Feeding Himself

      Quinlan started feeding himself a couple of weeks ago and now there is no stopping him! We started giving him Cheerios so he could get used to picking them up and chewing. Previously there had been some issues with Quinlan gulping solid pieces and gagging or choking, so we took this slowly with our mantra being "Chew, chew, chew!"
     He mastered it within a week and we were able to upgrade to sweet potato chunks and soaked prunes. He now enjoys bread with olive oil (dad introduced him to that), bananas,  breast milk & egg omelets, lentils mushed up in a ball, and avocado.

   



     Quinlan now refuses the spoon or tries to feed himself with it, so we have gotten creative with how we present food to him: mash in some cottage cheese with the lentil balls, adding oatmeal to the egg omelets. Q has his dad getting creative with the meals and he loves sampling whatever dad prepares.... including smoked fish!
      The neatest part is that he is now selective, and you can tell what he likes by what he reaches for first. Bread and bananas now have to be added to the plate last as he would eat a meal of just those if given the chance to choose.
      All this food helps him grow, in fact, check out all his hair in the picture below!