Molar Bear

My little boy has shown his first molars! He's been having a rough time lately with his teething, because two sets of teeth are trying to come in on his bottom row at the same time; molars in the back and the "canines" in the front. The molars won the race, but man, those were a doozy. He has been resisting eating food since this whole process started a couple of weeks ago, and prefers milk and soft soft purees instead. I can see why, though; when your gums and teeth hurt, you can hardly do anything without pain. Just feed me soup and milkshakes, thanks, because this chewing stuff is for the birds! Well, I guess not for the birds, exactly, because they don't actually chew, but still... you get the point.

Speaking of chewing food and such, I also found a website that generates menus for your infant/crawler/toddler, with suggestions for different types of meals and snacks they should be eating according to their stage of development. As it's provided by a vendor (Gerber), they obviously will be promoting their own products throughout, but it's still a great guide for meal ideas and can be modified depending on your preferences or the baby's dietary needs. Reading it, though, I feel like I'm starving my baby! They give them sooo much food; seriously, I don't know how he would eat that much. Maybe it's because he's still getting too much milk, and is getting full on liquid instead of solids, but that is a whole lotta food to be shoveling down his gullet.

For instance, although it's pretty small and you probably won't be able to read it, here is page 1 of his recommended menu:

... and that's only page 1, of 2!! Go check out the website I linked to above, though, because the menus are pretty durn cool. It gives great ideas for how to include a wide variety of fruits and veggies in their diet, as well as different textures and styles (eat with fingers, eat with spoons, etc.). Definitely an inspiration for me. Yep, I guess it's time to start the *real* feeding... wish me luck!