My baby doesn't eat solids and has stranger anxiety

Yep, my baby doesn't eat solids.  And quite often screams when strangers hold her.  I am THAT mom with THAT baby. 

Normally, those facts would intimidate me, but being a new mom, I'm continually learning new things everyday in regards to raising our daughter.  Who knew there were so many studies and tests on infant development!  Being the researcher that I am, I can easily find myself reading in depth medical reports for hours, just to come to a simple conclusion.  :-)  

Sometimes my baby doesn't do things exactly as other babies do.

India is so proud of her 6 month old self - and so are we! She loves looking at herself in the mirror, sitting up, trying to crawl/scoot, standing up around our coffee table, dropping everything from her high chair, playing everything like she's a professional drummer and chewing on everything with her two little teeth!  Developmentally she is doing great and even exceeds many of the six months milestones.  She still looks so much like her Daddy!

She is still long and skinny, staying in the 40th percentile for weight and the 75-80th percentile for height.  Another area that she is just like Daddy; long and skinny. ;-)

Since she wants absolutely EVERYTHING that we have in our hands, we decided to let her chew on a little bit of our food.  This is where I discovered my baby isn't interested in solid food.

I gave her a slice of avocado.  FAIL.  And let her gnaw on my banana.  Not interested.  How about a bit of my apple?  Nope. 

Well then. 

She wants to chew on them for a minute or two, but then she wants the next thing in our hands.  She is mostly curious.

I didn't think she was really ready to eat solids because she still has the tongue thrust reflex, but decided to try it, just to let her experiment and because she begs like a sad little puppy dog.  And pants like one too.  Her doctor agreed that she isn't ready if she is still pushing the food out of her mouth and there is no reason to rush her.

Speaking of the Dr....at India's 6 month check-up we talked about solids, and to my surprise without me even mentioning it, the doctor recommended baby led solids, also known as child led weaning or infant led solids, which is what we are doing for the most part!  I will puree a few things for freezing and eating from her mesh feeder, but otherwise, no purees.  She will also use her mesh feeders for eating food too. 

Like any mom who has heard, "she's going to starve if she doesn't get rice cereal" or "you can't survive on milk, how can she?", those comments and pressure still plays in my head sometimes. 

A bit of advice has been playing in the back of my head throughout this and the Doctor read my mind while we were talking about the need for solids.

The Doctor reiterated that she doesn't absolutely need solids until 1 year old, as solids have minimal nutritional value compared to breast milk.  I didn't know this about babies until after India was born and my midwife told me not to rush solids and that she is fine on breast milk alone for the first year.  I didn't believe it fully at first, and thought she was maybe confused but I did a little research of my own.  She's right.   I've since had two doctors tell me the same thing! 

I think God has been telling me to handle this the way I handle everything else - naturally.   There is no need to push this. 

I plan to keep occasionally giving her food like avocado, sweet potato slices, Skittles (I joke), squash blocks, apples to gnaw on, etc.  It's mostly for her to explore, learn, taste, practice her pincer grip and satisfy her curiosity, until she is ready to begin ingesting the food. 

Sounds like a plan.  I'm not in a hurry, and I'm confident that if she gets hungry, she'll stop playing Play-Doh and parachute with her avocado and start eating it instead.  I'm laid back enough to not push it - it'll happen when it happens.

When the Dr asked me if she has stranger or separation anxiety, I said yes (like her response to the nice elderly gentleman she screamed at in the waiting room before our appointment who just talked to her??  Didn't you hear her from the waiting room?  Because everyone else did), quite often and that she loves everyone as long as she is in my arms!  She always likes to know where I am at all times, and will quite often whimper, or more accurately bellow, when she sees me while she is in someone else's arms. 

The Doctor was VERY happy about this!

What?  I thought we were on the same team here, Doc!? 

I guess it's a good sign, as it means she is attached to me, greatly lessening her chances of reactive attachment disorder and especially autism.  I said that I just thought it was a phase, one which makes everyone else mad and leaves me a little embarrassed, and was told that it's actually a very good thing that she cries with other people and wants me and if she just goes to anyone that could mean she hasn't bonded to me and would cause the doctor some concern, as that would be indicative to other issues.  Again, I want my daughter to remember twelve years from now that she would CRY to be with me, not CRY to get away from me!

Of course, I consulted my dear friend Google on this matter and after reading for two hours (it really should've taken me 30 seconds, but I told you, I want to read lengthy medical reports, not just WedMD's answer), and it's true.  Maybe everyone knew this already, but it is news to me!

So my apologies to any of you who try to hold my daughter, or talk to her or even look her direction.  She really doesn't hate you, she's just developing properly. :-)

Have any of you done baby led solids?  Any tips you would like to share?  Am I the only one who didn't know that stranger and separation anxiety is really a great thing?