The issue is not, however, that Galen refuses food.  In fact, Galen seems to greatly enjoy some things.  My milk is the primary highlight to his diet, of course.  But Galen also really likes chicken stock and water.  If you’re giving Galen chicken stock or water from a spoon he looks like the baby in the photograph.

But the reason you haven’t seen many updates on “feeding Galen” since my first post is that feeding him has really not gone anywhere.  When we try and feed him anything with any sort of texture, Galen cannot swallow it.  There have been a few meals here and there where we’ve gotten tiny amounts into him.  When I say tiny I’m talking around 1/16th of a teaspoon.  TINY.  But mostly Galen just gags when solid foods get to his tongue.  And that means that anything that was in his belly comes back up.  Even his mama milk.

Initially I didn’t worry too much about his disinterest in solid foods.  And at this point I’m still trying not to worry.  Cassidy was also late starting solid foods.  The difference is that when Cassidy started she was already ready to go with finger foods.  She was happy feeding herself and she could get almost anything down.

Galen doesn’t put much in his mouth.  If we give him bits of finger foods he just moves them around on his tray.  He doesn’t put them in his mouth.  He chews on his fingers (and my hair, eww).  And that’s about it.

He can’t eat even pureed food.  So for right now his nutrition is coming 100% from nursing.  I’m working hard to make sure I’m eating well for him so he’s getting good, rich milk.  And we try with solids every few days to see if what seems to be a texture aversion is lessening.  I’ve gotten a lot of suggestions for things, and I’m researching around.  I’ve also talked it over with his doctor.  For a couple of weeks at least we’re in a “wait and see” mode.  But this is very different from what I experienced with the other kids.  There’s always so much to learn, and children always have such different needs.  Parenting is definitely the most challenging job out there

None of my little ones have seemed too enthused over solid foods at first (you would never guess this from the way my big kids pack food away now.) Galen seems no different.

As I’ve talked about before, our family follows traditional food recommendations from groups like the Weston A. Price Foundation and the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation. There are talks in those groups about how no traditional culture delayed solids past 6 months. But I think even if they introduced solids starting around six months, not all babies took to the with great gusto straight away.

I am, however, trying to offer to Galen pretty consistently, and I’m being very choosy about what he gets. Galen’s first official food was a spoon of baked sweet potato covered in butter. He seemed to like that.

Most of his meals thus far have been egg yolk, however. Egg yolk and then egg yolk with a little bit of liver grated in to them. (In case you are wondering, it’s the egg white that is usually allergenic and should be delayed until baby is a year. I feel comfortable giving my baby egg yolk – I did wait several days after his first taste before giving anything else to watch for reaction.)

Some evenings he has attacked his egg yolk and liver with gusto. Other nights, not so much. He’s also had a taste of homemade chicken broth – he was unsure of exactly how to proceed with getting that off the spoon. And he greatly enjoys banging a chicken drumstick bone (all attached small bones/slivers picked off) around, but hasn’t really yet managed to the bone to his mouth.

The best starting foods for babies are not, as we’re told most of the time now, grain cereals. Cereals are really hard for babies to digest. Because Scott has a hard time digesting grains we’re planning to delay giving Galen any grains until he is 2 years old. But for all babies grains are hard to digest – the digestive enzymes for grains begin to develop in the second and third years of life. Even rice cereal is not easy to break down – and it’s also pretty worthless nutritionally.

Nutrient rich foods are the best thing to start your baby on. I always wait until six months to introduce solids though some people still like to introduce at four months. But after six months you can give your baby egg yolk (I soft boil Galen’s), tiny amounts of grated liver, butter, and broths. Babies need a lot of fat I also feel pretty comfortable with giving sweet potato, avocado, and squashes to babies around the 7-8 month mark.

I am excited about starting Galen on solids and I’ll continue to share our adventures. Enjoy the above picture from one of Galen’s first solid meals… it’s also a rare shot of him without a hat Sorry it’s grainy – it was taken with our video camera!

For more information on feeding babies check on my review on the book Healing Our Children.