Good Choice Foods for Solid Feeding??

[tattlebaby]

I haven't introduced "rice cereal", despite its very popular use and still don't think I wanna do so, because I've read it isn't good for baby's developing digestive system. Although I know at some point I should probably introduce it..just don't know when. I'm wondering if Quinoa is something that can be substituted for Rice Cereal? If so, should I purchase something like this https://www.applecrumbyandfish.com/food-for-thought/brands/nurturme/nurturme-organic-baby-cereal-protein-packed-quinoa.html or make my own? Also, am I suppose to start her on meats/fish now?? Eggs..(scrambled)?? And I keep hearing "yogurt"..but doesn't yogurt have cows milk in it?..I thought babies couldn't have cows milk until age one .

Also..to begin encouraging "self-feeding", what are your thoughts on these prepackaged "Finger-foods" they sell at the market?…like (Organic Puffs, Cheerios, baby food pouches, yogurt melts, grain snacks..etc) Are there any all natural/organic safe baby food brands you guys recommend? I live by a Whole Foods Supermarket so I'm sure I can have access to pretty much anything, just gotta get educated on whats BEST out there.

 

[Bella1185]

Can't answer all your questions and many of them your LO will answer for you....but DD started out with ripe organic avocado all smooshed up, then cut into tiny pieces and now she just grabs huge slices! Has always been a hit!

 

[fieryphoenix]

I wouldn't bother with rice cereal at this point, that stuff is pretty bland. You can give her quinoa, meats/fish are fine, I just cut the meat really thin and against the grain to make it easier to eat, eggs: I gave eggs at six months, los Dr spazzed out, apparently in the us its recommended to wait until 12 months for eggs, so whatever you want lol yogurt is fine too, they shouldn't have cows milk to drink until a year, they need the bm or formula, but in yogurt/oatmeal/baked things its fine

IMHO those prepackaged things are a waste of money. I just gave him things like regular cheerios, rice chex, goldfish crackers, fruit raspberries, half grapes, shredded apple, cooked plain noodles, bread strips with various spreads. Honestly at eight months she can eat anything you give her

 

[HBGirl]

We have never done rice cereal. In fact, I only introduced grains in the form of oats at 8 months.

 

[supertabby]

We didn't do rice cereal either, you don't need to. You can start with pretty much anything except honey (as they can't eat it before 12 months). Cows milk is absolutely fine as a food ingredient - including pouring over breakfast cereal or mixing with porridge etc - they just aren't supposed to have it as a main drink in place of breastmilk or formula because of the added benefits of those milks. Formula is made with cows milk - but fortified with vitamins and minerals.

We used a mix of purees and finger foods, I don't know what brands you have there but in UK it's fairly easy to find organic baby food in the baby aisle. With our eldest we gave things like pasta, banana, halved grapes, breadsticks, etc. Anything easy to grab - so long stick shapes are often best for first starting. With our youngest we found it harder to get him to try the finger food so we bought some of the baby crisps(chips) you can buy which are like corn puff snacks, carrot or sweetcorn based. They're made for babies so healthier than adult versions but still have vegetable fats in, so we used it as a means only to get him used to picking up finger food and then quickly moved onto other stuff.

Remember to chop grapes and tomatoes in half, as whole ones can swell inside the skin/peel if they get lodged in the throat making them harder to cough back up. Avoid marshmallow too (for years/ever!) as it swells and is sticky so is awful if someone chokes on it, my friend is a paramedic and says marshmallow is the worst thing to dislodge in choking.

 

[SarahBear]

I didn't introduce grains until after a year because they're really just empty calories mixed with stuff they can't digest. Vegetables and fruits also don't digest well. Some tropical fruits like bananas and avocados do digest really well though. I think the best first foods are fish, liver, avocado, banana, and egg. These were Violet's early favorites as well as the ones that digested the best and provided good nutrition. Iron is particularly important to consider when choosing early foods. She also enjoyed cheese. It seemed that the closer things were to meat or animal products, the more she liked them. This makes sense as these are the nutrients that babies really need - iron, fat, and protein. In terms of yogurt, I didn't do a lot of that until later because spoon-feeding was more effort than it was worth, but the issue with cow's milk is mostly not replacing breastmilk with cow's milk.

As for the baby snacks, they just seem like junk to me, so we have only done them a couple of times and they certainly were not an early food.

 

[SarahBear]

Oh, I also wanted to point out that the recommendation to wait until 12 months to introduce things like eggs, peanuts, and other possible allergens is no longer supported by the AAP. I think honey is also considered safe now, but don't take my word on that one.

I really researched the recommendation to not introduce certain possible allergens because my husband wanted Violet's first food to be salmon. If there are food allergies in your family, then it may be beneficial to wait, but if there are no food allergies in your family, there's no reason to wait.