Why rice first?

[babymango]

I was thinking of doing BLW with my son (soon to turn 6 month old). I discussed this with my ped because of my own food allergies (anaphylaxis to shellfish and mild nut allergy) and he had NO idea what I was talking about. No surprise there. He is very traditional: start with rice cereal, veggies before fruits, etc.
Does anybody knows of any reference/research article about giving rice first? Everyone I know saw their baby get really constipated on rice cereal, if there is no good reason to start with that, I would like to avoid doing that! Heck, i would skip it all together and give other types of grains as introduction of gluten before 7 months has shown to actually decrease the incidence of celiac disease...

[sapphire_chan]

Rice is a starting point because it's a cereal that is frequently not an allergen and tastes sweet.

Cereals were the starting point because when babies were fed solids too early it was easy to make the cereal smooth enough to get past the gag reflex. And it can be fortified so babies who were taken off milk feeds too soon wouldn't die of malnutrition.

Aside from medical conditions, there is no need for a 6month old baby to have anything of the sort.

If you like your child's ped, just tell him "introducing solids is going by the book!" and don't mention which book it's going by.

[treegardner]

DS started with avocado, then sweet potato, and then banana. We eventually introduced cereals, but after a lot of fruits and veggies first.

[Blueone]

We started with carrots, but we're doing the puree route. Then we did bananas, apples, and now sweet potato.

[lotus.blossom]

I avoided rice cereal because I don't think its necessary. Sometimes I thicken fruit purees with a bit of organic whole grain oatmeal (earths best) If you look at a lot of rice cereals it has a whole lot of junk in it including msg (natural flavors) so its just starting your baby on the path to junkfood IMO.

I tried BLW with my guy at 6 months but he constantly choked so I started with purees because I really wanted him to get to eat with us at the table for dinner. Now at 8 months he is able to chew little bits of food so we're adding those in.

[Tjej]

I've heard that the rice cereal is actually not a good idea for a number of reasons. When we did do some cereal we did oatmeal. With my DD we did mostly all BLW (her choice - she thought the purees SUCKED), and with DS he had a little more pureed stuff (it was easy when out and about), but still mostly BLW. Little kids are amazing when they figure it out themselves. Oh, and I don't know if this is why or not, but having never done the "slurp off a spoon" thing we never had problems with the kids choking. They were always upright and stuff could just fall out of their mouths.

Tjej

[Plarka]

I don't know why people say to do rice first, maybe cause the baby rice companies like you to buy it. I'd definitely say do BLW, it makes so much more sense. A 6 month old is usuallly able to feed him/herself, and can eat most things, except for those 'not under 1' things like honey and whatever else. We did BLW with dd who is now 2.5 and it was great!

Check out

http://kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/first-foods.html

and

babyledweaning.com/forum

[4Blessings]

We have a history of severe food allergies so I introduced foods carefully after seven months.

Here are a few links that I found helpful in addition to those already mentioned

http://www.allergynutrition.com/reso...%20Allergy.pdf

http://www.allergynutrition.com/reso...g%20solids.pdf

[Ruthla]

I used infant cereal with DS only because we were on WIC at the time so I got it for free. I took the oatmeal, figuring I could use it as a bathtub addition if he didn't want to eat it, and because it's less likely to be constipating if he DID end up eating the stuff.

I never really used baby food with my daughters- we used a few jars their whole infancies, but mostly they ate real food from the family table. Sometimes they grabbed stuff off my plate (as I ate with a baby on my lap) and other times I put stuff on the high chair tray for them.

[JudiAU]

www.wholesomebabyfood.com has some good information
The standard advice is to start with low allergen fruits or vegs and then introduce slowly. Any solids in the first year of life are for play value. Nothing comes close to the value of bm.

I took a class at our local bf'ing store with a pediatric nutrionist. She felt that grains were only a good choice after 9m because of allergens and rice is basically just empty calories. Food like sweet potatoes and avocado actually have food value. My ped refers to rice cereal is "diabetes in a box" but she is, er, opinionated if you get her going.