. I pushed his sleeves up, held his hands down and tried again. Mini swallow. Followed by lemon face and spit. That's it! I give up! I clean him up and give him a bottle... his one true love. He sucks it down. Alright, I get it. You'd rather have the bottle.

Today's food experiment was a fail. We will try again another time. Sweet potatoes.. not so sweet in Max's opinion.