[MeMommy]

Hi all,<br>
I have a few questions about solids. Being <i>very</i> new at it, I don't really know the best way to start. My baby is 9 months old, and still exclusively nursing. I had thought to start her with vegetables - cooked carrot, sweet potato, zuccini, etc. mush, and avocado. And then I would make my own rice mush after that. But my doctor - I know, I know - she's ver pro-AP, having nursed her youngest till age 2 1/2. She says that my baby needs the iron added to rice cereal that you buy in the store, and that I should start it soon because the iron stores in a baby start to deplete at 6 months. Anyone have any info on that? I was scared of any additives in baby cereal, but the one I bought doesn't sound so bad. The ingredients are - rice, calcium phosphate (as a source of calcium), iron, zinc oxide, potassium iodide, vanillin, vitamins A, E, C, B1 (thiamine),B2, B6, B12 and niacin. So it's only rice and a bunch of vitamins, no preservatives, as I had feared. What would y'all suggest? Any advice on solids as a whole is greatly appreciated!!!<br><br>
TIA!!!

 

[SandraS]

Solids as a whole... I just gave my baby what the rest of us were eating. I didn't buy "baby food" or jarred food, or that awful tasteless cereal. If we had eggs and toast for breakfast, baby got that. Meatloaf & mashed potatoes at dinner, baby got that. Grilled cheese at lunch, baby got it. No "thinking", no preparing anything special, no extra expense. Easy. Pretty much anything short of a tough steak was fine for all of our babies from 6 months on. Have fun!<br><br><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/" target="_blank">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/</a>

 

[alegna]

Skip all the mush. Give her soft chunks she can feed herself.<br><br>
Do you eat meat? If you do that's better for iron than the crappy cereal.<br><br>
We never used the cereal at all.<br><br>
-Angela

 

[nataliachick7]

your baby does not need baby rice. also, i would recommend tasting that stuff yourself. it is absolutely disgusting. i cant even think of a word for it, thats how horrid it is. also, studies are showing that babies younger than one or even 2 years old cannot properly digest grains as they lack an enzyme called amalyse to digest them properly. feeding them grains before they can properly digest them can really screw up the digestive system.<br>
i would skip the baby food all together and start feeding steamed vegetables and fruits like bananas, some avacado, and other healthy things.

 

[snugglebutter]

We skipped it and were just fine.<br><br>
Watermelon has iron - dd ate a ton of it last summer!

 

[rmzbm]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>snugglebutter</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/7947812"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Watermelon has iron - dd ate a ton of it last summer!</div>
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Watermelon is iron rich? Hmmm, learn something new every day! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/loveeyes.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Loveeyes">:<br>
ITA with all who say skip it. The smell is bad enough - but the TASTE! Blah.

 

[MeMommy]

Thanks all for the responses. The fact is that I am NERVOUS!!! Mom2bja, I'm worried about allergies and food sensitivities, so I don't want to give her what I eat without testing each individual food by seperating it by a few days. Alegna, I'm also worried about her choking. Soft chunks how big? And I would love to give her meat, it's full of iron. But how would I give her that? Put it in a food processor? How could I give her chunks if she never had anything but breastmilk? See, I told you I'm nervous!<br>
Can anyone reassure me?

 

[MeMommy]

And Nataliachick7, is amylase only for glutein grains? Or rice also? How about quinoa?

 

[SandraS]

Babies have a wonderful ability to gnaw and gum chunks of food. Tear meats up in small pieces. You don't need (you really shouldn't) puree anything.<br><br>
Allergies - it's up to you. I never "tested" foods myself. My family has no allergies, and there's no medical basis at all for holding back any foods, it's just that most docs haven't updated their thinking. Crablegs was one of my 3rd child's first foods, easy to eat, and loved it. But that choice is totally up to you - our family found it easier just to feed baby anything we had.<br><br>
Good luck, your baby will be fine, and you'll have fun!

 

[seamama11]

I saw in one of the posts that research shows that children under 2 cant digest grains properly....I just started giving my 9 month old some millet and brown rice....after looking through super baby food. He really only eats a teaspoon at a time, could it cause diarehea....I want to raise my son vegetarian until he is old enough to choose to eat meat, so I thought it would be good to give him grains and other whole foods.....should I skip the grains.<br>
Thanks,<br>
Sarah

 

[Marlet]

We skipped baby foods and just started with things she could feed herself. We took it off our plates and cut it/softened it before giving it to her. Everything was seasoned and everything was up for grabs. We held off on anything peanut related due to DH's family allergy of them but other than that we just let her have whatever. We didnt start with a particular group such as veggies first..just whatever we were having.<br><br>
That said, so far no allergies. She does avoid melons and strawberries. I read somewhere that babies/toddlers (my DD is almost 2) will naturally avoid foods that are allergenic to them. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/shrug.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="shrug"> Go with the flow of your little one.<br><br>
As for the iron comment....breastmilk does have iron in it. Yes its not a lot bt the great thing is it's more readibly absorbed and digested by the baby. The added irons in cereal and baby food is harder on their bodies to digest since it is an additive and not naturally in the food. Also, cereals are pointless nutrition wise. They are empty calories that just fill them up.

