Food Ideas - Seattle,WA

There is a great book out there called Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron that has hundreds of ideas for all kinds of baby foods. She does have a lot that are strained but she also has a lot of other great ideas. Just a thought :)

I love the website wwww.wholesomebabyfood.com. It has lots of food ideas and any of the foods that are age appropriate you could just cook and cut instead of blending.

any steamed vegetables cut appropriately
non-slippery fruit (bananas as is, apples cooked slightly, etc) (mango is too slippery this way yet)
small pastas
small cereals (cheerios, rice crispies, etc.)

no citrus, nuts, strawberries, egg whites, meats or cheese yet

Wow! My son is almost 12 months and still can't handle most textures. I would advise caution with foods he would have to chew, because #1 he isn't going to get much nutrition without being able to actually chew them and #2 he still could gag on them.

Having said that, maybe he doesn't like the taste of the canned food. Try making your own. If he likes the texture of chuckiness, grind it chunky, not puree. Grind rice with a coffee grinder or in the blender and use 1/3 cup to 2 cups of water (or a heaping tablespoon per 1/2 cup) and cook him cereal. It won't be quite as smooth as the baby cereal.

Here's a good food for him: beans. They are easier to digest than meat, and if they are cooked to death (I recommend cooking your own; canned beans have too much salt for a baby his age). You can freeze them in small portion containers and thaw out 2-3 days worth at a time. I give my son beans every day (he's got so many food allergies, protein options are limited). Of course, I have to puree the beans for him, but you could just mash them and leave them a little chunky if your son likes the texture.

Try dampened cherrios, teething biscuits, even rice crispies once he gets a little more coordination.

Oh, and see if he likes beets. You can make your own baby beets food, but make sure you get organic beets, because the regular ones have nitrates from the fertilizer and young babies can't handle that. Same goes for any root veggie you feed him. Try potatoes, carrots, etc. Peas, green beans--anything you would normally feed him from a jar you can make yourself with more texture.

And of course, you can always mash or blend your own food to give him. Make sure it doesn't have too much salt, but otherwise, go for it. If he likes it, you're ahead of the game. :)

My daughter loved peas!!!! and chopped carrots. So much that when the doc saw her at nine months he said he could tell that she ate alot of peas and carrots. Her skin was dark and tawny, but her eyes white. She also like beans chopped and believe it or not pepperoni sausage thinly sliced. (she is now a vegetarian) All this under the age of one year.

soft carrots and potatoes - mashed if he likes that with a little butter and salt.

You can basically steam anything into softness! Our little one (almost 8 mos.) is LOVING steamed sweet potatoes cubed into little bites, green beans, regular potatoes (i boiled them), carrots, beets, we've even tried broccoli stalks... practically anything that can be cooked to softness and then cut into small bites.

Avocados are a wonderful food, full of healthy fat, mushy, just make sure to cut into 1cm or smaller cubes.

There's always the Stage 3 baby foods-- more for older ones who "get" the concept of mashing with their jaws, but our daughter has been eating them for the past month.

If you're in a pinch, you can buy canned veggies that are "No-Salt Added". We tried green beans that way the other night, and they were just a little more "solid" than the steamed ones, but once cut into small bits-- easily chomped up by the babe!

I saw some great new babyfood the other day called "sprout" or something like that, they were packaged in foil envelopes and had some wonderful flavors like, lentils in a garlic-tomato sauce. We discovered that our little one LOVES garlic and onion flavors. I sprinkle onion powder and garlic powder (powder, not salts) on her steamed veggies and she gobbles them up. We did the same for our older daughter (3 years old) and she is still an adventurous eater.

Good luck and have fun!

We used to drain, saving the liquid, most of the liquid out of chicken noodle soup, then blend the soup (to make all the pieces easy to swallow), we then heated up the soup and added rice cereal and some of the broth back in, making it the consistency of oatmeal. Both our kids loved this and usually one can of progresso soup was enough for a couple meals.

My kids also love rice mixed with cream of chicken, cream of mushroom (like stroganoff), or even the rice-a-roni rice pelaf or creamy four cheese - add some chicken bits in and your good to go.

Instant mashed potatoes are great for mixing in some chopped or blended veggies and meat. Also it is easy to cut any pasta dish into small enough bits that a baby can gum them - we like to do this by pulling a sharp knife through the prongs of a fork, pulling in opposite directions, it helps hold the pasta in place and get it cut up good and small.

Baby food is expensive, so we tried to save money by seeing if our kids would eat stuff like this. My kids eat pretty well and will eat almost anything that I would eat, so you might as well try.

Good Luck!

K.,

Here are some ideas of foods that are not likely to cause choking- not everything on the list is appropriate for a baby's diet. My 6 yr old is on a soft foot diet - this is what he likes to eat.

When you start paying attention to the texture of what you eat, you'll probably find a lot more.

