101 - Guide to baby's first solid foods!

[Blessed_Mom]

Hi,


As the title suggests - I want to start a thread about introducing, preparing, storing all types of baby's very first solid foods (am thinking from 6 mo to 1 year timeframe). Kind of - Baby's first solid foods - 101

I hope this thread can be a place to ask questions, share techniques, prep and store methods and get all kinds of good ideas to give nutritious solid food to our LOs.

I am hoping we all understand that there is still no substitute for BM until atleast the 1 yr mark for your baby. No food is as calorific, nutrient-packed and vitamin dense. Breast food is the best brain food!

At the same time - my DD is 6.5 mo old and I want to start introducing good solid food to her. I am coming up with no ideas about how to prepare or store baby food and don't really feel like buying her first stage jars.

For example: I bought her a sweet potato yesterday but am stumped with how to feed it to her.

Should I - boil it and let it cool down and feed her? OR pour some olive oil and cut chunks and bake it and offer it? Should I mix boiled sweet potato with BM and feed it? Can I store it? Won't it go bad? How do I store it?See what I mean? And that is only sweet potato (which is relatively easy). What about squashes, broccoli, apples, beets, carrots , quinoa etc. How do I add fatty oils?



Caveat: Please be aware of your baby's allergies before you venture into introducing new foods.

Here are two links allergies , Chart which help a little towards understanding allergies. I don't want this thread to be about allergies though - please. We have another sub-forum dedicated to that.

Let's make this a helpful guide to those mamas who are venturing into the big scary world of solid foods for their little babies (I am one of them and I confess readily - I am overwhelmed already!)

[Blessed_Mom]

Let me start by quoting a very helpful post by EarthsMamma. She gave me permission to quote her and also was very kind in letting me know that she will participate in this thread.

Originally Posted by EarthsMamma

Ok so here is what I've done so far
Squash
-Cooked an entire acorn squash in the oven, in a dish with just a little bit of water for about 40 min
-Used the hand grinder to grind it up (although at this point it was pretty mushy already) and added water to make it smooth
-Portioned it out into 2 ice cube trays (mine have covers but I bet you could use cling wrap, or I imagine they would be fine uncovered)
-Once the cubes were frozen, I put them into a labeled freezer bag

Carrots- same as above but I steamed instead of baked

Apple sauce- Cubed the apples and boiled them in about an inch of water for like 10 minutes, I used a blender to mush them since they were too hot to put in the hand grinder, put them back on the stove and added a little cinnamon (I was making apple sauce to can anyways, so I just canned it, but you could freeze it too just as easily)

Bananas- I haven't bothered freezing bananas since you don't really need to cook them or warm them up, so I just smoosh and thin with breastmilk

Now for thawing- He's been eating one or two cubes worth of veggies, so I just pop them into a glass microwaveable dish and set it for like 30 seconds and then mix with a little more water if it looks like it could use it.

If you have any other questions let me know! Or if anyone has other methods I would totally love to hear them

[Lacrymosa]

Yes, this is a wonderful thread! I need all the help I can get. We had planned on doing homemade baby food from the start, so I'm thinking we will wait until she's 6 months-much to our doctors disapproval-before introducing solids.

[Blessed_Mom]

My next question is about Avocados: what are the ways to feed your LO avocado? No way to store it for later - am thinking - right?

[blumooned]

I love this thread!
DS is 8 months and has been eating solids for about 2 months - here are a few things we've done.
First of all, we have a baby food mill (KidCo brand - got online at Target) that I would highly recommend. We use it almost every time he eats solids. We're moving on to some chunkier stuff now, but for purees, the food mill is great!

Avocado - I just take some out of the skin, place in food mill (usually with pear - he doesn't love it plain), grind, & serve. I leave the rest in the skin, wrap, and refrigerate. There may be some brown to scrape off, but the rest is still good.

Sweet potato - I roast them whole in oven (in the skin), cool slightly, remove skin, take out what DS can eat at once, grind in food mill, maybe thin with BM or water. I save the rest in fridge for a couple days. My sister does it differently - she chops off a piece of raw sweet potato, and just roasts that, then mashes, etc.

Pears - ripe, raw, grind in mill. (These are DS's favorite!)

Peas - frozen, steamed. Either grind in mill with another food or give them whole on his tray.

