Chase finally came around to eating real food about two or three weekends ago. He’d been eating a few things here and there (blueberries, yogurt, those god-send puréed pouches), but nothing I’d consider substantial. He woke up one Saturday morning and said, “Nanana!” pointing at a banana sitting on the counter. Chiphe gave him a little piece and Chase went NUTS! That day, he ate THREE. NANANAS! Full transparency: He also took the biggest shit we’ve ever experienced as parents. We were so insanely proud of him - for finally eating a lot of food, not the poop.
There’s a really weird sense of anxiety ALL parents experience around their kid “reaching milestones” on schedule. The outward conversation (meaning, with other parents) around those milestones, I’ve found, is often a bit awkward – it almost feels taboo. On one hand, you’re really proud of your genius baby reaching their milestones early but you don’t want to seem like you’re bragging. On the other, you feel like you’ve failed your child when you realize they haven’t met a milestone they should have, and you feel even worse when someone else’s younger kid has. It’s just a really weird space to navigate and it will seemingly never get easier.
I had a ton of stress about Chase not eating tons of food at his age. I’d seen babies younger than him already chomping down full plates! We’d done everything we were “supposed” to do - we introduced soft foods around 4 or 5 months old, we fed him foods he seemingly hated multiple times until he got a taste for it... He just wasn’t having it! Chase has always been weird about food textures (he gets that from his momma!). While I was stressed, I wasn’t really worried. We knew he’d come around on his own terms and he was still remaining in the 97th percentile for height/weight - for non-parents, the percentile thing also causes a lot of stress; it basically compares your kid’s stats to all other kids in terms of growing on a healthy scale (don’t quote me).
One of the smartest things I’ve done as a parent is to actively ignore the stress/ judgment/worry around milestones. You absolutely should not be comparing your baby to someone else’s when it comes to the earliest stages of development (unless there is a glaring problem, of course). Babies move at their own pace! They learn things in their own time and in their own way. Chase wasn’t eating a ton of solids until 16 months, but the kid was running circles around us (literally!) at 10.5/11 months. Trust that your baby is going at his/her own pace and give yourself a little peace. And if you’re truly worried, chat with your doctor instead of scrolling through Facebook comparing your perfect baby to everyone else’s.