If We Only Had a Dog

Leo, who will be 7 months old on Tuesday, has reached the age where historically, in our family, we begin offering our babies food for them to reject. He has been sitting with us at the table for 4 months now (in the beloved metoo chair), but until recently has been quite content to chew on spoons and toys and simply watch the rest of us eat. Lately though, he has become more vocal about his desire to eat more than just pretend food (imagined on the end of his empty spoon), so we've been thinking about giving him a little something solid to taste for the past few weeks.

Our track record in the department of feeding babies solid foods has been less than praiseworthy. Lukas and Jasper's first bites of solid food were well-planned and researched. A perfectly ripe, organic avocado (if I could have grown it myself, I would have) was carefully peeled and mashed and presented on the tip of an appealing (in color and texture, not too hard, not too soft) baby spoon on the eve of the babies' six-month-birthday (they were sitting, had teeth, and were reaching for food . . . all markers of readiness had been met). Neither boy so much as quivered a lip in response to the delicious offering. They were not the least bit interested. There was a repeat performance a month later with organic peas (that I had grown, shelled, steamed and mashed all on my own), and then I gave up on baby food all together. Eventually they did start eating (never from a spoon), though it was not a daily event until after they turned one. Zeben's first taste of solid food occurred sometime shortly before his first birthday, and if I recall correctly, it was a french fry (hand cut at our favorite restaurant).

But I had hopes that things would be different with Leo. His genetic make-up, after all, varies slightly from the other kids' and Lena is not nearly as picky an eater as I am. Plus, while there was never any reason for our previous babies to eat solids (I was never separated from them in the first year, with a constant supply of ever-ready nutrition in my boobs), it would be somewhat convenient if Leo could. We hoped that--if Leo was to be the kind of baby who enjoys solid food--the advent of Leo eating would mean that Lena could go to work for four hours at a time instead of being restricted to her current 3-hour stretches (yes, Leo does nurse me while Lena's at work, but my milk supply doesn't seem to be enough to really satiate him for more than a few hours . . . Lena usually nurses him at least every 2 hours when she's home).

Shortly before he turned six months old, Leo was quite hungry one morning while Lena was at work. We still had another 45 minutes to go until she returned, and after nursing me for 20 minutes or so, Leo popped off and just started crying. Feeling desperate, I decided to try offering him something solid. I opened the fridge and looked for anything appropriate, settling on a jar of applesauce (organic, yes, but not homemade). I offered Leo a spoonful and--much to my dismay--was met with the same lackluster, tight-lipped mouth that Luke and Jaz had responded with six years earlier. I managed to wiggle the spoon through his lips to deposit the applesauce inside, and Leo reacted by tongue-thrusting it all back out. Clearly, he was not yet ready (on the upside, the whole procedure proved a good distraction from the issue at hand--Leo's hunger--and he was fine until Mama returned).

But then, just the other day, Lena told me that Leo had--on one of his solo crawling adventures around the house--come across a discarded bagel, topped with cream cheese (all sorts of treasures lie in wait around here, I'm telling you), and happily began gnawing on it for a good 30 minutes. I guess a first food of old bagel and cream cheese is pretty appropriate for a fourth child. Lena ended up taking it away when Leo had softened it enough so as to be getting pieces off in his mouth (he remains toothless, but it's amazing what saliva and gums can achieve). My Love, who still to this day has yet to read any book on baby care or child development, says that she did wonder if it was okay for Leo to eat bagel and cream cheese, and nearly called me at work to ask, but then figured that it was probably just fine (which is exactly what I would have told her, my apologies to the baby book "experts").

I decided to take Leo's gesture of interest in eating to the next level yesterday by preparing for him his very first banana. I dressed him in a bib, rolled up his sleeves, and dumped 1/2 of a finely diced banana on the table in front of him.

Leo's eyes were wide, and he got right to work . . .


. . . pushing the bits of banana onto the floor. Not one of the pieces of banana so much as brushed past Leo's lips, though Leo did spend some time sucking on his fingers, which were surely coated in plenty of banana slime. He seemed to appreciate their enhanced tastiness.


I should note that while we do not have strict guidelines about the use of flatware for early eaters in our house, we do insist upon every child eating with his ankles crossed, as is proper and polite.


All in all, the benefit of 10 minutes worth of baby entertainment (dropping banana on the floor is fun!) was made somewhat irrelevant by the fact that it took me 10 minutes to clean up when Leo was done. If we only had a dog (the type that hangs around under baby chairs and licks floors), then Leo might have a better chance of getting to play with banana again sometime before he's 8 months old. As things are, we'll probably just go ahead and lump Leo together with our previous non-eating babies, and wait for him to discover the joy of ingesting food all on his own (likely several months from now). In the meantime, I'm glad the breastmilk poo gets to stay for a while longer.