Eureka!

Ah ha! I have hit upon something -- if not a solution then at least an amelioration of the "babies are gross when eating issue" mentioned in a previous post.

Our pediatrician had said to mix Miss Mouse's cereal up really really runny when we first introduced it because it would make it easier to swallow. Which may be true, but it also made it extremely easy to run back out of her mouth. It actually took effort to keep it in!

The other night I accidentally made her meal quite a bit thicker than usual, but since the formula was downstairs and I wasn't, I decided to feed it to her anyways.

EUREKA! Baby cereal the consistency of paste stays in the mouth unless forcibly ejected. It doesn't just run willy nilly down her face. And when it does come back out, it's much easier to catch and stuff back in.

My biggest problem now is that Ellie is just so darned pleased with herself about her cereal eating prowess that she grins and giggles with her mouth full. And, as it is difficult to swallow while hamming, we do still have some overflow issues.