Starting Cereal

Soon after Audrey's blessing, we began feeding her cereal.  We were so excited...I felt she was ready for about a week or so, but we were so busy the week before the blessing that we decided to put it off until right after.  We started with rice cereal, which she hated.  We did that for awhile, and she spit things out.  Even though she wanted to eat the food, she had a hard time not doing the sucking motions, so not very much of the food actually went in. 

A few days later we tried oatmeal, which was only marginally more tasty to her.  By this time, she was able to control the sucking reflex a little better, but still didn't like the bland cereal.  So, we decided to spice it up a little bit by adding some natural applesauce.  That was a game-changer!  Suddenly she couldn't get enough.  I didn't want to rush her to other types of food, so we kept her on just cereal for a little longer than some parents do.  This ended up being a good decision on our part because we make our own baby food, which causes it to be naturally thicker than store bought.  By having her on cereal for awhile, we had to gradually thicken the cereal to get her to continue eating it.  Then, when it was time to move to other foods, we didn't have to put a ton of milk in to thin out the food.  She transitioned so easily to the other foods.  

Now, if we can just get her to like carrots and peas....!  At this point, Audrey will eat sweet potato, squash, carrots (with cereal), bananas, applesauce, and peas (as long as they're mixed with bananas...ew).  Over spring break we're planning to try avocado and some other fun fruits!  My goal is to raise a kid who will eat just about anything...which is so unlike me it's not even funny.