Starting baby on solid foods...

[Dreamer_D]

Any good resources etc? I know nothing about it and have been exclusively BFing for the last 6 months. I have been avoiding learning about real food because it seems like a hassel

Can''t I just let him live on breast milk for another year? LOL!!

 

[D&T]

Hey DD- How are you doing? when I started, I would put a little bit of rice cereal single grain in a little formula and just made the consistency a little thick and spoon feed, you can express a little bit of your breast milk and mix it with the rice cereal that way to start off. then I started buying those Gerber baby food jars for the #1 level too,, started with green veggies of course.

 

[E B]

Dreamer,

This online article might be helpful (ignore/scroll past the bits about waiting until 6 months since you already have!

).

 

[MustangGal]

It went a lot smoother for us than I expected. Just pop him in the bumbo to start, and try about 1tbsp cereal mixed with breastmilk. I did small amount on the spoon to start, and pretty watered down, so he sucked it up like he''s used to doing while feeding. We do solids about an hour or two after a bottle feeding, so he isn''t too hungry or too full. After 2 weeks of cereal we started veggies. I did 1/2 jar of veggie plus 1tbsp cereal, so if he didn''t liek the veggie I could trade off with the cereal. We also tried a couple different spoon types, the all plastic Munchkin ones worked best for us.

Remember to take pics too!

 

[curlygirl]

DD, don''t let it stress you out--this part is actually really fun!!

They say to start out with single grain cereals. Most people do rice, then oatmeal and then you can continue on to barley or multigrains but I just did rice and oatmeal and then went on to purees. So basically you mix about a tablespoon of cereal with breastmilk and in the beginning, keep it pretty watery since he''s never had anything thick to swallow. Then after a while, you can thicken it up by adding less milk. New foods should be introduced every 5-7 days to check for allergic reactions. So after the cereals, you can move on to fruits and veggies. There is no right or wrong way to introduce them but personally, I chose to do green veggies first (peas, green beans) and then move on to the sweeter yellow/orange ones (carrots, squash, sweet potato). I wanted to make sure my kids ate the "yucky" stuff first before moving on to the yummy sweeter things but you can do it however you want. Then you can do fruits and you can even mix some of the veggies or fruits in with the cereals. The stage 1 purees are quite watery. After a while, you can move on to stage 2 which are a little thicker and there are more varieties and combinations, in addition to meats. We never did stage 3 foods--just moved on to regular table foods at that point.

It may not be smooth sailing from the start but I was told that you have to try at least 10 times before you can say your child doesn''t like a certain food! You can also begin to introduce cheerios and puffs in a couple months when he starts to really work on his pincer grasp. You may also want to introduce a sippy cup with water at meals now. He won''t necessarily drink it or know what to do with it but it''s good have it around just to start practicing.

I''m sure many others will chime in with tips but I just wanted to give you the general rundown for the beginning days. Make sure you have bibs and a camera to capture these moments!!! Have fun!!

 

[Tacori E-ring]

T did not like solids at first. I used to put her in her bumbo, naked, in the bathtub b/c it was SUCH a mess. I just gave her a bath right after her feeding. But one day things started to click and everything became easier until she started insisting on feeding herself. My girl was not on stage 1 for long. I did start with veggies then fruits. She never took to the meats. I used to mix in some RC when the food seemed too runny. I also did the standard 3 day wait before I introduced a new food. For awhile she was a REALLY good eater but now we are getting into the picky toddler phrase

 

[waxing lyrical]

Technically, it''s not necessary in terms of nutrition and is really for introduction to new tastes and textures. We skipped cereal and went straight to fruits and veggies. I made my own. I added breastmilk to it.

 

[waxing lyrical]

Oh, and as for resources, kellymom is a good site.

 

[mrssalvo]

I didn''t do much of the cereal. Jake didn''t really like it. we went right to the gerber veggie''s and then fruits. I would introduce one and feed it to him for 2-3 days and then moved to the next.

 

[TravelingGal]

Advice: go look back on what I did with Amelia. Then ignore everything I did and do the opposite.

