Solid

When Tera was in the hospital, breast milk was like medicine. In fact, in some cases, it was better than medicine. To prevent some intestinal diseases, the doctors recommended breast milk over any antibiotic they could prescribe. When I was barely more than a day out of my surgery, the neonatologist called me to say "Keep it up! Keep it up! We only have little milk from you now. We need lot of milk. Pump 10 minute on each side. Keep it up!" The term Liquid Gold took on a very literal meaning.

So you can imagine my hesitation as we slowly approached the 4-month (adjusted age) mark when baby food is supposed to be introduced. It is widely known that when the solids come in, the liquids quit coming in as much. For Tera, this would mean less breast milk (yes, I still have some left over from the 12 weeks I pumped in the hospital - that stuff lasts forever!), which in my mind still means less medicine. I thought that I would wait a few extra weeks before starting the solids just to keep as much milk in her as possible.

She must have heard my thoughts. The week before I should have begun starting them, Tera quit taking her last bottle of the day. She was decreasing her liquid-intake before I could let the solids do that for her! Of course, weight gain is typically my top concern, so I decided to go ahead and start the cereal. She didn't hate it, but she definitely didn't love it.





Since this first time, Tera has gone back to taking her bottle most nights. Though, there are those few magical moments when I get to bed a half hour early because she is clearly not waking up for that last little snack. Because of our schedule and the fact that she is usually very hungry and ready for a quick fill - i.e. a bottle - when we get home from school each day, she doesn't get her cereal every night, but we do the best we can. Within a couple of weeks of this first experience, I started adding fruit to the oatmeal to see if it would make it more appetizing. It didn't. She still fusses for her bottle when I put her in the high chair. To be honest, I'm not that concerned. I wasn't too thrilled about starting solids in the first place. I've got the rest of her childhood to shove healthy food down her throat. I like being able to give her something she loves!