3V0114.01 Feeding Cereals (5/16/78)

Peggy started solid food on 16 May — a small amount of rice and cereal prepared with expressed milk. At first she reacted as though she expected medicine of some kind; the only external material fed to her for some time has been vitamin/fluoride drops. (She has not had supplemental formula since she was almost four months; she did have it for the previous three off and on because of her nightly fussing. I knew evening is generally the low point for milk production, and was expecting possible problems, as Robby had remained unsatisfied with the dinner time feeding and had been supplemented for a month or six weeks. Peggy’s bottles were dropped when it became clear the problem was not one of hunger. Despite this initial move of distaste, she appears to enjoy the cereal and is relatively neat. My technique is to scrape it off the spoon onto the back of her upper gum, the first few spoonsful generally get eaten with no mess at all. Then some dribbles out, and Peggy also tries to put in her hand and chew on a diaper. Occasionally she even tries to grab the spoon and direct it.