Ellowyn's first solid food

A few of days ago, we decided to let Ellowyn try solids. Mira’s first food was avocado, and it seemed to work well for her since she’s quite the little foodie now, eating almost anything even at an age where most kids get picky. So we thought: hey, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So Ellowyn’s first food was also avocado.

I think it went over pretty well:

I was really pleased with how she seemed to be so into it, grabbing at the spoon, opening her mouth wide for more, easily swallowing with no tongue-thrust reflex. We’ve clearly picked a great time to start her on solids, developmentally speaking.

HOWEVER...

A day after she first tried avocado she developed this red spot next to her mouth, about the size of a quarter. After it had been there for 2 days and was still red, I decided I’d better have the pediatrician take a look at it. He thinks it’s hives: an allergic reaction. And we’re pretty certain it has to be from the avocado, since we were observing the 4-day rule and so hadn’t introduced any other foods yet. (And thank goodness we did it that way because if we’d tried other foods too then we wouldn’t know what to avoid.) The doctor said that even though avocado is a food that is very unlikely to produce an allergic reaction, babies can have a reaction to pretty much anything.

So after only two avocado feedings, we’ve now stopped solids and are back on exclusively breast milk until the hives clear up completely. At that point we’ll try some other food. Cereal would probably be safest, but I’m tempted to do some acorn squash or pears or something else foodie-ish.

Just like I did with Mira, I’m making all of Ellowyn’s baby foods from fresh produce (rather than buying jars of processed food) and I’ve already made a few batches that are in the freezer ready to go: pears, plums, and carrots. Next I plan to make squash and peas.

Anyway, I’m really hoping that the next thing we try goes better. It scares me to think that she could have a more severe allergic reaction to something and her airway could close up. But the doctor says that’s unlikely and thinks we could even try avocado again in a couple months. (Apparently, sometimes babies have a reaction to something when they are younger but then their body and digestive system matures and they no longer have that reaction any more.)