Jenna's 4 Month Checkup

Jenna had her 4 month checkup with her doctor yesterday. I didn't have too many questions or concerns about her, since she is such a happy and easy-going baby! She was babbling away with the doctor, and he commented that she is certainly talking a lot for her age. So different from her brothers!

Here are her growth stats:

Weight: 12 lbs, 10 oz (17%)
Height: 24.5 inches (50%)
Head: 15.75 inches (31%)

At this age, Ryan weighed 1 lb more than Jenna, and Lucas weighed 2 lbs more than her. I didn't realize she is my smallest baby at this age! Her chubby cheeks have been deceiving us into thinking she's a big girl.

I asked the doctor about starting Jenna on solid foods. He said that while breastmilk should still be her main source of calories, introducing food at this age won't do any harm. I started both boys on rice cereal just after 4 months. Since then I've heard a lot of conflicting information on the subject. Some say you should wait until 6 months to start in order to decrease the risk of allergies and digestive issues. Some say rice cereal isn't a good food to start with. Some skip purees altogether and do the baby led weaning method. I asked my friends on Facebook when and what they first fed their babies, and I got a huge variety of responses! Apparently there is no one "right" way that everyone agrees on.

While I'm not entirely sure what my approach will be yet, I do know I want to try a few different things this time around. My boys are notoriously picky eaters. I have no idea if their first few months of eating solid foods is at all correlated to their pickiness. But I guess it's possible! So I'm going to do my best to feed Jenna the most nutritious foods possible, right from the start. I'll probably start her on some sort of solids within the next month, to start teaching her about food and getting used to a spoon. And also to have a little fun! I love the early baby feeding stage, when they are still open to trying new flavors!