 

[TravelingGal]

Oh, and DD, change your avatar woman! I hardly recognize you around here anymore!!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Hi,

I BF my kids for one year. They were around 9 months when I began "feeding" them solids. I say "feeding," because most of the time, my sons would use their tongue and push the food right back out again. I didn''t look for any particularily healthy food - mostly organic baby foods that tasted good. They liked the banana ones and stuff. I never tortured them by trying peas & turkey or whatever pukey colored varieties there were.

At six months, maybe just continue bfing? One thing you can do in a few months is get a baby spoon for your son and let him chew on that. Seems now that I recall my kids doing that more than actually eating any of the food.

Oh, and solids can be a hassle because it''s so messy. I use to take my kids'' clothes off and feed them while they just wore a diaper! lol Then after each feeding, they''d get a quick bath. Luckily I picked a high chair that was easy to clean.

 

[packrat]

I started both kids at 9 months. Just a little bit of the rice cereal mixed with breastmilk..kinda runny, but enough so they had a different texture to get used to, and then gradually kept mixing more cereal in. When I first started I waited until they''d nursed, and then put them in the highchair and give them some cereal. That way it wasn''t an ordeal w/a hungry kid who didn''t know what the food was. Eventually I did replace a couple feedings a day with cereal. London I took a little bit longer to put on the Gerber First Foods than Trapper, but I don''t recall when I started them. I wish I''d kept a journal for them.

 

[packrat]

Oh, and our office tells moms that if you want to exclusively breast feed for the first year, there''s nothing wrong with that, so don''t feel like you *have* to start cereal/foods at specific times.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Actually, solid foods really should be started at 6 months of age. They need to develop a since for different textures. I have several kids who were restricted on solids because of a medical issue, and I am still dealing with their oral adversons 2 years later. Also, starting at this age is a good time to minimize the risk of food allergy. We now actually tell parents of children with a family history of allergies (or a kid with milk protein allergy) to introduce grains at this age, there is data suggesting it reduces the risk of celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. The AAP recommends exclusive BF until 6 mo of age with the introduction of solids at that time with continued BF until 1 year of age.

There is no science behind the order of starting the foods. All the suggestions given to parents are just that. I usually suggest a food a week just so if there is a reaction, you know what food it is. Some foods are less allergy prone than others (i.e. the yellow and orange veggies) and that is why some people recommend starting them first. There are no studies to support the idea that starting veggies will help babies have a better taste for them when they get older and that delaying fruits will make them less drawn to sweets.

Foods that are a chocking risk (grapes, peanuts ect) should be avoided until the baby is out of the toddler years.

Most of all, have fun and be really for a mess

 

[Jas12]

Hello pink-heeled DD-- I started Co on the organic rice cereal (PC brand) with breastmilk but quickly went to homemade purees. We started with avocado and it was a great first food b/c of all the good fat, you don't have to cook it and you can change the consistency of it. I think we went to sweet potato or banana next.

I think THIS is a great book for baby food making and meal planning. I like that it isn't overly conservative (lots of flavors and fosters a love of food IMO).
I love cooking so baby food is a huge interest of mine, it does take time but if you do a huge batch all in one night, freeze in ice cube trays and then just thaw out a days worth the night before, that makes it doable. And i always kept in mind that it was only for a few months. By 9 mos or so Cohen was eating what we all ate.

My 3 biggest tips are:
a) don't do a lot of jared stuff (it's easy and quick but it's all a similar texture and has a funny smell not to mention it's not fresh). Home prepared food always changes in texture, temperature and varies week to week depending on what's in season (i.e. fresh mushed strawberries taste different now than they did a month ago so your kid gets used to sour, sweet, juicy etc.). In my daycare worker days i could very often tell what kids were eating only jared stuff. They turned their noses up at anything with a lump or bump and it was torturous to transition them. I am generalizing, but it is common.
b) lightly season food , even in the early days ( e.g..i would add some rosemary to mashed potatoes or some curry powder to boiled rice). I now have an eater who demands strong flavors, and although that is annoying sometimes, i'll take it over a kid that wants everything bland.
c) eat with your kid. Co eats all 3 meals at the table with us/me and i think that has helped his eating. He eats what we eat and it forces us to be healthy and i think it is teaching him that what gets served is what he is expected to eat.

happy baby cookin...


