Second Take on Solid Food

I've said way too many times that Zohan has started on solids. It was probably because I spoke too much and too soon- the little boy had been on cerelac hiatus for a month because of allergies!

Soon after he started eating cerelac, he developed white mucus around the insides of his cheeks. Thinking it was just cerelac that wasn't washed away by water, I just used an index finger toothbrush to remove it. But as days went by, the white mucus increased and appeared to be more than just left-over solid foods. They looked like allergies to my untrained eyes, and the google-default mother that I was, I turned to the internet for confirmation. I didn't bother to see the doctor because you know, I really had misgivings in introducing solids to him prior to his 6th month, so I made my own prognosis and diagnosis (whatever that means!) - which was a little complicated and difficult to explain here because it was the product of my prolonged medical study. Suffice it to state, he was put on a cerelac hiatus by his all-knowing mother until the rashes were gone. True enough, (and this encouraged my newfound medical career), the white mucus were gone after we stopped giving him cerelac.

My conclusion - either we started too soon or we gave him the wrong food. His pediatrician said that any plain cerelac would do. So we trooped to SM and bought the wheat and milk flavor. But after the allergy breakout, I decided to catch up on my reading of What To Expect The First Year, and learned that the first food should be rice or oat. I thought wheat was fine but apparently, it wasn't. How dumb was I. (Now I know that despite the fact that they all came from the carbohydrates family, so to speak, wheat is  not made of the same stuff that makes up rice and oat!) It was likewise possible that his system was not yet ready to accept solid food. His antibodies and allergy-fighting chorva might not be that developed as yet. 

Hence, I had decided to wait it out until the 6th month before I re-introduce solids to Zohan.

And since Zohan apparently was not on friendly terms with Cerelac, I had decided to try this fancy, whimsical, P300-thereabout cereal from Earth's Best.

After a week though, I shall switch to an all-natural purees like potatoes and squash and that jazz. (I've read that it is best to wait for one week before introducing a new food to the baby. The reason being that, should the baby develops allergies, it would be easier to point out the culprit.) So, after a week of fancy eating, we would be back to regular programming.

It has been three days since we started with Earth's Best's brown rice, and so far, no allergies whatsoever intervened. Zohan appeared to be excited at the sight of his new food every time I bring out his plate and spoon. He also finishes his food every single time. In the next days until his first month, I will try to chronicle the foods that we give him. Let the same be my humble attempt to spare other clueless mothers like me  from self-medicating  and from typing - like I did - weird search parameters on google.