46 replies to this topic

[silverdollar]

My daughter is almost old enough to start eating She loves her highchair and copies our chewing movements, and will bring an empty cup of spoon to her mouth. We're just waiting for that magic 6 month mark. So, the recommendations are now different than ever before and suggest starting with high iron foods. I picked up some infant cereal with iron, but they also suggest meat. They also say its not necessary to purée anything. She has no teeth. How do I prepare the meat so she can safely eat it? Is shredding it enough? What are some other good first foods?

[DesignerBug]

we did yams and avocados to start if memory serves. I had a mental block with anything that was "fortified". But eased into it down the road.

[SandraDee]

They say purees are no longer necessary? That's interesting. My DS loved purees but my DD wouldn't touch them - we did more a "baby led weaning" approach with her going straight to finger foods at about 7 months. I remember that one of her first meals was steamed broccoli -- She'd hold onto the stem and gum off the green tops -- my MIL was always horrified that she'd choke but she never did. She'd gag now and then but I've read that's just a normal part of learning to deal with new food textures.

My DS had problems with constipation when we started with cereal so we introduced fruit earlier than we'd planned (pears and then prunes) and that cleared things up. Other favorite first foods were pureed peas, sweet potatoes and mashed kidney beans (another iron source). We did avacodos too - they are a great baby food, they mash up really smooth and are a good source of vitamins and healthy fat.

I found that boneless chicken thighs were a good first meat - mild tasting and higher in iron than white meat. I puree'd them in the blender at first but by 7 or 8 months I would just mince them up -- the twins seemed to enjoy that texture better. (Warning: All commercially prepared baby food meats are disgusting -- they look and smell like catfood . You really have to make your own. I found most of the babyfood fruits and veggies were pretty yummy though.)

Good luck with the transition!

[sharlene]

I have to agree that most of the baby foods (I only tried a couple cause someone gave them to me) - are gross! I mostly made my own baby food - and when I gave my son the chicken baby food, he threw it back up. He barely tasted the jarred peas and made a terrible face. The butternut squash was disgusting.
Honestly, it's pretty easy to make your own stuff - and why would anyone buy jarred bananas? I couldn't figure that out - I mean they don't need refrigeration or even pureeing - you peel and mash a bit - it couldn't get easier, yet they sell it in a jar, too.

Anyway - we made butternut squash - I pureed it because I love the consistency of it when pureed - I also like to add cinnamon.

While pureeing isn't necessary, I really liked the texture of cooked fruits and veggies when pureed. Their gums can be sensitive when they're cutting teeth, too, so I thought it made it a little easier.

Bananas are a great first food, as it avocado. Their iron stores don't disappear overnight when they hit 6 months, they just start getting lower - as I was exclusively breastfeeding, I worried - so we had his iron checked at maybe 8 months and it was fine and I did not push meats at all (I am not much of a meat eater so it was minimal) - but I did go for beans and they were a hit for a while - easy to mash up or puree.

Each baby develops his/her own tastes and likes and dislikes - lots of experimenting - and just because they like it one day (or dislike it), doesn't mean it won't change the next day.

And if all else fails, the fortified cereals do work in terms of getting iron and such into them - but I mixed them with fresh fruits and veggies that I made - I still put some baby oatmeal in fruit that I've cooked for my 18 month old and he enjoys it - it tastes like a cobbler actually!

Good luck!

One more thought - I also got the baby feeder things and they were fun for a while - they're little mesh bags with a handle - great for preventing choking and they seem to really enjoy it - used it for banana, avocado, mango, peaches, pears - brocoli wasn't a hit at all.

[frostedlemon]

They've changed the recommendations even since my guy was born and he's only not-even-10 months.

I skipped the fortified cereals altogether and just went with high-iron veggies and stuff and I make him steelcut oatmeal, which has iron in a more accessible form. I usually mix it with fruit that has vitamin C in it to help even more with absorption. There's lots of various research out there, so you may make a different decision, but I skipped the rice cereal in particular because it can cause constipation (something my exclusively breastfed boy never had issues with and I figured solid poop would feel weird enough without having problems passing it) and because while it contains lots of iron, it's not always in an easily accessible format so they don't actually get as much from it as it says.

