What Ivy Eats

I had looked forward to feeding Ivy since she was 4 months old.  I wanted to wait until she was 6 months old, according to most experts the best age to start solids, but those last couple of weeks were hard.  I imagined a look of delight on her face at the first taste of pasty rice cereal, and utter pleasure when the first banana crossed her lips...and that's what sort of happened.  At first she wanted more more more.  She opened her mouth wide and I keep shoveling it in there with joy.  My little foodie loved eating, even nasty cardboard-like rice cereal.  Avocado, sweet potato, acorn squash!  My baby loved them all!  Then she started to get picky.  Nope not in the mood for that, ew, that tastes nasty today, water in my cereal instead of breastmilk?  No thanks.  That even produced the "yuck" face pictured below.

I was sure a food lover like myself would pop out a foodie, I mean, how could my daughter not appreciate a beautifully roasted, then pureed, then food-milled acorn squash?  I confess that I didn't really truly appreciate food until I was well into my 20s.  I mean, I ate food and enjoyed a good burrito like anyone else, but I didn't start obsessing over summer tomatoes and the perfect meatball sandwich until I was in college.  Even then, I truly didn't enjoy cooking until I moved to LA and discovered Whole Foods and Gelsons, yet I did expect that my baby would have a refined palate at the age of 6 months.  A sure sign her palate is not yet that sophisticated: she actually eats the rice cereal and she also loves chewing on paper.  Sigh.  I guess we have a ways to go.

Comments

[Patti Nichols]

True confession: I used to feed Molly the subscription cards out of my trashy magazines to keep her quiet on airplanes. The kid really, really liked paper.

[Maureen]

What a great picture! That expression is just priceless.

[alice]

You're listening to JT???

My mom always said as long as she had some kind of food stuffed in my mouth, I was a quiet, peaceful child... Now, the Papa Bear says the same thing... :D

[Ashley]

My baby is four months right now and I too can not wait to start "cooking", preparing food for him. I will wait until six months as well. I have heard that the introduction of solids complicates things a bit so I guess for the time being I will enjoy the simplicity of breastmilk.

[Dr. Biggles]

AHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHH. I was reading your post and saying to myself, "oh sure, they like it fine until they don't. This could be one day or next week. You never know."

I've always attempted to feed our two boys well. But they clearly had their own agenda. Elija is 6 and is fine with buttered bread for dinner and loves to help cook. Zachary on the other hand, tries everything and eats a few good things. Yet has really no interest in the kitchen. He's the one that will point to a restaurant and mention that he hasn't been to that one yet and would like to try it. Odd considering we go out to eat maybe 5 times a year.

Biggles