Homemade Baby Food: What First?

[Tea-rific]

DS has his six month ped appt this week and we are pretty sure our ped is going to give us the green light to start solids.

We are not totally sold on cereal and were thinking of starting with a veggie... I plan on making all of his food.

Obviously I will ask our ped's opinion, but what did you feed your child for their first solid?

Any advice?

[dcrunnergirl]

Our pedi said that feeding a baby cereal as their first food is outdated. He said there is no evidence it helps prevent food allergies, it's constipating, and it is just empty calories. He said we could start with whatever we wanted, so we did sweet potatoes and bananas first at 5 months. The only reason why some kids need cereal is if they are BFing and require the extra iron.

[Tea-rific]

DS is EBF... so I am not sure if we should do the cereal for the iron. I do not want him to be deficient, but I also would much rather start with a veggie (or avocado).

[Deleted]

We tried cereal once for practice but then went to oatmeal. After that, we gave sweet potato followed by peas.

I never bothered to buy cookbooks and just checked out the website wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/index.htm. Have fun!

[kmw325i]

I liked a lot of the recipes on the website PP linked to. We fed cereal first, but that started at 3 months so we could thicken DS's formula since he was spitting up so much. As far as first foods, I mashed avocado, then bananas, sweet potatoes. He also liked pumpkin pureed with some cinnamon in it. Don't be afraid to use herbs and some more flavorful spices. DS enjoyed pesto in his chicken.

On a related note, making your own green bean puree usually turns out awful. DS would NOT eat my homemade green beans, but loved the jarred ones. I know several people who have had the same experience.

--Sent from my phone, excuse any fucktardy mistakes plzkthx.

[iheartbanjos]

We did avocado mixed with a little breast milk.

[karinothing]

We did mango. DS has never had rice cereal or oatmeal (he is 9 months).

[satama]

We will do oatmeal mixed with breast milk or barley cereal most likely. I think it helps the baby accept it a little better that it taste familiar because I mix it with breast milk. I did about half and half with DS1 of making his food and store bought. We started using store bought on vacation because it was easier.

Some things he definitely preferred the store bought. Sweet potatoes mixed with some breast milk were his favorite home made food. I just baked them and then blended it up in the magic bullet.

The reason I start with cereal is partially the iron and also we do have a history of food allergies. No cereal doesn't prevent allergies but we were told they tend to be less alergenic, so I try to go from them to foods that are more likely to be an issue so that if they do have a reaction they would be a bit older, if that makes sense.

[Ashley&Scott]

DS's first food was sweet potato fries. (we're doing BLW)

[af1212]

I started with avocado - I mashed it up but I don't think I even mixed it with anything. And 2 years later she eats avocado almost every day - loves it!

[jessj222]

DD's first food was butternut squash on Thanksgiving. If she hadn't turned 6 months the day before Thanksgiving we would have done avocado.

[hannamaren]

Oatmeal and wheat cereal is not constipating.
I would wait before giving wheat, but we started with oatmeal.

[zeewifeandmama]

Aug 5, 2012 10:36:43 GMT -5 incogneato said:

We did avocado mixed with BM, then banana.

same here

[hocus]

Aug 4, 2012 16:12:01 GMT -5 dcrunnergirl said:

Our pedi said that feeding a baby cereal as their first food is outdated. He said there is no evidence it helps prevent food allergies, it's constipating, and it is just empty calories. He said we could start with whatever we wanted, so we did sweet potatoes and bananas first at 5 months. The only reason why some kids need cereal is if they are BFing and require the extra iron.

This more or less. For my first kid I followed most the traditional suggestions. For my second I was far more relaxed. We did everything except honey, eggs, nuts/peanuts and red berries. We introduced berries and eggs at 9 months and now that the kid's one then he can have anything that isn't a choking hazard.

[mrshandy]

We did oatmeal with lots of breast milk. He loved it!

[nonsenseabound]

we did rice cereal for about a week. Then we added in all types of purees to the rice cereal--like sweet potatoes or green beans.

At about 8 months we started giving him finger foods and he loves feeding himself. We follow up by giving him purees at the end. That way I know he is getting something in his tummy and that the dogs are not eating most of his meal when he misses his mouth!