Ronan will eat paint chips, but not solid food.
We are finally making progress on the eating solid foods front. And when I say “solid” I actually mean “viscous liquid” as baby food isn’t actually solid. As expected from a young American, the sweet foods – pears, apples, mangoes, etc. – are very popular. Sweet potatoes, however, are not looked upon favorably. Squash is okay. Peas and rice, green beans and rice are welcomed. What is not welcomed is anything with chunks in it.
Finger food? Out. Cheerios? Out. Cheese? Out. Boiled egg yolk? Well okay, but only by accident. Right out? Oatmeal, rice cereal, pasta, and anything with carrot chunks in it.
Ronan is quite adept at spitting out the carrot or pasta or whatever chunk, while sucking the viscous liquid around it. He does not like the chunks of real food in his baby food. Even though he is almost ten months old he still greets each spoonful by sticking out his tongue, pushing most of the food out of his mouth. But surely, by some means, he will not eat that pasta or carrot.
The one time we gave him some of our food, macaroni and cheese, carefully cutting it up into baby-bite size chunks, it was too big and he choked. Now, being the son of a dramatist, I tend to completely panic when I choke on food. Ronan had a detached calmness while he was choking, like this happened on a regular basis (I cannot think of another time he choked on food). He spit the pasta out and went right on with his meal as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile I had ripped off the tray to his high chair, his bib, and was about to administer the Heimlich maneuver. Ronan looked at me if I was crazy, because I probably was.
The books say Ronan should be eating twelve ounces of solids a day. We’re overjoyed if he finishes a single ounce at each meal, for a total of three per day. Twice recently he has eaten an entire jar from opening to emptying, which is a four-ounce meal. This is an outstanding achievement, and we high-five and clap like it’s the BEST THING ever.
Because of the arrangement of our tiny living room, I’m the one that feeds Ronan (if I happen to be awake; I usually sleep through morning meal these days.) the food-laden raspberries, where Ronan puts his lips together and blows food all over me, have been replaced with clapping, where his food-encrusted hands launch baby food everywhere. The catapult, where he grabs a full spoonful and then lets go to launch it into the heavens, is still popular.
But he’s definitely eating, and that’s a good thing. Let’s say that he’s eating three ounces. At least one ounce seems to get on his clothes, and at least two get eaten. That’s already a 50% improvement.
It’s a little traumatic to see him covered in food and then he rubs his eyes with hands full of food. We can just imagine the food getting into his eyes and causing all sorts of problems. But that doesn’t really happen; it’s just scary and silly to see him not care that he’s rubbing food into his eyes.
As he ages, he will get better at eating. Ronan, if you’re reading this years later, you did very well.