Sunday, January 11, 2009

Avocado Baby

On Sunday January 4, Jonah had his first practice taste of food. We decided to start with avocado. Avocado is actually less likely to cause an allergic reaction than rice cereal, and much less likely to cause long term allergies to gluten or grain products. It has a texture that allows it to easily be pureed, but has a much milder taste than bananas or sweet potatoes. It is also believed that an avocado has all the nutrients and fats needed in the human diet, and that an individual can live on a diet of avocado alone without any deficiencies.

We mashed the avocado with breastmilk to a thin consistency, and rather than using a spoon and introducing two strange things to his palate, he was fed with my finger. When he turns six months, we will introduce the spoon, followed by homemade brown rice cereal. Because I use rice cereal as a thickener for thin foods, I want to make sure he will not have a reaction to it before introducing him to foods that may need to be thickened. We will also introduce an eating schedule and larger quantities of food at six months. Right now, we are only giving him a couple bites every few days, to build up practice, and introduce him to the texture and taste of foods.

Making the avocado
Mmmm

First bites!

He's done....