from breast milk to first finger foods

This is the story of my baby's feeding history from birth to 10 months. Naturally, from birth my baby loved breast-milk. Because food allergies run in our family (my husband is allergic to a long list of different foods) I continued to breast-feed her until 15 months.  In fact she loved her breast milk so much that anything else was always an issue. 

At around five months we were advised to start giving her solids. We were planning to wait until she was six months because of the allergy issues, but she was a big baby and the doctor thought that breast milk alone would soon be too little. So we started off with rice cereal mixed with breast milk, which she hated. Then it got much better with pureed vegetables, especially peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. But suddenly at around 7 months, the summer arrived, and for some unknown reason she started to refuse all solids! We have heard about this happening to other babies around the same age and suspected that it was a combination of two things. One because it was hot she just didn't feel like eating much, and two because the novelty of eating solids just wore off. At this point, I, a stay at home first time mother, was frustrated. I felt like I tried everything but she just refused. I got her to eat solids a little by fooling her to open her mouth and then put the food in. After a couple of mouthfuls she would start to accept the food, but I was filled with quilt (and relieve at the same time). Luckily she continued to love her breast milk and was still growing like crazy. 

At her nine month checkup we were told to start on finger foods, and that may be she's just an independent spirit and might like to be able to self-feed. I, who had been waiting for this day to come, had started eating cheerios for breakfast in front of her a month prior to get her used to seeing it. When I gave her her first cheerio she was really to jump on it, but unfortunately her body was not yet ready and the poor girl gagged! (Thank God cheerios have holes in the middle and melts in the mouth, that's why they are the perfect first finger food). As expected, the gagging experience put her off, but I kept offering it to her twice a week at least to play with. After about a month her gag mechanism subsided and she was able to have cheerios much to her delight and pride. This came at a really great time because my body was producing as much milk as it could possibly make and that clearly wasn't enough.