What Foods to Feed 6 Month Old?

Hi R.,
He is too young for you to worry about food groups and giving him meals. His milk is his primary source of nutrition til a year old. When you first start solids, it's about getting used to tastes and textures. At this age, 3 meals of food a day is too much, usually just two servings of solids. If your baby's doctor hasn't discussed introducing solids, be aware that you should introduce only one new food to your baby at a time, waiting a few days before introducing the next fruit, vegetable or other foood. He doesn't need to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner - he needs to continue getting the same amount of milk, and twice a day after nursing (or bottle), a small amount of solids.
Good luck!

this website has a lot of details for your question. The information is broken down my age:
www.wholesomebabyfood.com

Food groups are important because introducing some foods too early can cause food allergies later. Feeding your baby whatever you eat is not something you want to do right now. I would be feeding him oatmeal cereal instead of rice. Rice is more of a complex carb and harder to digest. My son is also 6 months and I started feeding him two tablespoons of fruit at lunch and some cereal in the afternoon. I make my own babyfood because that is better than the jar. Especially if you buy organic. I started with mangoes and fed those to him for about 4 days to make sure he did not have a reaction. Then I moved on to pears. They can also have papaya, hard to find though, and winter squash. I use the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. It is a great book and breaks down month by month the next thing you should introduce to your baby. www.wholesomebabyfood.com is also a very good website. Honey should be avoided until after a year and peanut butter should be avoided until after two years. Hope this helps.

R.,
We kept my son to what he liked - which at that age was NOTHING. He didn't start eating solid foods on a regular basis until he was 8.5 months old.

As far as breakfast lunch and dinner, I fed him everything at each meal. I keep reading that he's going to go on food jags and not like this or not like that at age such-and-such, so I give him spinach for 'breakfast' and pancakes at 'supper' and snacks are sweet potato and fruit.

Whatever he will tolerate is what I feed him. No one else needs to know what his breakfast is - unless of course you show off that he eats frozen pancakes (my son did for months because he was teething, until it got too cold for the front teeth) and frozen peas. He still loves frozen blueberries.

You should have a list of foods to try first from your pediatrician, and foods to try LAST (to avoid allergic reactions). If you don't, feel free to mail me (anyone), and I'll figure out how to post it so everyone can see. We don't seem to have that here (which is okay!)

If you are breastfeeding and want to continue, make sure you feed him before each meal, and on waking and going to sleep, however you manage bedtime and naps.

Good luck!
M.

At 6 months the baby is getting most of what he needs from breastmilk or formula. We introduce foods at this age to get them adjusted to our tastes. Your baby's eating depends on how well he does on each food you try giving him. The easiest to digest should come first which are, Rice cereal, applesause, bananas, as for veggies my son started with butternut squash, sweet potato, peas, really anything you find in a stage 1 jar you can also make yourself. There is no need for protein at this point. Meat is much harder to digest and you should not give it to him until he does well with veggies and fruits of all kinds. As for grains, once he is good on rice, you can move to Barley cereal, oatmeal, cream of wheat, and later mixed cereal. You can add fruit to it to make it taste better.

First, go out and buy Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. (http://www.superbabyfood.com) Your son should only be having solids once a day for now, and only a little bit. He should not be filling up on them. They should be more like a dessert at this point. You can do 2 meals a day around 7 months and then 3 around 8 or 9 months. Don't rush into it. Only a few teaspoons at a time. The rest of his nutrients will come from his milk. It's still more important that he gets enough breast milk or formula- the amount that he is drinking should not decrease. Solids should not replace his milk at this age. Right now all he needs is some cereal, fruits and veggies. Make sure you only use whole grain organic cereals like Happy Baby or Earth's Best. And try steaming, pureeing and freezing your own baby food in ice cube trays. Jarred baby foods are the equivalent of you eating everything out of a can. We eat fresh foods, so why shouldn't your baby?
Also go to http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/index.html

I just followed my babies cues, started once a day quite a while, I did one single item for almost a whole week then tried something else, then twice a day, ad SLOWLY added and increased. My first baby, I did veggies -- I followed a guideline -- starting with a certain color, then fruit, then protein, then 2nd baby was so strict with the order but still didn't give him something new with each meal. I did jars and I easily pureed my own and then as I cooked our food for that meal could easily mash something for the baby.

