Feeding LO - December

KaLikeAWind

Yes, I'm a day early. Whatever.

I know some of you have already started cereals / purees / solids. This month will probably see more of us transitioning over. And there are also our EBF to 6 month mama's, who will reach their goals sometime in December, too! Lots of noms noms noms going on this month!

What's happening with your LO?

caitlincunn

Just tried peas earlier, she is not a fan

KaLikeAWind

At the grocery today I bought some oatmeal cereal and just a couple of the Gerber stage 1 purees. I plan on mostly puree-ing foods we eat once we get going for real, but I wanted to have this stuff just for our starting out stage. I won't try it until DH is home so he can see and participate, but I think we're pretty close to trying some spoon fed stuff. LO has been reaching for our drinks and watching us intently when we eat, sometimes putting his hand out then, too

cbrtncanadian

I think we are gonna have some cereal for lunch today since the ped. cleared us to start at the last visit. I also want to take advantage of DH being home so he can participate.

I bought cereals when there was a good deal all are to be mixed with BM so I'm not worried about the nutrition component. I more want to allow him to experience them and allow a gradual introduction to grains for his digestive system.

I also picked up some puréed veggies and fruits but they are mixed of several things. So before we try those we will do each of the foods individually likely.

I'm getting excited and his bibs are getting nervous for all the washing ahead lol.

Sammy K

I've tried rice cereal and LO is not interested. She spits it out and then it reminds her she's hungry and she screams for a bottle. I'm not overly excited to try real food because of all the GI issues she's had. And she really doesn't seem that interested in what we eat. DS shoved a Cheerio in her mouth this morning but DH fished it out so she wouldn't choke. We'll get there.

ChardeeMacDennis

I was all set to start solids this week since she's been interested lately, but I completely forgot to buy any at the grocery store. Sorry, third baby.

Oh, and in other news, she's refusing bottles all of a sudden? She is such a mystery.

YouAreMySunshine15

We've been trying purees for the last month and a half. The last two days we tried oatmeal and apples mixed. She loves it.

I think we'll switch to BLW in 2 weeks or so.

dancegurl1118

I feel like a total dummy I don't know where to start with solids. Rice cereal? Do people still do that? Do I mix it with breastmilk? Warm? Gahhhhh

KaLikeAWind

dancegurl1118 said:

I feel like a total dummy I don't know where to start with solids. Rice cereal? Do people still do that? Do I mix it with breastmilk? Warm? Gahhhhh

This is EXACTLY how I felt today looking at that wall of stuff. I decided to get the oatmeal cereal and those few purées just to have a jumping off point. I guess I'll try the cereal first and see if he is able to swallow and not gag or push it out with his tongue. Try that a few times a day during regular feedings just to get the feel for it, then move up to some of the purées once he has the idea of what it means to eat with a spoon.

Basically, I have no idea what I'm doing. If I had a proper tub, I'd take a nice long soak and read my mayo clinic guide on graduating out of bottles. But my tub sucks, which means I'll have to sacrifice Xbox or DVR time to read this. Bah.

jessieR358

If I'm waiting until 6 months to introduce anything do i still start with rice cereal? If so How long do you give them that? My ped gave me no information. Just "he needs to be eating when I see you at his 6 month appointment". This is more overwhelming than I thought!
At first I was going to do BLW but the more I read I changed my mind.

47923ang

I really like the info on this site. It's a lot about making baby food, but you could use the chart for ideas about what to feed and when.

https://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/solids.htm

I have made my own food so far, and we've tried a lot. Carrots and bananas have been favorites, and peas and green beans have been hated. Didn't love/didn't hate acorn squash, sweet potatoes, rice cereal, and oatmeal cereal.

I tried buying peas and green beans, because the texture of homemade was weird, but they still didn't like them. Rice cereal made babies CRANKY (constipated?) so we're holding off on it.

Some foods I can't tell if they are having digestive problems/crankiness from or if it's coincidence (we've had colds and stomach bugs in the house, and teething).

We eat food for a week or so, then something makes them cranky, so I give them a few days off, then we try again.

https://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/solids.htm

aj1327

I started with rice cereal mixed surf breast milk. He's had peas and sweet potatoes and likes them both. I've bought it and wanted to introduce veggies before fruit.

alcrimmins

We started with rice and oatmeal first and have been doing that for her second to last feeding of the day, mixed with formula. She hates rice at first and loved oatmeal, now she's the opposite. She's a hot mess! It took her a week to figure out how to move the food to the back of her mouth to swallow. I think I'm going to start giving her cereal for breakfast too and switch to cereal at just breakfast once we start vegetables. I think we'll start veggies in a week or so.
@423ang Thanks for the link! I've been looking for a good chart to print off!
ETA: I measure out portions using her spoons that I feed her with. I started with 2 spoons of rice to 2 spoons of formula. Now I make it much thicker. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing when I started this.

