A Baby and Her Food

When Samantha reached 5-months-old, her doctor said that she's old enough and big enough to start introducing other foods into her diet. We have had such fun trying out different baby foods, mashing up "real" food for her to try, and seeing her reactions.

We started out simple - a little rice cereal. Boy, that didn't go over well. But then again, you try eating that stuff plain - it's horrible!

So, we moved on to fruits and vegetables. Samantha loves bananas! Mash 'em, piece 'em, mix 'em with rice cereal or other fruits - the girl is a little monkey! She just loves bananas! It's gotten to the point that if she sees me eating a bananas, she whimpers until I share! I see how this is going to be...

Anyway, I was a bit surprised at the next one - she just LOVES sweet potatoes! Now I like yams anyway, but to see it all 'liquidy' in baby food form was enough to turn me off, until I tried them - they're pretty good, I see why she likes them.

She likes any and all fruit! Of course she prefers bananas to anything else, but she also really likes pears! If it were a choice between pear sauce, applesauce, or peaches - she goes with pears!

Ok, success so far...on to vegetables!! First, we tried carrots - who doesn't like carrots, right? Oh, the face this little girl made when I stuck that spoon full of carrots in her mouth - priceless!! She gave me the look as if to say, "Ugh! What is this stuff and why would you put it in my mouth?!" So, the first spoon full didn't take...maybe she just needs to try it a couple more times to adjust to the taste and really decide if she likes it or not. Well, that's what was going through my mind at least. After the third spoon full, she was so done with carrots. Whatever I put in her mouth came right back out of her mouth! Oh well - no carrots, I guess.

Maybe peas? Nope, wrong! I think she liked the carrots better.

Ok, so this is where it gets funny. I want her to be exposed to different foods and not be as picky as her mom and dad (Ed and I both have LONG lists of foods we do NOT like :) So I decided to try vegetables again. This time, it was a mixed veggie that contained peas, carrots, and potatoes. Now, she had some mashed potatoes one night and liked those, so I was hoping the potatoes would make the peas/carrots combination in there a bit more palatable. SUCCESS!! She loved it! Ate the whole container of mixed veggies in one sitting!

Was it mixing in the potatoes that solved the peas/carrots distaste? Well, we tested the theory. At some friends' house the other night, we had peas. I mashed up a few of them and tested them out on her...she LOVED them! What a funny little girl!! (will add pictures later! :)