Food

I had decided during my pregnancy that I really wanted to breastfeed Bennett as long as I could, because I had learned so much about the benefits to his development from those nutrients. And also? It's free! and readily available! Or so we thought. My supply dried up pretty quickly and we were only able to nurse for about two and a half weeks. I was pumping like mad and only getting a tablespoon after fifteen minutes on each side. We decided to stop that madness when it started to feel like a full time job. He'd gotten the good stuff for a while, we didn't want to stunt his growth by not supplementing. He transitioned to the formula quite well - and luckily, we were able to use regular old formula - nothing special. It seems our guy has an iron-clad stomach.

I had also done a lot of reading about what to do when it came time to feed him solids. It seemed to me that the most logical option was making his food myself. Early on he just got single veggies steamed and pureed.
Bennett started solid foods around four months or so. He was showing serious interest in our plates and the eating process earlier than that - but we decided to follow doctor's orders and wait until 4 months. We tried rice cereal first and had some 'meh' results. He wasn't all that interested. So, we slowly started introducing other "safe" solids. First up - sweet potatoes. YUM! Gimme more, mama. He loved the sweet potatoes. Great! What next?

We made carrots, corn, peas, green beans . . . you name it, he ate it. He especially loved zucchini! That was a huge surprise to me because I do not care for the squashes. When we gave him blueberries for the first time it was like we'd given him chocolate! I wish I had video of the energy boost it gave him. I couldn't stop laughing. He also really liked apples and pears.

Around eight months, we moved to more complicated meals - and added yogurt. He likes chicken and pork and turkey. He eats things with leeks and onions. He chows down on greek yogurt every day and he's eating oatmeal and cheeries every morning. At this point, he's eating four solid servings a day (oatmeal and fruit in the am, greek yogurt after his morning nap, a veggie of some sort after his second nap and then a "meal" around dinner time). Soon enough, we'll be able to give him smaller portions of what we're having for dinner.

He has also eaten bread, small pieces of steamed carrot, little pieces of cantalope, watermelon and strawberry, as well as little sips of my cereal milk. He begs for the cereal milk anytime he sees me with a spoon! We are trying our very  best to avoid giving him sugary treats and he does not eat processed foods (except for the puffs that he had for a couple of months to work on his pinchers). He also refuses to drink juice, but drinks about 24 extra ounces of water each day (this is in addition to the 24oz. of formula!). He is certainly hydrated.