STARTING YOUR BABY ON SOLIDS (MY TRICK AND FEED METHOD)

In part 1 of this topic, I shared with you my struggle with introducing solids to my little one.so far here is my progress report-he is responding to a wide variety of food now largely because of a new method I developed to handle his refusal to eat solids. It was borne out of desperation as he was loosing weight and he fell ill frequently, cold every now and then and constant trips to the doctor's office.

 So I took extra measures and came up with a method I like to call "trick and feed". I call it

such because I trick him with what he loves most, which is breast milk, therefore I hold him in a position like I want to breastfeed him, so he's all eager and excited, ready to eat, once his mouth is open, I put a spoonful of food in his mouth, sometimes because he's caught off guard, he swallows but when he wants to protest, I simply breastfeed him so he doesn't hold the food in his mouth or spit it out. A note of caution however is that with this method, the texture of the food is light (pureed) so he can swallow easily to prevent him from choking on the food.

 When he swallows though, he cries like I've poisoned him, so to stop him from crying so much, I stop feeding him and distract him with his favourite toy or song. When he's calm, the whole process starts once again and he finishes his meal.

With this method, there's a huge improvement in his eating habits and he's gained much weight. For this method, I have specific times for his meal to help him get used to the routine as such when he sees me with a plate and a spoon and I beckon on him, his first reaction is to turn and move away from me because he knows it's meal time, while it's not it's most favourite thing to do now, at least he eats which is a big deal for me. When he pushes my hand away and turns his head, it's often a signal for me that he's full, to make sure it's not a trick of his, I examine his stomach, if it's hard and bulges a little, I simply stop

I do this to prevent overfeeding, so to a large extent, he dictates the pace for me and I follow suit so we can make mealtimes, happy times even though they're really really messy times.

So if you're still struggling with introducing solids, try this method, if it works for you, spread the word, if it doesn't, there are more tips and tricks I'll share with you soon, so keep
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