A ? for TF babies

[wanderinggypsy]

So, lets talk first foods. With my last baby, we did Baby led Weaning... I just gave her chunks of soft foods until she caught on and started eating with us. With my latest baby though, I'm wondering if I might in a few months time offer him some of the soaked oats that I'm enjoying for breakfast (obviously I'll omit the maple syrup and cinnamon that I enjoy with mine...)

When I mentioned this casually to someone the other day she acted shocked that I would even consider giving it to the baby... why? Because of the two tablespoons of yogurt that the grains soak in with water overnight.

What do you think? Baby is only 5 months now, so it's not an immediate thing anyways.

[goldenwillow]

TF for Baby

I follow the WAPF (Weston A. Price Foundation) guidelines. We have started our 5 month old on free range egg yolks.

Here is a great link! You will find info on fedding babies 4 months and on a few paragraphs down.

http://www.westonaprice.org/Feeding-Babies.html

Good luck!

[AbbeyShane]

I was going to post a ? about this too. I'm coming up on that age with my third baby and am a new convert to Nourishing Traditions and all that stuff....has there been any news of babies having a bad reaction to the yolks? I'm pretty sure the Dr. would freak if I told her that....right?

[Rikki Jean]

nak

well, from a gut and allergy standpoint, i'm still not okay with giving solids to a baby prior to 6m (at the earliest), no matter what wapf has to say. we wait until our baby shows signs of readiness, and then we start on simple stuff, but we'll never do dairy before a year, and i only do gf-oats before a year. i'm undecided on egg yolks before one year.

[aarias]

Here's a guide I found helpful

http://www.gaps.me/preview/?page_id=34

[Gingercat]

We started at 5.5 months with a softly boiled egg yolk too (he was ready to start solids at the time). We proceeded with meat, some fruit and veggies.
I believe it is best to leave grains after the year, there's no real need for them so early on.
I also found the Weston Price article on feeding babies very helpful and tried to stick to it. As legumes are a part the Greek traditional diet we started out with lentils at around 7 months and by the end of the first year my DS was enjoying all kinds of legumes!

[Koalamom]

My almost 6 month old had lentil soup for the first time the other day and did really well.

I think that oats may be ok in small amounts, but both my kids react bad to oats. In a few months I may give my baby raw sheep milk.

The only grain he has sampled (a really, really small amount) is quinoa. He loved it and did really well on it. I try to eat really TF, and I followed that guidelines from WAPF, and my dd has loads of allergies, especially to eggs. I should have just followed mama instincts and not fed eggs.

I think that you can't go wrong with gentle veggies, cooked well. I have given my babe some raw carrot juice I made fresh.

[Rikki Jean]

Originally Posted by Gingercat

We started at 5.5 months with a softly boiled egg yolk too (he was ready to start solids at the time). We proceeded with meat, some fruit and veggies.
I believe it is best to leave grains after the year, there's no real need for them so early on.
I also found the Weston Price article on feeding babies very helpful and tried to stick to it. As legumes are a part the Greek traditional diet we started out with lentils at around 7 months and by the end of the first year my DS was enjoying all kinds of legumes!

Yiassou fellow Greek!

I'll have to look into where lentils/legumes fall on the allergy charts. We have a lot of allergies in our family, so I'm pretty strict about what get introduced when. I wish I liked lentils...I'm determined to make myself like them, but so far, it's not happening for me...too much forced fakes as a child I guess.

[425lisamarie]

My dd is egg allergic, slowly growing out of it and can tollerate small amounts....

so I'm fairly glad I did NOT follow the egg yolk at 5 months advice. And also I don't think grains are great for babies.

Both my kids shared my food for breakfast/lunch nibbling on appropriate parts of it. DS loved to chew meat and spit it out when he couldn't swallow it, it seemed natural to me so i ddin't try to grind/mash it. DD wanted to sit all by herself from the get go so I'd just give her a little of whatever i made myself fruit/veggie wise.

[dogmom327]

DD is 7 mo old and just started sitting up on her own the last few days (I think she was way too focused on learning to drag herself around to follow her big brother ). I'm struggling with what to do with food for her. In many ways she seems like she's ready and the few things she's tried (gumming a chunk of grassfed steak, chewing on apple through a mesh feeder, etc.) thrilled her to no end. The problems though are 1) she doesn't have a single tooth and 2) she has a long list of food allergies. Basically our diet consists of meat, eggs, nuts, veggies (no tomatoes) and fruit. I really have a hard time justifying pureeing food for her when she gets as much breastmilk as she wants. It could be a while though before she has enough teeth to eat things like meat on her own (even if I get them mostly chewed for her).

[Koalamom]

Originally Posted by dogmom327

DD is 7 mo old and just started sitting up on her own the last few days (I think she was way too focused on learning to drag herself around to follow her big brother ). I'm struggling with what to do with food for her. In many ways she seems like she's ready and the few things she's tried (gumming a chunk of grassfed steak, chewing on apple through a mesh feeder, etc.) thrilled her to no end. The problems though are 1) she doesn't have a single tooth and 2) she has a long list of food allergies. Basically our diet consists of meat, eggs, nuts, veggies (no tomatoes) and fruit. I really have a hard time justifying pureeing food for her when she gets as much breastmilk as she wants. It could be a while though before she has enough teeth to eat things like meat on her own (even if I get them mostly chewed for her).

Yeah, my son has loads of allergies too. Good thing you know what foods to avoid. My dd took long to get teeth and she has lots of allergies. I found that after I eliminated allergens, she started getting teeth.

Going beyond feeding my baby directly, I have found that I have to be careful what I eat too while breastfeeding him.

[Rikki Jean]

I guess that I should be helpful and actually share what we've done, instead of just saying what we don't do.

