Friday, October 5, 2007

Mush Time

Last night Ethan was wide awake and wanting to play and Tim and the kids were already in bed. I got the bright idea that maybe now would be the time to try some rice cereal for the first time. Normally we would have already started this, but we were told to wait a couple of weeks from his hospital discharge so that if he had any reactions we would not confuse new foods with new medications. So anyway, I thawed out some milk to mix with his cereal, made sure that the mush was real thin so that he wouldn't choke, and then put on a bib and placed him in his chair. I was so excited to be doing "normal" baby things that I got my camera ready to take some pictures. Well, it didn't go so well. I put the spoon in his mouth and he immediately started making these gagging motions and then just threw up all over himself. He didn't even try to swallow his mush. So needless to say, I didn't take any pictures. I think that he still has a strong oral aversion from all of the tubes down his throat and all of the yucky medications while he was in the hospital. I guess I will wait a few days and then try again. If not, I will just talk with his pediatrician at his appointment in a couple of weeks on what she thinks I should do. If any of you have any suggestions, let me know. Sooner or later he's going to need something more than just breastmilk.

---Allison

4 comments:

Melanie said...

I'm sure it probably depends on who you ask, but I didn't start my daughter on cereal until she was 7 months old. (This is all according to what I learned in school as a nutrition major, but I realize the health professions are wrought with various opinions!) Nutritionally, they're fine with only breast milk actually up to about one year old. (I don't know if it's different for heart babies though). The biggest reason to start them on solids is to get them used to the process of eating rather than just drinking so that by the time their bodies need it, they are able to eat well enough to fulfill that need which solids provide. So basically, I wouldn't worry about it. If it were me, I'd just keep going through the motions daily to get him used to the idea of eating with a spoon, and chances are he'll warm up to it in no time.

Good luck!
--melanie

Anonymous said...

Hi Guys,

It has been a little while since I've checked in. I am so glad to hear that all is going well. I have to agree that his new picture looks so good!!

Just to add a thought with the mush feeding... Brit had a cool mush bottle that had a slit kind of nipple to allow the mush through. You could also push it up a little through the bottom of the bottle. If he will drink anything out of a bottle this could work, but I don't know where she got the bottles.

Talk to you soon!!

Jenn

Anonymous said...

Oh, and by the way, yeah even in that picture you can see that pretty blond hair starting to come in!! I also thought you'd get the dark hair on this round. Sorry!!

Anonymous said...

Alex does the same thing with rice cereal but not with single grain oatmeal. We also found out that he can only tolerate about a tablespoon of any solid. He'd rather have the bottle anyway. I made all of Ry's baby food from a book I got from the Library. She loves everything now. Especially tomatoes, broccoli,soy beans, shrimp and anything sweet of course. I don't know if I should just wait longer, but the ped told me it would help bulk him if I gave solids. I don't know either so I am glad you posted this so I can see the responses. I really like what melanie said..."Not to worry"