All the responses you have received have been great so I am not going to be repetetive. I am certainly not a good cook by any means and needed a little help figuring out how to prepare some veggies for my little guy and get some new ideas. I visited www.wholesomebabyfood.com often to get ideas. It's a great site and it even gives menu suggestions from 6 months to 18 months I believe. Here is a link on their site with menu suggestions. I printed and taped this to my fridge just to give me a little guidance.
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/startingsolidfood-schedu...
Happy feeding!
Smiles,
J.

You don't need to worry about food groups right now. It's just about exploring tastes and textures, slowly and carefully. So keep introducing new foods, giving at least 3 days between them. (A little longer between foods can't hurt!)

You're nursing, right? That's giving all the nutrients your baby needs, and will continue to do so until he's much older. (Same goes for formula.) So just enjoy this time! Try fruits, veggies, and different types of cereal. No need to worry about protein yet. See what your kiddo likes, and then keep trying new stuff. What he hates one day, he may like a few weeks later. As he gets used to solids, you'll be able to experiment with textures too.

This is fun stuff! :)

Same here. I was exclusively breastfeeding then my baby was close to 6 months and I started with quinoa and breast milk since he did not like rice ceral then I put quinoa in the baby food and now he is still nursed and goat's milk. For iron, there is the Yo Baby fruit and ceral fortified with iron and it has 45% of iron. I think the pediatrician should recommend and iron supplement.

i see lots of people already told you about wholesomebabyfood.com they give you great ideas- like parsnips and other veggies i wouldn't have thought of, as well as ages to start foods.
a great site! it's very easy to cook and make purees. just remember your little one is just starting on this new process. it took my daughter until around 7-71/2 months to really be into eating anything besides breastmilk. i would also skip the rice cereal and do barley- doesn't cause the constipation. good luck and have fun!

I started with rice cereal, then oatmeal cereal, then mixed grain cereal. I then tried with vegtables, then went to fruits. Then you can try meats. But everyone is different. As long as you're encouraging new foods, it doesn't matter what order you go in. Good luck!

Ask your pediatrician but here's what I did.
Breakfast - rice cereal or wheat cereal (with breastmilk or formula) mixed in with bananas or peaches.
Lunch - vegetable -- sweet potatoes, squash etc.
Dinner - vegetabe or fruit again.

Formula/breastmilk in between of course. Milk should still be the primary source of nutrition.

My pediatrician said no meat-containing solids for the baby until at least 9 months. I didn't really ask why, just stuck with the veggies and fruits. Probably because it'd be too heavy for the tummy, the veggies and fruits are light and won't cause stomach aches.

At 6 months you can start to feed your baby just about anything that you eat.
Of course it should be mashed up a bit and on the soft side.
This is a critical time to begin introducing different textures and flavors to babies.

If you do too much baby food, he may become so accustomed to the texture it will be hard to get him to eat regular solid food.
If you are still nursing it isnt as critical to get a strict schedule of food groups just yet. That will be more necessary at 12 months and up.
Right now food is mainly for different tastes and sensory experiences

Try oatmeal with a teaspoon of organic cream in it for breakfast with a fruit.
Yo Baby organic yogurt is great too!

Lunches can be soups with solids mashed up, roasted veggies mixed with animal or vegetable protein, or pastas cooked soft with perhaps a veggie baby food on top or a bit of pasta sauce.
If you have a food processor start by processing a bit of your dinner (within reason, no steaks, shellfish, nuts, etc) each night and accompany baby food with it. You can gradually step it up as he gets older.

It will make your life easier too! Baby food is such a pain in the butt!!

My son is 13 months and was tasting everything at 6 months. He now eats practically anything including pbjs! He LOVES those the best!
He was off baby food by 9 months.

I hope this helps, sorry so long winded! Good luck!