Scrambled eggs (also quiche)
Puddings/custards
Banana
Ripe pear
Canned soft fruit
Grated raw apples
Well done pasta
Squash
Mashed potatoes (Baked or hashbrown also work)
Yams
Sweet potato
Beans (Soups, stew, chili, refried)
Hummus
Yogurt
Applesauce
Cottage Cheese
Veg. Soup (Draining liquids from soup)

We also give him "Easy Melt Food". These are foods that turn to mush quickly in the mouth.

Gerber Wagon Wheels
Soda Crackers (Club crackers)
Graham Crackers
Puffy Cheetos
cheerios
Pirates Booty
Freeze dried fruit- they come in pouches with apple, banana, strawberry (The strawberries are like in Special K)

Most pediatricians don't recommend solid foods until a baby is 6 mo old, for a variety of reasons. With that said... you should introduce one food at a time to watch for allegies and his ability to digest things. Start with rice cereal, then a fruit. A new fruit or vegetable every 3-4 days. Feed when he's hungry, before you nurse or give him a bottle. It's great that he wants to jump ahead in the game, but you need to watch for allergies and his ability to chew,moosh in his mouth and not choke. Keep the spices off. Soft foods, ripe bananas, steamed apples or pears, same with carrots, potatoes, beans.... steamed to the point of squishy, mashable soft. Talk with your pediatrician about an food introduction schedule or other advice. Best of luck!!!

Ypu can blend your table food for him. A blender works great but I've heard mothers recommend an inexpensive hand turned one that you can buy at a baby supply store such as Babies R Us. They may have it in the baby section of department stores also. Such as Fred Meyer.

There are also several good books about preparing baby food. You most likely can find some on the Internet.

Some foods like potatoes and carrots can be smashed up with a fork. Applesauce is already pureed. You can cook and puree any mild veggies.

I suggest that you do not include salt in his foods.

Pasta with whatever strained food you want might work. We did a lot of pasta with our daughter at that age because she would eat it better if she could feed herself. French toast, spaghetti, soft fruits and veggies, etc...

I think you should be able to make baby food out of what ever you are eating and that is fine. Stay away from high allergen foods, but other than that, nothing wrong with mashing up your food to a consistency he likes. Avoid big chunks this early and keep the foods as soft as possible. I think mash versus puree makes a difference. It is slightly chunkier.
My daughter never really liked the pureed stuff either, so I just mashed up everything up really good and fed that to her.
Avocado, sweet potatoes, green beans, overcooked pasta, cottage cheese (if dairy is ok), mashed beans (most mash really good except garbanzos-they are kind of hard).
I think you can do whatever you want...just watch out for those high allergy things.
Good luck.

Sweet potato: microwave until soft and cut into small pieces
Large curd cottage cheese (if ready row cow dairy, I forget age for that)
Very ripe banana, pear, melon, mango
Frozen peas: cover with water and microwave till soft
Zucchini: steam
Avocado: keep as much Peel on leftovers and wrap with plastic wrap to reduce discoloration

A plunger-style food chopper may make things easier. OXO and Pampered Chef make them.

Basically, you can buy any fruit or veggie found in jarred baby food, cook till soft and cut into appropriate bits. Some take more work (winter squash ). I recommend steaming (microvave or stovetop) or roasting in the oven to avoid using cooking fats. I'd avoid meats until baby can actually chew and not just mash.

Good luck!

My daughter's first food was black beans and soft avocado. She loves them to this day.

Hi K.,
My daughter, now almost 2, never liked pureed / strained foods. She took to table foods, in general, very very slowly. From the beginning preferred her food with some texture, and the appearance of molars expanded the foods I could safely give her. She still won't eat mushy foods (loves chopped up almonds, won't eat an almond or peanut butter sandwich)
Check out the book "Child of Mine"

tofu in our house was a big hit

6 1/2 months ?
Until your baby is a year old he does not have the enzymes in his gut necessary to break down solid foods. Babies should be on (ideally) breast milk or if necessary formula until one year of age . . . until then solid foods will do damge to the gut and digestive system. We have an alarming growth rate of food allergies and intolerances in children, digestive issues that are the root of ADD and other learning and social dysfunctions.
We have learned as a nation to eat to fill up and we are feeding our babies solid foods at younger and younger ages so they are seemingly content and they will sleep through the night , etc but we are now dealing with all manner of allergies intolerances and gut issues.

Gluten (wheat, rye and barley) in the pasta you are feeding him is one of the hardest protiens (even for a completely healthy adult) to break down - a 6 month old baby should not be eating the hardest to break down protiens when they barely have the capacity to break down simple protiens. If you must feed him something solid give him egg yolks or avacados - these foods have enzymes that will help his body break down the protiens until his gut develops the enzymes to naturally do so on its own.