Puff...Puff...Pass!

I was at the grocery store yesterday perusing the baby aisle in search of new tastes to spice up meal times for Kali. We've introduced her to pretty much all of the stage 1 & 2 baby foods (even prunes-which she LOVES). I want to introduce the stage 3 foods because I think she's ready for chunkier textures however most of them have meat in them and her doctor said to hold off on meats for another month or two. So I looked at the cracker and snack foods, hoping there would be something suitable for her. I wish the manufacturers would use baby's age as an indicator of readiness instead of just their development. I know they use "supported sitter", "sitter", "crawler", etc. because babies grow at various rates but it's hard for me, a first-time mom, to know what's appropriate for Kali because she developed so quickly. My common sense tells me that even though the jar of Stage 3 lasagna says for "crawlers", that they really didn't intend for me to feed this to my 5-month old crawling baby. However, other items aren't so cut and dry and we have to use the guinea pig approach (my poor baby).

Now that Kali is almost 6 1/2 months old, I really thought she would welcome more grown-up food. She's had 2 teeth for 3 months now and it's time to put those babies to use! After checking out all the choices, I settled on Gerber Graduates Puffs in the sweet potato flavor. She loves sweet potatoes! The label said for "crawlers" and offered these guides to determine if your baby is ready for this product:

• Crawls with stomach off the floor. Check.
  
• May pull self up to stand. Check.
  
• Begins to self-feed with fingers. Ummm...not sure but she puts everything into her mouth!
  
• Begins to use jaw to mash food. Again...not sure, she's only had pureed food until now.
  

Using their checklist I figured there was a 50/50 chance that Kalissa would be able to handle these puffs. It didn't take long for her to let me know the answer. Check out this picture! She's like, "no thanks, I'll pass!"

Looks like we'll stick with pureed foods for a little while longer!