oh, baby food, why must you be so...

...unappealing to my son?

he could have fooled us from the start.

remember these photos from a couple months back?

mmmm, lovin that cereal up! (or so we thought....a few days later he went on strike.)

matter of fact, it's been a slow and painful downward spiral when it comes to getting him to eat baby food, he refuses.............and enjoying the baby food? rarely.

a couple months ago, we knew it was time to start feeding him something other than milk, because of his interest in us, while we were eating.

he would watch us in awe of the process, bringing food up to our mouths, and then chewing.

actually, chewing food in front of him would most likely bring upon a giggle or two from little romester :)

he threw up rice cereal. a lot.

so we switched to oatmeal with bananas. he ate that, but definitely not with a smile on his face.

we began trying other random fruit and veggie baby foods......all were unsuccessful.

the kind? gerber. from the grocery store. nothing fancy, folks!

this past week, eating has moved from difficult to becoming such a painful and frustrating process.

he presses his lips together and arches his back even when i try the most distracting and sneaky maneuvers to slip a bite of veggies or fruit into his little mouth.

and when i am successful?

he fake gags and coughs, and lets it slide right now.

most of the time, our biggest battle is trying to prevent him from grabbing the spoon andflinging the food all over.

then it hit me.

BAM!

HE wants the spoon.

HE wants to feed himself??? maybe???

he loved to grab at whatever I was eating, but disguised the pureed crap from the container or that i would mash up on my own.

genius baby himself, wants to do this food thang on his own.

well, ok then!

i did some research online and learned about baby led weaning.

so roman, you win.
even though you only have two little teeth poking through on the bottom. clearly, not enough to chew up any solid chunks, i'm trusting what i've read. you've got a killer gag reflex and i'll only give you pieces smaller than your esophagus (so my pediatrician. says!)

you win!

did you hear me?

YOU WIN!

no more pureed baby mush from a jar, or container, or bowl that i've personally smashed up for you.

no more force feed.

ahhhhh.........

so, we are going for a whole new approach.

and he LOVES it!!!!

meal time is a wonderful experience!!!!!

and, this morning?

i diced up some peaches and he also had some puffs for breakfast :)

wanna read more about baby led weaning??!!

by the way, it's rather cute seeing little roman try to put pieces of food into his mouth.

it takes about 5 or 6 tries.

totally adorb.