 

[rzberrymom]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>MeMommy</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/7947957"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Thanks all for the responses. The fact is that I am NERVOUS!!! Mom2bja, I'm worried about allergies and food sensitivities, so I don't want to give her what I eat without testing each individual food by seperating it by a few days. Alegna, I'm also worried about her choking. Soft chunks how big? And I would love to give her meat, it's full of iron. But how would I give her that? Put it in a food processor? How could I give her chunks if she never had anything but breastmilk? See, I told you I'm nervous!<br>
Can anyone reassure me?</div>
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I would never have felt good giving my DD chunks of meat at 9 months. I would start with things like chunks of avocado, steamed sweet potatoes, steamed pumpkin or other squash, banana, mango, tofu, etc. I also used to make oatmeal with a litle less water than it normally requires--it makes it nice and sticky and a perfect finger food.<br><br>
If you're determined to do rice cereal, you can make your own by grinding uncooked brown rice in a coffee grinder or blender, mix it with water and cook.<br><br>
I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the focus on adding iron to rice cereal came about because formula fed babies need the extra iron. If you are breastfeeding, you don't need to worry.

 

[SandraS]

Fish is a wonderful "first" meat - tender, full of good stuff. Chicken is tender. Pork is tender. Shrimp/crab/lobster is tender. We're big seafood people, so those meats are always plentiful in our house.

 

[kittyhead]

my family has a pretty extensive history of food allergies so do avoid the major common allergins. that being said, we skipped purees and rice cereal and went straight to finger foods. my boy is almost ten months old and he eats small (size of a bean maybe?) chunks of avocado, bananas cut into slices and then quartered, smashed beans, tiny crumbles of ground beef, tiny pieces of chicken cut against the grain, small pieces of steamed veggies, sweet potato and white potato. some vegetables i mash lightly with a fork. he got the hang of it quickly. i do only give him a few pieces of food at a time because he tends to try to stuff it all into his mouth at once.

 

[alegna]

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<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>MeMommy</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/7947957"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Thanks all for the responses. The fact is that I am NERVOUS!!! Mom2bja, I'm worried about allergies and food sensitivities, so I don't want to give her what I eat without testing each individual food by seperating it by a few days. Alegna, I'm also worried about her choking. Soft chunks how big? And I would love to give her meat, it's full of iron. But how would I give her that? Put it in a food processor? How could I give her chunks if she never had anything but breastmilk? See, I told you I'm nervous!<br>
Can anyone reassure me?</div>
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</tr></table></div>
<br>
I didn't worry too much about allergies because we don't have any in the family.<br><br>
Choking- she'll figure it out, really. Some babies do better with tiny bits. Some do better with big chunks they can hold.<br><br>
Meat- I just took meat and shredded it by hand into little bits. Chicken Fajita meat was one of the first she really took to.<br><br>
-Angela

 

[Satori]

Your Dr is full of hogwash, my dd (10.75mo) had a CBC 2 weeks ago and she's no where near anemic and she's pretty much EBF. It really varies by baby and unless you have labs tests showing anemia I would not worry about it at all. My older dd was anemic by 1yr but she had other health issues going on which depleted her iron so I've kept an eye on the baby's level JIC.

 

[broodymama]

When my DD eats meat it is shredded into small pieces. She's had chicken, steak and ground beef, all in small bits that she could pick up and feed herself. The only cereal she has had is grits (yes, I'm from the south! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/wink1.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="wink1"> ) because she wanted some of mine.<br><br>
Avocado is a good source of iron, too. DD loves chunks of avocado, she gets excited when she sees me get one out for her!

 

[nigellas]

I posted nearly the same thing a few days ago - Interesting thread- you should check it out:<br><a href="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=659697" target="_blank">http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=659697</a>

 

[ndunn]

If you're worried about iron, you could always test. I would never give iron fortified cereal to my daughter unless I got a test back saying that her levels were low. Even then, cereal would be my LAST choice.<br><br>
Have you checked on kellymom.com? They actually go into detail about how supplementary iron at too young of an age can be harmful, not helpful.<br><br>
I'm sure your babe will be just fine with finger foods <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile">