Mashing Avocado for My 4 Month Old

First off, I say wait until 6 months. That said ... lot's of liquid little avacado, wire wisk, mallet and fork.

I just want to make sure you are aware that you should wait at least until 6 months to start solids of any kind. Not even rice cereal should be fed to babies since the solids can distend their tiny tummies! Only breast milk is best until then (or formula). Avocado is great, though! My son's favorite first food!

Wow, your baby is way too young to be starting solids. He should be at least 6 months old and only on cereal and some simple grains. He needs his primary source of nutrition to be from breast milk or formula.

Good luck with the foods though if you go ahead. I think that using a regular mixer might get all the lumps out if you run it long enough.

Make sure it's fully ripe and just use a fork. Add a little breastmilk or formula to it it should be good to go.

I would hold off as well. Six months is now the recommended age for starting solids.

That said, like others suggested, it should be really ripe, and then a fork will work well.

Oh, and rice cereal is falling out of favor because it causes constipation, and many are now thinking that early feeding and grain cereals increase the chance of obesity. We started our kids at 6 months. First food for one was prunes and the other was avocado. No need to start with grains when waiting until 6 months.

I used a Cuisinart.
I actually think the new age for starting solids is 5 months. But at 5 months, though, the only solid our pediatrician recommended was rice cereal...very thin consistancy. Has your child been eating other solids for a while already because avocado, although very healthy, shouldn't be one of the very first solids he eats.

I would just mash it with a fork, then switch to a spoon. Did you mix some breastmilk or formula in with the avocado? This will help to smooth it too!

fyi, avacado can really stain bibs and anything cloth wise, so I used to give it to our daughter when she was just in a diaper.

A ripe avocado is like butter. If you are getting lumps it probably isn't ripe. If it isn't ripe you cannot get the lumps out.

Potato masher and as others suggested make sure the avocado is ripe. It should be soft, similar to a ripe peach. And I think four-months is fine for solid, soft foods, especially if your pediatrician endorsed it. And my daughter loves avocados. Has been eating them since she was six months old.

I just used 2 spoons. One in each hand, held by the handle, but with the bowl of the spoon turned upside down. IE to chop the avacado. That will get it pretty mashed then you can use a fork on it to get the rest of the lumps out. Good luck!

I have a food mill that I use to mash all my own baby food. Not easy to find now a days, but maybe a specialty kitchen store will have it, or try a thrift store. The other thing you could try is if you have a fine mesh sieve, you could use a spoon or something and mash it through that.

As for the when to start solids debate, people have different opinions on when is best. My pediatrician said 4 months is ok, but recommended waiting until 6 month (which is what I ended up doing). For my first son, if I had waited until he had teeth, he wouldn't have had any solids until he was 16 months!

I love avacado for babies, and I will assume you know what you are doing regarding feeding your baby. I do home childcare and do home made baby foods for years, but all I do is veggies or fruits, with water (no "recipe" needed). I have a $25 small smoothie type blender dealy I got at Target. Its great and with a decently ripe avacado, it gets out all the lumps. I use it for all my baby food making. Its small and easy to wash and fits in a small drawer.

Good luck!

I think it's called a rice strainer. (Not sure if that is the name or not,so i hope this helps). You can put the avacado inside and squeeze so it presses together and the avacado will come out the bottom strained and looking like small pieces of rice. Gets all the lumps out. Also works great for making mashed potato with no lumps.

Doe your son have any teeth yet? If not, 4 months is too young to start solids. You should ideally wait until he has teeth before starting solids because the saliva changes to better digest food when the teeth come in. So if he has teeth, go ahead. To get the chunks out add a little bit of breast milk or formula and mash it together. If he doesn't have teeth, wait until he gets them to start solids. Both my sons didn't get teeth until around 9 months of age. We started the oldest on solids before that (around 7 months) and he struggled with digestion until the teeth came in. With the youngest we waited until he had teeth and avoided the same issues.
J.
Edit: I got my information on the whole teeth thing from my midwife who is also a naturopath. If you follow western medicine standards, you should wait until at least six months of age to start solids to avoid food allergies/sensitivities. Most people start with rice cereal. Again, according to alternative medicine you should wait until around a year of age to start grains. The enzyme amylase that digests grains does not get manufactured by the body until around one year of age. That is why so many babies get constipated when they start rice cereal---it's because they can't properly digest it. It's best to start with foods like avocado, that a baby could eat even if there was no such thing as processed foods. Thought that information might help..... :-)