For meat - I've only given him pureed because while he's getting better at food with textures, he's still not very good at them or fully chewing them before swallowing, which causes some gagging and after a few times of that we stop and move onto something else until later - he gets tired of it and I'm tired of having heart attacks I find that he improves with each exposure so I just do it in small amounts until he's able to handle it well. He has 12 teeth, including his first set of molars. There is absolutely no way he would have been able to handle it as a first food in a non-pureed form. Obviously your mileage may vary.

I consult this website for ideas and advice about cooking my own baby food: http://www.homemade-....com/index.html Sometimes I read it and then do my own thing anyway or use it as a guideline, but I find it decent. I think there are some ideas for meat, such as cooking it in apple sauce to make sure it's soft and tasty.

[sharlene]

They've changed the recommendations even since my guy was born and he's only not-even-10 months. I skipped the fortified cereals altogether and just went with high-iron veggies and stuff and I make him steelcut oatmeal, which has iron in a more accessible form. I usually mix it with fruit that has vitamin C in it to help even more with absorption. There's lots of various research out there, so you may make a different decision, but I skipped the rice cereal in particular because it can cause constipation (something my exclusively breastfed boy never had issues with and I figured solid poop would feel weird enough without having problems passing it) and because while it contains lots of iron, it's not always in an easily accessible format so they don't actually get as much from it as it says. For meat - I've only given him pureed because while he's getting better at food with textures, he's still not very good at them or fully chewing them before swallowing, which causes some gagging and after a few times of that we stop and move onto something else until later - he gets tired of it and I'm tired of having heart attacks I find that he improves with each exposure so I just do it in small amounts until he's able to handle it well. He has 12 teeth, including his first set of molars. There is absolutely no way he would have been able to handle it as a first food in a non-pureed form. Obviously your mileage may vary. I consult this website for ideas and advice about cooking my own baby food: http://www.homemade-....com/index.html Sometimes I read it and then do my own thing anyway or use it as a guideline, but I find it decent. I think there are some ideas for meat, such as cooking it in apple sauce to make sure it's soft and tasty.

Nice site (link), FL! Thanks - going to have to try some of those recipes!

[Maralee]

We got a food grinder, although we didn't get it until about 9 months old or so, but I wish we got it sooner! The doctor I worked for said that was all she ever did for her kids, and they ate a wide variety of ethnic foods. We added seasoning/spice to lots of foods for DS as well, and at 2.5 yrs old, he's just ate a meal of butter chicken. DS hated the cereals, so our Dr. put him on an iron supplement for a few months. Agree to what others are saying about jarred food. Took DH to walmart and showed him the "breakfast of egg, ham, and cheese" in a jar. He quickly got the hang of making food. And the guide I got from the health nurse said pureed for about a month, then go to soft chunky. Really, until about 9 months old, they're just supposed to be getting the hang of moving their tongue around to shift food, not so much for nutritional supplements. Get ready for the stinkiest poop imaginable after 6 months of breastfeeding!

[silverdollar]

Thanks!
I had a brief look at that site and have bookmarked it to go back to.
Yes, we have no intention of buying any of those jarred foods. I'll try pureeing the meats to start with. We're cooking a whole chicken and pot roast this week with family visiting so I'll set a little of that aside to experiment with.
I may try mixing a bit of breastmillk with the cereal to start with. We've also got a garden full of yummy veggies growing outside that will be ripe at about the time she's ready for them.

[SandraDee]

I didn't find the store bought stuff to be inherently evil. We'd buy the Presidents Choice Organics brand occasionally and I thought some of the single fruits and veggies were quite tasty -- and they have no additives just fruit and water or veggies and water. They were handy to carry in the diaper bag for snacks etc. Of course with twins, I guess the convenience factor was more of a selling point for me. I agree that any of the "meals" that combined several ingredients were disgusting though. By that point, a foodmill is totally the way to go, you can get a small one to take with you to restaurants and just grind up a little of your meal for them.

I like the idea of the steel cut oats, I'm going to try that next time.

[BabyVibez]

We went with the Baby Led Weaning method. I never fed cereals, fortified anything. I never pureed anything, nor fed him from a spoon. Every morsel of food he has ever eaten, he put in his mouth himself. He's alive and well!!

http://babywxg.blogs...ing-to-eat.html

I have found, compared to the 50 moms in my local moms group (insane right?!) that I seem to have the 'best' eater, who is the least picky and most happy with meal times. That said - he is probebly the messiest - becasue he absolutely LOVES his food. But - that is what water and washcloths are for! Absolutley no stress about meal times in our home - ever. Love it.

