traditional baby foods

[organicmom3]

I'm just wondering what people who eat a traditional food lifestyle have included in their list of starter baby foods?

My baby is 8 months old.  So far he has tried the following (in very small quantities and is just now starting to eat 2 times a day...up to about 2 tbsp worth of food.)

avocado,  bananna, rice cereal (didn't like it at all), gluten free oats, carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, peaches, pears, applesauce (raw) and just started green beans.

My naturopathic doctor suggests artichokes....never would have thought of that one!

[JMJ]

We went mostly grain free until about 18 months.  She ate rice a couple times early on and it caused blow-outs, so after that, she just had tastes of grains until she started demanding it.  If she didn't care, I wouldn't give it to her.  I'm also very careful with fruits.  Fruit is a once, maybe twice a day thing in our house, in controlled amounts.  We try to focus on nutrient-rich foods: vegetables and animal products.  Egg yolks, broccoli, carrots, avocado, sweet potatoes, fish roe, asparagus, CLO, salmon (she started eating it around 9 months), chicken (around 10 months) were some of our favorite foods.  Make sure there's fat on the vegetables.  Later, we added yogurt, olives, cheese, berries (in moderation), sashimi, ground beef, and cooked greens.  Now, she eats basically everything (that's a real food), but I limit fruit and grains.  She would love to just eat bread, rice, grapes and blueberries all day, so I give her bread when she eats her eggs and some whole fruit as an afternoon or evening snack.

I would just stick no compromises foods in front of him and let him eat them or not.  It's not like he has to eat at this point.  He could just have your breastmilk, and he would be fine.  It's easy to fall into the trap of feeding him sweet foods because that's what he'll eat, but he doesn't have to eat.  He'll eat when he's ready.  Don't worry about trying to entice him to eat.  Just put nutrient-dense foods in front of him, and let him choose between those nutrient-dense foods or your nutrient-dense breastmilk.

[plantnerd]

I started ds on food very early so I am going to give what he was eating around 6 months---   oatmeal, all fruits except citrus and pineapple, all veggies, tiny diced meats (seasoned from our meals), whole scrambled eggs, shredded hard cheeses, homemade teething cookies (using oat flour and molasses), tiny whole grain pastas, homemade brown rice pilaf.  At about 2 months after introducing food we began transitioning from purees to finger foods and he loved it, and has continued to be a great eater with a broad palate.  I would say an 8 month old will advance pretty quickly in that area, they are so grabby hands and eager to explore at that age.

[organicmom3]

I'm not quite sure why you would think fruit is not nutritious?  While it contains sugar and I don't want him to have to much of it, I'm not sure why anyone would avoid it??  I do feel this is just a taste and experient time....not really for nutrition at all, though I was surprised to find out that most naturopaths think that nutrition from food (for iron and vitamin c) actually is necessary at 6 mos.....I don't really agree with this so I'm still trying to keep his food intake to a minimum....probably about 2-3 tbsp a day (he's 8 mos) though now he is all of a sudden very very interested in the food and sees to want more.  I am hesitant to give him too much.  I don't want his 'food meals' to replace his 'milk meals'.  I wonder how much all of you were giving your sweet ones at 8 mos?  Did you feed all three meals....right now we only do a little at breakfast and a little at supper.

I forgot about making my own teething biscuits....I'll have to get out my cookbook and see what that recipe called for.  Right now the only grains I've introduced was rice and oats.  I don't want to do wheat for awhile, but I imagine I could use a different grain.

[gardenmommy]

My babe is also 8 months, and not really eating much at all in the way of solid foods.  She loves to gnaw on an apple slice, have bits of sweet potato (I usually cube and roast them with butter/CO oil and seasonings), minuscule bits of tender meats, tiny pieces of banana, drops of my smoothie, etc.  I haven't forced the issue, because I do think they eat when they are ready (barring any medical/sensory issues).  

Focus on nutrient-dense foods from your plate.  If he isn't ready for finger foods, just mash it up a bit and feed it from a spoon.  I think you're right, that anything before a year or so is really more for the experience of food than for the nutrition for most babies.  I don't have a problem with letting my baby have fruit, mostly because of this reason; my babies have all been nursing pretty heavily at this point, so what little fruit they get at 8 months is just tastes.  

As they gradually eat more solids, I try to make sure that there is plenty of fat in the diet: butter on veggies, whole milk kefir in the smoothie, egg yolk, etc.  I also limit grains for a very long time; this babe hasn't had any yet (well, I think she found a random cheerio on the floor the other day, but otherwise...), and I'm not in a hurry to introduce them.  Even after a year, I'll still be slow to give them to her.  

It sounds to me like you are on the right track.  As far as how much and how often, if I don't have something readily available, she doesn't get anything at that meal.  She might get something once or twice a day, or not at all.  Every day is different.  Your baby may want more food, and that's ok.  I do try to make sure that she is still nursing frequently (I aim for at least 6 times per day, ymmv), and she nurses several times in the night.  If I felt like solid food was overtaking nursing, I would definitely cut back on it, and offer to nurse more often.

[JMJ]

I didn't say that fruit is not nutritious.  I just have known too many kids who will eat only fruit.  We haven't been TF all along, and I drank a whole lot of soy milk when I was pregnant, so now we're dealing with early childhood tooth decay and have been since before we introduced solids.  We've only gotten it under control by strictly limiting all sugars including fruit.  Fruit does contain a number of wonderful nutrients, but those nutrients can be had from other sources as well.

