Solids?

I wasn't going to write this post, because a part of me feels like I don't need to 'justify' my (well, our) parenting choices, but several people have been genuinely curious about why we don't regularly give the babies solid food. This is a strangely touchy subject among moms, so know that this is simply what's worked for our family. Frankly, I don't care if you give your baby solids at 4 months or 12 months. There's also a bit of a back story to this and it might get a little long, so if you're interested, I hope you don't get bored. :)

Our babies were born at 35 weeks 6 days. They were a month early. I know that's not that early (especially for twins) but they still were born only an ounce or so above 5 pounds and dropped down to a tiny 4 lbs 15 oz. We were very fortunate to not run into major complications due to their prematurity and lower birth weight, but we were still warned to be extra careful with them. Their first pediatrician (who I absolutely loved) reminded us that their development will probably be a month or so behind for the first year. He said if we were going to compare them to babies around their age, to compare them to babies born in September (their due date), not August. I didn't really think much of it at first because they were only around each other. I did know several babies who were born within a week or so of my girls, but we moved before I really had a chance to 'compare them'.

Fast forward a few months to when I was hanging out with a friend. She had a baby a week or so (maybe 2 weeks?) after my girls were born. I spent the day with her at Gymboree, shopping and back at her house. I instantly noticed differences between her baby and mine. Her girl was grabbing at things, almost sitting up, rolling both ways, and was very alert. Mine at that time were, rolling one way, not reaching for anything, not even close to sitting up, and were a lot less alert than their new friend. It was a very noticeable difference. At first, it freaked me out. I worried about what was wrong with my girls, but after thinking about it for a few minutes, I remember what Dr. Brown said; I needed to compare them to babies born around their due date. They were going to be behind. This all happened when the babies were about 4 months old and Wendy had just started giving her baby solids.

I talked to Josh about the day and my concerns and we decided that it would be best for our babies to wait at least until they turned 5-6 months before we introduced solids. If we waited until they were 5 months their corrected age would be 4 months (obviously..) and that is the minimum recommended age to start giving your baby solid food. (I know several healthy babies have had food earlier, but for us, we felt that this was what would work for our girls) So, despite kind pressure (and I'm not being sarcastic, everyone has been nice about it) from some of our family and friends, we held off. I started reading a lot on starting babies on solids and I quickly realized that the trend of starting with rice cereal is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Rice cereal isn't something that babies need at all. In fact, for formula fed babies, it can cause terrible constipation (because of the extra iron) that has to be countered with fruit juice (usually apple). Our babies have both had constipation numerous times over their 6 month life, so I didn't really want to chance it with cereal and honestly, didn't see the point of cereal. It made sense to me, to start with baby food. Fruits and veggies specifically. Nutritional dense with lots of fiber (anti-constipation stuff) and I could make it myself and control what was going into my babies' system. Since I felt like I completely dropped the ball with breastfeeding, I really liked the idea of buying organic or locally grown fruits and vegetables and making my own baby food. So, on their half birthday, that's what we did.

We gave them avocados and they had the typical reaction. They didn't eat much at all and it was pretty funny to watch. I still wasn't convinced though that it was necessary for them to eat from a spoon yet. Josh agreed. In fact, I was the one who pushed him to feed the girls 'real' food then and really it was only for traditions sake. I wanted the classic '6 month feeding' picture. It wasn't a bad experience by any means, but honestly, the girls weren't that interested and we decided to hold off a little longer.

Then, I started learning about baby led weaning. It's pretty interesting. Take a look.

I don't want to write too much info on something we haven't tried, but basically babies learn to chew on food before they learn to swallow. It's done at their pace and you don't have to do a bunch of extra steps to prepare the food. It's actually super popular outside of the U.S. and although we haven't tried it yet, I want to. There's lots of information on the web about it. Like I said, it's pretty interesting.

For now, the babies have tried avocados, and bananas. I also cheated a little and wanted to test the rice cereal in the bottle thing and sadly they didn't sleep any better. I'm not saying it doesn't work, but for our girls, the chamomile oil worked a lot better. We're starting to feed them solids more and more as they approach their 7th (but according to due date 6th) month birthday. In the past few weeks since their 6th month birthday, we've seen some major changes in their physical capabilities and overall development. I now think they're ready for solids.

I honestly have no idea why there is such a strong debate over feeding your child. I mean, if you're stuffing Big Macs down a 5 month old, I'm guessing we can all say, "Bad idea." but the whole when-to-introduce-food and breastmilk/formula debates are getting old. I tried to avoid the subject with everyone who brought it up because I really didn't want to offend people by not taking their advice. What it comes down to is the fact that Josh and I know our girls pretty well and wanted to wait until they were truly ready. So, that's what we did. I'm ok if people think we're crazy for going against the norm. I just don't understand why it matters. I guess we like to do things differently at our house. We have 2 babies at once, we cloth diaper and we feed them in unconventional ways. Ya know what? I'm completely ok with that.

Also, can I get a halle-freakin'-lujah for March? I love this month. Maybe it's because I was born on the last day of this month, but it's always been up there on my favorite month list. Yahoo!