Green is Out, Orange is In...Geez Mom!

I know I say this a lot but, time sure does fly when you have a baby! At Layla's last wellness checkup, (yes, we have reached 6 months already) we learned that she is growing quite well. We were also given the green light to start her on strained foods, yum! As a matter of fact, she has gained very little weight between her 4 month and her 6 month check-ups and in my humble, motherly opinion, my little peanut needed to start on solid foods a little earlier. This may not be true for all babies, but the hard line doctors are drawing at 6 months is a bit much, every kid is different.

But I digress...

So, as per the guidelines given to us by our substitute doctor (our doctor is actually on maternity leave), we started off with orange veggies; carrots, sweet potatoes and squash introducing them one at a time and giving it a few days before introducing something new. Layla was a champion eater and loved everything we gave her. By "loved" I mean she had no reaction at all other than she ate it and wanted more. I couldn't seem to shovel it in fast enough. I definitely think she was not getting enough to eat before we started the solids. However, when it came time to introduce some green vegetables, my little bottomless pit seemed to have finally felt she was getting enough to eat and therefore allowed herself to become picky. My dreams of a child that would eat anything you presented her were dashed with the first spoonful of pureed peas, resulting in a screaming, kicking temper tantrum. I gave it my best to try to get her to eat them, the famous "airplane" technique, telling her how yummy they are, pretending to eat them and really enjoy it, and I even resorted to feeding them to Matthew (I can't eat the stuff myself, I HATE PEAS!). She was having none of it though. I have tried several times since then and she just won't eat peas, she is also not into spinach. I have a few other green veggies I am going to try and I'm hoping she'll like one of them, otherwise I am going to need some good advice on getting your kid to eat things they find absolutely disgusting.

I have attempted to begin introducing fruit as well and that has also had surprising results. Layla wants nothing to do with bananas and will very begrudgingly eat pears. It will be interesting to see what else she likes, but with the way things have been going, I have a feeling this will be an ongoing battle. Perhaps, I can dye all of her food orange??