Introducing Solids and Breastfeeding

I breastfed my girls. I think I started with rice cereal, which they didn't like much and moved to oatmeal soon after. If you have pumped milk, you can use that to mix with it. Otherwise, you could get a tub of formula (as small a one as you can get) to use to mix with the cereal. You mix the same amount of breastmilk in as you would formula. Exactly how much depends on the consistency you want. As for the veggies and fruit, just get a bunch of different kinds and see which ones he likes. I never mixed the veggies or fruit with milk or formula at all. I suppose you can if you like, though. It's not necessary, though.

I'm still BFing my 11 month old, and I waited until 6 months to introduce solids, but started with rice cereal, added a few tablespoons of breastmilk or apple juice (which my pedi recommended), until he did well with it, then introduced bananas, applesauce, squash, sweet potatoes, etc.... When he was about 8-9 months old he really stopped liking the pureed foods and prefers to eat mashed up "real" food by feeding himself. Good luck, what a fun age!

HI.
You should definitely check out Square One Organics Babyfood! It's available at many grocery stores around Chicagoland. Also Peapod.com, amazon.com, Jewel in River Forest. Anyway.. it's all organic, and they have GREAT information on their website about which foods to try and start first for your baby. LOVE all the information this company provides us! Here's link to site. I think you can buy direct from them soon too! http://www.squareoneorganics.com/
GOOD LUCK!
-K., Mom of 4

I agree with many of the posters to push the veggies first. One thing to add is to nurse first before feeding solids and with the cereal, I always mixed with water so that my kids wouldn't get accustomed - that gave me the flexibility to feed solids on the go as well. Also, my breastmilk was liquid gold so I was nervous to put it in the cereal and not have my kids finish it :) Just a thought!

There is a great website you should check out. It basically a site for home mead baby food but it has a table for every age group that list which foods can be given at which age as to minimize the risk for allergies. Its called wholesome baby food. I am one baby number 2 and found it does not really make a difference which one ( fruit or veggie ) You offer first as long as you offer a well balanced variety of both. For my son ( 7 months) I do fruit, yogurt and cereal in the morning, fruit, veggies and cereal in the afternoon and veggies, yogurt and cereal at night. He is a big boy ( over 23 lbs) So the pediatrician recommended 3 meal a day already and I feed yogurt at night because of its high calorie value with breast feeding before bed. Here is a link to the website.
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
Hope it helps.

Our son (2nd child) was exclusively breastfed till 9 months. Then we started baby food. And shortly after (about 1 week) we switched to table food. I had purchased a whole case of organic baby food but he only ate a few jars of it! I had to give the rest away.... There were still days where he chose to just breastfeed......

It really doesn't matter what KIND of baby food you give first. With our son, we did bananas...... As for cereal, he never had baby cereal......

With or daughter (1st child), she had rice and oatmeal cereal starting around 7 months. I just mixed it runny at first and then slowly added less and less milk as she seemed to adjust to the consistency. For baby food, we started her on veggies first and then added fruit a month or so later. Once she started bulking the cereal, I added some fruit to it. Just a small scoop and as she started not liking it, more. She was pretty much on table food by about 11 months.

Relax. I wouldn't worry too much about these amounts. Your baby will give you cues as to what he needs!

I made all my babyfood and my daughter never would really eat rice cereal or oatmeal. She much preferred savory flavors--her favorite was pot roast (pureed with carrots, brown rice, etc). She was closer to 9-10 months before she took solids with any regularity.

I would add a little cooking time to whatever I was eating and puree it with low-sodium stock, breastmilk, or coconut milk. I would cut dense flavors and meats with well-cooked brown rice.

To start, we went with avocado, carrots (with a little nutmeg and coconut milk), sweet potatoes, peas, mashed potatoes, plain full-fat greek yogurt.

After she hit a year, I would make a "meatball" out of chicken liver, ground turkey, brown rice. It sounds gross, I know, but she LOVED them...they were soft...and full of iron.

I offered solids after nursing, so I didn't do any extra pumping aside from what I was already doing in the morning and at work.

The most important thing to remember is that it takes 10-12 exposures for a child to really decide if they like something or not. Some things that my daughter loves now...she acted like I was poisoning her the first time!

I saw that Miranda said it really doesn't matter what your babies first foods are, I really strongly disagree. I think it is a big mistake to not worry about your first foods to your child. I believe that these first foods should be free of pesticides and other harmful chemicals and should be foods that are dense if vitamins and nutrients and are appropriate for babies digestion. As a mother of 3 children, one a cancer survivior, I strongly argue that it DOES matter. You have to consider the issues of allergies and the age of your child's digestive system. I used to make all my own food when possible but augmented with Square One Organic frozen purees. They make only superfoods and have made my life super easy telling you when is the appropriate time to introduce each food. I shop on peapod but now you can buy directly from their squareoneorganics.com website.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says to introduce solids between 4-6 months (regardless of BF'ing or formula), so you're right on track.

Some people advise to start with veggies because the tastebuds for sweet are so sensitive, and they'll prefer the fruits. I've seen studies to both support and deny that as accurate.

Our kids pretty much hated the baby food veggies (really, can you blame them?) except for sweet potatoes and squash.

We'd often mix fruits into the cereal to help flavor it better and would make it with breastmilk (with our son, with our daughter it was formula because of my chemo treatments) and would add milk/baby food to the texture we desired based upon where they were with the solids.

Please know that the theory of delaying foods because of possible food allergies (egg whites, peanut butter, strawberries, etc) has been reversed. Now, the rule is that unless the food poses a choking hazard or is a known family food allergy, they can have them whenever they are ready.

Here's what the American Academy of Pediatrics says:
http://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/f...

I breastfed first, and then offered the loose veggies (carrots, peas, squash). I didn't add anything to it, and didn't need to pump since I offered milk first.