ETA-forgot to mention that i listened to a long interview on CBC last year with the head dietician at Sick Kids. She mentioned that all the recent studies on allergies are pointing to the ineffectiveness of delaying foods to prevent allergies. You may want to look into it since i know you are researcher extraordinaire

I took a middle road approach. I kept a list all the foods i had prepared and frozen and introduced them every few days. Once that new food was 'okayed' i then went ahead and seasoned it or mixed it with another food. I waited to introduce peanuts & dairy at around a year, but did not delay anything else.

 

[gailrmv]

DD, so glad you started this thread. I've been thinking about this too since my son is 5 months old! We have been experimenting with a bit of rice cereal thinned with breastmilk, but I know we;ll be starting on the real solids in another month.

Question for moms: What do you think of this gadget? Beaba Babycook Huge timesaver, or waste of $$?? (It steams and purees the food all in one, but costs about $150). I do have a miniprep food processor, so this might be unnecessary... but if it's super useful I'd definitely buy it.

How long are kids in the puree stage anyway, before you can just mash their food?

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Depends on how many teeth they have . The textbook recommendation is solids at 6 mo, table foods at 1. However, one of my resident friends has a picture of her 6 mo old eating her b-day cake with the caption "one food at a time, no table foods." She is clearly making fun of herself for ignoring her own advice.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 8/17/2009 10:20:46 PM
Author: TanDogMom
DD, so glad you started this thread. I''ve been thinking about this too since my son is 5 months old! We have been experimenting with a bit of rice cereal thinned with breastmilk, but I know we;ll be starting on the real solids in another month.


Question for moms: What do you think of this gadget? Beaba Babycook Huge timesaver, or waste of $$?? (It steams and purees the food all in one, but costs about $150). I do have a miniprep food processor, so this might be unnecessary... but if it''s super useful I''d definitely buy it.


How long are kids in the puree stage anyway, before you can just mash their food?

Personally I love my Beaba. But I have twins so need to make twice the food. For *me* it is soooo nice to set it and just walk away. So that feature alone was worth the $ to me. Because you set the stuff in it, put the water in, and it shuts itself off after the food steams.

But you really only use it for a few months tops. I plan on selling mine on ebay after we are done!

 

[sbde]

J has been having solids since he was 4.5 mos old (he had pretty much doubled his birth weight by then which is why the ped gave us the go ahead) and some of my tips are:

- start with a single grain cereal (we did rice) and make it very watery in the beginning so that it''s easy for hunter to eat. you can thicken it gradually as he gets used to eating from a spoon. you''ll probably have to make a decision about what you''ll make the cereal in. i exclusively breastfeed and so i still pump milk for his cereal. i started out with just half an ounce of milk to mix the cereal in and have increased it to 2 oz per feeding now (he has 2 cereal feedings a day)

- J didn''t make much of a mess when eating but what i think helped is that we bought a large bib for him from target similar to this that we just rinse after each feeding and it keeps him pretty clean

- rice cereal can be binding so if you find it''s affecting hunter move on to oatmeal cereal which has more fiber. the key thing the kids are getting from the cereal is the iron, which isn''t found as much in the purees.

- we added purees in after he''d been on cereal for a month or so and went through veggies and then fruits. we gave him the same item for 3 days to watch for allergies. i buy purees but also make my own food when i get the chance (bought a cheapo babyfood proc from pottery barn kids to help out). he''s moved on to the 2nd stage foods now but has cereal & a fruit/veggie at each feeding.

hope that helps!

 

[curlygirl]

Date: 8/17/2009 10:35:00 PM
Author: LtlFirecracker
Depends on how many teeth they have . The textbook recommendation is solids at 6 mo, table foods at 1. However, one of my resident friends has a picture of her 6 mo old eating her b-day cake with the caption 'one food at a time, no table foods.' She is clearly making fun of herself for ignoring her own advice.

