Introducing Fruits & Veggies

Up until three weeks ago, Lucie had only had formula via a bottle and cereal with a spoon. It has been such a delight to introduce fruits and veggies to her diet, and to watch her face as she tries each new food and tastes it for the first time.

At first, Lucie did not like apple sauce. However, after a visit to California, where Jonathan's aunt told me about the science behind food introduction (if you introduce a food in a stressful environment, it will taste like poison), I decided to stop trying to push the applesauce. When the doctor first told me that I could feed the applesauce to Lucie, I was trying to pack for a trip cross country ALONE with the baby, and I was going to be in a wedding party... totally stressed out.

We now have a routine for new food introductions. Jonathan gets home from work. When we're making dinner, we put Lucie in her rocker chair, on the table (she's not so big that she could rock the thing off the table, and she isn't quite adept at sitting up enough for a high chair). Then, we say to her, "Lucie, would you like to try (insert new food here)?" She gets so excited that we're talking to her. Sometimes she cries because we can't get the food container open fast enough. She has liked EVERYTHING we've tried introducing in this manner thusfar. She loves Bananas, Peaches, Yams, Green Beans, Carrots, and YES!!! Applesauce! After we'd introduced all of those other foods, we reintroduced applesauce, and she loves it. So now, the routine is that Lucie eats a container of fruit for breakfast (sometimes mixed with oatmeal depending on the fruit consistency), oatmeal at lunch, and a vegetable or new food item at dinner. She gets formula bottles in between there.