First Foods

I really wanted to be one of those moms who exclusively breastfed until my baby was six months old.  Robert had other plans.  Starting around four months, he watched us eat attentively, mimicking our chewing faces, and looking longingly at most any foodstuff.

I resisted, and my husband supported me because he wanted to be around when Robert took his first solid food bites.

Then one day I was eating a banana with one hand and holding my little man in the other.  He managed to reach out, grab a handful of banana, and make contact with his mouth.  He seemed pretty pleased with himself, and so the solid food adventure began.

I read the amazing Bringing Up Bebe while pregnant, and really liked the idea of introducing food in a more French way.  (Disclaimer - I minored in French in college and have spent not an insignificant amount of time exploring different regions of the country.)  I am envious of the cafe culture, long lunches, and obsession-bordering-on-worship of high quality, very tasty food.  And, honestly, the obesity statistics in the US are downright scary.

I armed myself with a Beaba Babycook Pro and not much else.  After the banana incident, I pulled it out of the pantry, read enough of the manual to realize that I needed to run a few steam cycles before using it to prepare food, and decided on green beans and squash as our two starter foods, mainly because I had some local produce on hand from Farmhouse Delivery.  It seemed like fresh and locally sourced food was a good idea.

Green Beans

• Wash and place in basket, steam at level 2

• Blend with a small amount of cooking liquid. I didn't use much to keep some texture to the beans.

Squash

• Wash, peel, and roughly chop before placing in basket. Steam at level 3.

• Blend with a small amount of breast milk until creamy

I wanted to explore different colors and textures, which turned out to be a good idea.  Robert felt very strongly that mushy food wasn't for him.  He gobbled up the green beans, but turned his nose up at squash.  Poor kid - now I'm going to keep introducing squash until he accepts it.