Introducing foods? - Page 2

[IncaMama]

explain how to do the veggie sticks...

[hottmama]

Just cook (if necessary) and chop them up into sticks. Pears and avocados are good starters. A banana split into quarters lengthwise is smushy but doable. Cook broccoli and pull it into thin pieces- they'll eat the tips but not the stalks. Etc. etc.

[allnaturalmama]

I have very strong views on baby nutrition, but realize that each mama must make the choices that fit her and her baby best.

I am all for child-led feeding, where baby is given soft foods and allowed to feed himself using his hands.

Also, like many mainstream ideals, I believe the modern pediatric advice to start with cereals is hopelessly misguided.

I agree with Linda about Super Baby Foods - good resource, but strangely organized. Also, I don't think the author's recommendation of soy/tofu/etc is a safe choice for baby.

Here's a couple of my posts from an earlier DDC thread about feeding baby:

What Nourishing Traditions suggests about baby's first foods

Follow up post on the subject

I am eager to start feeding Will; it's such a fun stage when they start eating, but I'm deliberately holding off a couple more months. I truly believe it's in baby's best long-term health interest to let them have bm exclusively longer rather than shorter.

[kir]

Kalpana was going nuts wanting food,so we started giving some fruits, squash. I've given brown rice to her. Just a few spoons. Amrita takes a little too, mostly b/c she's curious about what Kalpana's doing. But I don't force it, and i only feed them after a nice, long breastfeed session. And they always want to nurse afterward, so i feel confident they're getting a reasonably small amount--introducing,but not too much

LLL says meat is a good early solid. We don't eat meat, so i was thinking i should get to dal and also whole grains like brown rice earlier on. But others say to avoid cereals and grains for a long time. I don't know. Breastmilk is the best! But I have to figure this out. I think i may try sprouted dal/lentils next. They are supposed to be easier to digest. I don't think K&A will love the taste, though!

In theory, I like the idea of self-feeding, but I don't know how i should do that with dal and things like that!

Also, I'm SOOOO scared of choking. If you give some steamed veg, couldn't they gum off a chokable size and breathe it in? Maybe I'm misunderstanding something. I can see with something harder like carrots, but what about squash or pumpkin or something? And then what do you do with vegetables like spinach?

Kiran

[Minoh]

I am all for child-led feeding, where baby is given soft foods and allowed to feed himself using his hands.

Also, like many mainstream ideals, I believe the modern pediatric advice to start with cereals is hopelessly misguided.

I agree with Linda about Super Baby Foods - good resource, but strangely organized. Also, I don't think the author's recommendation of soy/tofu/etc is a safe choice for baby.

Here's a couple of my posts from an earlier DDC thread about feeding baby:

What Nourishing Traditions suggests about baby's first foods

Follow up post on the subject

It's really interesting reading all of this info on feeding first foods! We did start with organic rice cereal, but I guess all of my sources were pointing in that direction, and I hadn't come across the alternative views that you've presented and I've since read about.

[IncaMama]

jen - thanks for that info!! i'm trying to hold off for a couple more months but the poor thing practically sucks her lips to the back of her head when she sees us eating. LOL!! but i think i'll stick it out anyway.

[allnaturalmama]

Originally Posted by kir

And then what do you do with vegetables like spinach?

Invest in bibs. LOTS of bibs. LOL

I do let my babes self-feed, even foods like yogurt or finely chopped spinach. I just give them a bowl and a spoon and let them have at it. Granted there's a lot of waste, but they do get a good deal of the food into their mouths with their hands and/or the spoon. They also learn to spoon-feed themselves much earlier than most babies.

Kir, you have a special situation with double the mouths and fists. You have to do what works for you. If you are going to be terrified of choking every time you feed your children, then it's not the right choice for you. Feed them WHAT you're comfortable with them eating, and give it to them HOW you're comfortable.

I don't have twins (obviously) but if I did, I think I might find letting them each feed themselves less of a task than trying to spoon feed each myself. But, I do know that every mama is different, and what's easier for me might not be for you. You might find the post-meal cleanup zone too much of a task, I don't know...

As far as worrying about choking, you'll have to observe them closely, see what their eating personalities are, and customize their food to them. DS1 was very low-risk for choking: he would only put a tiny bit of food in his mouth at a time, and chew until I thought I would go INSANE!!! I could give him his entire meal on his tray, in decent sized chunks. DD2, OTOH, would shove everything in her reach into her mouth and swallow without even chewing. I had to ration her bites on her tray, and make sure they were almost in a pre-chewed state for her.

You're such a great mom to them. They are so blessed to have you. I know whatever you decide for them for solids will be what's best for all of you!

[Taedareth]

I read or heard somewhere that babies develop their sense of taste during their first two years of life. (I don't mean that their tastebuds physically develop; I mean that they get a sense of what flavors are normal for food in their culture.)

Have you tasted canned baby food? Even the nice organic stuff still tastes "canned" - it tastes different than what you serve at the dinner table. So our babies get used to the taste of jar food for their first year or so of life, and then suddenly we switch them to the food the rest of the family eats. So possibly, that is a reason why many young children dislike the taste of the vegetables we serve at the dinner table - because they ate only canned veggies during the formative time when their tastes were being developed.

Any thoughts/comments on that theory?

[IncaMama]

well, that would explain why my son LOVED jarred veggies but refuses to eat normal veggies.

[kir]

Originally Posted by Taedareth

I read or heard somewhere that babies develop their sense of taste during their first two years of life. (I don't mean that their tastebuds physically develop; I mean that they get a sense of what flavors are normal for food in their culture.)

