Thursday, August 19, 2010

What's the rush? Introducing solid food to the breastfed baby.

Rookie Moms
When I was pregnant with Beanie I joined an online birth club. I also posted a little when I was pregnant with Bubby, although I am definitely not that involved with the latter group. Right now, as the babies are nearing four and five months old, all the talk is of baby food.

Oh, baby food. I guess when Beanie was little it sounded more exciting. Fun even. Like, oooh I get to make baby food and feed her with a spoon and oh it'll be so much fun. Then we tried it. Beanie wasn't really interested which was fine by me. We fed her small amounts and I didn't worry when she still nursing non-stop. I think this guide on how to introduce solids provides a wealth of information and that's, basically, the approach we took.

This time around? Not so exciting. It's so easy to nurse. I can do it anywhere. I don't need to bring anything with me. We are definitely waiting until Bubby is at least six months old and may wait even longer. I'm trying to read up on it because I am a little nervous given his food intolerances. It may be better for him to delay the introduction of any other foods.

I am excited to make my own baby food again. I am itching to go to the farmers markets and pick up some produce for Bubby's first foods. We do not start with baby cereal. I did a lot of reading on this when we were introducing foods with Beanie and it just isn't necessary. Recently I have heard some moms saying that their (pretty main-stream) pediatricians have been saying that cereal doesn't have to be the first food, which is nice to hear after the "battle" we had with our previous pediatrician about it.

It's hard to believe that baby food is even on the horizon. I look at my little chunk who rolls all over the living room, almost sits on his own, and thinks his sister is the funniest person in the world and remember how he was just five months ago. Time is flying.

What first foods did you give your baby?

Some helpful sites for making your own baby food:

5 comments:

  1. Elsa's going to be six months on Sunday, and I think I will offer her some peaches. She sits up pretty well, has four teeth, and seems interested in food. If she doesn't enjoy it I won't push her. I believe that it's all for fun at this age anyway.

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  2. Wes had his 4 month apt. today, and they of course encouraged the rice cereal...I just smiled and nodded rather than start the fight. With my older one, we waited till 6 months and then started with sweet potatoes. he did great with them, and we slowly added green beans, peaches, zucchini, bananas, avocado...and eventually some ground-by-me brown rice. We did keep him wheat (and mostly gluten) free the first year. Seemed to work for us! I agree, I'm not that excited this time around - nursing is easier!

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  3. Moira's first food was peaches, I believe, at 6 months. She ate purees off and on for a few weeks and then refused to have anything to do with them. We waited a couple more months until she was able to do the pincer grasp and then started giving her our food diced and she never looked back.
    It took a really long time for her to be willing to eat anything pureed or smooth. It must have been a texture thing.

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  4. Shannon, Beanie was the exact opposite. She didn't like the texture of anything that wasn't pureed. I'm interested to see how things go this time around.

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  5. Thanks for posting this! I need some information about baby food because I plan to make mine when the time comes. I look forward to it, but at the same time I am so not wanting to rush him into anything, much less rush that whole growing up thing! He is already almost 4 months old and I look back thinking I went through everything getting him here just yesterday, at least it seems that way!

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