I remember the pure excitement of giving Sofia her first bite of "real food". Although it was pureed it was the fact that it was something other than breast milk & formula and that I had made it for her. I thought Apples would be a little too tangy for her amateur taste buds to handle so instead I chose to puree some pears and add a dollop to her brown rice cereal. Again a big spoonful of just pears seemed a bit daunting so I thought it would be best to numb it down by adding it to the very bland brown rice. She loved it and pretty soon there was more pear than cereal until finally no cereal at all. I transitioned her into new foods a lot this way by simply adding them to the rice cereal she was already accustomed to. I wanted new food to be an enjoyable experience not one of shock and awe so our first steps were slow ones until I felt she was ready to fully explore every fruit and vegetable that was age appropriate with open abandonment. Lots of times I would simply put it in front of her and let her touch it and feel it. She began to feed herself pretty quickly and by 9 months she wanted nothing to do with my interference.
My advice is to listen to your babies clues about how he or she wants to be fed. We put on music and made it a really special time of the day where it was all about her. Sometimes its as much about how you feed them as what you feed them. So if they seem uninterested in what you are giving them or reject it all together think about how its being presented. You may find there is a very simple solution to make meal time fun for both of you. And she still loves pears and often times I will puree them and add a little ginger or agave and instead of brown rice cereal I will make brown rice pudding. Again if you start to run out of ideas look back at what they started out loving and find a way to bring it up to speed. xo Nicole
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