Sunday, September 28, 2008

More tastes: green bean, sweet potato, apple

I decided to offer Carter some more foods this weekend to see what he would do. In all cases, what he really seemed to like was having something new to chew and suck on. He's not interested in swallowing anything yet, which is no surprise. At this stage in his development he still has a tongue-thrust reflex, so if any little pieces of food come off in his mouth, he just spits them out.

A few people have asked me if I'm worried about him choking on anything, but I'm not at all. People who have used this feeding approach have told me that they won't try to swallow anything before they're developmentally capable of doing it, and by the time they get there, they're so used to having food in their mouths that it's not something they struggle with as much as you might expect. Apparently they get to a phase where they gag a lot, but it's totally normal.

On Saturday we had green beans with our dinner, and I held Carter on my lap and offered him one. He really seemed to like it! He sucked on it for a long time, and even held it out away from me when I tried to take it away! (I wanted to give him another one after he'd mushed the first one up pretty good.)



This video is cute. You can see him going to town on the green bean, and then dropping it in favor of the camera strap. Which just goes to show he's far more interested in tastes and textures now than in actually eating anything!



We also had baked sweet potatoes with dinner that night, and I cut a chunk off of mine and gave it to him in his high chair. He gave it a try pretty quickly, which shows he's starting to get the idea, though he was much more interested in smearing it around the tray.



He had fun, which is the whole idea!



Today we went swimming in the pool again, which he seems to like. We have a couple of different baby floats for him, and he seems to like that he can lay back and sit forward all on his own while suspended in the water. I didn't take a picture of that today, but I will next time, because it's really cute!

After our swim I had an apple, and I cut a slice off for him. He seemed to like sucking on it.



A chunk came off in his mouth and he spit it out and then lost interest in the apple. In fact, he cried his hungry cry, which basically means "Boobie now!" And so that's what he got. ;-)

We were planning to give him an asparagus spear at dinner tonight, but he slept through dinner, so he missed it. We'll try some new foods next weekend!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So cute! It's so fun watching them explore food.

And is that a mummy on his shirt? How adorable!

Debby said...

I love the picture of him laughing..He is loving the food..he is growing like a weed...I miss you guys...Love you!

Mattison Grace said...

Look at the little man. He is such a big boy. Pretty soon he will gobble that stuff right up. I need to cook more for Matti and stop that baby food stuff. I know she would like to feed herself much more.
You are such a great mother. You are so relaxed and educated. I have learned a lot from reading your blog.
See you soon!

bonbonbanker said...

He is so cute discovering all the different kinds of foods, the tastes, textures, and being able to grasp and mash between his fingers. I love to watch him explore all those things,
Love,
Aunt Bonnie