Some of what wee've done is cooked, cut-up fruits and veggies (pretty much following the Joneja chart for introducing solids for an allergic baby; even though we didn't know for sure that DS1 would have food allergies [which he does], we were taking precautions because of my own allergies), ground lamb (this was one of DS2's first foods), gluten-free oats (I wasn't soaking then, but I am now, so I have to figure out what I'll soak in for the new baby). Really, the baby gets a modified version of whatever it is that the rest of us happen to be eating at that time.

IMO, a breastfeeding mom who is following a TF diet shouldn't be worried about introducing solids if her baby isn't showing signs of readiness yet, and even when they are, I, personally, don't think it's necessary to jump right into things like eggs. Breastmilk is the perfect food for babies, period.

[Hedgehog Mtn]

Another WAPF follower here. We printed the baby articles and kept them in the kitchen for reference

[lindsayjean]

We won't be doing the egg yolk thing first, especially wouldn't do solids before 6 months from a gut developmental readiness standpoint. We're going with the baby led weaning approach, but my 6 month old (he'll be 6 months in a few days!!) isn't sitting up SUPER well yet by himself, so I'm going to wait. I think my DD (who is now almost 3) ate WAY too much food in the first year and weaned herself at 16 months, although it could have been because I was pregnant, I feel like maybe if she had not had SO much food maybe she would have nursed for at least 2 yrs. Breastmilk is best!!

The only food my babe had had so far is chewing on a piece of steamed broccoli (not that he really ate any), sucking on a pickle once, and he takes cod liver oil. We'll probably start giving him things like whole pears and see how he does, but I really am in no hurry! You know some kids can go a whole 12 months on breastmilk alone? Blows my mind since my DD was eating SOOO much food by 12 months.

[Gingercat]

Originally Posted by Rikki Jean

Yiassou fellow Greek!

I'll have to look into where lentils/legumes fall on the allergy charts. We have a lot of allergies in our family, so I'm pretty strict about what get introduced when. I wish I liked lentils...I'm determined to make myself like them, but so far, it's not happening for me...too much forced fakes as a child I guess.

Are you Greek as well?

I'm not aware of any allergic reactions to lentils, in fact they are often encouraged as a first food by many nutritionists.

I cannot imagine anyone not liking lentils! Even my hard-core meat eater husband enjoys my lentils a lot at least once a week! They are so nutricious, filling and heart-warming, and also so very cheap in comparison to meat (even the organic ones I buy from my local organic farmer's market which are so much more expensive than the store-bought imported organic ones).

[Rikki Jean]

Originally Posted by Gingercat

Are you Greek as well?

I'm not aware of any allergic reactions to lentils, in fact they are often encouraged as a first food by many nutritionists.

I cannot imagine anyone not liking lentils! Even my hard-core meat eater husband enjoys my lentils a lot at least once a week! They are so nutricious, filling and heart-warming, and also so very cheap in comparison to meat (even the organic ones I buy from my local organic farmer's market which are so much more expensive than the store-bought imported organic ones).

You bet I am! Well, second-generation Greek-American. What part of Greece are you in? My family is from Peloponiso, and my step-father is from Ipiros.

I know that something really is wrong with me for not liking lentils. I don't know what it is...I guess I just need to try making them myself and making something that sounds good. Like I said, I really don't like fakes, and I was forced to eat it a lot growing up! There are a lot of things that I didn't like then that I like now (like spanakorizo; WHAT was wrong with me?), but lentils have yet to be one of them.

Anyway, as far as introducing them goes, the Joneja chart says 12 months for all legumes. For us, I'm in favor of sticking to that, because of our food allergies.

[dogmom327]

Originally Posted by bluebirdmama1

Yeah, my son has loads of allergies too. Good thing you know what foods to avoid. My dd took long to get teeth and she has lots of allergies. I found that after I eliminated allergens, she started getting teeth.

Going beyond feeding my baby directly, I have found that I have to be careful what I eat too while breastfeeding him.

Yup, my diet is extremely limited and will be until she weans (which hopefully won't happen until she's at least 2)--basically I'm down to a straight primal diet, no dairy, beans, grains, chocolate, caffeine, alcohol among other things.

[Laniemama]

We did baby-led intro to solids too. We did cut up avocado first around 7 months, but he didn't start really feeding himself or eating more until around 9 months. I wasn't worried because he was also breastfeeding. We also waited to do grains until after 12 months, although there are no allergies in my family. I loved doing baby-led intro to solids, it was so much easier than with my first (which was all pureed foods and waiting like a week to intro a new food, etc!), I would just give him little bits of what I was eating, no preparing and freezing all those pureed foods that I did for months and months!

[CookAMH]

DH and I are shifting over to TF. My mom sent me this link which I found helpful (there is a section on babies). I am on the fence about egg yolks so I have held off for my almost-9mo DS. He LOVES LOVES coconut oil, either for the taste or texture that melts. I've done sweet potatoes (though I think having those every day stopped him up and made him strain with pain! ), a little yogurt, carrots, green beans. He wasn't too into them lately so I gave him some sweet red pepper soup last night and he liked it quite well. Since then I have mixed some of the frozen puress that I made, with salt and pepper and cultured butter. He seems to like more flavor.

I will not give any grains before a year besides soaked brown rice, at least. Babies lack certain enzymes to digest grains. While it's good to soak the gf oatmeal, oatmeal is one of the hardest grains to digest to begin with.

I plan to try this recipe for him next:
http://www.cheeseslave.com/2008/05/22/fermented-yams/

That is from a great blog, by the way!

Once I make some beef stock, I'll mix that in with his food. He's not too into eating soft chunks, he just plays but does love to eat things he likes so I feed him purees for now. I also plan to give him more fermented foods and liver once I get my hands on some to prepare. I may even give him a bone to chew on!