Aaaaand we have a winner...

...for the first food Rachel doesn't like. I, for one, cannot fathom it, but our little girl seems to be repulsed by avocados. To be fair, I'm told I hated avocados as a child, too.

At any rate, I decided to give them a try two nights ago as they're some of the next stage of food that the experts recommend you introduce, along with various meats. I took a little piece of chopped avocado, offered it to her, and she took it in her mouth like a little baby bird.

The look of disgust on her face was priceless - if only we'd had the video camera going! I'd been doing that when introducing new foods for the first 4 or 5 things we tried, then stopped, and now I'm kicking myself for it. Her expression said "What IS this garbage you just gave me?" I think she managed to swallow the little bit that was in her mouth.

She's had other foods that she didn't love right off the bat, but she would take other bites and now seems to think they're okay, if not her favorite. Peas (blech!) would be a good example. So I offered her a second taste of avocado. She opened her mouth, took it and then pushed it right back out with her tongue. For now, at least, avocadoes are a no.

I've read that sometimes children need to have a particular food offered to them 10 times before they'll accept it. I don't think I'll try it 9 more times in the near future, but I'll probably try it again in 6 months or a year to see if her palate has developed a taste for foods like that yet. And if not, hey, more avocado for me.

In other new food news, the beef-and-carrots combo seemed to be a hit last night. That was her first meat. I'm thinking about starting to make some of the food for her myself, cooking vegetables, fruits and meats and pureeing or finely chopping them and making little baby food containers myself. I could probably make food much cheaper, if I can just carve out some time to do it.