HoosOnFirst

@mellymar and @dancegurl1118 I'm with ya. I bought an avocado at the store because I was like "this is what I do, right?" It's still optimistically on the counter ripening. I also wiped down our second hand high chair booster seat for ... Preparation. For something.

I did check out some of the sites others suggested but I still feel dumb. Do we start with rice cereal or veggies? Does it matter?

delujm0

We're considering starting solids a few weeks early because after STTN for about a month, LO has gone back to waking up between 4:30 and 5:30am hungry, and it's 50/50 on getting her to go back to sleep at that point.  We weighed her this morning and she's about 19.5lbs, so perhaps she does need more calories now.  Who knows.  She'll be 6 months on the 21st, so starting this weekend wouldn't be that early, and the doctor told us we could start at her 4 month appointment (which we declined to do since she seemed to be doing fine on breastmilk alone at the time).

 

I have no idea what to do, but i think i'll buy some oatmeal cereal and easy to puree veggies this weekend and give it a go.  Maybe start with baked and pureed sweet potato?  Or ripe banana?  Who knows.  But question - she doesn't sit up real well just yet.  She's ok in the bumbo (except that i have to wedge her in and really pull her out because of her enormous thighs), but her reflux seems to be bad when she's bent at the waist...any time we sit her up on anything (or put her in her infant car seat) within 30-60 minutes of a feeding, she barfs everywhere.  Where should we put her to feed her?  Try the Bumbo?  Get out the high chair (it does have a harness, which i guess would help keep her upright)?  WHAT DO I DO???

 

Given her size and general love of eating, i don't anticipate her having a problem with consuming solids.  She's at the point where she gets really excited to take her Zantac (which has a mint flavor i believe) and has been attempting to turn her face and drink her bathwater for a week now.  She's really a piece of work.

Mommaswizz

So my doc would rather we waited till 6 months but my LO is so clearly interested in what we're eating and is becoming increasingly less into her bottle. We've done rice cereal before bed. She seems to like it and it looks like it's helping her spit up less which is great but it's constipating her. Not to the point that I'm worried (she still goes every day or two) but she is straining and making the weirdest (re: funny/ sad) faces while pooping.

Thinking maybe if we get some veggies in the mix it might keep things from getting backed up. I seriously feel like i dont know what i'm doing though. I still keep feeding formula too right? When the eff can i stop buying formula for pete's sake?

hudson202

hoodoll82 said:

@mellymar and @dancegurl1118 I'm with ya. I bought an avocado at the store because I was like "this is what I do, right?" It's still optimistically on the counter ripening. I also wiped down our second hand high chair booster seat for ... Preparation. For something.

I did check out some of the sites others suggested but I still feel dumb. Do we start with rice cereal or veggies? Does it matter?

Let me preface with I literally know nothing. And it looks like everyones ped is saying different things with the same end goal. My ped said to skip the cereal and go straight to veggies like avacado, sweet potato ect at 6 months old.

I don't know if I am going to be able to make it to 6 months bf'ing because I am running short everyday pumping now and my freezer stash has 3 bags left. So now I'm torn between using formula for the next few weeks to supplement or starting solids. I don't know which one is better. . .

47923ang

I've read "food before one is just for fun." Meaning, the main form of calories should still be breast milk or formula until 1 year old.

I know that breastmilk is about 20 calories an ounce. And if you think of the number of calories in an ounce of carrot, you can see that food won't be a filler/calorie help til they eat a bunch of it.

KaLikeAWind

Yes I've figured that we will still be using formula for a while now. These times are just to get them used to the texture and taste and help them develop their ability to eat something other than milk. I don't really think I could get enough food into LO to replace the calories he gets from formula.

ETA I plan on asking his pedi when we go this month how to balance the formula / food equation. I know she did say when we were there last we could make our food purées using formula. So technically, that way, you'd be 'boosting' it with extra calories by mixing it with formula or breastmilk.

Mommaswizz

423ang said:

I've read "food before one is just for fun." Meaning, the main form of calories should still be breast milk or formula until 1 year old. I know that breastmilk is about 20 calories an ounce. And if you think of the number of calories in an ounce of carrot, you can see that food won't be a filler/calorie help til they eat a bunch of it.

This helps! I figured we'd need to keep formula till at least one but I'm hoping that as she gets closer to that point that we can start weaning down the formula or start using regular milk. Alas, i'm destined to be cleaning up formula puke forever

YouAreMySunshine15

@Mommaswizz From what I understand, no cows milk before age one. I'm sure she'll still start to take in less formula closer to then though, because she'll be gradually increasing her solid intake!

delujm0

Mommaswizz said:

423ang said:

I've read "food before one is just for fun." Meaning, the main form of calories should still be breast milk or formula until 1 year old. I know that breastmilk is about 20 calories an ounce. And if you think of the number of calories in an ounce of carrot, you can see that food won't be a filler/calorie help til they eat a bunch of it.

