A Soliloquy on Solids
For the first few months, an infant lives in a world that is almost completely liquid, much like Kevin Costner in Waterworld, but without the muss and fuss of those pesky, psychotic oil pirates.From intake to output, including the middle stages of spit up and drool, it seems babies are merely surfing the wave of development. The books even refer to such things as “fluid” sleeping and eating patterns.
Thus, it is the new parents’ job to take the baby to higher ground; to make the baby solid. We eagerly await the opportunity to feed her solid food, hoping that will help in getting her to sleep for an unbroken period during the night. We play with her, trying to solidify our bond.
It would appear that our entire function at this point is to drain away her liquid lifestyle and move her safely towards a solid world.
That being the case, we thought it might make sense to take a look at what the word solid actually means. It turns out that there are more than 13 definitions for solid , ranging from a three-dimensional object to being of one substance and character throughout.
The word comes from the Middle English solide, in turn from Latin solidus; akin to Greek holos, whole. Since Penny’s full name, Penelope, is of Greek origin, we suppose this means that it is our job to make her solid, to make her a whole person. Of all the thirteen definitions for solid, the one that probably makes the most sense as we aid in Penny’s development, whether we’re talking about solid food, a solid sleeping schedule, or a solid relationship, should be:4 : (adj) of good substantial quality or kind.
In lieu of a poll this week we propose a new feature, the New Parent Blog Call for Comments! Post a comment about your favorite infant feeding experience. If you remember your own first experience with cereal, we’ll all be amazed.
posted by New Parent @ 7:44 PM
3 Comments:
All that I have to add is this: at nearly 11 months old, Catherine's been on jar baby food for a while. In theory, she should be more interested in table food, but it just doesn't light her fire.
However, observing the Thanksgiving Lunch with Catherine and her classmates at "school" last week, we continue to be in no rush whatsoever to move Catherine to that next developmental stage of eating. These kids looked like they had just finished romping in a compost heap after their meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans!
Don't get me wrong--I completely understand these messes are the natural course of things, and all parents manage to get through it somehow, but the clean-up involved is quite intimidating to this particular (still too fastidious?) New Parent, and absolutely overwhelming compared to the relatively mild smears of "Mango Chicken Dinner" Catherine gets on her face and in her hair at dinner these days. I'm sure our dogs should be looking forward to the myriad of scraps they will receive if/when we get to the table food stage, but I'm quite content with jars for now!
Christine Q.
I agree, I never looked forward to adding solids because of the mess either, the new poop and my cycles coming back sooner.
That was a deep post. :) It got me thinking. Another way to look at it is the baby also meets us halfway in the solid direction. They start to sit solidly, they get solid little teeth, they get a solid grip. As for sleep, the pressure to get a baby sleeping through the night is kind of unique to our culture. Not many babies really do it. As long as they go back to sleep after eating or singing, rocking, that`s cool. Its the babies that stay up and party til the break of dawn that are a real challenge. Been there!
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