Prunes - simmer in a little water until soft, grind in mill with another food.

I only combine foods after LO has had both separately for 4 days with no odd reactions.

I agree with PP for other items.

I will add more as we get to them . . . looking forward to others' posts!

[Carhootel]

Great thread!
There's a great post on DS about preparing babies first solids but I can't find it. You can probably find it through this very helpful post on Mama Notes.

One of my favorite ways of offering peaches to ds is to slice them into apple slice type shapes and then taking a fork do a very simple "mash" so that it basically cuts them into small triangles - they are easy to pick up and if you use some very ripe ones then they'll mash up in the mouth without any problem.

In general I offer foods to ds in a well cooked but still solid form and then mash up a section of it and offer it to him like that as well. Half is for playing with (feeding himself) and then I'll offer him some bites on the spoon as well (which are more mushed up).

Our first food was bananas at 6 months. I took a banana and let him explore it and gum it until a little bit disolved into his mouth and then I took it and scraped a little off with a baby spoon and offered him a few bites that way.

We've been careful to wait at least 4 days before trying something new so that we can gauge any food reaction. I think that's really important.

After bananas we tried sweet potatoes (roasted in the oven for an hour and a half and then either in the food grinder with some breastmilk to thin if necessary OR just chunked out onto the high chair surface to be played with)

and then peaches, avocado, carrots (steamed and mashed with a fork and breastmilk), applesauce (those single serve cups are awesome for throwing in your bag and sharing a snack with your lo)

We've also done black beans (well cooked or canned) that are just mashed with the back of a spoon
This week we tried grains for the first time (at 10mo) and I just made oatmeal the way I usually do for myself and then put his in a seperate bowl and added some more water and stirred it up and gave it to him like that - not super thin, not thick either. I also had cooked a few raisins in there so they were mashed up as well.

We're gonna wait until ds is a little more interested in solids to start dairy but I was planning on giving him some of that greek yogurt that has so much protein in it and just plain so no sweeteners.

[lach]

I freeze avocado with no problem. I mash it up and freeze it in cubes. FWIW, Ikea sells really nice silicone ice cube trays that are a good size for baby food. Of the many people who bought the book Super Baby Food, I'm probably one of the very few who actually religiously makes the porridge as described. So every day DS gets a cube of avocado, a cube of dark leafy green veggies (usually kale), either a cube of carrots or a hardboiled egg, two baby spoonfuls of Brewer's Yeast, a baby spoonful of cod liver oil, all mixed into a porridge of grains and legumes. I premake the veggies and the porridge and freeze it all, just pull out the cubes I need every morning. It makes breakfast a snap: which is great, because we're usually in a rush.

I'll be totally honest: I started with jars. With both kids. With #1 it was because I didn't really know what I was doing, with #2 it was because it was easiest. I went through all the normal "first foods" type things. That lasted about a month. It's not like it's hard to make those simple first purees, it was just really darn easy to buy them.

The best way, IME, to do veggies is to steam them until just mushy, and then puree them in the Cuisinart with just enough water (taken from the bottom of the pot) to make it into a paste. I had a food mill, but it was kind of a PITA to clean, plus I like making things in batches.

And I'll continue to be honest: I'm a huge fan of purees. IMO, keep 'em on purees as long as possible. I know that's really not popular here, or in American in general (someone told me it's very French, but I think they meant it as an insult), but I'm throwing it out there just because it's pertinent to the discussion. Don't really want to debate it: it's my opinion and it is what it is. First and foremost, it's a lot easier to pack a nutritional punch into a puree. I love nutritional punches. Secondly, it's a lot easier to batch cook purees and freeze them and use them as needed. Also, it's so much easier to clean up and there's so little wasted food. I always feel guilty wasting food, particularly since I pay through the nose for organic. My daughter ate purees for dinner until she was about 15 months, and I was tired of spoon feeding her. She had long moved onto finger foods for lunch, and ate Super Baby Porridge until she finally realized it's totally nasty stuff at about age 2.

So after the first stage stuff, I ramp up into a baby food making tornado, and batch cook a few months worth of purees at once. Then I freeze them into single serving lumps on cookie sheets (some look kind of like cow patties). When frozen, I move them to zip lock bags. Every night for dinner, I take out two: a protein based one and a starch based one, reheat it, and serve it to baby. Sometimes I serve them to the rest of the family as side dishes too. They're really good!

