Really anxious about giving my baby food!

[OtherSoul]

I'm putting this in this section because I don't eat meat or dairy for that matter.  

My son is 7 and 1/2 months old.   I'm really not sure what to feed him besides fruit.  Can I just keep feeding him fruit? I gave him avocado once and it hurt his belly. 

[katelove]

How much is he eating? I don't think only fruit is great for a number of reasons but if he's only eating little bits here and there at this stage it probably doesn't matter too much.

What about vegetables? Roasted potato/ sweet potato/ pumpkin/ carrots etc. Or steamed green beans or broccoli. My LO also liked raw cucumber slices at that age.

Do you do eggs? Scrambled eggs or boiled eggs. Just offer the yolk if you're concerned about allergies at this stage.

Are you delaying grains? If not toast fingers or crackers with hummus or some other spread. Or crackers on their own. Bits of pasta with or without a sauce.

At 7.5months my LO was hardly eating anything but she tasted lots of things and I felt it was fairly important to expose her to lots of difference flavours and textures. Not essential but, if you're doing solids anyway, I think it's worthwhile. It was a very receptive time for her.

[sassyfirechick]

DD is 11mos, and started 'sampling' just about every veggie/fruit around 7mos. I did try to stick to mostly veggies with just enough fruit to sweeting things up. By 8mos she was eating a fair amt and even now she can really pack it in. It's still mostly veggies, grains, legumes, and fruits usually for breakfast.  She's had very minimal meat and I keep it to organic only.  I make alot of soups and she loves them all, lots with lentils and quinoa, if there are big chunks I give em a quick spin in the processor (she's not a big fan of purees, more of a finger foods baby).  LOVES black beans and can eat nearly a full cup in one sitting!  Guacamole, sunbutter, and hummus are also big hits.  I can now make whole grain toast, cut it in strips and spread any of these on it for a nice hearty snack.  She's also still nursing 5-6x a day.

[OtherSoul]

He's only eating bits here and there.  I try to feed him food at least once a day.  He's still frequently nursing.  I get confused over BLW vs traditional weaning, so I just break stuff up in my fingers and give it to him that way in manageable pieces.  He can't pick bits of food up by himself yet and I am nervous of him choking.  A lot of time he will just push out food with his tongue still.  

So far I've given him papaya, banana, mango, orange, pineapple, berries.   And some green smoothie that had lettuce and bananas in it.  His favorite foods so far are mango and pineapple.

Once I chewed up some raw green beans and gave it to him.  He wasn't impressed much...understandably. 

We are a vegetarian and gluten-free family with an emphasis on raw foods. 

I am delaying grains (including quinoa) until he's after a year. 

Someone suggested giving him young coconut jelly...that sounds good.  Hummus also sounds promising.  Sweet potato too.  

Sassyfirechick...does your LO or did he/she have any trouble digesting the beans? 

Thanks for the help.  I feel really anxious about this!

[MichelleZB]

My son loved raw cucumber at that age! He sort of sucked the juice out of it, and eventually would "gum" the meat off of it and we'd end up with green cucumber rinds everywhere.

He won't choke. Let him have hunks of stuff and let him hold it and chew it.

If you want him to eat softer stuff, may I suggest oatmeal?

[sassyfirechick]

Originally Posted by OtherSoul 

Sassyfirechick...does your LO or did he/she have any trouble digesting the beans? 

Thanks for the help.  I feel really anxious about this!

If by trouble you mean gassy, no she was fine - and trust me I was like a hawk waiting bc she was one coliky baby until I got off dairy so I didn't want to go through that again!  I can't say she digested them much in terms of the 'breakdown' - ie i can definitely see beans in her poop.  BUT, I think its more likely the 'shell' of the beans.  I take it off chikpeas and those seem to breakdown pretty well.  Now that she's got a few teeth she's starting to mash things more in her mouth.  At 7mos, she really wasn't "eating" much.  Chewing and spitting out yes.  She hadn't yet lost that tongue thrust reflex that allows them to pull things in the mouth rather than push it out.  Wasn't til 8mos or so that she really ate the food.

I too went half and half on the BLW.  I did a little with purees, a little with finger foods (it really took a good month of practice to master getting things IN her mouth herself - thank god for dogs to clean up after her!), and intially since she couldn't figure out the spoon, I fed her from my finger quite a bit and I think that helped alot in teaching her how to eat and not spit things out bc she would suck on my finger and gradually as I gave her 'chunkier' things off my finger she figured out how to grab them with her tongue and at that point the spoon was cake! 

PS, my IL's HATED that I didn't allow them to shovel purees and rice cereal into DD.  They gave me odd looks for mushing up a veggie in my mouth then giving her little bits.  I dunno, it seemed pretty mornal to me and I went with it!

[averlee]

The part of a plant that has the seed or seeds is the fruit. Avocado is a fruit. So is all squash & peppers. Pineapple is a vegetable, it comes out of the root of a bromilead plant. 

In her first year, my little one enjoyed all soft fruits & veggies. Those that weren't naturally soft, I just cooked them until they were plenty soft. Some of her favorites were carrots, winter squash, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, beans, sweet potato. Also cantaloupe, applesauce, kiwi, pears, apricots, peaches.

Breastmilk has all the nutrition a baby needs for the first year, so for food, you can give him any foods you know are safe, whatever you want, whatever he'll enjoy. 

[meemee]

othersoul my dd is a healthy 10 year old. in fact she was obese all these years. and is now a slim child having lost all her body fat.

she never really ate solid food till she was 2 years old. she ate some, but rarely. she started solid food when seh was 9 months old. she skipped the total baby food thing. lentils was easier on her than beans. 

[catnip]

The foods we started my dd on were banana, sweet potato, avocado, apple or pear sauce, and oatmeal. The next couple things we added were lentils, spinach puree, and whole milk yogurt (she was LO veg until she decided to be vegan when she turned 5). I used to mix what we called her 'soup,' an ice cube each of lentil, spinach, sweet potato, pear, plus a little yogurt. Around 10 months, she discovered tofu, and has loved it since. Oh, and rice penne! And she loved any kind of cheese, the fancier, the better. Soft boiled or scrambled eggs, whole beans. She is now seven.

[loveandgarbage]

My kids didn't eat much solid food until a year and a half, and until 2 preferred the boob over anything. So don't feel like you *need* to be feeding your baby solid food unless it feels right to you! The first foods were sweet potato, carrot and maaaaybe some peas if they were feeling adventurous. They also both liked natural teething biscuits when they were over 12 months. My younger guy really LOVED beans and they didn't upset his tummy too much, just made him slightly more gassy.

[eh bien]

If it's making you anxious I would say don't bother. Offer LO chunks of whatever you're eating but don't goout of your way to fix something for LO. Now's the time to let LO taste, experiment, feel.. but don't worry about nutrition. Your bm is more than good enough.

For DS (28 mths), the only thing I'd do differently is offer way more veggies. He loves his fruit but it's tough to get him to eat veggies. Truthfully, it's probably because we eat so few veggies.