What Was Your Baby's First Solid Food?

I'm a 1st time mom to a breastfed 5 months old boy too. I started him on solids recently and totally skipped cereal since he expressed interest in food. I totally skipped on rice and oatmeal cereal and went on to veggies and he took it really well. He doesn't like fruits all that much, he prefers veggies over fruit which is fine with me. I believe, personally, that rice or oatmeal cereal is for older babies, not younger babies because their stomach is still developing and learning, and should be fed simple, easily digested foods than thick food that's hard to digest. (too many stories of constipation, due to cereal) I fed him Sweet potatoes, squash, sweet corn, and mixed veggies. I found that my son liked anything with orange or yellow color to it.. just experiment and see what your son likes, then work with that. Just try to introduce anything that tastes resemblance the breast milk. just an idea.. I alternate the food every 2-3 days..

p.s

about the meat, wait a bit..like a month to 2 months after you start baby food, to allow his stomach to settle, and get used to simple foods, then go ahead and introduce meats to him. You have to remember that his stomach is all new, and learning.. so give it time. get used to simple foods, like veggies and fruits, then go ahead with meats.

don't turn him into an carnivore so early when hes learning to eat :) he;ll get around to it soon enough, like a month or two, depending.. you'll know when hes ready for meats.

Visit wholesomebabyfood.com. It is a great webiste that lists the order in which what foods should be given and also gives you the directions on how to make the food at home which is much easier than you could ever imagine. Just don't limit your little one to foods that you like, try everything. My 8 month old loves avocados and mangoes, two foods that I had never tried prior to making them for her.

rice cereal at 4 months is what I was told by my Pediatrician.

what does your doc say?

I have 3 children and I prefer the oatmeal baby cereal. Gerber is good and Beech Nut is also good. Beech Nut has a great package. Oatmeal is good tasting as opposed to rice cereal which is tasteless. The thing they want you to remember is use single grain at first. It doesn't matter whether you use fruits or vegetables anything that says 1st foods is fine. My children had no allergies .

W.,
There is a great website that has a chart that explains what food you can feed babies and when. It also includes some great recipes. www.wholesomebabyfood.com. I hope it helps.

I started both of my kiddoes with rice cereal mixed with 1/2 jar stage 1 fruit and then formula to thin as needed. Any fruit will do but the runnier the better like apple, pear, etc. Yes, rice cereal can cause tummy issues but it's no different than changing formula on them-gas and change in poop. Veggies first before fruits is a myth. Babies like the taste of sweet stuff over anything else anyways so they will always favor fruits. I only waited a day or two between new foods. If your child is going to have a reaction to a food, it will happen within a half hour of coming in contact with that food, not hours or days. Oh, and once you are on foods like green beans, carrots and peas, don't be shocked by the major change in his poop color! It's totally fine and he is digesting the foods normally.

Best bet is to go with your gut too. Start with some cereal in the AM and a few days later give him a veggie (1/2 jar) at lunch and a few days later you can add that other half of fruit at lunch with the veggie and so on. Don't be shocked at a drecrease of BF as he eats more foods too.

Good luck and welcome to motherhood!
S.

All my kids where breast fed and they took great to the rice cereal and that is what the pediatrician recommended. Another good start is warm cream of wheat. The think about the rice cereal is you can make it as thick or thin as you like. It is not going to be a hard brick in the stomach. You don't want to jump right in on fruits and veggies because of the natural acids in the stomach and it could cause a lot of spit up when the stomach rejects the new rich food. When you do start the fruits and veggies I say start with the veggies. If you start with fruit often babies will like the sweet and will continuaously reject veggies. have them learn to like veggies first and it may be a lot easier to have them eat veggies a few years down the road. Also when you do pick a food, stick with it for a week or more before adding a new one. That is what I did and I have very healthy, not too picky 5 year old and 3 year old twins.

My daughter didn't do well with rice or oatmeal. We did the best with mixed cereal. The others would block her up and give her stomach issues no matter how watery I made it(i used breastmilk instead of water also). The mixed worked great. never any issues. Then soon we started adding fruits and veggies to the cereal. good luck.