This helps! I figured we'd need to keep formula till at least one but I'm hoping that as she gets closer to that point that we can start weaning down the formula or start using regular milk. Alas, i'm destined to be cleaning up formula puke forever

I've read that the intake of breastmilk or formula shouldn't decrease until about 10 months - which is when most babies are having  3 "meals" a day plus snacks of solid foods.  At that point they will start getting more calories from food and cut down on the nursing/bottles on their own.  No idea if that's true.

aj1327

I didn't even ask my pedi about solids. I meant to but forgot. He started lunging at my food so I started. I figured, my kid, so I'm rolling with it. I bought Earths Best sweet potatoes, we did those 1 week, and then I added peas to the mix.

I had hopes of making my own and still do, but for some reason I felt more comfortable buying to start out. I think the 4+ months on the jar made me feel better.

amsargent08

Well we started solids on Thanksgiving with sweet potatoes and she loves them. We tried bananas on Sunday and got a lot of funny faces, maybe because it's a different texture. I've been mixing foods with a little breast milk. I've bought everything from the store and made my own foods so far (Go Mama!) which really hasn't been too bad. I'm doing the ice cube tray and freezing method from the Momtastic website. I'm just not sure on how many times per day I should be letting her try theses foods - just once? Twice? I've seen different advice on different sites. We see the ped next Friday so hopefully I'll get an answer there.

KaLikeAWind

amccoy129 said:

I didn't even ask my pedi about solids. I meant to but forgot. He started lunging at my food so I started. I figured, my kid, so I'm rolling with it. I bought Earths Best sweet potatoes, we did those 1 week, and then I added peas to the mix.

I had hopes of making my own and still do, but for some reason I felt more comfortable buying to start out. I think the 4+ months on the jar made me feel better.

My pedi actually brought it up at the 4m appt, saying we were talking about it then because by 6m he might have been ready by then and she wanted us to have had the conversation if we felt he could start before his 6m appt. So it sounds like she is anticipating most people to begin solids between 4-6m.

And I also bought the stuff from the store because of the reassurance of the 4+ months on that package, and the little 'how do you know if baby is ready?' blurb on the back of cereal package.

mindaa

At about 5.5 months, we started feeding LO little bites of things we were eating, like avocado, banana, squash and sweet potato.  Just to get him used to it and check for reaction. We also let him play with his spoon a little (thank you to whoever suggested that!)

DH started sitting up on his own last week and is 6 months today. We gave him two "meals" on Sunday, then took a day off to see how he reacted. We mixed 1/2 serving of oatmeal with a piece of mashed banana and he loved it! At first he didn't want to let go of the spoon, but very quickly made the connection that if he gave it back, it would return full. After his first meal, he went an extra hour between feedings but his evening meal didn't improve his sleep at all.   

aresee

LO just turned 5 months (he's a June 26 baby) and is starting to seem ready, but for some reason I'm really nervous to start. For one really selfish thing, we cloth diaper and I haven't figured out yet what we're going to do with solid-food poo.  But we bought some baby oatmeal and spoons last weekend, so I think we might try this weekend and move to veggies pretty quickly from there.

One thing I've spent a lot of time worrying about is making sure he's eating healthy as he grows up. DH and I are okay eaters, but not great. I really want to instill good habits as much as possible, but I think I'm way overthinking it. I just love the simplicity of breastfeeding. I feed him when he's hungry, and there are no choices to make. Ahh, why does it have to get so much more complicated?!

Sammy K

A little trick I learned with DS: We always tried new foods on a Sunday night. That way, if it didn't sit well, daycare had to deal with the diaper.

addingon

I always had it in my head that I'd wait until 6 months and when the ped gives the OK to start solids, but then the "I know what's best for my baby" instinct kicked in and now we've been doing oat cereal since about 5 months. She's gotten really good at it - it was funny to think that she truly didn't know how to eat (get it off the spoon, feel it in her mouth and swollow). It took a lot of getting used to. Just this week (she'll be 6 mo next week) we tried green beans two days in a row and then carrots two days in a row - lots of hilarious faces and rejection! Starting with veggies so she doesn't get too addicted to the sweets and reject them.

We're just learning as we go. Tonight we didn't do any food, for instance, because she was too busy leaping and acting like a nut!! We try the food and then fill up with her normal bottle.

Biggest suggestion to those who haven't tried foods yet: Have your DH video! I've probably watched the video of LO eating her first veggies 100x - so funny.

alcrimmins

When you feed your LO veggies or cereal, do you also give a bottle after the feeding? If so, do you give less than or the same as you normally would during the feeding without the food? Sorry, this may be confusing but it's something that's bouncing around in my head.

