My nanny occasionally has mini rants about young moms of today, first time moms, and in general, moms of this generation. She likes to say every now and then that, “You moms don’t listen to us nannies who have 20+ years of experience. Instead, all you do is listen to your doctors and the Google.” I tried to explain to her that the Solid Starts website and app was based on research and study done on thousands of babies… while nannies certainly have experience caring for and feeding babies, no nanny on this planet has ever cared and fed thousands of babies. That just would not be possible. She rolled her eyes at me, indicating she didn’t really care for or believe what I was saying. She just thinks I’m being defensive. And that’s fine. But I’m still her boss. 😛

We do agree on some things with feeding the baby, though: it’s important to model chewing and spitting out in an exaggerated way so that babies understand what they do when they have different textures in their mouth. We need to give babies more credit for how much they absorb in watching us do everyday things, including handling, chewing, and swallowing food. They need to understand the “map of their mouth” to know how to safely digest food and not choke: food on the front of the tongue is for tasting; food further back on the tongue is getting ready to go down and get swallowed. Pureed food doesn’t teach babies to chew; it only has them swallow. Chewing is important for basic survival, and knowing how to chew and chew well opens up babies to an entire universe of foods that are not only nutritious but tasty. Oftentimes, babies and toddlers will develop aversions to different food textures, and it’s because they just weren’t exposed to it much or at all early on.

So my nanny can say what she wants about “the Google,” but all these points are not only backed by data, but logically, it just makes sense when you think about how human beings eat.

Contrary to popular belief, when babies begin solids, it’s better to expose and “test” to see how they react to common allergens earlier rather than later. On average, babies will show readiness for solids at around 6 months of age, so it’s a good idea to start gradually introducing common allergens like peanuts, tree nuts, and eggs at around this time. Kaia had already enjoyed peanut butter a number of times in June and enjoyed it. She fed herself the peanut butter right off the spoon and always seemed to want more. I breathed a huge sigh of relief at that. Today, I prepared a tiny omelet for her to eat both at her morning solids feed and afternoon solids feed. I cut the omelet into strips that had a width equivalent to two of my fingers held together (that was the Solid Starts preparation recommendation). When I placed the egg on her tray this morning, she immediately picked up a strip, put it to her mouth, and started biting on it. The nanny cut up a bunch of the egg and had it in tiny pieces for her to eat, and both ways, she seemed to enjoy it. At her afternoon feed, she fed herself egg strips. I also prepared a mix of toor and moong dal for her, which she happily gobbled up.

My tiny foodie is growing and growing. I’m so proud to see her embrace all this new food and hopefully continue to enjoy a diversified palate. She also ate a good amount of spinach today and more broccoli, so the nanny warned me that her poop may be extra, extra smelly soon.

“Experts” say that when you begin introducing solid food to babies, you should do a little at a time and introduce new foods for three days to ensure there are no food allergies or reactions. Breast milk or formula should be served first, then about 30 minutes after the main feed, solids should be introduced. This happens at about six months of age. One “solids” meal of a tablespoon or so gradually becomes two solid meals, then three. Then, at around nine months, you gradually transition from having breast milk or formula first to then having the solid food be the first meal, then breast milk/formula as a follow up. The journey continues until the point that the soon to be toddler is having mostly solids with breast milk or cow milk as a supplement or beverage.

The last two days, Kaia has not appreciated having her smock put on her, nor having her set up in her high chair. She has fussed and cried a lot, but eventually calms down a little when the foods are presented. In the last couple of days, she’s had aspargus and broccoli, whole and pureed, oatmeal, pineapple, and peanut butter. The constant seems to be that she really enjoys the peanut butter. Today, she sucked on a pineapple chunk and seemed to like it. I also filled her teetherpop with water and froze it so she could chew on it today, and she was successfully able to suck the water out of it. I may blend in pineapple to have her eat it that way tomorrow.

The eating journey for a baby is an adventure, but it’s clear that the real solids, like the broccoli florets or cauliflower chunks, scare my nanny. She’s used to only serving purees and has a hawk’s eye on Kaia when she’s gnawing on the florets, hoping she doesn’t choke. I told her not to be nervous; she can’t eat purees forever. Kaia needs to get used to different textures and what they feel like in her hands and mouth. My ultimate hope is that she’s not a picky eater and eats whatever I serve her.

The next things on my list to introduce her to are: tahini (sesame seeds), flaxseed and chia seeds in her oatmeal; spinach, lentils, black and white beans.

After getting the COVID vaccine yesterday, the baby seemed to take it all pretty well. She was still babbling and playing away. Everything seemed fine. That is, until today, about 24 hours later, she became unusually warm, and Chris took her temperature to find out that she had a fever of 103.8 F, the highest she’s ever had. We gave her a cold compress and tried to feed her some baby Tylenol, but she gagged when the first squirt went into her mouth by syringe and ended up throwing up. It got everywhere – all over the baby’s top, bib, Chris’s shirt, my shirt, the pillow we propped her up on, the floor. I felt so terrible for her. She really hates medication, and the syringe is definitely like an enemy to her. After cleaning her up, we ended up putting the baby Tylenol solution into a shallow bowl and feeding it to her with one of her silicone feeding spoons, which she has a far better association with. It worked, though I could tell that she could smell the difference between the spoon with the water vs. the spoon with the medication. We also gave her a bath today, even though today is not normally bath day, so she’d get some indulgence and fun in.

Everyone has talked about the COVID vaccination side effects for adults, but whenever a baby has side effects or a fever, the reaction of course is always different since babies can’t tell you when you aren’t feeling well, and you just have to use your own best judgment in terms of reading them to see how they react. But just going on this, it becomes a little more nerve wracking, and you hope everything works out for the best.

The COVID-19 vaccines have finally been approved by the FDA here in the US, and so while we contacted our pediatrician’s office to see when we could schedule an appointment, they were a bit on the slow side and still had no update for us this week. Chris got impatient and instead, signed up our baby to get the Moderna vaccine at a COVID vaccine site in midtown. As expected, when he took her there this afternoon, the area was mobbed by anti-vax protestors, and they had to exit out of a separate area to get away from the mobs. The nurses all gushed over Kaia and wanted to play with her. She might have been the youngest patient they had come in all day and were obsessed with how cute she was, not to mention how well she took her little jab.

Our baby has handled all her standard vaccinations well; the most she’d ever exhibited was extra fatigue and wanting to sleep more, and eat a bit less. She’d never had any additional fussiness or fever as a result, so we were hopeful she’d handle this vaccination okay. She seemed relatively normal after the shot, but because she got a bit warm when we checked her temperature, we gave her some baby Tylenol just in case. It was the first time we’d ever given her any medication after any vaccination.

In a month’s time, she’d have her second dose and be fully vaccinated for COVID. She’ll also be ready to get on a plane and explore more of the world a bit more safely.