Baby food

Roses87

I know before we know it our babies will be eating "real food". I was just curious what is everyone's plan for this big step? Timing, how and what will you start with?

CopperT0p

We did baby led weaning with DS1, starting at 6 months and will do the same with this one.  We started with things like slices of avocado, slices of cooked sweet potato, etc. We would put a slice on the high chair tray and let him do what he wanted with it. Sometimes he just painted with his food, sometimes it made it to his mouth.  

mommygrams0730

CopperT0p said:

We did baby led weaning with DS1, starting at 6 months and will do the same with this one.  We started with things like slices of avocado, slices of cooked sweet potato, etc. We would put a slice on the high chair tray and let him do what he wanted with it. Sometimes he just painted with his food, sometimes it made it to his mouth.  

This was us, almost identical timing and first foods. We'll be doing the same thing this time around too.

Roses87

I am in no rush to start this. I was thinking in July when DD is 6 months. I plan on starting slow. I do want to read more about the baby lead weaning, this does interest me. I personally do not want to give the rice cereal but my husband wants to. I wouldn't mind doing the baby oatmeal for breakfast in the morning but I will breast feed her first before giving her food. I plan to start with vegetables and stick with those for a while. I will probably puree some items and others give whole and let her mouth.once we get through the veggies I will introduce the fruit. I am not set on this, I still have some reading up to do and decisions to make. I am a FTM and still have things to learn. This is why I was curious to what everyone else was planning on doing.

Roses87

@CopperT0p did you do the cereal at all? My SIL did baby lead weaning too that is how I learned about it. I think its pretty cool. It made me very nervous at first about choking when she was giving my nephew chunks, but he never had a problem. He was obviously supervised, which dd will be watched like a hawk.

CopperT0p

No, we didn't use infant cereal.  Other than some Cheerio type cereal when he was a little older.  

They do sometimes gag on food in the early stages, but DS1 never choked.  Heck, he gagged eating a slice of tomato today at lunch and he's 3 years old!  The gagging can freak some people out, but their gag reflex is typically strong enough that they don't get to the point of choking.  Obviously choking can happen, but if you are smart with the types of foods you offer at different stages it can help reduce the amount of gagging. 

We never used Mum-Mums or any other "baby" foods.  I personally felt like he would get more nutrition out of an avocado or steamed carrot than infant cereal.  We made sure to introduce iron rich foods at the same time, so he would have some meats in there as well and cheese. He basically ate what we ate after while got the hang of putting food in his mouth.  It made it nice since we didn't have to worry about running out of his food.  

ababymaybe

I'll wait until six months or so. I don't see the rush as frankly solids are kind of a pain in the ass-- lots of mess and one more thing to carry/worry about.

Not sure of the approach. I might try a BLW hybrid of sorts. Giving him what we eat as in meals out of the gate isn't an option with a strong family history of food allergies. We have to introduce every food and spice one by one, but I still might try pieces of food a la BLW rather than purées this time.

bee1916

Definitely want to invest in a puree system (a puree-er?) for when DS starts on solids. If we do rice cereal before 6mo then I plan on mixing with breast milk. Like PPers have said, I plan on incorporating foods/spices slowly because we have a history of dietary sensitivity in our families.

angiek1

With DD#1 we started to introduce food at 4 months. We gave her pureed steak once a day. This introduction didn't replace a meal, it just started to get her used to the texture of food and eating from a  spoon. We didn't introduce another food until she was 5 or 6 months old. From there we'd introduce one food a week and I believe at 6 months we started to use food to replace a meal.

I plan to do the same thing with this baby.

ChuggingWater

No rush here. With DS1, I was so excited to start and if was just a waste of money. We will probably do a hybrid of blw and purées ( since I was given two boxes).

NenaMarie84

LO's dr. said we could start foods at 4 months if we want but I am thinking of waiting til 5 or 6 months even and going with the BLW. There are a lot of pros with it that I like and not having to make purees is also nice.  I am leaning towards skipping cereals too.  If anything I'll do oatmeal. I still have a few months to make those decisions and it all depends on how DD responds to food too.

Lena122

I made all of DS's baby food and started him at 6 months. I was in no hurry to start him and now I'm in no hurry to start DD.

I'll probably try to do more BLW with her and also homemade purées.

thegosiers

I will ask pedi at our 4 month appt (2 weeks from now) but my gut tells me LO won't be interested until 6 months. I plan to do BLW, even though it's something I learned about only during pregnancy. I'll be honest - I was totally looking forward to making purées like Diane Keaton in Baby Boom.

Probably a blend of both strategies to satisfy my desire to get all OCD on puréeing and storing baby food. 

Cormelbaby

I'm in no hurry, but my hubby is! I think we will do cereal with breast milk for a month when he's 4 months. I would prefer to wait but I think he will win this one. Obviously if LO isn't diggin it we will stop and try at a later date. LO already likes to watch us eat and seems interested in food.

amt0312

Hate to say it, but I'm starting right away at 4 months with purees and some cereal. LO spits up so much and feeding her a bottle is pretty difficult. I definitely will not be forcing food on her, but start out slowly and see how she likes it. 

Toribaker171

We're planning to do the same as you @amt0312.. We're skipping cereal though and starting out with purees. LO spits up a lot too, more than normal even on a spit up formula that is thicker, and she is never quite satisfied with her bottle.. During the day she often eats 4 oz every 2 hours and more often than not is still hungry! She's showing a lot of signs of being ready, but of course we'll let her ped give the final say, and we won't force it if she's not ready yet.

firsttimemom143

FTM here....so this may be a silly question but why do some of you skip cereals? I havent done any research and I am thinking about reading more about the whole BLW thing....sounds interesting.

bethughknee

Planning to do BLW. DD sits in her high chair with us at the table most nights so we will wait until she shows interest in our food. Right now she just tells Jacques the Peacock about her day, obviously. I would like her first food to be avocado but we'll see.


@firsttimemom143 Skipping cereals is part of BLW. This is the site run by the guy who "pioneered" BLW. His book is also on Amazon. https://www.babyledweaning.com/

firsttimemom143

thanks! @bethughknee

Toribaker171

We aren't doing BLW, but are planning to skip the cereal because a lot of research today shows that it has very little nutritional value. It's a preference thing really. Dr. Google has some interesting links to pages for both sides which is what we looked into to start, of course the internet doesn't know everything though.. We plan to discuss with our ped. first!

MrsGraham06

Skipping cereal. The older 3 never liked it, so not even going to try. Ped is fine with that.

We'll probably do a mix of BLW and purees. I might try to make my own, and maybe just make things for the family that the baby can eat. I will wait until she shows interest, I think we did things "wrong" with DD1. (I think we started too early, she was interested but didn't eat it, and quit nursing as well, didn't gain weight as well as she should, had lots of other issues, no fun)