Food for Thought

Last night we had a memorable beginning to our Memorial Day. In typical hubris-laden fashion, I decided that Domi could eat what we were eating at a restaurant yesterday. I mean, it was nothing he hadn't tried before, avocados, beans, rice; all these things, he's had at home, and he hasn't ever had a bad food reaction, so I was like, "why not?". Oh my, let me tell you why not.
I've been slightly blase about the whole- only one new food at a time, for two weeks, then and only then try something new- dogma. I will admit there have been times when I've made something and have given Domingo a little bit, nothing from the "thou shalt not before X age" list, but still: waffles, bread, yogurt, cheese. Usually it's just the tiniest little taste, but sometimes it's a few decent sized bites. Such was the case yesterday, pretty much all day. He had about a tablespoon of mashed-up waffles for breakfast, which he fed to himself, he's gotten really good at it! Then a few hours later he had a few little flakes from a flour tortilla. Then right before we left to meet tia Hez he had probably a tablespoon, maybe two, of banana. He hadn't eaten any vegetables all day, he was acting like he wanted to eat, so I said what the hey, here's some guacamole. It wasn't spicy at all, and like I said, Domingo has had avocado before without much ado.
Domingo is a real social eater. He sees you eating, and he wants to join in the fun. And it's what YOU'RE eating that he wants to try. So I figured I should encourage this gastronomic adventurousness before it's all, "just hot dogs and chick fingers for me please". Can you see I'm desperately trying to justify my actions here?
So after two saltines and a half teaspoon of pretty tasty guacamole, I said why not give him some of these tasty refried beans? They probably are only made with LARD and lord knows what else, but they taste darn good, so why not? Oh, and here's some carrots, and a little bit of rice. Yeah, I'm an idiot.
No problems, no rashes, no fussiness, nothing. Flash forward to 11:30 p.m. all three of us sleeping soundly when I hear some teeny tiny retching sounds. I woke up in a panic and grabbed Domi, who wasn't crying, just throwing up the disgusting carnival of yuckiness I had ladled into him a few hours before- in our bed, and all over my shirt. It wasn't that much baby spew really, but holding Domi and feeling his little body heave was enough to make me loose my mind. Thoughts of E. coli, or salmonella raced through my head, I thought we should take him to the ER to pump his stomach, or to check for neurological damage- that would be more appropriate for mom rather than baby. Earlier that day Domi woke up from his nap in a puddle of drool, I instantly thought, maybe that was vomit and I didn't realize it, maybe there is something horribly horribly wrong? Or maybe, just maybe, this baby who doesn't normally eat much solid food, had a bunch of things he's never had and it gave him an upset stomach?
Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed. Chris said, "huh, must have a tummy ache", cleaned up the mess, and went back to sleep.
Domingo, once again, never ceases to amaze. He didn't even cry, but exhibited an almost tia Leticia-esque ability to puke and return instantly back to normal. He fell asleep pretty much the second after we cleaned him up. And woke up this morning totally fine, probably not even leery of all things re-fried. But it's the all white diet for the next few days for little D- all milk all the time, maybe some pears, maybe. We'll see how long it takes for mommy to get over her night terrors of Domingo having eaten some kind of flesh eating bacteria, then we can start back with the more exciting fare.