Starting Solid Foods - How to Go About It?

for the first year.. nutrition comes from breast milk or formula.. solid foods are just practice for eating later.. this from my pediatrician..

breast milk is packed full of everything a baby needs.. the solid foods are not as nutritional for the baby..

So.... go slow. on solids.. the baby wont eat more calories if you feed him solids.. he will eat solids and drink less milk.

for the next 1-2 months feed him rice cereal or oatmeal one time per day. you can add a bit of baby fruit to the cereal. a baby serving is about a tablespoon of cereal with liquid.. when you first start cereal you mix it with lots of liquid.. as thge baby gets used to solids... you add less liquids so the cereal is thicker.(my daughter did fine on rice cereal.. my son got constipated so he only ate oatmeal)

at about 8 month go to 2 meals a day. breakfast cereal and fruit and a dinner... can be a veggie or cereal.. again it doesnt matter what you feed him it is just practice for eating later.

at 9 or 10 months you go to 3 meals a day. also at abotu 9 or 10 months.. you can start cheerioes and other soft foods.. some babies love table foods others hate it..

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is an awesome book! Now, I would definitely recommend reading through it and then taking what interests you. But she has lists by baby's age (each month) of the best foods to introduce. And I would say, give them all a try, yes, even if YOU don't like them. There is a glossary at the back of every fruit/vegetable, when to introduce them, and how to prepare them. Awesome!

Tofu was one of the best ideas I got from this book. I'm not a huge fan but the kids loved it and what a fantastic, inexpensive source of protein! Soft is great for new eaters, and the firm kind is a perfect finger food.

I would also suggest making your own food as she recommends and tells you exactly how to do it via the ice cube method. Not only does it work very well, but I really think it helps kids develop a palette for "real" food. Not the nasty, processed, jarred stuff that even we won't touch.

I still gave my kids jarred fruits (like pears and applesauce), but gave them fresh banana, avocado, squash, beans, etc. A small food processor was all I used. And I even processed meats and poultry.

At 7 & 4 my kids are wonderful eaters. They will try anything and everything and I think most of it had to to with continually introducing new, real foods.

Yes, it is a bit more work, but so worth it in the long run! Good luck to you!

First - remember that solids are for fun at his age, and your breastmilk is real nutrition. Also, rice cereal can cause constipation, so that's another reason you don't want to go overboard on it.

Here's what I did:
Just before a mealtime at our house, nurse the baby.
Then, when you are eating your meal, make some rice cereal for the baby and feed him bites while you eat. He's not going to eata ton of it, because he just nursed, and that's fine. Basically, you are teaching him to sit with you at mealtimes to eat and he's getting some practice with textures.

I also added a bedtime snack to our meal schedule - nurse the baby, then a small bowl of cereal made with breastmilk just before bed.

Once he's getting better at picking things up, start giving him what you are having for your meals. If you are having green beans, cook a few of them really soft and put them on his tray. Keep a few extra in the fridge so if you have a meal he can't eat, you can feed him the remaining green beans. Same for pasta, carrots, etc. Just don't try more than 1 new food every 3 days, so you can make sure the new food agrees with him before you introduce another food.

There is NO NEED to use baby food. Real food tastes better and is healthier.

Also, for what it's worth, rice cereal caused a real constipation issue with both mine. I switched to baby oatmeal almost immediately.

Just one new food at a time and feed that same food to him for a whole week before you start the next new food. Blended table food is usually fine providing you aren't giving them anything too spicy or highly seasoned. Remember no chocolate, strawberries or honey for the first year.

Whenever you introduce a new food, you should introduce them a few days apart that way if there is a allergy, sensitivity, or reaction of any kind you can know which new food caused it. So let him have rice cereal a few days or a week before you try oatmeail, mixed, or barley. After he had the cereals with no problem, you typically try fruit and then vegetables. Apples and bananas are typically the first ones and are great for mixing into the cereal too for a little variety.

With my kids, we started with cereal before bedtime and then added it with the morning bottle. Then we added fruit with lunch. Then we put some fruit w/ the morning cereal and added vegetables with lunch. As we added foods we adjusted and eventually it was cereal w/ fruit at morning bottle, vegetables with lunch bottle, meat and vegetables with dinner bottle. In between were just bottles and maybe some crackers or dry cereal...sometimes some fruite. It really depends on your child's appetite.

Bananas and avocado are great first foods. Just mash up a ripe banana or avocado. Also, cooked apple and pear.

Remember, they have to taste it about 12 times to acquire the taste.

Also, I complete skipped cereal with my first child. She hated it, so we just went to food.

Sounds like you are doing well. Just understand that your breastmilk it total nutrition for your baby. All that food is for at this point is to teach your little one to chew and swallow. Always give breastmilk first before ever offering food.

You don't have to start them on any solids until they are older if you don't want to. BUT starting them on rice cereal is the first step. Once they are tolerating that well and not having gas pain from it then you can add another type of cereal that is not as easily digested.

Once they get to be 10 months or so they can be doing some table foods if they are chopped or soft like mashed potatoes. If I had a baby at this point I would totally skip baby food since I found out what it is really made of and how non nutritious it really is.