Addie's first meal!

How do you know when a baby is ready for "solid" foods? Well, the American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends starting a baby on solids at 6 months of age to prevent food allergies (their digestive system is stronger at that point). Everyone else and their mother tells you to start them on rice cereal at 4 months because (and they say this part in a whisper) "it helps them sleep better at night."

Some books say that there are indications that a baby is ready to eat. One is that they can sit up on their own. Check, Addie's right on top of that. Another says that they start being interested in your food and want to reach out and put it in their mouths. Well, if we go by that milestone, then I'd say that Addie is just about ready to be started on cell phones, remote controls, and just about everything in the house she can get her hands on, by the way she puts everything in her mouth.

We decided to start this week, when she was about 5 and a half months old, just because Steve's crazy work schedule doesn't allow him to be home much before bedtime in the next month...and "those books" also say to start them on a new food earlier in the day so in case there's a food allergy, you're not in the ER all night long. Don't you love how scary these books make life seem? Yeah...it's grand.

Anyhoo...dutiful bloggers that we are, we recorded Addie's first meal on video. See below. The still photos are from her second meal. By her third meal (which was yesterday, and Grandma Silvestro watched via webcam!) Addie was quite the pro and got a lot of the food actually in her mouth! I know this won't be the case when she actually starts to feed herself, but we were impressed. She's definitely gonna be a foodie like her mommy :)

Enjoy the video!