My little one only has 2 teeth on the bottom at 10 months old and she's been on table foods for over a month now. I just make sure to give her bite size stuff that she can gum really well like pasta, rice, corn, peas, small pieces of soft meat, cheese, etc. although she loves to work on things like crusty bread, pretzels, bagels and pizza crust. I don't think the number of teeth matter but I also have a chowhound who loves any and all food so she became uninterested in baby purees really quickly!

 

[Dreamer_D]

THANKS EVERYONE! Your tips are so helpful. Although I do like to research, for some reason I don't have much interest is researching this topic to death. Thankfully I know all of you are researchers too, and doctors, so I know this is a good place to start.

***
Date: 8/17/2009 12:22:44 PM
Author: EBree
Dreamer,
This online article might be helpful (ignore/scroll past the bits about waiting until 6 months since you already have! ).
That was really helpful and interesting! I didn't know that you could feed bananas and avocado without cooking them. I think Hunter may be eating a lot of those fruits

***

That was really helpful and interesting! I didn't know that you could feed bananas and avocado without cooking them. I think Hunter may be eating a lot of those fruits

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 8/17/2009 12:28:39 PM
Author: MustangGal
It went a lot smoother for us than I expected. Just pop him in the bumbo to start, and try about 1tbsp cereal mixed with breastmilk. I did small amount on the spoon to start, and pretty watered down, so he sucked it up like he''s used to doing while feeding. We do solids about an hour or two after a bottle feeding, so he isn''t too hungry or too full. After 2 weeks of cereal we started veggies. I did 1/2 jar of veggie plus 1tbsp cereal, so if he didn''t liek the veggie I could trade off with the cereal. We also tried a couple different spoon types, the all plastic Munchkin ones worked best for us.

Remember to take pics too!

Thanks Mustang! I wonder how often in the day you feed babies solids? I will need to look that up... one step a at a time, thankfully, and I know it is once a dy to start! LOL

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 8/17/2009 1:51:44 PM
Author: waxing lyrical
Oh, and as for resources, kellymom is a good site.

Thanks B, I''ll check it out.

Tacori haha about feeding in the tub. We may end up there, Hunter is enthusiastic with his hands to say the least.

Curly I hope that Hunter is a good eater like your youngest! I suspect he will be, his personality is very approach oriented and he is not very shy/sensitive. But we shall see!

D&T Thanks for the tips!

Thanks Mrs.S I won''t linger on cereals if he isn''t interested. He is old enough that he can pretty much try anything so there is no need to belabour the point -- except for checking for allergies.

TGal haha... is Amelia still picky? it isn''t too surprising since you have described her as being cautious in many areas of her life. It may just be her personality! And I know the avi is confusing, but my main computer with all my pics is on the fritz!! I''ll see what I can do, just for you

MC I think I will definitely get hum naked to feed him! Good idea!

Packrat I think I could wait longer, but since Hunter is a large boy and exhibits all the signs of wanting to eat, I''ll start it now. Esp. given what LtL mentioned about allergies.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 8/17/2009 8:22:48 PM
Author: LtlFirecracker
Actually, solid foods really should be started at 6 months of age. They need to develop a since for different textures. I have several kids who were restricted on solids because of a medical issue, and I am still dealing with their oral adversons 2 years later. Also, starting at this age is a good time to minimize the risk of food allergy. We now actually tell parents of children with a family history of allergies (or a kid with milk protein allergy) to introduce grains at this age, there is data suggesting it reduces the risk of celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. The AAP recommends exclusive BF until 6 mo of age with the introduction of solids at that time with continued BF until 1 year of age.

There is no science behind the order of starting the foods. All the suggestions given to parents are just that. I usually suggest a food a week just so if there is a reaction, you know what food it is. Some foods are less allergy prone than others (i.e. the yellow and orange veggies) and that is why some people recommend starting them first. There are no studies to support the idea that starting veggies will help babies have a better taste for them when they get older and that delaying fruits will make them less drawn to sweets.