There are not nutrients that your child needs to be getting from foods (with the possible exception of Vitamin D, depending on where you live), but if there are calories coming that aren't from breastmilk, I would really want them to come with a whole lot of nutrients as well.  There's no way you're going to match the nutrient density of breastmilk from a well-nourished mother with solid foods, so I would make them the best you can.  I know that because of the tooth decay issue that I'm dealing with, I have to be more strict than most, so I take a harder line on fruits and grains.  If your family is healthy and well nourished, your child's diet could likely include more fruits and grains than I can feed my daughter and still expect her tooth decay to stop spreading.

[cristeen]

At 8 mos, my guy was eating a few bites of solids every few days. He didnt get them every day and he certainly didnt get them 3x/day. At 14 mos now, he'll eat a few bites of whatever i'm eating whenever i'm eating it, and sometimes will ask for something between times. Most of what he eats is eggs, cheese or fruit w the occasional veg tossed in. We're avoiding grains for the most part until 18 mos, although hes had a few bites here and there. Hes still mostly on a liquid diet... I'm trying to increase his solids, but it really takes some effort for me and so far i've been pretty lazy.

As for what he would eat at 8 mos, he loved beans, broccoli, asparagus, baked sweet potato fries, blueberries, salmon and avocado. Now he'll eat just about anything that isnt a land animal... He did eat some turkey on Thurs, but hasnt cared to repeat that experiment. He liked eel from my sushi plate though.

I never did purees, so i just cook a portion of what i'm making a little longer for him (i.e. I like my broccoli crisp, so i take most of it out and steam the rest to soft for him).

[serenbat]

several months ago there was a thread sort of like this (lots of talk on children/fruit and sugar) you might want to try and find it (sorry I don't have time now

we are in the fruit camp and see it not as the evil sugar some do 

we also did grains early on 

and even honey too

[organicmom3]

Wow, such a variety of different thoughts....all so very interesting.  Sweet potatoe fries...hadn't thought of that....I haven't introduced anything other than the fruits and veggies that I mentioned (and oats and rice)....in other words, no oils or butter, etc.  I make my sweet potato fries with coconut oil....I suppose that would be okay at 8 mos....I put it on his skin, so why not ingest it....anyone know of any reasons why not? I suppose olive oil would be okay too.

So many of you introduce meats before I would; that seems strange to me but I'm one who believes meat isn't all that good for us anyone and terribly hard on the digestive system....but that's me; nothing against all that do....I'm sure you have your own reasons/thoughts on it.  But it's been very interesting reading these so far....gives me ideas on things to try.  This is soooooo wonderfully different than what I did with my first two children....our lifestyle was so different then....it makes me shudder to realize I gave them juice at like 4 months!  This one hasn't even had it yet at all.  And the others was all foods from store bought jars, etc.  This one is all homemade foods!  :)   I'm really happy about that. 

I'd love to read more from anyone else wanting to share.  I can't wait to make my next batch of sweet potato fries!

[cocobean]

I swear this is becoming like an auto reply for me but it's just awesome!  Real Food For Mother And Baby by Nina Planck has great information on what to feed babies.  She suggest's lots of meats and such.  Really great read for TF mommas.

[cristeen]

Beef can be really hard on the stomach, but we started w salmon, which has lots of healthy fats. We tried chicken around 9 mos, IIRC, lamb and beef and buffalo after that. He's just not terribly interested in any of it but the salmon. CO is also a beneficial oil, so long as there're no allergies. Healthy fats are crucial in the first 5 years or so, so replacing fatty BM with fat free fruits and veggies and grains is not a good idea - thats why so many of us insist on the fats w the veg.

[organicmom3]

llRC??

[gardenmommy]

Originally Posted by organicmom3 

llRC??

If I recall correctly.

We do tiny bits of meats cooked with their natural fats, like pot roasts, roasted chicken, chicken in soup, etc.  My babies actually seem to digest the meats like that better than the veggies, and def. better than the grains.

[MrsBone]

Originally Posted by JMJ 

We went mostly grain free until about 18 months.  She ate rice a couple times early on and it caused blow-outs, so after that, she just had tastes of grains until she started demanding it.  If she didn't care, I wouldn't give it to her.  I'm also very careful with fruits.  Fruit is a once, maybe twice a day thing in our house, in controlled amounts.  We try to focus on nutrient-rich foods: vegetables and animal products.  Egg yolks, broccoli, carrots, avocado, sweet potatoes, fish roe, asparagus, CLO, salmon (she started eating it around 9 months), chicken (around 10 months) were some of our favorite foods.  Make sure there's fat on the vegetables.  Later, we added yogurt, olives, cheese, berries (in moderation), sashimi, ground beef, and cooked greens.  Now, she eats basically everything (that's a real food), but I limit fruit and grains.  She would love to just eat bread, rice, grapes and blueberries all day, so I give her bread when she eats her eggs and some whole fruit as an afternoon or evening snack.

I would just stick no compromises foods in front of him and let him eat them or not.  It's not like he has to eat at this point.  He could just have your breastmilk, and he would be fine.  It's easy to fall into the trap of feeding him sweet foods because that's what he'll eat, but he doesn't have to eat.  He'll eat when he's ready.  Don't worry about trying to entice him to eat.  Just put nutrient-dense foods in front of him, and let him choose between those nutrient-dense foods or your nutrient-dense breastmilk.

I limit grains too..I made some salmon, brown rice, broccoli and garlic bread the other night(the bread is a rare treat) and DS scarfed the bread and left everything else on his plate, He normally loves salmon but wouldn't touch it. Later on when he knew I wasn't giving him anything else for dinner, he inhaled the rest of his dinner..but yeah, the grains and fructose in fruit can be addictive. I try to save it for a once in awhile thing, not a daily thing!

[MrsBone]

I want this book!