My Sweet Potatoes

To celebrate Sean and Aaron hitting the ripe old age of 6 months, we let them get their fingers into some sweet potatoes. This was our first experience at introducing food to babies since Marcus and Will had already broken into the world of non-milk products before we got to meet them. I've been hearing a lot of buzz about baby lead weaning and thought we would give it a try. (Baby led weaning involves skipping the purees and instead offering chunks of super soft foods that babies can pick up and explore and hopefully eat themselves.)

Aaron's first reaction to sweet potatoes was that they were interesting to squeeze, interesting to lick, and five minutes later all he was interested in was getting that stuff off of him and to be held. So far, he hasn't been very successful at really eating any food. I don't think he is really ready for solids yet. He is still behind in a lot of areas, and eating has always been his biggest obstacle. We will keep offering and keep looking to him for signs of when enough is enough.


Then there is Sean. That kid has always loved to eat and sweet potatoes is just one more thing for him to get into his mouth. He sure loves his sweet potatoes! I wasn't sure if he was actually getting any in his mouth or if he was just squishing it up and smearing it all over his face. Based on his... umm... output... he has really been eating those sweet potatoes. His meals have all ended in tears of frustration. He just doesn't have the fine motor skills down as well as he would like in order to get those yummy treats into his mouth. There comes a point in each meal when it is evident that the frustration isn't worth the trouble and it is time to clean up.


I think mostly Aaron is just holding out until I stop offering the veggies. Something tells me he has a sweet tooth... somewhere under those gums.