First spoon-feeding experience!

Well, I gave Devin his first-ever baby cereal (watered down a lot and mixed with formula) on a spoon today. His bottles have a little bit of cereal in them anyway because it helps weigh the formula down so he doesn't spit it all up so easily (that was one of the first changes the doctor recommended to help the reflux), so I wasn't worried about him having an allergic reaction to the cereal or it being too hard on his digestive system. He did pretty well with the spoon-feeding, and I think it helped that the cereal/formula mixture was the same texture,consistency, and taste that he gets from his bottles. He ate from the spoon for a good 5 minutes before he started to get frustrated at how much work it took for such a little reward compared to his bottle! So we cleaned up and he got to have his bottle. A lot of the cereal ended up on his face and hands (he thought that it was a great time to suck his hands when he was eating!), but he did manage to swallow quite a bit of it! Granted, most of the time I put a spoonful in his mouth and he'd try to swallow it but end up pushing most of it out with his tongue accidentally, so I'd scoop it off his chin and put it back in his mouth and he'd swallow a little bit more this time but still push some out, and we'd repeat the process again and again until he'd swallowed most of that spoonful. Then we'd try another spoonful...and another...and another. I am not planning on starting him on solids yet, but because he already has cereal in every bottle for the reflux I wanted to see how he'd handle eating it from a spoon. We will probably start spoon feeding a few times a week or maybe even every day just to give him practice, but the pediatrician doesn't recommend starting him on baby food (other than cereal) before 6 months. She said that research has shown that starting babies on solids/baby food before 6 months can cause them to develop food allergies. So we'll wait until Valentine's Day, because then he'll be 6 months old! That will be interesting to see how he reacts to new tastes and textures! And by this time next year he'll be enjoying Thanksgiving as much as we do!

Here he is feeling a little confused about this new way of eating and probably thinking that Mommy has gone just a little crazy...

Trying to decide how he feels about it...

Deciding that at least the food tastes good...

Trying to eat his hands, bib, AND food...

Finally deciding that hey, this eating from a spoon thing is pretty fun after all!