My general nutritional philosophy in life is that variety is good. As such, I try to throw as many different healthy ingredients into each dish as possible, while still retaining a good character of the dish. Basically, if it would taste good for an adult, I make it and then throw it in the Cuisinart. I also go for a variety of colors, and try to keep in mind the nutrients that work well together. We made the first batch when my son was about 7 months old, and this past week we've been making the second batch. So far we've made:

• Puree of carrots, turnips, and butternut squash
• Puree of brussels sprouts, spinach, peas, and broccoli
• Cous cous with beets and onions (was supposed to be Quinoa, but I somehow bought cous cous instead, so whatever)
• Pork with prunes, apples, tomatoes, and onions
• Pork with sweet potatoes, apples, and onions
• Puree of broccoli, carrots, and mashed potato (aka leftovers from the other night)
• Mashed potatoes with cheese (also leftovers from a different night)
• Puree of carrots, potatoes, and orange cauliflower
• Puree of lemon pepper chicken with leeks, rutabaga, and gravy
• Puree of NY sirloin steak with leeks in a vegetable beef broth reduction

(DH insisted I write "vegetable beef broth reduction" BTW. He made that one. Really he just used the pan drippings and used some of the water other veggies had been steaming in.)

We still have a leg of lamb in the fridge to do a few dishes with, and a few odd vegetables: I never used the gazillion parsnips I bought (I love parsnips) and I have cabbages, turnips, sweet potatoes, and a few other random things left.

Basically, I just make a normal recipe and then throw it in the cuisinart. *shrug* it works very well for us.

[nukuspot]

Thanks for starting this! We are committed to feeding DD all homemade organic food. It's been a big deal for me to start this process, as I also get worried that I am going to "make mistakes" when it comes to feeding a baby. I've never done this before! I do not want to wean her, I want almost all her nutrition to come from my milk, with foods just being an experience with taste and also giving her extra super nutritive value, like a vitamin...

My question is for "finger foods"...How big/small should they be? In what shape? One of the PP mentioned whole peas. I haven't tried peas yet but I wasn't sure if a whole pea was a choking hazard or not. Sounds like it would be fine. I was going to cut each pea in half before I read that! Is a pea size what we should be aiming for with finger food? I had given DD some long strips of finger food (homemade sweet potato fries and pear slices) she liked the long fry shape because she would hold it in her hand and chew on the end, but then she could chew off some big pieces and I was afraid of her choking. Always that fear overpowering me each time I give her a non-pureed food.

Speaking of pureed food, I also want to make it clear that we are not force-feeding her spoon after spoon of puree. What we do is load up the spoon and hand it to her, she puts it in her mouth then hands it back to me for more of drops it off the side if she is done eating. It's like "baby-led puree-ing?" It seems to work for us!

She's 8 months now and as far as foods we tried (starting at 6 months) so far she's had:
-squash (puree-loved)
-sweet potato (puree-loved)
-sugar pie pumpkin (puree-loved)
-apple sauce (loved---maybe her fave food)
-pears (raw and sauce-liked)
-banana (did not like)
-avocado (can't tell if she likes it)
-green beans (did not like the puree form)
-mango (liked)
-chicken (from a chicken soup, cut up/shredded very very small and also pureed with other things from the soup to make a thick stew)
-carrots (puree and finger food cubes)
-zucchini (puree-loved)
-broccoli (currently trying)

We always do the 4 day wait rule between the foods. I am trying to wean her off the puree but she is not a big fan of lumps, that is why I want more finger food ideas! She doesn't have the pincer grip yet but almost there.

Next things we plan to try this month:
-whole milk yogurt
-peas
-egg yolks
-tofu
-peaches
-kale
-blueberries

We are not doing grains until later but I am looking forward to that, because a grain-based dinner will be wonderful. A grain plus a veggie plus protein...That's how us parents eat so it will feel good to give her what we are eating.

But I also have questions regarding add-ins like olive oil and kelp powder. How much? What are other good superfood add-ins?

[_betsy_]

With DD1, we did the homemade baby cereal mixed with BM, spoon fed puree route. She's 3 and still eating pureed veggies.

With DD2, we're just giving her food. She won't eat a puree. She wants to do all the work herself, so we're letting her. Steamed veggies, small pieces of meet, fresh fruit... she loves it all.

