First grains/pastas for baby?

MsPurple24 · January 2012

I'd love some advice on this topic. Haley has been eating tons of fruits and vegetable purees for several months, and she started eating plain, whole milk yogurt around 9 months (I was told that was the best dairy to start before 12 months, and she loves it).

She's still breastfeeding just as often, but her appetite for solids seems to be growing. So I started giving her quinoa, and unfortunately we overdid it. After about 4 days of eating it once/day with squash, it was making her poop giant and very dry, and started constipating her. When her little bottom turned red and one poop actually caused an open sore, my DCP suggested we stop the quinoa for a bit and put her on fruits for a few days. That's where we're at now.

My go-to site for solids is wholesomebabyfood.com, which I love. But now I'm wary of trying other grains, since the quinoa seemed to be too much. She definitely wants more solids, so I was going to try couscous next, since they're nice, small pieces.

Any advice for me? Is there something else I can start adding to her diet that might satisfy her? She doesn't seem to be losing an interest in nursing, so I'm not worried about that. We just alternate solids and nursing throughout the day.

TIA!

ladipale · January 2012

Do you do oatmeal? We switched Ellie to 'grown up' oatmeal pretty early on. I make big batches of steel cut oats in the crock pot for the week. She loves it. I mix in bananas or other fruit. Actually, we all eat it. So yummy

And what kind of squash were you doing? From what I hear, winter squashes can be quite constipating so that may have been the cause as well.

We've been giving E pasta (she likes the small wagon wheels the best) for quite some time. I mix it with a veggie puree, or add whole peas. We give her regular brown rice when we eat it, and plenty of beans, black beans are her favorite.

secretkeeper321 · January 2012

Have you tried mixing the Earth's Best baby oatmeal with her pureed fruit? That or the rice cereal also is an easy mixer with veggies.

Oatmeal has always been a huge hit in our house.

How much of the grain are you offering in comparison to the fruit/veggie. Maybe it was too much, too soon? I don't know, I'm just guessing.

Cous cous worked well with green beans for us. I also did brown rice and broccoli in a chunky puree and then would serve over yogurt....he actually still likes this one even though he totally eats solids and feeds himself.

MsPurple24 · January 2012

You know, we've never done oatmeal. I'm not really sure why, but I guess I didn't know what type to offer her. I try not to buy baby-specific foods (mainly because of the cost), so making it myself would definitely be my best choice. If I can just give her steel-cut oats with something mixed in, I'll bet she'd love that.

It is possible that I just gave her too much of the quinoa. It was probably 3:1 quinoa to squash. We've been giving her mainly the delicata squash, sometimes butternut. Alone, the squash didn't bother her at all, but maybe mixed with the grains it was too much.

ladipale · January 2012

In general I don't buy baby food often, we do keep a few pouches on hand for times when we are out and about, Ellie goes bananas for the mix that is chicken, sweet potatoes and brown rice pasta. Both the Plum Organic and Happy Baby Version.

MsPurple24 · January 2012

ladipale:
We've been giving E pasta (she likes the small wagon wheels the best) for quite some time. I mix it with a veggie puree, or add whole peas. We give her regular brown rice when we eat it, and plenty of beans, black beans are her favorite.

Does she have to chew up the wagon wheels? Haley still has NO teeth, although she's always been ok with chunky purees and she's pretty good at mashing things in her mouth before swallowing. She bites off giant chunks of rice cracker and mashes it before swallowing (usually....).

How about the beans? Are they pretty easy to eat and digest before 1 year?

ladipale · January 2012

MsPurple24:
ladipale:
We've been giving E pasta (she likes the small wagon wheels the best) for quite some time. I mix it with a veggie puree, or add whole peas. We give her regular brown rice when we eat it, and plenty of beans, black beans are her favorite.
Does she have to chew up the wagon wheels? Haley still has NO teeth, although she's always been ok with chunky purees and she's pretty good at mashing things in her mouth before swallowing. She bites off giant chunks of rice cracker and mashes it before swallowing (usually....).
How about the beans? Are they pretty easy to eat and digest before 1 year?

I don't think she actually uses her teeth much with pasta, etc. I've tried to watch and she uses her back gums much more than her teeth. We started pasta when she only had 2 teeth. I get super nervous when introducing new foods, but at this point she's had just about everything. Its hard to keep her from eating stuff when she's with her cousins and friends all the time. Last week she had a few bites of popcorn and pretzels that she stole from her cousin. I think stale cheerios she digs up from under the sofa are probably the most dangerous thing she eats

She has had no problem with digesting beans. We also do lentils as well (she LOVES them) Wholesome baby foods suggests introducing them between 8 and 10 months. They are in same family as peas (legumes)

ladipale · January 2012

and i tend to overcook the pasta for her.

katrina_pharmd · January 2012

We give DS (who is almost 10 months) cous cous, overcooked pasta, baby oatmeal, rice, and tofu. He loves tofu mixed with veggies; I started giving him this to add a different texture to his purees.

MsPurple24 · January 2012

katrina_pharmd:
We give DS (who is almost 10 months) cous cous, overcooked pasta, baby oatmeal, rice, and tofu. He loves tofu mixed with veggies; I started giving him this to add a different texture to his purees.

Awesome- thanks everyone! These are all great ideas.

secretkeeper321 · January 2012

I still overcook H's pasta when it is just for him....and I cut the larger noodles up into pieces. Only because I'm paranoid he is going to choke and he doesn't seem to chew when he's really hungry...just shovels and swallows.

ladipale · January 2012

and I'm all about letting her 'play' with her food. half the time she only eats but a few bites of pasta, the rest she squishes in her hand and smears on her face while I try to shovel veggies in her mouth and she begs for water. And I can never deny her when she signs 'please' because she moves her whole body back and forth and its the cutest thing ever.

MsPurple24 · January 2012

ladipale:
and I'm all about letting her 'play' with her food. half the time she only eats but a few bites of pasta, the rest she squishes in her hand and smears on her face while I try to shovel veggies in her mouth and she begs for water. And I can never deny her when she signs 'please' because she moves her whole body back and forth and its the cutest thing ever.

OMG. That's too cute. Haley is only signing "milk" so far (and sometimes I think she's waving at me, I'm not always sure). I'd love for her to learn "more" and "all done" because right now it just seems like she wants to eat and eat and eat...

p2p91507 · January 2012

Pastina is what we used to feed DS. They are itty bitty tiny stars. I guess kind of like cous cous. We would cook a bunch at a time with chicken broth then freeze in individual portions.

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