When DS was 4 month old, I tried to introduce a bottle to him, in case mother was out for work and I needed to feed him expressed breastmilk. Although I followed the best practice of introducing a bottle to a breastfed baby (and had changed different brands of teats and bottles - which were more and more expensive), but after weeks of attempts he still just resisted every one. I was worried initiallly, but later relieved because I 've found that he can hold and drink from a "cheap" sippy cup. Also the need to feed him expressed milk is virtually non-existent because DW's workplace is so near our house that I can just bring DS to her for a feeding (In fact we have stopped making and freezing expressed milk bags because we don't want to waste this liquid gold!).
When DS was six month old, we encountered another problem - introducing him solid food. We'd soon found that DS hated being fed - no matter the food on the spoon was baby cereal mixed with mother's milk, mashed banana or softened apple, all kinds of "standard" starter.
The only way out was to introduce finger food directly- i.e. to allow DS to feed himself. The photo shows DS picked up a sweet potato. Guess what happened then?
YUMMY!
Though we have to skip baby cereal, there is no regret because according to UNICEF there is no scientific research justifying the need for baby cereal and spoon-feeding. And it is really exciting to see how DS plays with the food.
We have decided to let DS lead the pace of weaning and not force nor even make him to eat solid food if he is not ready. This means solid will most likely be only complementary to, not substitute of, breastmilk in the first year. We guess this is the best way to respect DS's (difficult :-) temperament.