I can answer lots of questions if you have them, but the book in my blog post was perfect and full of all the info you need!

Best of luck!

[Ope]

Although , I made mostly my own baby food, but I think store bought baby food are fine, but read the labels! Many contains sugar,salt and what not. I always bought organic, and I am with Sandra , I think the single fruit ones actually taste yummy ( As they do not have anything else just fruit and ascorbic acid, there is no reason them to taste anything else)
I always kept a few jars of organic prune at home for constipations , and a few others for variety. Depending on your climate not all fruits and veggies are available in all season.

Also do not forget that every child is different. Some moves on from the purée stage rather quicky, others not so much.My son had issues, and I had to puree foor for a loooooong time. I remember that by his 1st birthday he was using spoon and was able to feed himself , but only puréed food. He was around 17 months when he started to eat finger food.

Plus at times, for example on vacation, they are rather convenient. Maybe I am a bad mom, but I decided not to take my blender, by baby food containers, pots and pans for cooking and what not for our family vacation. We went for vacation twice during the purée times, and both times my son ate store bought food for a whole week. I bet there was even banana , lol

[doodle bug]

Hey SD
For us avacado, banana, yams, and butternut squash were first foods that were popular. I pureed/mashed but only for maybe a few weeks..... I tried to puree meat- but it always tasted gross and was never recieved well. Yogurt was popular, and we ate a lot of boiled egg whites. (i guess thats a no-no???- WHOOPS!) ...but my kids loooove them still. We were late teethers over here...so lots of over steamed cauliflower and broccoli- they love those.
Finger foods are great too....we did A LOT...., but it is nice to have some nice warm oatmeal sometimes....
I can't belive Anika is already 6 months old. Get your butt over here so we can play!!!

[Rain]

First foods are so exciting! DD is 10.5 months old and we did a combination of methods with her. I received the Baby Bullet as a shower gift and used it occasionally to purée fruits. It was too cute not to use it (comes with little baby jars with dial able dates). We also did a majority of baby lead weaning, much to the horror of my DH and mom. They hate to see her gag on anything. DD is a vegetarian, so we never tried her on meats, but she has eaten finger food since the beginning. Started with banana and avacado - both very soft so she could gum her food well. We were not super deligent with trying a food for days to see if she had a reaction. I figured if she was severely allergic to something it would show up immediately. Also, we were confused with what to 'delay' as there doesn't seem to be consensus anywhere what you should wait to give them. We decided early on to just feed her what we were eating - spices and all (with slight modification of not adding salt, figured we could add it to our individual meals if needed). I had read somewhere that many cultures give their children spicy foods as most cultures just feed their children whatever they are eating. For me it was just easier to feed her our food as I found it challenging to be making her seperate foods and really wanted to limit store bought. As a result, DD can handle spicer food that my DH does, and she loves spicy foods! We have tried some store bought in emergency situations, and the only kind she likes is a brand called Baby Gourmet. All organic and tastes very good http://www.babygourmet.com/. My theory is if it doesnt taste good to me i wouldnt expect her to like it..

I'm also a believer that meals should be enjoyable and not rushed. I let DD take her time eating until she wants no more and allowed her to make whatever mess she wants. Sometimes I still feed her and sometimes she feeds herself. I tried to never make it a power struggle and so far she is a very content eater and eats everything imaginable. When we go out for dinner, she will happily sit on my lap the entire meal and eat from my plate. Its made our life easier as we don't get concerned about taking her to a restaurant or to a friends for dinner and people often comment how quite and content she is to sit on my lap and eat.

Good luck with your food adventures! Enjoy it, but I agree with what others said, get read for the stinky poos!

[silverdollar]

Doodle you were ahead of the times - now eggs are in the new recommendations as long as they are fully cooked. I'm still going to try to get over there for a play date, we need some consistently nice weather.

Rain - interesting that you talk about your DD sitting on your lap to eat out at restaurants. We traveled through Europe when my Daughter was 3-4 months and she sat on my lap, or my husbands all the time. Since we've been home she has wanted to be at the table with us for meals too usually in her highchair, but if we eat out she happily sits on a lap. I think it's what they know.

BV - I looked at your blog. Great photos! How long did it take to get him to eat the chunk of meat with the fork? I could see Anika picking up a chunk of avacado or banana and feeding herself. She might even manage a spoon. We'll see.

