We want food!

Our son just passed his nine-month birthday, and I just passed my 358th. My, how time flies. It seems that just yesterday he was only eating strained fruits and vegetables, "oatmeal," and formula. Oh, wait, that was yesterday. Last Friday at his nine-month checkup, we were given new dietary guidelines by our doctor.

We can now begin basic meats, egg yolk, yogurt, and various finger foods. We are supposed to change his eating schedule to a more adult-like pattern. He will no longer consumer up to 32oz of formula, but will substitute the aforementioned protein-rich foods for about 25% of his formula intake.

He and I went shopping to pick up some items. At Dominick's, we bought Gerber jars of: Chicken Noodle dinner, Apples and Chicken, and Chicken and Rice. We also picked up Yo-Baby yogurt., which has more conventional flavors such as peach. At Stanley's Produce we picked up a sweet potato and an avocado. Avocado I use somewhat regularly (I am a guacamole hound.) The others, never. I will also make him mac 'n' cheese, steamed veggies, and hard-boiled eggs (with the white peeled off.) The jarred meat combos scare me a little bit, but I bought them until I can figure out whether or not I want to make those types of things myself. Keep in mind, these jars aren't like Campbell's chunky soup or anything, they're strained and will look like the rest of his strained foods. Pretty nasty if you ask me. Then again, it all ends up like that in your stomach, anyway.

It is miraculous how quickly his diet will change. A few months ago, he was staring at my plate when he sat on my lap as I ate, watching every bite with great interest. Now, I can share most of my foods with him. Some things that I'm not sure about include what sorts of spices he'll be able to tolerate and how to introduce so many new things. There was no mention of introductions as carefully as we had done at six months. At that time, we had to spend three days on each new food to ensure there was no allergic reaction. Now, it seems that we are to, nearly overnight, introduce not only a new eating pattern, but new foods that will geometrically increase the list of foods he can eat. In fact, there are only a few things that he can't eat.

He will not be ready for whole milk until twelve months. No egg whites...I don't remember until when. No peanuts until three years old. There are some other things, but the list of "nos" is much shorter than that of the oks.

Now I just have to watch out for what he likes and doesn't, as well as the change in the quality of his diapers. Yikes!