Have you tasted canned baby food? Even the nice organic stuff still tastes "canned" - it tastes different than what you serve at the dinner table. So our babies get used to the taste of jar food for their first year or so of life, and then suddenly we switch them to the food the rest of the family eats. So possibly, that is a reason why many young children dislike the taste of the vegetables we serve at the dinner table - because they ate only canned veggies during the formative time when their tastes were being developed.

Any thoughts/comments on that theory?

makes total sense to me.

[kir]

Well, the few times I've tried to spoon-feed, that's been really messy too. Kalpana always grabs the spoon.

The fact is that a lot of the food we eat is pretty mushy, since that's how vegetables are typically cooked here (the eating habits of DH and family are a whole other can of worms!), so that's a problem.

I also have trouble convincing ppl that it's good to have the girls sitting with us when we eat. Even if they're on the floor playing nearby (we don't have high chairs), i think it's good for them to feel part of mealtime. DH and his parents prefer that one person watch the girls while we all eat, and that's nice sometimes, but I really like family meal-time. I don't know. Maybe I need to wait for in-laws to leave and also not try to do everything at once.

I just don't want feeding them to turn into an assembly-line thing aimed at getting food in them. At this point, it's just not necessary that they eat so much, and I think the social aspect is more important.

Or is that too much to ask of 6-month-olds right now??

Kiran

[allnaturalmama]

Taedareth, I think you're right on. A complement to that idea, too, is that toddlers often need multiple exposures to a food before they really feel comfortable with it, especially as you transition to less softened and larger sized bites. This is the "if at first you don't succeed..." principle. My kids have often refused foods at the first, second, third, even fourth exposure. I don't force it, but I don't give up. I just keep giving them a small amount on their plate, and eventually, they've gotten used to the new food and ultimately grown to like it. It's such a blessing now to have a 3-y-o and 5-y-o who often request seconds on their veggies!

Kir, I completely agree with you about the social aspect of the meal.

[Turtlemum]

What do people think about a vegetarian diet for infants? The thought of mashing up meat makes me gag...I had the idea of avocados, using breastmilk to mix foods with, adding oils like flax seed oil to foods in order to get fats in to my child. Anyone with insight or experience with this?

Thanks,

kelli

[LittleLlama]

Re: vegetarian diet- As long as you are not immediately replacing your breastfeeding with nothing but veggies, I don't think you have anything to worry about. At this age, most of their nutrition still comes from bf'ing even if they have a couple "meals" of solids.

I can't remember who posted this link, but it was in an earlier thread and I've referred to it many times since
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/
It totally goes with Taedareth's theory about food tasting canned.

All that said, I tried giving Titus some of my oatmeal and he spit it right back out because he's still got a major tongue thrust reflex. I think I'll try again in a couple more days with avocado.

[allnaturalmama]

Interesting article. I especially liked page 2.

I do totally agree that babies can be fed flavorful foods, and feel it is important to their ability to appreciate a wide variety of foods later on, which is so necessary to good long term health. My favorite cookbook is Feeding Baby. It contains interesting, flavorful recipes for the whole family, with instructions on how to serve it to baby and at what age.

Of course, you know me - I just add 3-4 mos to all the age recommendations, both in the msnbc article and the cookbook. I'm pretty hard-headed, I guess. But, at least I don't expect everyone to agree with me...

[kir]

I really like this thread, and I appreciate that people have such good varied opinions without being judgemental/mean

Babies can be totally veg. That's what we're doing! I think you have to be careful, and I'm just planning on limiting solids to tasting, until they can get good protein sources like soy, eggs, lentils, etc.

Can someone help me: do you add oil/butter to 6-month-olds' food? My doc said add ghee. It makes some sense. But then do I need to observe the 4-day wait rule with that too?

Thanks.

[Panthira]

I just want to say that my 14 yr old twins were raised as vegetarians. DS1 is still a vegetarian, and DD has chosen to eat poultry, pork, and buffalo.

I also want to add that I was told DS1 would be extremely sick most of his life due to having scarred lungs from being born prematurely, and he never once got very sick. He's had 2 minor colds and chicken pox his whole life. He is extremely healthy, even though he's confined to a wheelchair.

I also made their first foods using a food processor. They didn't get rice cereal and I used organic produce for them, when it wasn't the thing to do. I didn't know I was "crunchy." LOL Cloth diapers, organic, homemade baby food, BF, co-sleeping, no circ, and AP was just something I did because it felt right. It seems strange now that I was so young and under extreme pressure to do things the mainstream way, but I raised them how I wanted.

Anyway, with DS2, I fed him jarred Earth's Best and organic rice cereals, as well as table foods. He has tummy problems. I don't know if it's attributed to how, when, and what I fed him, or if he got genetic tendencies.

With DS3, Greyson, I plan to not feed him baby food at all. He watches us eat and tries to grab our utensils, but no more than he tries to grab my keys or hair.
He's also is a strange little guy in the fact he doesn't shove things in his mouth (except his hands) like normal babies do. Maybe he's not teething yet or something. I have no urge to feed him.

[hottmama]

My oldest son was vegan until 2 and vegetarian until just recently, sometime after 3. I assume Luka will be vegan until at least 1 and vegetarian until he is old enough to choose to eat meat (I started giving Julian information and choices around 2.5 but it took him a long time to decide). As long as they are nursing I don't think there's anything to worry about, in regards to fat and protein. It's easy to get iron from veggie sources like beans and raisins.

[IncaMama]

my son won't go NEAR meat. so he's a vegetarian. who doesn't eat vegetables. :

i really wanna do this right with ava. i want her to just eat whatever we eat, honestly. because having one EXTREEEEEEEEEEEMELY picky eater is plenty for me. :

[birthjunkie27]

My 2 older kids are carnivores, I swear. They love chicken, steak, pork chops...now veggies on the other hand. They'd rather do this with them : .