Parenting after 35
Julia-Henry
member
Options
any tips for starting solids? beaba babycook?
Julia-Henry
member
Which products do you like? Any that you would advise staying away from?
Did you make your own or buy babyfood?
If you have the beaba babycook, is it worth it? do you like it? does it work for stage 1 stuff? (really pureed, no chunks?)
Thanks for any info!
2012 Races:
Mar 24: Great Human Race 5K. April 28: 5K for Fitness
This discussion has been closed.
Re: any tips for starting solids? beaba babycook?
I don't have the time or energy to make my own baby food so I buy. I started with Earth's Best but switched to Gerber because it's found more easily and there seems to be more variety.
We started S on Rice cereal at 4 months. After a week of that, we introduced a veggie. After a week of that, another veggie. Then we started to do the 3 day time thingie and now she eats solids three times a day: rice cereal with fruit for breakfast, veggie for lunch, veggie and/or fruit for dinner.
She also LOVES frozen fruit in the mesh feeder. She will purse those little lips together and absolutely refuse a 'solid' at times but if I just show her that feeder she immediately pops open her mouth! ; )
click the pic (blog)
I've been making my own and using Earth's Best and Sprout (we got a mixed case of this as a present - yummy but not sold any where near us). Making the food has been much easier than I ever would have guessed and I like that I know what she's eating (and it is a lot cheaper). Seriously, never took longer than 15 minutes to make and clean up a batch, even for carrots and sweet potatoes that take longer to cook. I have just used a ton of freezer bags, 2 ice cube trays, a steamer insert and our food processor. For the first purees, you can get things smooth by added some of the water you steamed with. Although my stuff was never as thin as store bought, Ellie never seemed to mind.
We started with avocado and banana which you just mush up, no cooking. Then moved on to apples, pears, pumpkin (open a can of pumpkin and freeze in ice cube trays - couldn't be easier and she loves it). She also loves the berries - blue, raspberries, strawberries (none are on the AAP's allergy/avoid before 1 list any more). Since Ellie was 6 months, we've added proteins, puffs, cheerios and now bagels.
Two good websites: wholesomebabyfood.com and homemade-baby-food-recipes.com Best advice my pedi gave us was to have fun. Only thing we avoid are the choking hazzards, cinnamon (apparently it is highly allergenic and people often assume the intolerance is to the food not the seasoning), egg whites and dairy since I have a dairy allergy. GL and have fun. And remember, just to keep trying a few days later if they don't like something.
Hi Julia! I went by the book when introducing solids to my BF babies. I didn't introduce anything until 6 months, but DD2 really didn't show signs of readiness before then--if your LO is showing interest, then go ahead and try some rice cereal. We quickly moved on to mashed avocados/bananas and other steamed and pureed veggies/fruits--a new one every 3 - 4 days to check for sensitivities. I do make my own babyfood about 75% of the time. It's easy! A friend offered to let me have her Babycook b/c she doesn't like it--says it only makes a couple servings at a time. I can steam/roast a couple of sweet potatoes, puree them in my little food processor, freeze in my Orca trays, and have meals for a week! I encourage you to try making your own food with what you probably already have in your kitchen--if you like doing it, then look at investing in a specialized appliance, but I bet you find you don't need it. When we use store-bought food, it's Earth's Best, Sprout, or Plum Organics, or Gerber Organics. My first daughter didn't like any store bought foods with Ascorbic Acid so I try to avoid the packaged stuff with that ingredient. The store bought stuff will shock you with how little it tastes like the real thing! Even the good organic stuff tastes "distorted", IMO, so I try to feed her homemade as much as possible. We also now feed Oatmeal cereal--DD likes it way more than the rice cereal, but our dr. said to start with the rice as it's the least likely to cause an allergic reaction. Anyway, don't be too intimidated by starting solids--sounds like your LO is ready! Get that camera ready for that first meal!!
Oh, and have EVERYTHING ready to go and laid out out of baby's reach at the start of each meal--bib, papertowels/cloth, extra spoons. I have to remove all toys or else they get smeared with food or DD gets preoccupied...just little things I've learned as I go along... good luck to you!!
I'm in the minority, I guess! I use the babycook, and I love it! You don't need it, it's not like it does anything you can't do with a steamer and a food processor, but I love me some gadgets and it does save time.
I love to cook, so I integrate the 15-30 minutes it takes to make babycook babyfood into my normal cooking routine about twice a week. At first it was just cereals to check for allergies, so I didn't use it yet and made the cereal really soupy. Then, once we started purees, I mixed it with the cereal to get her used to the flavors and to mask the rougher texture of a babycook puree. You can also just push it through a sieve.
Her favorite is probably pears. She loooves pears. We started adding cinnamon recently as well, she loves that too. I think I have given her one jar of peas, I don't remember the brand, but she didn't like it.