Looking Ahead: First Solid Foods

Posted on 23. Jan, 2011 by Robert Needlman MD in Uncategorized

A baby girl taking her first teaspoonful of solid food is quite funny and a little pathetic. She looks puzzled and disgusted. She wrinkles up her nose and forehead. You can’t blame her. After all, the taste is new, the consistency is new, the spoon may be new. When she sucks on a nipple, the milk gets to the right place automatically. She’s had no training in catching hold of a lump of food with the front of her tongue and moving it back into her throat. She just clacks her tongue against the roof of her mouth, and most of the cereal gets squeezed back out onto her chin. You will have to shave it off her chin and scoop it back into her mouth. Again a lot will ooze out, but don’t be discouraged — some goes down inside, too. Be patient until she is more experienced.