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More solids questions (long)

jocgymnast72jocgymnast72 member
edited August 2013 in February 2013 Moms

I apologize for the length and detail of this post, but all these questions are swirling around in my head and people on our board are great about sharing their experiences. SO... here goes. We started solids this week. For 5 days, Ryan has had 1/2 tbsp. Gerber single grain oatmeal mixed with 1.5-2 tbsp. breastmilk. Since the milk is refrigerated, I've been warming it a little before adding to the oatmeal. He seems to like it, but has only eaten all of it one of the 5 days. What is my next step? Things are complicated by the fact that he starts day care on Tuesday, and I won't have time to feed him solids before we leave in the morning. DC does provide baby food (for $276 a week, they certainly should!)

Do I start stirring a fruit into the oatmeal? If so, exactly how do I do that? The DC teachers said they could stir in as much puree with the dry oatmeal as I wanted, then add a little water to thin it if necessary, or I could send a small bottle of breastmilk to stir in. If I send BM for the oatmeal/fruit combo, it would be cold and I'm not sure they'd have an easy way to warm it up because it's such a small amount. So is it OK to have them mix oatmeal, fruit, and water? If so, what should the ratio of oatmeal to fruit be?

Then what about vegetables? You wouldn't stir those in with oatmeal would you? Since you're supposed to introduce new foods in the morning, would I have DC stop doing oatmeal for a while and focus on introducing straight veggies? Seems weird to me to eat veggies at 7:30 in the morning...I just don't know what to do! I'm also afraid, even though the research has proven otherwise, that if I introduce all the fruits first, he won't be interested in vegetables. And when would I add a second "meal?"

Also, I shouldn't let him play with the spoon right? I want him to know the spoon is a tool for eating, not a toy. He grabs the spoon almost every time. He does pull it into his mouth with the food on it, but then doesn't want to let go of it.

I know there's other questions I have, but Ryan is getting up from his nap now. Basically, I'm looking for advice on exactly how to proceed from here. Jeez...BFing is much simpler. What did you do for your solids progression? TIA!

ETA: If I decide to buy Gerber, is it OK to skip the "supported sitter" stage since DS is sitting independently, or do you have to start with the first stage?

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Re: More solids questions (long)

  • Puck1182Puck1182 member
    My situation is a bit different than yours since my mom watches DD when I'm at work, so I can give her specific instructions and she has no problem following them. But our progression has been a little different than yours.

    We started out doing oatmeal twice a day, once in the morning and again at dinner. Started out very thin and gradually made it thicker. After a week we switched to multigrain and did that in te morning and oatmeal at dinner for a week. We're skipping rice for now because I'd rather get DD started on veggies and fruits, plus her cousin was allergic to rice as a baby, so it doesn't seem with it.

    Anyway, we are still doing cereal in the morning and the. Every 3 days or so we will introduce a new food at lunchtime. Then at dinner we will do one of the old fruits or veggies.

    Once we have more stuff introduced [so far it's just cereal, peas, avocado and today we're adding yellow squash], her solids will look like this:

    Breakfast of cereal and fruit
    Lunch of fruit and veggie
    Dinner of veggie and protein

    Once she's ready for finger foods we will probably do an afternoon snack of puffs or Cheerios or something.

    Oh and a word of warning on adding water to cereal: if LO is used to it with your milk, he may not be as into it with water. We do a mix of milk and water for DD's cereal, and she'll devour it, but if we make it with just water, she isn't a fan. She'll eat a little, making ridiculous faces the whole time, then refuse to have anything to do with it.

    We haven't mixed anything with cereal, but I've found that if DD rejects something on the first try, adding a little of my milk to it makes it more palatable for her, and I can gradually decrease the amount of milk.

    And my DD did the same thing with the spoon at first. Now when she wants more, she holds her hands up on either side and opens her mouth wide like a baby bird! I think he eventually understood that she's not supposed to grab the spoon from me f she wants to keep eating. I would just gently tell her to let go and unpeel her fingers from it, and after a little while she stopped grabbing for it altogether.

    I think my response may be even longer than your OP!!


