I let her sit in the grass for the first time. (I am holding her right hand as she can't sit without support yet.) She never fussed, but had this concerned expression the whole time.
I estimate that Mary is about two pounds bigger than was John at this age. This new outfit is size 12 months, as are most of her clothes.
Not that six months is a magic age when one must start feeding solids, but with John's difficult eating history I simply wanted to set my mind at ease about Mary. If her first attempts at solids revealed the difficulties John had, I'd know to get her attention much faster. So today I dressed her in her very own bib (thanks again, Lynne!), dug out an infant spoon, and cooked some homemade brown rice porridge.
Miss Mary did great! She didn't turn away from the spoon ever, she didn't have a tongue thrust reflex to reject the food, and--most importantly--she didn't gag, choke, or vomit. After almost every spoonful (one teaspoon to one tablespoon total, I think), she smiled like this.
What a happy uneventful experience! I hope as we continue on our journey with solids, I won't see Mary having any difficulties. This led me to search through blog archives to find the entry of John's first solids. Click here to see John's first solids, which were bananas, and click here to see one of the first, rare times he kept a food in his mouth. In the fourth video of him eating bananas, he starts to gag and makes the noise that has become all too familiar to me (the same gagging and choking he did twice just today at lunch!). Reading through many entries on solids made my heart so sad as I saw nothing but photos of his distressed facial expressions (none like smiling Mary above) and entry after entry describing his refusal to let a spoon enter his mouth, his refusal/inability to eat solids, and his gagging, choking, and vomiting. I didn't know what was going on for so long. I'm so grateful he is in occupational therapy now and making improvements every week, and I'm reading a book on the subject.
Oh wow, I'm so glad Mary's first try at solids went well! After looking back at your posts of John's first solids experiences, it made me sad! Theo made the same horrified faces when eating solids for almost six months...but lucky for us, he has improved tremendously over the last month. Still, you feel so sad when you realize that your baby wasn't just being a picky eater--he was probably having some trouble! Good for Miss Mary that it sounds like she may not face the same problems as poor John!
ReplyDeleteHappy half-birthday Mary!! Wow, half a year. She is so cute and sweet.
ReplyDeleteLooking at that video with the benefit of hindsight, John looks totally panicked! I know why you say you feel so sad about it! But you did the best you knew how to do, many parents would have gone with popular wisdom and forced the issue, starved him, spanked him or other coercive means to get him to eat. At least you don't have that to feel guilty about on top of the somewhat delayed diagnosis. I'm so glad for you that he's making strides in OT. What a relief that Mary seems to be taking to solids just fine!
I love Mary's messy face smile!
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