Foods that are a chocking risk (grapes, peanuts ect) should be avoided until the baby is out of the toddler years.

Most of all, have fun and be really for a mess

Thanks Ltl. This helps. DH was very allergy prone as a child -- hay fever, asthma, croup multiple times. We now know he has a rather severe dairly intolerace. He can''t eat it at all or he has severe and almost immediate diarrhea. Even if he doesn''t *know* he was exposed he will have this reaction. I suspect this intolerance contrbutes to his allergies as a child, since as an adult he now only has mild to moderate seasonal allergies and they are much better since he stopped eating dairly. I also suspect that he has a milk gluten intolerance as well based on my observations of the digestive issues that accompany eating processed flour products (e.g. cereals, white bread) -- he really can only comfortably eat whole grain whole wheat bread and pasta. Anyways, we don''t know if Hunter will have these issues but I''d like to make sure that he has the best shot of avoiding them, which is why I have been so careful to only BF for 6 months. Do you have any suggestions about the order we should introduce foods to limit the chance of intolerances? Or is it just observation with one food per week?

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 8/17/2009 8:47:49 PM
Author: Jas12
Hello pink-heeled DD-- I started Co on the organic rice cereal (PC brand) with breastmilk but quickly went to homemade purees. We started with avocado and it was a great first food b/c of all the good fat, you don''t have to cook it and you can change the consistency of it. I think we went to sweet potato or banana next.

I think THIS is a great book for baby food making and meal planning. I like that it isn''t overly conservative (lots of flavors and fosters a love of food IMO).
I love cooking so baby food is a huge interest of mine, it does take time but if you do a huge batch all in one night, freeze in ice cube trays and then just thaw out a days worth the night before, that makes it doable. And i always kept in mind that it was only for a few months. By 9 mos or so Cohen was eating what we all ate.

My 3 biggest tips are:
a) don''t do a lot of jared stuff (it''s easy and quick but it''s all a similar texture and has a funny smell not to mention it''s not fresh). Home prepared food always changes in texture, temperature and varies week to week depending on what''s in season (i.e. fresh mushed strawberries taste different now than they did a month ago so your kid gets used to sour, sweet, juicy etc.). In my daycare worker days i could very often tell what kids were eating only jared stuff. They turned their noses up at anything with a lump or bump and it was torturous to transition them. I am generalizing, but it is common.
b) lightly season food , even in the early days ( e.g..i would add some rosemary to mashed potatoes or some curry powder to boiled rice). I now have an eater who demands strong flavors, and although that is annoying sometimes, i''ll take it over a kid that wants everything bland.
c) eat with your kid. Co eats all 3 meals at the table with us/me and i think that has helped his eating. He eats what we eat and it forces us to be healthy and i think it is teaching him that what gets served is what he is expected to eat.

happy baby cookin...


ETA-forgot to mention that i listened to a long interview on CBC last year with the head dietician at Sick Kids. She mentioned that all the recent studies on allergies are pointing to the ineffectiveness of delaying foods to prevent allergies. You may want to look into it since i know you are researcher extraordinaire

I took a middle road approach. I kept a list all the foods i had prepared and frozen and introduced them every few days. Once that new food was ''okayed'' i then went ahead and seasoned it or mixed it with another food. I waited to introduce peanuts & dairy at around a year, but did not delay anything else.

Great book! I will order it. I do plan to make my own food since it seems relatively simple and I am at home anyways. We may start seasoning his food after he is past the initial stages. We eat a lot of spicy and ethnic foods so he is used to it in my milk I am sure. I bet he will like it!

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 8/17/2009 10:56:25 PM
Author: sbde
J has been having solids since he was 4.5 mos old (he had pretty much doubled his birth weight by then which is why the ped gave us the go ahead) and some of my tips are:

- start with a single grain cereal (we did rice) and make it very watery in the beginning so that it''s easy for hunter to eat. you can thicken it gradually as he gets used to eating from a spoon. you''ll probably have to make a decision about what you''ll make the cereal in. i exclusively breastfeed and so i still pump milk for his cereal. i started out with just half an ounce of milk to mix the cereal in and have increased it to 2 oz per feeding now (he has 2 cereal feedings a day)

- J didn''t make much of a mess when eating but what i think helped is that we bought a large bib for him from target similar to this that we just rinse after each feeding and it keeps him pretty clean

- rice cereal can be binding so if you find it''s affecting hunter move on to oatmeal cereal which has more fiber. the key thing the kids are getting from the cereal is the iron, which isn''t found as much in the purees.