Different kids, different needs, I guess.

[Blessed_Mom]

I am loving this thread too Thank you mamas.

[lach]

Originally Posted by nukuspot

I also get worried that I am going to "make mistakes" when it comes to feeding a baby. I've never done this before!

I totally remember this when #1 started: it seemed like such a momentous change in her life and my life! But relax, there's very little you can actually do to mess things up.

Originally Posted by nukuspot

My question is for "finger foods"...How big/small should they be? In what shape? One of the PP mentioned whole peas. I haven't tried peas yet but I wasn't sure if a whole pea was a choking hazard or not. Sounds like it would be fine. I was going to cut each pea in half before I read that! Is a pea size what we should be aiming for with finger food?

Smaller than a grape? Okay, I'm kidding, but only sort of. The human trachea is pretty good at what it does, so unless it's really huge and just the right shape to get lodged back there, you're probably okay. If you give pieces too small, they're very hard to pick up. My 10mo still kind of chases peas around the plate, and has a much easier time picking up larger pieces.

Obviously, how mushy the food is matters, too. Before they have their molars, they gum food, which is far more effective than it sounds. Actually, it's surprisingly effective. But still, there's only so much you can do. So I would give a smaller piece of a cracker, say, than I would a very mushy cube of sweet potato. The potato will just dissolve right up with a few little toothless chomps, while the cracker will take a bit more time and effort.

The weirdest part, BTW, of having a second child is how much of the food hysteria goes away. With DD I was quartering blueberries (full disclosure: I did halve them the first time I gave them to DS, then never again), with DS I just hope that when I turn back around DD hasn't jammed an entire pretzel into his mouth again. There's nothing she loves more than feeding him, which is really cute except that many of her favorite snacks are far from baby-friendly (grapes and raisins particularly).

[lexmas]

Originally Posted by Lacrymosa

Yes, this is a wonderful thread! I need all the help I can get. We had planned on doing homemade baby food from the start, so I'm thinking we will wait until she's 6 months-much to our doctors disapproval-before introducing solids.

Good for you mama. I'm sorry your doctor isn't supportive. I just told my doctor at DD's 6 month visit that I really plan on waiting until as close to a year as possible to give her solids, and she had no issue with it. And she's pretty mainstream, she tells you you can start solids at 4 months even. But no problems, she really seems to trust a mama's instincts. So I just wanted to say good for you trusting your instincts, irregardless of what your doctor thinks!

[nukuspot]

Yeah, that's me, thinking of quartering peas so she won't choke...Maybe now I'll
try just cutting them in half after reading what you wrote, lach (LOL.)
I also think it is refreshing to hear your pro-puree take. Every time I have posted a baby food question on these boards I get people trying to get me to not do them, and there is so much push to do BLW. But if my DD is happy with purees why stop? That's my theory. That said, I don't want her to do purees forever, but she's only 8 months old right now! I hope to transition her out of purees with finger foods slowly. That is why I have so many finger food questions! I never would have thought 'smaller than a grape' I thought more like 'smaller than a pea!'

[GreenGranolaMama]

Totally digging this thread as well... subbing!

[blumooned]

I was the one that said whole peas - DS has a pretty good pincher grasp & likes picking up little objects. I put them on his tray & smash them just a tad so they don't roll around too much - we're trying the same method now with black beans. Do beware of the pea skins, though - he sometimes catches them in the back of his throat & gags. This is why we still do mostly purees!!

I have a couple questions:
If LO has tried one type of bean (black) and is OK after 4 days, can he have all beans? or is it 4 days for every type of bean (garbanzo, red, pinto, etc.)? I know green beans are different.

Anyone use frozen/packaged (store-bought) fruit? I want LO to try peaches & berries but they are completely out of season now. O figure I can just thaw what we need & puree, right?

How do your babies fare with broccoli? does it make them extra gassy? DS is already gassy, so I've been hesitant to offer it to him (although we did just start beans).

Thanks!!

[lach]

Originally Posted by blumooned

Anyone use frozen/packaged (store-bought) fruit? I want LO to try peaches & berries but they are completely out of season now. O figure I can just thaw what we need & puree, right?