I start with avocado...it's a good fat. I have no problem eating the remaining amount....wonderful stuff. I just don't care to start off with the processed rice cereal that you find at the store. We are already a country that is addicted to carbs, so I don't start them out with carbs.

Veggies versus fruits are not a myth, in my opinion. Some kids will have no problem eating either first, but how will you know until you've introduced something sweet over non-sweet and then the mistake is already made. I've had friends that wished they would have started veggies first, because it can be a problem for those babies that love the fruits and then won't eat the veggies. As you can tell, I'm a veggie person first. All the veggies are 'sweet' with the exception of the green beans.

Once they get going eating, then I cook and puree them myself, so they'll get more flavor from their veggies. I would NEVER start off with meats. Their little digestive systems aren't meant to handle that. We should always eat meat sparingly even as an adult, so giving a baby meat first isn't a good idea. I would hold off the meat for quite a long time.

If you wanted to start off with something sweet in a veggie, I'd try the butternut squash or sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are sweet, as are the carrots and peas. I start feeding once a day for a while, but would introduce a new food every 3 or 4 days. I don't push it. I've done avocado for 2 days now with my 6 month old. He loves it. I put the spoon in front of him and he leans forward and makes a noise as if he is going to devour it! lol. Too cute.

Good luck!

i started with rice cereal with my twins and then mixing(or masking it with applesauce) then butternut squash and sweetpotatos. then prunes (because they got constipated) and then down the list. my girls at corn and peas but wouldn't touch green beans. i never gave my kids the meats. it kind of grossed me out. lol but from there we jumped to big people oatmeal(plain) which they loved and is good for them. then i started feeding them what i ate. just in tiny bite sizes. around 11-12months peanut butter and jelly and oatmeal was their favorites. but my kids LOVED LOVED LOVED prunes. and i have tryed them they are actually good. when you start solids sometimes the baby's bowel movements can be a little more solid. prunes are the best thing. and they like them. my son never wanted baby food we pretty much started putting it in a bottle (weird but my ex did it and he actually drank it all. we called it the sludge) it looked horrible. but he liked it. we gave him the basic veggies and fruits but thats it. now he just eats "big boy foods" he just turned a year 4 days ago but he eats oatmeal just about every morning pb&j for lunch or a yogurt and cheerios and a banana and whatever we eat for dinner. meat, veggie and a little starch. and a bottle of formula at nap time and bed time. in think he has a milk allergy so i dont want to switch him to just milk just yet. and he is getting the right nutrition from the soy formula if he doesn't eat well that day. and he is a little lazy and just wants his "ba-ba" and only will take formula no juice or water he just spits it out. punk! lol but starting with oatmeal which has more flavor and then veggies sound the best to me. i never really thought about veggies before fruit. i would have done that. but i guess maybe thats why i have twin 2.5 yr olds who love fruit and hate veggies.ha

just what i did
P.

My son started with the rice cereal and didn't take to well to it at first. I seemed to upset his stomach. I started him with carrots at first. It took a couple tries to get him to not spit them out. But once he was interested he seemed very content, no stomach issues. I waited about a week to ten days before I tried sweet potatoes. He is now going on six months and eats cereal mixed with fruit in the am and veggies in the pm before bed. It took about a month to experiment with different foods but he is on a good schedule now. I haven't had much luck with meats though. They have a thicker texture and he doesn't seem to like it at all. Maybe in a few months he will change his mind:)

Avocado! When you do go to cereal, you can get brown rice cereal if you look at brands beyond the basic Gerber and Beechnut. Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron is the best book on the market, in my opinion. Don't be overwhelmed by the encyclopedic amount of info she has (everything from baby food, to toddler crafts to natural cleaning supplies!). It's worth the purchase price just for the chart she gives of what foods to introduce at what age -- or just browse at a book store and copy it down! So much more variety than I would have ever thought of on my own. I made some of our kids' food, but also used commercial cereals that were whole grain and a lot of Earth's Best baby food jars -- especially if travelling or eating out. I used some Gerber, too, nothing wrong with it. I was just particular about the ingredient list, making sure I had introduced one new food at a time, and I never ever fed them baby food "desserts" with all that added sugar. They don't need it! Have fun!

