Got milk?

So Nathan continues to despise solid food. We vainly put him in his highchair every day and bring out baby food of various kinds and flavors, put on his bib, and then manage to get maybe one teaspoon in his little mouth. Then he closes up like a vault and nothing else is getting in there, man. And he's wise to us now. We can smile and laugh and play silly games with him all we want, and he may smile back if we're really hilarious, but he ain't opening that mouth. No way, jose. It isn't gonna happen.

Yesterday I was holding him and eating crackers and he was watching me eat very intently. And he was opening and closing his mouth and making little smacking sounds. So I whisked him over to the kitchen, got out a cheerio, bit it in half and put the other half in his (amazingly) open mouth. To my absolute delight, not only did he eat it, he seemed to enjoy it. He ate a few more before starting to turn them away. No big deal, I thought, and hurrah, he's eating!

So when John came home, I couldn't wait to show him our new trick. I got out a Cheerio, bit it in half, and held it out, beaming, to Nathan. Who proceeded to jam his mouth closed and cry.

I am starting to worry, and it's a good thing he has a doctor's appointment next week. I mean, I think he's doing fine on my milk, he seems to be growing, although not at the crazy pace he was for his first six months. I just don't know what else to do. If he doesn't want to eat the food, he doesn't want to eat the food. I wonder if there's something else going on. Does it hurt him? Did his time in the NICU after he was born, with tubes down his throat, make putting things in his mouth equal torture? I just don't know.