For some reason, I really thought that introducing my baby to real food would be an area of parenting that had hard and fast rules. Wishful thinking, I guess, since EVERY other aspect of baby-raising is pretty subjective, and every expert, parent, and annoying (um... well-meaning?) stranger has a different opinion on how things should be done. Unfortunately, the whole baby food deal is no different. So I will preface the rest of this post by saying that this is just the way we did things, based on some reading, some advice from our pediatrician, and some trial and error -- and you can probably find a dozen other blogs out there that detail why what we did was wrong and will ruin our baby. So it goes. And with that out of the way, we continue.
When we took Ben for his four-month check-up (actually at four-and-a-half months), I asked our pediatrician about starting solids. He said that he looks for three things to determine if a baby is ready:
1. He drools.
2. He puts his hands, toys, etc. in his mouth (showing an awareness of his mouth).
3. He has been sleeping through the night but starts waking up again.
Check, check, and GIANT CHECK for us not long after that appointment. I arbitrarily decided that we would wait until five months to start solids anyway, but Daniel ended up with a night off from church stuff because of snow, so we took advantage of that extra time to give Ben cereal for the first time a few days before I planned.
Per the instructions on the box of rice cereal, I mixed up 1 Tbsp. of cereal with about one ounce of pumped milk. I had already been putting Ben in his Bumbo chair for a few minutes every day to get him used to being in it, so I thought he would be fine to eat in that. However, he usually played in the Bumbo on the floor of his room, and I (very stupidly) put him on the kitchen counter to feed him. He was waaaaay distracted by this new setting. So despite the fact that he seemed to like the cereal pretty well, he was kind of annoyed that we kept making him eat it. And this is what he looked like about five minutes into the process:
The next night, we moved him to his bouncy seat on the living room floor. Same 1 Tbsp. of cereal but with just 1/2 ounce of milk this time (this is the ratio I've stuck with). Success!
From there, we just increased the amount of cereal a little (maybe a Tbsp. at a time?) every day or so. It took Ben a few tries to get the hang of having food arrive on a spoon, and there were some pretty humorous moments early on. The first time, he would fake cough when the spoon was in his mouth. Then for a few days he couldn't figure out to keep his mouth open until the food got there. But he caught on, and now it's easy to see when he is enjoying eating and when he just wants to quit (he sticks his hand in his mouth and either fusses or turns his head away).
In the past few weeks, we've added carrots, squash, and green beans to the menu. He LOVES all of these. Our routine lately is to eat veggies at lunchtime and cereal at dinnertime. He likes the veggies more than the rice cereal, so I usually mix a little veggie goodness into his cereal.
A few other feeding notes:
*The only consistent "rule" I've seen about feeding is to wait 3 days after you've introduced a new food. Then if there's no reaction, you can add another new food.
*Our pediatrician told us to start with veggies first and then fruits (so the baby doesn't get hooked on sweet flavors and reject vegetables).
*I started out feeding Ben before I nursed him because of something I read in What to Expect the First Year. That was fine at first, but then I was afraid Ben would fill up and not want to nurse (and most of his nutrition should be coming from milk at this point). So I started nursing and then doing solids, and he still eats a good amount of "real food," but it's easier for both of us to know when to stop.
*I gave Ben oatmeal for a few days, but it didn't seem to agree with his little tummy. That could be all in my head, but I decided to lay off the oatmeal for a little while anyway. No rush at this point.
*Ben was back to sleeping through the night pretty immediately after we started giving him cereal (yayyayyay!).
That's all I can think of right now. For the handful of you who are interested in all these details, feel free to ask about anything I've neglected. For the rest of you, just comment on how cute the pictures are.
12 comments:
Look how cute he is. It's hard to believe he's already hit that milestone but there he is with green beans all over his wittle face.
I completely agree about the different ways to do things. I got a lot of "advice" on the grocery store. Every kid is different and Changing life circumstances changed the way I did things with each baby.
Speaking of the grocery store yesterday I caught Asher By his legs mid air upside down as he bailed out of the cart head first on his way to the floor. Sometimes I wonder if angels intercede with that instinct to turn around at just the right moment.
Oh my goodness! My heart stopped for a second just picturing that grocery cart scenario. Scary!
Look at how cute those pictures are .... gotta love a good "food all over the face" photo.
The contrast to veggies first and then fruits is that breast milk is sweet, but who knows. You were right to make sure he nurses first. A lot of the eating they do at this stage is just practice anyway!
The happy look on his face- and the size of his chubbiness- say that whatever you are doing is working very well :)
sigh. he is so adorable.
Our kids favorite baby foods were sweet potatoes and pears! Enjoy this time, because it won't be long before they're arguing with you about what they eat...out loud!
I loved this post! Thanks for the heads up, I hadn't seen it yet. And it was highly informative. I've also heard the suggestion to nurse on one side, do solids, then nurse on the other side. That does seem rather complicated though, so maybe just nursing first is a better idea. I can't remember the reasoning right now - maybe so they're not too full, but not too hungry?
Anyway, thanks for the post! And Ben is so adorable with food all over his face (when does that stop being awesome?)!
I also meant to say that it's encouraging that eating solids helped him get back to sleeping better. I'm hoping for similar results.
How long did you do rice cereal before starting to add veggies?
WTG momma!!! You're awesome! He looks very happy and content.
hey, i wanted to tell you that you must do things the way i did! heh heh.
i enjoyed making some of the baby foods that my kids ate. for me, it was a lot of fun and i knew i wasn't hurting them. i actually trusted what the labels said on the baby food jars and didn't have a problem using them, but i made my own food to supplement. oh yeah, and we were really poor, so some of it was to save money when we had austin. he ate a LOT... about two jars worth per meal at ben's age. you'll save a little bit to make vegetables on your own, especially sweet potatoes and yellow squash and butternut squash - the fruits are fun to steam and blend but won't save you much money. pears turned out very nice. i would make the food and blend it and then freeze it in ice cube trays for little individual servings that i could later microwave. and i loved using our baby masher to mash up what the rest of us were having for supper (stews and pastas and things work best) for baby.
let me know if you try it, and if so, what you think!!
Jessica -- There's no way you will see this comment, but I'm leaving it anyway. I bought ice cube trays a couple of weeks ago (who doesn't own ice cube trays? apparently me) for the sole purpose of making baby food. I'm like you -- it just seems like fun to me. However, I later realized that I ruined our blender shortly before Christmas. Oops. But once I replace it, I'll try to make a few baby foods and let you know how it goes!
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