Baby Shall Not Live on Banana Alone

Weaning is wonderful.

Weaning is fun.

Before I started Ivor on solids, I read several articles and books on everything from making purees to Baby-led Weaning. They all seemed to share one recommendation in common: Start slow. There are pages and pages of advice about being patient and allowing your baby to get comfortable with the idea of eating food. From the literature, I was expecting weaning to be a real chore and was a bit nervous.

However, my child did not get the whole 'slowly slowly' memo. The first time I gave him baby rice, he looking confused, spit some out and took one more spoonful into his mouth before deciding that was enough. The next meal, I expected much the same and was taken aback when Mr. Hesitant Eater was out the door, replaced by Mr. Is-there-any-more-of-that? Each meal I kept doubling the amount of rice I served up and he kept woofing down.

After the rice seemed to be going down well, I introduced Ivor to pears. From this point on, every meal I am faced with Mr. I'm-hungry-so-you-better-spoon-that-food-up-quicker! He starts slapping the tray and grunting if I don't get the next spoonful up to his mouth quickly enough, and every meal ends in tears as soon as I tell him he's eaten all his food.

Ivor's food options now include pear, apple, potato, sweet potato, carrot, mango, parsnip, nectarine, pea, zucchini and banana. His least favorite food so far seems to be parsnip- it is the only food that seems to put him off the idea of eating altogether. His favorite is by far the banana. This little boy would eat an entire banana in one sitting if I let him and I confess that a significant part of his diet is now made up of banana and carrot.

If you've read this far, you are probably wondering what the big deal is. Don't all children eat? I'm sure they do, but Ivor's appetite for solids is a big deal for different reasons. After two months of poor weigh-ins, doctor consultations, worrying and extra feeds, my son has actually gained weight! For me weaning is not just fun, it has brought us massive relief from the nutritional nightmare that was the last couple months.

I walked into the clinic yesterday, preparing myself for another disappointing weigh-in. Ross and I thought Ivor gained weight over the past weeks, but we thought that the last time and were totally defeated when the scale showed he had barely gained an ounce! This time I was pleasantly surprised to find that he gained way more than I expected- Ivor gained over a pound in two weeks! I know that many of you were sure it would all work out fine, but I really needed to see those numbers going up. (There was a point when I feared we would never reach the 13 lb mark.)

I spy a double chin and some chunky rolls developing.

At 6 months, Ivor now weighs in at 13lbs 8 oz. and is just over 27 inches long.

And, of course, Ivor celebrated this massive step forward with bananas for dinner.