Small Thrills

I still remember Benjamin's four month checkup at the pediatrician's office near Wymount. He was a chubby baby, measuring around the 90th percentile for weight, but he was exclusively breast fed, so I wasn't at all concerned. Since he was my first, I was really excited to start solid foods with him. But at that appointment, our pediatrician told me to hold off, noting that he "didn't need the extra calories." I was really bugged about that, and I still am. I mean really- was a tablespoon of rice cereal or a bit of mashed carrots really going to push him over the edge?! But I digress.
I took Lydia in for her four-month checkup this week. I was ready to hear the same old bit about introducing solids (and possibly a caution not to feed my already chubby baby any more!), but what I got instead was a go-ahead to give her any food our family eats- in fact it's now encouraged to give allergy-causing foods before she turns 7 months! Totally backwards! Totally mind blowing. And it totally makes sense to me.
My pediatrician is one of the top ranked in our metropolitan area, and affiliated with the best Labor and Delivery Hospital in the state, so I trust that their recommendations are well backed up by research. I know I've read before that most cultures around the world just give the baby whatever they're eating, and it's not uncommon for the mom to chew up the food before putting it in the baby's mouth. I don't think I would ever go as far as to masticate my baby's food for them (gross.), but no wonder the US has so many food allergies. We're babying our babies way too much.
So basically once I introduce foods slowly like wheat, peanuts, berries, milk, shellfish, eggs, etc, I could feed Lydia a mashed up PB&J sandwich, sushi, or even an omelet. I think the one thing that's still off limits is honey. Maybe I'm the only one who will get excited about this (or maybe this is old news to everyone else...I know I haven't paid much attention to baby feeding practices for the past three years...), but I think it's crazy! Suddenly I'm excited to introduce her to all the wonderful flavors out there!

Admittedly, I still couldn't shake the habit to go right to the grocery store to pick up a few baby foods for her to try. And surprise, surprise, she wasn't at all delighted to try watery rice cereal. Not that I can blame her!