Behold the newest Foodie in the Family

Breakfast in bed!

The prep-phase

While I am a strong proponent of  'Breast is Best', there comes a time in every infant-son of food-loving parents to make the jump to delectable dishes like....rice cereal!  Trust me, this important step is much to blame for this post, and pretty much, most of the feelings of being overwhelmed in the last week.  A quick search online will give you an indication of just how complicated and controversial introducing solids can be in a normal term baby - let alone to a premature infant that is somewhere between 3.5-5.5 months old.  I mean, do we go by the old WHO 'breast-only for the first six months', or the new WHO guidelines of 'breast-only for the first 4 months', and if so - which four months or six months exactly are we talking about, his birth age (which means his digestive track's real age) or his corrected age (meaning his developmental age) - you see my point here....

'Presentation is Everything' right?
Just because it is not Kobi Beef does
not mean we can't have white linens.

So, once I got back on my motherhood horse after a few blows this week, (we won't go into low weight gain issues, low milks supply - leading to rented pumps and miles driven for Medela parts in the Southern Peninsula, herbal supplements - and just general overwhelmedness and under-decisiveness) meagerly mom (and darling daddy of course) decided that guidelines are exactly that, there to guide us - and in the end, guidelines don't make decisions for Luka, we do.  So with the  blessing of Luka's paed and encouragement from a few great nurses - we embarked on the big Solids phase!  Nothing too crazy in the beginning, just some rice cereal (gotto work him up to that seared Ahi and all), and after the initial 'hey, what's-this-weird-stuff-in-my-mouth-tongue-thurst' - Luka seems to really like it!

"Release my love, or be slain by my
spoon!"

We have started on breakfast only, after a breast feed - with his porridge as 'breakfast-in-bed'.  We make it lots of fun (thanks niggie) and allow him to play with the spoon after the feed (which, proud mommy can say he managed to jam into his mouth - okay, and his eye a couple of times).