Solids here we come!

[Anonymous]

Hey girls,

Okay, here we go! Kate’s hitting 6 months on Tuesday(I’m so happy and sooooo sad at the same time that my sweet baby is so so big already!)and I’ve held off solids of any kind untill now. I’m completely clueless you guys! I have no idea what to start first or what! The doctors always say cereal but I’ve heard a couple of you waiting on grains till later? I’m planning on making her babyfood since I’m home and I have the time and I used to do it with the baby I nannied for before I had my own baby and it was super duper simple but that was so different b/c one, since having a baby my brain is scrambled eggs and I can’t remember what I fed him first or what, two, his Mom told me what to make, how to make it etc…

Help! Does anyone have any ideas on good books for homemade babyfood?(recipes, guidelines etc…)Do I start with one meal for awhile and than increase?Aaahh! SO overwhelming. Any help or advice would be so wonderful.

Kate’s Mommy2007-09-01 22:08:50

[Anonymous]

Very exciting. We started with simple old mashed pumkin and mashed sweet potato. No added extras. We then did pureed pear and pureed apples. We didn’t do much grain at all until she was a little older (after an earlier bad experience associated with +++mucous stool) and eating a lot of different fruits and veges. Wieght was never a problem for Alana so I never felt the pressure to use grains to fatten her up. If I get to do this all over again I think I will start with the veges first again. I started just once a day at a time that Alana was most alert but eventually went twice a day for the extra practice. It took Alana a good month to really get the swallow thing happening!

[Anonymous]

Claire,

We started with veggies, I did squash, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes and peas in that order, then went to fruits, did peaches, pears, bananas and applesauce in that order and we just started Oatmeal cereal on Thursday. I did a 5 day trial for each food. I didn’t make mine so the first day I would give 1 Tbsp and then make the remainder of that jar last 2 days and then for days 4&5 I would use 1 jar… So far so good. I am looking at finger foods now, but most have rice flour which scares me since he can’t have rice cereal…. I am going to talk to my GI about that this week…. I hope that helped.

[Anonymous]

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is a really popular/excellent baby food making book. I’m not sure if Kate is MSPI. I think you said they ruled it out but just in case, I’ve heard the following unrelated tips for MSPI babies and intro to solid foods:

Fruits/Veggies before grains

Oatmeal gentler than rice d/t protein structure in rice

Yellow/Orange Foods first

Veggies before fruits (this is advice peds give to non-mspi babies so they don’t get used to sweet fruit and then reject veggies.)

Order of foods from least amt. of protein to most: apples, pears, peaches, carrots, squash, bananas, sweet potato, green beans, peas.

From all of this advice (which I received 90% from the smart moms of this site ) I developed my own little plan to cater to Evie. Everything gets a thumbs up except prunes, carrots and apples in our house!

[Anonymous]

YAY Claire!

I’ve heard from GI that it is good to make the babyfood and it is better tolerated. DH and I have the magic bullet here (LOL) but time is always an issue , but I’ve thought about trying to make Landen’s food when we start trialing again (maybe at 7 mos). Right now he is doing Neocate and Oatmeal only. I think he was doing fine and it really WAS the thrush that caused the major reflux flare, however in the back of my mind…

Good Luck!!! I hope Kate enjoys her food.

[Anonymous]

Very exciting!! We started with oatmeal, but if I could do it over, I think I would go with the veggies and fruits first too. I followed the above ideas and went with yellow/orange veggies first. I caved and gave him a few fruits before adding in the green veggies though. So, I think I did oatmeal first, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, pears, peaches, green beans, peas, apples, prunes and so on.

I would trial it for a good 5 days, just so you know for sure. Good luck! It did take a bit for Ben to get the hang of the spoon too, but he was thrilled with the new foods.

[hellbennt]

your breastmilk is super sweet so it doesn’t matter if you start w/ fruits LOL!!!

I would check out http://www.kellymom.com

and of course there are links to starting solids in groupie intro LOL!

I made all of jonah’s food and a lot w/ Ari…

w/ ari I got REALLY interested in baby-led weaning (weaning in this sense- I think it’s how they say it in Europe/other places- means starting solids & therefore milk intake slows down so it’s ‘weaning’- not how we use the term of weaning to mean ‘finishing’ breastfeeding)

it’s also called ‘child led solids’

I’ll give you links when I get home (on vacation now, LOL)- but you can search here for baby-led and see what you get…and you can google baby-led weaning too…

anyway it makes sense to me & I really got into it…

as far as how much to start- just pick a meal- probably breakfast- because you want ot see if there’s a reaction to the food- don’t want to give something new at night bcse heaven forbid there’s a reaction & it’s night time…you give a few spoonfulls and take the baby’s lead from there- some babies will dive right in & polish off a lot (they know when to stop, it’s TRULY amazing) & some will look at you like “hey what are you giving me?”

me, I always put off getting to 3 meals a day bcse it’s sooo much easier to just breastfeed (ok I’m lazy, LOL, but my kids are fine & healthy!), so I do one meal for a while – breakfast or mid morning snack- then eventually I add dinner- you can give any food at any time- babies don’t know what ‘breakfast’ or ‘dinner’ is LOL!!

a great first food is avocado- just smoosh some up w/ some breastmilk

or sweet potato – bake it until it’s very soft & do the same

or take some very ripe banana & do the same…

oh one thing ‘they’ say not to make your own carrott babyfood – something to do w/ nitrates- I don’t know- just didnt make my own carrots…

but you can make squash- any kind- bake it until it’s soft

you can poach/steam apple slices, plum slices, peach and/or nectrine slices, pear slices, etc and run them through the babyfood grinder, you can also even use frozen veggies (I use organc) and steam then & puree them (I did this a bit later- broccoli, peas, green beans)

proteins come at 9 months- beans, tofu, egg yolk, poultry…

enjoy!

[hellbennt]

ok, found it!

here’s a post I wrote:

I read this article which states, as I believe, there is no reason to start foods in any particular order: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/

American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Breastfeeding

http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;115/2/496

cons of pureees: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21924101-5006007,00.html

I started w/ avocado, banana, sweet potato & pretty much just gave oatmeal or barley cereal sometimes to mix in w/ jarred fruits/veggies (all organic)

I did not introduce proteins until babies are 9months old- beans, poultry, soy, meat, yogurt, egg yolk, etc

I am very interested in this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby-led_weaning

http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html

http://www.babyledweaning.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B-LW/

http://blwbaby.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_blwbaby_archive.html

http://www.myblwexperiences.blogspot.com/

http://www.babybanana.biz/page4.htm

http://kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/index.html

http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html

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