[Baby 4 Millers]

Silverdollar - actually the cooked yolk is a great first food but the white should still be delayed until one year. Still the recommendation on health Canada and CPS.

[frostedlemon]

I use the PC Organics jarred food as well since I found it really difficult to find a lot of organic produce around here and a lot of it wasn't in season when we were starting. They taste pretty good to me, especially the fruits. I make my own for a bunch of things, but I do like the convenience of having them on hand and the flexibility of the different foods. And they're no more expensive than the other types of baby food.

For the steelcut oats, Calvin can't handle the texture of them made just as they are, so I put it through my coffee grinder and then cook it, so it's a bit smoother and less chewy. The amount of water is the same, but the cooking time is a bit less, just keep your eye on it if you're doing it that way. He's now able to handle the lumps so I'm hoping to be able to make it straight pretty soon. When we first started, he would gag on even small soft lumps of oatmeal or even pieces of soft banana. Sadly, I think he may have inherited my gag reflex

I really wanted to do baby led weaning but I have allergies so I wanted a more controlled approach. In hindsight, I think it was the right choice based on texture tolerance alone... I'm not sure he would have done very well with eating whole foods, no matter how soft, right off the bat.

[BabyVibez]

silverdollar - he has nibbled meat all along. he mostly just sucked the juices out of it for a couple months, then he went off and wouldnt eat any for a few weeks, then he started knawing and getting actual mouthfulls and now (16mos) he ate chicken thighs rolled in panko, roasted broccoli and sweet potatoes (I had the same meal) with his fingers/spoon. He is only now learning how to 'scoop' his morning cheerios/milk, but has been successfull with thicker things (apple sauce, yogurt etc) for a while. It's messy - but he is soooo proud of himself when he actually gets a spoonfull in his mouth!

[silverdollar]

The newest recommendations in BC suggest there is no need to hold off on egg white unless there is a family Hx of allergies. My sheet from the health unit talks about whole cooked eggs from 6months and up. It's such a change from the previous recommendations.

[doodle bug]

Yay! We eat A LOT of eggs (almost every day) . I'm glad I havent been poisoning my children

[silverdollar]

After she tried to eat some grass at the park and an envelope at a friend's house, I decided to just go ahead and start her on solids. For our first attempt with the cereal I put the bowl on the highchair tray and she dipped her spoon in and brought it to her mouth all on her own. She's since had some soft finger foods (papaya, cucumber, prunes, egg, salmon, broccoli) and absolutely loves drinking from a real open top cup. I just have to share this photo series:

 AnikaEats.jpg   443.23K   3 downloads

[frostedlemon]

Wow, I'm impressed! And love the pictures, she's so cute.

[Baby 4 Millers]

The newest recommendations in BC suggest there is no need to hold off on egg white unless there is a family Hx of allergies. My sheet from the health unit talks about whole cooked eggs from 6months and up. It's such a change from the previous recommendations.

Curious. No update to health Canada's nutrition for healthy term infants on this point. I thought it also had to do with egg whites binding biotin.

Silverdollar - I love the pictures

[Yearning]

SD

Those pictures are so precious. Thanks for sharing!

[silverdollar]

The newest recommendations in BC suggest there is no need to hold off on egg white unless there is a family Hx of allergies. My sheet from the health unit talks about whole cooked eggs from 6months and up. It's such a change from the previous recommendations.

Curious. No update to health Canada's nutrition for healthy term infants on this point. I thought it also had to do with egg whites binding biotin.

Silverdollar - I love the pictures

I will ask the dietician about the eggs the next time I'm at the health unit.

[sharlene]

The newest recommendations in BC suggest there is no need to hold off on egg white unless there is a family Hx of allergies. My sheet from the health unit talks about whole cooked eggs from 6months and up. It's such a change from the previous recommendations.

Curious. No update to health Canada's nutrition for healthy term infants on this point. I thought it also had to do with egg whites binding biotin.

Silverdollar - I love the pictures

I will ask the dietician about the eggs the next time I'm at the health unit.

Apparently, if you do a search, the advice has changed - but it still depends on whether there are suspected allergic issues due to family history - the more interesting thing to me is that whatever the baby likes now doesn't mean a whole lot in terms of likes and dislikes when they get to toddlerhood! I miss those days of when my little one ate almost anything put in front of him (though he disliked jarred baby food and I don't blame him) - boy have things changed!

Super cute photos!