ElRuby

I gave LO cereal for first time yesterday... She is just shy of 6 months and she looked so longingly at our food when we are lol... When I approached her with that spoon of oatmeal cereal she was so excited it! She grabbed the spoon and literally shoved it in her mouth... It was so funny... She has clearly been studying us eating for months!

HoosOnFirst

What oatmeal cereal are most of you using?

ElRuby

^ I use Earth's Best.

rrroy13

Our Ped recommended we start with puréed green veggies so last weekend we tried zucchini and have had it every night this week. I don't think he loves it but he chokes it down, I think just so he can chew on the spoon (can you say teething?!) We'll do green beans next week. Anyone else notice more gassy babies as they introduce solids?

47923ang

rrroy13 said:

Anyone else notice more gassy babies as they introduce solids?

Yes! It's driving me bonkers!

heidiiwa

I've read to feed your baby breastmilk/formula before offering solids, so they are not frustrated by hunger as they are learning. Their main source of nutrition will still be breastmilk or formula until age one or so, and will taper off very gradually.
I'm doing baby led weaning. I was going to wait for 6 months, but temptation got the better of me and LO really needs something to do with his hands and mouth while we are eating. We've been putting him in his high chair and giving him toys to play with while we eat dinner, but he gets bored with his toys and drops them, and has started grabbing for what we are eating and drinking. He was really interested in my water, so the first thing we let him try was a sippy cup of water, and he loves holding it and drinking from it himself. A week or so later, this past weekend, we were eating hand rolled sushi with raw lettuce and cucumber and roasted nori, and I've read cucumber is good for teething, so I let him grab fry-size pieces of cucumber and put them in his mouth. I also gave him some washed, organic lettuce leaves and some nori which he really enjoyed playing with and exploring. It was so fun to watch. I like letting him get the hand-eye coordination practice of handling food himself rather than just passively accepting food on a spoon.
Personally, I don't like being spoon fed. You have no control over what's going into your mouth and you don't know what it is. I like to eat but when I took a class on swallowing disorders in grad school and we did a lab where I was spoon fed by my lab partner, it was very disempowering and really spoiled any pleasure I might have in the taste. So I'm going to let LO learn to feed himself, even though it's messy.
The cucumber was not a choking hazard because he couldn't actually bite a piece off. He just sucked the juices and rubbed it on his gums. I also considered the lettuce and nori not to be choking risks. He didn't actually ingest much if any of them, which is fine with me. I want to give him avocado and banana, which I expect he will be able to actually eat some of by himself, but I'll try to hold out a little longer to get closer to 6 months before making solids a regular every day thing. The timing is good because I have 3 weeks off school for winter break, and LO will meet my relatives again for the first time in four months when we go back to my hometown for my birthday and Christmas. So I'm looking forward to letting him try some restaurant food with my family at my 41st birthday dinner on Dec.23! I have been fantasizing about that for a long time and it makes me really happy. We ate at the same restaurant a year ago on my birthday when I was pregnant,and I'll feel so good comparing "then" and "now" with a healthy baby who can sit in a high chair and eat food:)

YouAreMySunshine15

We use Gerber organic oatmeal cereal.

Yes, I've noticed more gas with solids. Particularly peas! I've busted out the gas drops from her newborn days and they seem to help her.

Those who are doing BLW, what foods do you plan to start with or have you started with?

jessieR358

I've read that if you wait until 6 months you don't need to space foods out by 3-4 days bc theoretically there is less risk of an allergy. Anyone else heard this? Or are you still trying one food at a time for multiple days before introducing new foods.

I have also read to breastfeed/formula before they eat so they aren't so hungry and get frustrated.

No cows milk before 1 year bc it can cause iron deficiency anemia.

Anyone have a baby food maker they really love?

Sammy K

jesshrou said:

No cows milk before 1 year bc it can cause iron deficiency anemia.

Interesting! My mom switched me to cow's milk at 5.5 months. I was on prescription iron from birth due to severe jaundice and stayed on it until 2.

With DS, we started foods at 6 months and were told to wait 3-4 days, but that was 3 years ago. We will do the same for LO but she had so many GI issues early on, I want to make sure we don't overwhelm her system.

ElRuby

I just introduced LO to a teeny amount of Kabocha squash because it is the last of our fall CSA and I didn't want her to miss out on the nutrients... We joined a winter CSA so I am excited to see what we will be getting... She really wasn't too impressed with it lol

alcrimmins

@hoodoll82 We are using regular Gerber oatmeal!

I found this article/chart that I have found to be fairly helpful!

https://www.momjunction.com/articles/essential-tips-to-follow-for-your-babys-food-chart_0080607/?display=wide