Some solids questions...

Hi everyone,

We are beginning the adventure of feeding solids at our house. I started my first DS on rice cereal, but on wholesomebabyfood.com, they say that some peds are recommending skipping the cereals. What have you done? What is your opinion on this?

Also, are you making your own baby food or buying commercial? Just wondering how many folks out there actually make their own food.

Going to ask our ped these questions at the 6 mo appt tomorrow, but I'm just wondering what other parents think.

 

Max & Lily hated rice cereal. We tried it for 2 weeks of hysterical crying and then just moved on to Gerber stage 1 fruits and veggies. Now that we are on stage 2 we tried oatmeal with the fruit and they love it. I think every baby is different, but find what works for your babies through trial and error.

 

My kids didn't like plain cereal, so we went straight to veggies and fruits. We started solids at 4 months, and they did fine.

I made most of my own food with the twins, and loved it! It was super easy and so fun! I used wholesomebabyfood.com as a guide.

 

We started solids at 4 months (per our pediatrician), we started with plain rice cereal with some formula mixed in, they liked it. After a week of some rice cereal in the morning, we then added a veggie to their next feeding, cycled through all the veggies and then added fruits to the feeding after the veggies. Once they got a little older, 6 months, we switched off to oatmeal and they liked that too. I did not make my own baby food, we just bought commercial.

 

We did more oatmeal than rice cereal with our kids, since there was already a constipation issue and rice cereal can further bind some kids. As long as it's a single-grain cereal, no biggie. And we did sweet potatoes first, at 6.5 months.

I also used wholesomebabyfood.com as my primary resource, and loved it! I made nearly all of my kids' food (except the cereal). It was fun and not difficult at all. I made large batches and then froze them in ice cube trays. Once frozen, into labeled ziploc bags. Just grab a few cubes at mealtime and defrost, no problem! I would advise making the purees fairly thick, since you can always thin them out with breastmilk or formula or whatever as needed. But my kids started liking things thicker than the commercial stuff pretty quickly, which was nice. No texture issues.

My favorite advice from that website was to forget what you "think" you know about tasty food combinations. I made some weird ones, like green beans and mashed banana, or peas with sweet potato and apple. Just grab cubes of whatever combo you like, and you're all good.

 

we did rice cereal to start but had moved on to oatmeal & barley within the first week. and shortly after that we were adding in fruits & veggies. i think you just go by your babies' cues - there's really no right or wrong way to do it. just take your time, watch your babies & trust your instincts.

i make my own baby food. i find i enjoy it (most of the time) & it's simple & inexpensive to do. i use Anabel Karmel's recipe books - my girls LOVE her purees!

 

QUOTE(Goddess in Progress @ Apr 5 2009, 07:03 PM) [snapback]1260296[/snapback]
We did more oatmeal than rice cereal with our kids, since there was already a constipation issue and rice cereal can further bind some kids. As long as it's a single-grain cereal, no biggie. And we did sweet potatoes first, at 6.5 months.

I also used wholesomebabyfood.com as my primary resource, and loved it! I made nearly all of my kids' food (except the cereal). It was fun and not difficult at all. I made large batches and then froze them in ice cube trays. Once frozen, into labeled ziploc bags. Just grab a few cubes at mealtime and defrost, no problem! I would advise making the purees fairly thick, since you can always thin them out with breastmilk or formula or whatever as needed. But my kids started liking things thicker than the commercial stuff pretty quickly, which was nice. No texture issues.

My favorite advice from that website was to forget what you "think" you know about tasty food combinations. I made some weird ones, like green beans and mashed banana, or peas with sweet potato and apple. Just grab cubes of whatever combo you like, and you're all good.


This is what I do (make and freeze my own baby food). Way cheaper, fresher, and fun!
We started with rice cereal at 5 months, and moved to oatmeal after about 1.5 weeks. At 6 months we started to cycle through fruits and veggies. When they were 7 months, I started to make mixed foods, like chicken with brown rice and apricots, or chicken with carrots, parsnips and potatoes. I used wholesomebabyfood.com as well as Annabel Karmel recipe books. Here is a link to her website:
http://www.annabelkarmel.com/
I still use the oatmeal for their breakfast, mixed with one or two fruits. GL!

 

We started at 4 months with rice cereal and went through all of the cereals then to fruits and veggies. I have read on her many times that some babies didnt care for the cereal and the Moms went straight to fruits and veggies without issue. I made some of my own food and bought Earths Best Organic for the rest. They had some great combos that I couldnt make. GL and have fun.