- we added purees in after he''d been on cereal for a month or so and went through veggies and then fruits. we gave him the same item for 3 days to watch for allergies. i buy purees but also make my own food when i get the chance (bought a cheapo babyfood proc from pottery barn kids to help out). he''s moved on to the 2nd stage foods now but has cereal & a fruit/veggie at each feeding.

hope that helps!

Good tip about the rice cerel being binding. I picked up some oatmeal at the same time. I think once he is used to the rice cereal we will skip to bananas and avocados anyways, so that should help, and I''ll be sure to give him lots of milk to make sure he is hydrated enough.

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 8/18/2009 10:55:27 AM
Author: dreamer_dachsie

TGal haha... is Amelia still picky? it isn''t too surprising since you have described her as being cautious in many areas of her life. It may just be her personality! And I know the avi is confusing, but my main computer with all my pics is on the fritz!! I''ll see what I can do, just for you

Actually, she is a great eater now (not sure if it was therapy or she just loosened up). She eats a lot and will try anything. There are some things she doesn''t love (she''s not into veggies yet) but the vast majority of stuff we give her, she eats.

Kids go through phases - picky eaters become unpicky and vice versa. There''s just no telling, so don''t feel smug if your kid is a good eater or feel bad if he''s not. Things change!! (That goes for sleep too, by the way!)

 

[Jas12]

Very true about kids going thru stages of pickiness. Up until about 2 months ago i could throw literally anything at the boy and he would go at it with gusto. Now, he''s all about asserting his independence and some days he''ll love something and the next he won''t even let me put it on his plate. I get a big ol "nooooooo'' and a swipe at the bowl. Temperature is a big thing too. If it''s a little too cold or too hot i get a look of disinterest and have trouble convincing him it''s warmed up or cooled down.Sheesh. I think it is a combo of changing tastes and simple toddler attitude so i just try to let it go despite how much it annoys me sometimes.
Choices are a good way to deal with that. I''ll ask Co "do you want the olives or the peas?" and I find he eat more of what he picks.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Hey, glad I could be of help.

There is no order except that our GI doctor is now recommending starting gluten products by 7 months. I have a mom I have been following 2 of her children for 2.5 years. The first one had severe failure to thrive and multiple food allergies. He is still suck on elemental formula. He has seemed to out grow the milk/soy allergy he had as a baby, but during his gluten challenge he got such bad diarrhea that he was admitted.

I started seeing his sister at 4 mo of age when she started developing diarrhea and falling of the growth curve. I put her on a partially hydrolyzed formula and she got better. She is now 6 months and the mother asked me what to do about solids. The GI doctor gave her the go ahead to start. Just to show you how fast medicine can change, that doctor kept the other kid on a very restricted diet. I told her to space the foods between 7-10 days, because that is how long your body needs to mount an allergic response to something. I told her to start with a couple hypoallengic foods first (i.e. rice, yellow/orang veggies), and than give a gluten product and observe. If she has diarrhea, than she is going to stop that and keep the other foods going, that way we don''t have to start over, and we can keep giving her different foods. I am trying to prevent the oral adverson that her brother now has. It will be interesting to see if she tolerates wheat products.

Anyways, for allergic prone kids, I tell the parents one food every 7-10 days and to go ahead and expose them to a wheat product. For kids with problems with breast or formula feeding, I actually tell parents to look into the Beachnut brand, as their foods have little cross contamination and their prices are reasonable. I have no problem with parents processing their own foods, I usually don''t say anything about it because I don''t want them to fell guilty if they have no time. Most of my patients are jar fed, and I don''t notice any difference in them.

Hope this wasn''t too long.