I use a lot of frozen fruit. It's actually kind of easier, to tell you the truth. My favorite thing to do with fruit is to steam it a little bit, and then puree it, and then freeze it in ice cubes. Then I make yogurt and add 2 cubes of fruit, and voila I have fruit yogurt! Even if you buy yogurt, this works really well because it's almost impossible to buy full fat yogurt in anything but giant tubs of plain. And, well, that gets boring. With the pureed fruit, I can have yummy fruit yogurt with no sugar added. (And it is yummy. I eat it too. My favorite is one cube of pear and one cube of blueberry).

[lach]

Originally Posted by nukuspot

I also think it is refreshing to hear your pro-puree take. Every time I have posted a baby food question on these boards I get people trying to get me to not do them, and there is so much push to do BLW. But if my DD is happy with purees why stop? That's my theory. That said, I don't want her to do purees forever, but she's only 8 months old right now! I hope to transition her out of purees with finger foods slowly. That is why I have so many finger food questions! I never would have thought 'smaller than a grape' I thought more like 'smaller than a pea!'

Thanks There some food advice on this board sometimes which is, quite frankly, really bad advice and which goes against real research. I don't get into it, because I know I'm in the minority. The problem is that there's really bad and dangerous advice elsewhere that goes to opposite extremes, so it's all just a muddled mess and people just have to do the best they can.

I got so much conflicting information about what to do when DD started on solids. I think they had just-- as in a few weeks before-- changed the rec from 4 months to 6 months. And it seemed like everyone was telling me different things. I actually spent a few weeks doing searches on both PubMed and on the AAP website about starting solids. I also reached out to a several people I know who know about this sort of thing, and learned far more about the politics of the AAP and the public policy reasons behind their statements than I ever really needed to know!

The anti-puree thing is something that I just don't really get. My daughter was a puree fiend with no ill effects that I can tell. I don't really know what's supposed to be wrong with them, but I do know that she has no allergies, eats practically anything (for dinner she had lamb with carrots and brussels sprouts!), uses a fork perfectly competently, has fine eye hand coordination, is 99 %tile for height, and is sharp as a whip.

My son is 10 months and I spoon feed him porridge at breakfast, yogurt at lunch, and purees at dinner. He eats other things as finger food, both at meals and at a snack or two during the day. Pieces of what I'm eating, if I'm eating something at that time, or pieces of fruit, bread, veggies. He'll eat all on his own eventually. If I send him off to college and he's still eating purees, we have a problem. But I don't actually imagine that being the case.

I say do whatever works.

[nukuspot]

Originally Posted by blumooned

I was the one that said whole peas - DS has a pretty good pincher grasp & likes picking up little objects. I put them on his tray & smash them just a tad so they don't roll around too much - we're trying the same method now with black beans. Do beware of the pea skins, though - he sometimes catches them in the back of his throat & gags. This is why we still do mostly purees!!

I have a couple questions:
If LO has tried one type of bean (black) and is OK after 4 days, can he have all beans? or is it 4 days for every type of bean (garbanzo, red, pinto, etc.)? I know green beans are different.

Anyone use frozen/packaged (store-bought) fruit? I want LO to try peaches & berries but they are completely out of season now. O figure I can just thaw what we need & puree, right?

How do your babies fare with broccoli? does it make them extra gassy? DS is already gassy, so I've been hesitant to offer it to him (although we did just start beans).

Thanks!!

That's funny, we tried broccoli before beans because I was worried about gas! Anyway, today is day 3 with broccoli and so far no gas concerns. I also really was wondering the same question about beans (if one type is well tolerated are they all?) I also want DD to try peaches and berries. I froze some back in the summer and plan to use them. I assume that would be no problem, I was going to steam them then puree.

PS...Your LO is just 2 days older than mine! I went into labor on the 15th so I always think her birthday is then, but I actually had her on the 17th! (I know--Long labor.)

[MadiMamacita]

Originally Posted by blumooned

How do your babies fare with broccoli? does it make them extra gassy? DS is already gassy, so I've been hesitant to offer it to him (although we did just start beans).

brocolli was one of DS's first foods, and yeah, it made him super gassy so we haven't tried it again.

Originally Posted by nukuspot

We are not doing grains until later

yep. same here. that and honey are really the only things we are holding off on. grains we will wait on until he gets his molars.

[Ambishop19]

Great thread! My babe is 6 months in just 3 weeks so I have been planning and preparing.