I tried the rice. She barely ate it. She was reaching for the sweet potatoes and bananas at 3 months. My girl is definitely a good eater. She will eat collard greens raw starting when she was 2. I finally gave in. The one allergy that popped up early was a severe skin reaction to tomatoes. I say wait a week or even two if you can. But just my 2 cents.
I followed the eat right for your blood type chart for her age when introducing the other foods. I tried to be sure she had plenty of non-sweet, all the other tastes, because our culture is submerged with sweet and salty. It's hard to introduce the others later. Better to start early.
Blessings.

You guess it right Mine was rice cereal.....then I started on appleasauce, (deserts) pears, etc......Once I realize that he loved deserts then I added the vegetables and left the meats ones for last. Good luck

Hi W. S,
My daugter was 5 months when we started her on solid foods. The best advice I received was to start with rice and breastmilk, continue for 2 days and introduce vegetables in 3 day intervals to ensure that if there is an adverse reaction, you can pinpoint the exact food causing it. So if you start with squash (which I suggest), you give that to him for three days, then peas for three days and maybe sweet potatoes. Gerber makes 1st foods that you can give him. The thing that no one told me was to incorporate water/juice while introducing these foods. My daughter was very constipated for a couple of days, even though I continued to breastfeed her. Now, I give her about 7 oz. of water/juice per day and 2 servings of Gerber 1st foods as well as breastmilk.

The only kind of fruit she has had is applesauce, and she seems to like sweet potatoes and squash more than the apple sauce.

My daughter also had digestive issues (gas ) and we gave her gripe water. You can get it from Kroger, CVS.... It is all natural and we gave it to her twice a day. It really works.

Good luck!!!

A little about me:
I am a SAHM of 1 baby girl.

my son hated rice cereal and it has no nutritional value so that didn't worry me too much. I would avoid things like sweet potatoes for a little while b/c they have a lot of fiber. I think banana very pureed is a good choice. and if that works well, blend it with some avocado. My son loves this mixture and it's kind of a fruit-veggie blend and gives them the omega-3 healthy fats which are so good for brain development. My son eats that at least once a day (1/2 banana, 1/3 avocado blended in food processor - although you can just mush it once he is older).

My baby is almost three months now and started wanting solid food early on. I was unable to breastfeed and she had to have gentle formula with partially digested protein or she would get constipated. So I tried a little sweet potato at two weeks and waited two days to make sure it didnt upset her stomach. Well, it did fine and now we are up to having one solid meal a day with rice cereal, sweet potato or pumpkin, and apple sauce. She eats every bit and it doesnt constipate her at all. I do give her a little water with her solid food and the rest of her feedings are regular formula. We usually do solid in the evenings and plan for a long messy feast. She gets so excited that she grabs fistfuls and sucks it off her hands. Just pay attention to how your baby takes to solids and something easy like sweet potato will do fine. Also if you are worried about the rice brick effect, mix a little apple sauce in with the rice cereal. Starting a new food every few days or whatever feels right to you should be fine. Good luck and have fun with it:) Making your own baby food is really simple, too.

I think I started out with oatmeal. I was worried with my daughter's eczema that rice could be a problem. We just made it with breast milk and made it runny. I am also glad my Dr. said to wait until 7 months old. I know that was 4 years ago and now that is the recommended age. A lot of mom rush into cereal because they think either their child is hungry or that it will make them sleep through the night. I did this for a couple of weeks starting with once a day then 2ce a day and then 3 times a day. Then I added 1/2 a jar of veggies. I think sweet potatoes or carrots, then fruit. although, it doesn't really matter. I thought she needed veggies first since they weren't sweet so she would eat them but that it doesn't make them eat or not eat veggies later. Also I HIGHLY recommend going organic as much as possible. You would be surprised to learn how many chemicals and preservatives are in stuff that are harmful. The smaller the body, the more toxic even a small amount of preservatives/chemicals in stuff even in cereal & baby wash. Good luck! You must be a great mom to care so much to ask!

My plan was to start with veggies, but it was obvious that my big baby needed a little more substance, so we mixed rice cereal with his other foods starting around 5 months. He was also early to sit up and get teeth. He has always been a very good eater (breastfed still), but never seemed satisfied. I've heard that the grains can lead to obesity, etc., but we tend to have the opposite problem in my family- high metabolism and in need of lots of calories. We used Earth's Best organic which is great! Some people prefer the oatmeal to rice, but Davey's belly couldn't handle that for some reason. He's 9 months now and eats everything we eat in a chewed up or pureed version.