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  • carriesu2003carriesu2003 member
    First off, I think you are over thinking it.  We started with oatmeal she didn't like it so well then we did sweet potatoes, peas, bananas, avacado, pears, peaches.  She will eat anything but the oatmeal and avacado.  I too was stressed about introducing sweet stuff too early but now that I see she eats whatever I couldn't care less.  As far as feeding veggies in the am, I do it sometimes if she is backed up.  Sweet potatoes do the trick for constipation over here.  If I were you I would just forget the whole rice cereal debacle and just give her purred fruit or veg in the evening and then if there is no reaction tell day care to give it to her the next day.  Keep it simple.
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  • bumpuser7698452bumpuser7698452 member
    edited August 2013
    carriesu2003 said:

    First off, I think you are over thinking it.  We started with oatmeal she didn't like it so well then we did sweet potatoes, peas, bananas, avacado, pears, peaches.  She will eat anything but the oatmeal and avacado.  I too was stressed about introducing sweet stuff too early but now that I see she eats whatever I couldn't care less.  As far as feeding veggies in the am, I do it sometimes if she is backed up.  Sweet potatoes do the trick for constipation over here.  If I were you I would just forget the whole rice cereal debacle and just give her purred fruit or veg in the evening and then if there is no reaction tell day care to give it to her the next day.  Keep it simple.

    +1. Keep it simple! It's totally scary adding all these new foods and thinking that you're going to do something wrong, but you won't! Just go with whatever is in your refrigerator. We have loads of garden vegetables right now from our parents so I just grab whatever seems easiest to steam and throw it in the food processor. We did green beans a few days ago, then squash and tonight some peas, plus many more.
    Can you make a batch of whatever and send it pre-made to daycare the next day so you don't have to worry about what they're giving baby?

    ETA: I haven't mixed anything with the oatmeal yet. I've just been doing basic vegetables and once they're pretty much covered then I'll probably start adding them. I don't know... I have no idea what I'm doing. Haha.
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  • pitterpatter129pitterpatter129 member
    edited September 2013
    I'd do solids at home for dinner.  Especially if one causes an allergic reaction, you'll want to be the one there for that.  Doesn't matter what you introduce or when or even how. Just save the highly allergenic foods for last (strawberries, eggs, soy, wheat, peanuts, no honey)  Mix it, don't mix, throw some chunks on a tray and let them have at it -- they'll learn to eat. :) You can thin with water or milk or just skip the cereal altogether is really the newest rec.  Spoons make great toys and great teethers.  Kids learn through play.  If he can master the spoon without food first, great! I toss some steamed chunks and purees on a tray and hand him a spoon.  You'd be amazed how quickly they'll learn how to use the spoon if you just let them be. 

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  • jocgymnast72jocgymnast72 member
    Thank you for all the replies. For those saying skip the cereal, that's what I was going to do, but I keep reading/hearing (like from the AAP and my pedi) how breastfed babies need the iron because their stores from birth are starting to be depleted. What do you think about that?
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  • musicalmama5musicalmama5 member
    jocgymnast72 said:
    Thank you for all the replies. For those saying skip the cereal, that's what I was going to do, but I keep reading/hearing (like from the AAP and my pedi) how breastfed babies need the iron because their stores from birth are starting to be depleted. What do you think about that?
    At an LLL meeting a month or so ago, some of the ladies were talking about this. One idea was to give other iron-rich foods. A quick google search will give you a good list of what foods are high in iron.
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  • pitterpatter129pitterpatter129 member
    musicalmama5 said:
    jocgymnast72 said:
    Thank you for all the replies. For those saying skip the cereal, that's what I was going to do, but I keep reading/hearing (like from the AAP and my pedi) how breastfed babies need the iron because their stores from birth are starting to be depleted. What do you think about that?
    At an LLL meeting a month or so ago, some of the ladies were talking about this. One idea was to give other iron-rich foods. A quick google search will give you a good list of what foods are high in iron.
    This.  I only gave it for a couple of weeks with DS1.  We had an entire of box of it I ended up throwing out.  And I skipped it with DS2.  DS1 never had a blood test come back anemic, so I'm not all that worried. He was a good eater though and liked a variety of foods.  I hope DS2 will be the same way - seems to eat whatever I toss at him at the moment. 

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