Food for Baby Thought

The subject of baby food honestly makes me nervous. I want to feed Ava the most natural and organic way possible and I'd like to try to make our own baby food with a processor. I've read articles on tips and how to cook the food and what foods to try first and when and frankly, I feel a bit overwhelmed by it all. But like everything parenting requires, I can only do my best. I wanted to wait until 6 months to try foods since breastmilk is the only nutrition baby actually needs up until that point.

But since Ava has sprouted her first bottom tooth at 4 1/2 months old I thought hmmm maybe this is going to come quicker than I thought. So while in Henry's Market I picked up a box of organic wild brown rice cereal and a pack of baby spoons. I come home (since she is offically teething, I left her home with Rafal much to his dismay) and mix up cereal with breastmilk while Rafal sees how she takes the spoon. She can put her lips around it and smacks. Good sign. When it comes time for cereal, Ava makes the most awful face. She squints her eyes and purses her lips together, pushing out the tiny amount of cereal that actually got into her mouth! A funny sight, I'm sure. Rafal giving her position reinforcements say "Yum, Baby Yum!" A few bites later, we are done.

Consensus is: She's not ready. Which is fine. The last thing I want is to push her to do things she isn't prepared for. Granted she is growing a tooth but that by no means implies she's ready to eat. The best thing I can do is look for cues she gives and start slowly. One food at a time. I do not mind if it takes her 2 more months to accept food. I will wait with her. And in the mean time, I'm going to watch her tooth come in!