I, too, started with Rice Cereal...no digestive issues. Maybe those who did were mixing it too thickly, to start and for several months it is pretty liquid (just follow the directions on the box. In this case, more is not better.)
I then introduced about 2 tbsp. of fruit, including the other cereals along the way (though barley was pretty much a waste. I'd stay with Rice and Oatmeal.)and progressed to veg. and meat last.
Each time I intro.'d a new food it was one at a time, after about 2 weeks with no reactions and only a little. And, I gave no eggs, wheat, orange juice, etc. until after 1 year because my husband and I both have allergies.
Hope this helps!

watermelon was her first

I have a 14 month old son and I started him on solids at 6 months as well (he was exclusively breastfed until this point). I made my own baby food so there might not be as much variety in the jarred stuff but I know Earth's Best has a great selection. ANYWAY, I started with butternut squash; after 3 days we moved on to sweet peas and then 3 days later we did broccoli. Once I got a few veggies out of the way and realized he wasn't a picky eater, we moved on to fruit and did bananas, then apples and then pears. I always waited 3 days before introducing anything new. He was also eating rice cereal at this time and after a few weeks we moved on to the oatmeal cereal. I gave him just about everything under the sun in one form or another as the months went on, spinach, egg yolks, salmon, beef, chicken and he ate everything. I don't know if there is any connection, but for the most part, he'll eat anything I put in front of him now unless he's getting some teeth. Good luck.

My daughter is 2 1/2 and a very healthy eater--she prefers broccoli over cake--wierd, I know. Even wierder is that I hardly eat fruits or vegetables so I know she didn't get it from me. Maybe it has something to do with the way foods were introduced and maybe it doesn't, but i'll share what I did, upon my pediatrician's recommendation. I started with cereals (organic--I actually started with oatmeal vs. rice). Then veggies were introduced lightest to darkest (squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans etc). Then fruits, then meat. I NEVER gave her dessert baby food, pudding, or any sweets and never added sugar to anything like applesauce. Don't worry--there will be plenty of time later for junk food when they demand it of you. Interestingly enough, my daughter loves cereal and breads (but prefers the whole grain healthy stuff) and loves veggies. She kind-of likes fruits, hates meat, and eats very few sweets. I just think it's interesting and worth a try.

I did the rice cereal and also pears. After that worked, I went to veggies b/c I was worried if I started with all fruits and sweet things that my daughter may not like the veggies. She loved peas, sweet potatoes, squash & green beans. I would usually give her a little of one veggie and a little of one fruit(pears, applesauce, blueberries-I tried them all. She ate all of them, too, but now at 3 won't touch most of them-go figure!

Congratulations on being a first time mom, I am also a first time mom of a healthy 5 month old boy. When my son had his 4 month checkup I asked my pediatrician the same questions and he advised starting with rice cereal, there are less chances of allergies and you can make the cereal as thick as you need to for your baby to adjust to eating from a spoon. He said to feed him cereal for a couple of weeks (1 tablespoon once or twice a day depending on how hungry he is)then start introducing other foods, he suggested vegetables first because fruits are sweeter and may make it harder for the baby to eat other things that aren't as sweet and to wait 4-5 days before introducing new foods. As far as vegetables go he suggested carrots first since they are a little sweet and then maybe squash then go from there. Every baby is different so if he doesn't like veggies after a couple of feedings you can always switch to fruits. Hope this helps! Good luck!

I am also a first time mom and everyone is different as to what is a good first time food for their babies. For me, I started on little one on rice cereal mixed with his milk at three months old because I discovered that his milk was not substaining him long enough. I consulted with my baby's doctor and he told me that it was fine but not to give my baby rice cereal with each feeding and not everyday. When my little one was about 6 months the doctor told me that is was ok to start him on stage one infant foods and to only try a new food every three days. That way if the food did not agree with him, it is easier to pinpoint which food. My suggestions is to consult with your baby's doctor because every baby is a little different and what may work for one baby, may not work for yours.