Oh So Solid
Don’t you love how it goes? You find your groove and schedule with your child and BOOM. One thing throws you for a complete loop? I was not at all prepared for the world wind of introducing baby food into my daughter’s diet. It completely changed everything and caught me totally off-guard.
Introducing solids is something that babies growing bodies need to adjust too. I was adamant about starting slowly, once a week and then once every three days, then every two days, etc. Even at a slow speed I felt so hopeless when she would cry and cry because of how uncomfortable she was when trying to poop. It threw off her sleep schedule, she was cranky more often…and as a new mom I felt guilty, like I was doing something wrong.
Of course my husband and I wanted to give her food we thought she’d like, so we went with a lot of fruits first. For a good two week period she was having consistent “loose bowel movements” at daycare. Because I was still breastfeeding I thought it could have been my breastmilk. After two trips to the pediatrician, we finally learned that fruits with pits (peaches, mangos), can sometimes cause loose bowel movements in infants. My husband and I looked at each other like, “ahhh there we go”. We swiftly shifted her foods to things like sweet potatoes, and pears. It seemed to do the trick; of course there are still some instances of loose bowel movements every now and then.
A few things that I also tried to ease her comfort was:
1. Once Madison was 6 months, we gave her small sips of water to help ease digestion when we gave her solids.
2. A few hours after eating, I would lightly massage her belly, below her belly button.
I would say the first month of introducing solid foods was the most challenging. It was really hard to talk to anyone about it because everyone has a different experience and what worked best for them. There were even times when speaking to the teachers at daycare and my pediatrician that made me feel like I was being judged, and working to overcome that guilt and sense of failure has not been easy, but I’m working on it.