Something for the belly....

Collin's first taste of cereal came about a week after he turned 5 months. We were ambivalent about starting cereal because after reading a bunch we learned that giving infants cereal before 6 months doesn't provide any nutritional value. Their little systems aren't developed enough to digest the cereal, so it just goes right through them without absorbing any of the nutrients. However, babies do need to learn how to manipulate their tongues and swallow with something a bit more solid in their mouths. Plus we were interested to see if the "sleeping through the night" as a result of cereal phenomenon held up to the wives tales. So we gave it a try. Here are our results:

I'm ready for food in my new highchair!

First bite. hmmm... what is this stuff mom?

Going in the mouth....

Can I just chew on the spoon?

Another bite.

Daddy's turn. Mmmm. I think I like this stuff.

I want more! Daddy wasn't getting it to Collin fast enough so he started to whine. It was rather funny to see him anticipate the cereal.

Chomping on the spoon.

Samson wanted to join the mix too, so he wedged himself between my legs and the highchair.

Overall, Collin really like the cereal and every night since then he's enjoyed the cereal and is really getting the hang of eating. The first night the cereal didn't help with sleeping at all, in fact, Collin was up earlier than normal (at about 2:00 a.m.) but on the second night he slept until 5:00 a.m., which is an hour later than his regular wake-up for feeding time. We'll see tonight which trend continues as we test the effects of cereal consumption.