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Let me tell you, she was ECSTATIC about her first taste of rice cereal. Okay, well maybe not so much. But after the second attempt, she is now chowing down like a champ. She even opens her mouth for each spoonful and seems upset when the bowl is empty.
Next up - orange stuff. Namely some sort of veggie - squash, carrots, or sweet potatoes. I get the veggies before fruits concept (fruits are so tasty they won't want the veggies!) Not sure why the doc recommended to start with orange stuff over green stuff though - anyone know?
Maybe they are just in the mood for fall too - squash is very fall-ish is it not? I had briefly considered cooking and mashing up my own baby food, but then I got real and realized that my mind is already going in a billion different directions and I just can't add one more thing to my plate. And really, who knows how to cook squash? Not this girl! Keep it simple, right?
So we're going with Nature's Promise organic jar baby foods. They come in glass jars, which I like - great to reuse for other things and just seems so much nicer than plastic. They're organic. And the ingredients for the squash? Organic squash + water. Simple. And even better they are readily available at our local grocery store and are cheaper than Gerber baby foods. Weird right? Because the Gerber baby foods come in this cheap-o looking plastic container. I guess it's just what people buy because it's such a well-known baby food company?
If you are interested in making your own baby food (I may still give it a go someday just for fun, we'll see, but it certainly won't be with squash. Maybe something more on my level - like bananas) here is a great site I found with baby food recipes, instructions, etc.
If anyone has any advice for me on this whole pureed food deal, please share. As usual I feel pretty clueless!
My SIL never used jarred baby food. She always made extra veggies at dinner and pureed with the Magic Bullet. She froze in small sizes and used those when she introduced solids. Sounds like a lot of work, but she saved a bundle and got a routine down.
ReplyDeleteOur LO HATED rice cereal, we gave it one try and then skipped it. The APA actually just published a study basically saying skip the cereals (they have pretty much no nutritional value w/o the breast milk or formula anyway) and go right to foods. We started with Avocado and he LOVES it.
ReplyDeleteI am a full time working mom in Washington, DC (so I work 8+ hours and have about an hour to hour and a half commute each way) and make my 9 month olds food. The Beaba Baby cook (williams sonoma, or I think on Amazon) is expensive (but we got it as a gift), but a huge time saver and makes cooking your own food really easy. I've read a few different articles about cooking your own foods and how it's better to give them the natural flavor of foods, blah blah blah, for me it just feels right to make his food. We are still breast feeding and to just take organic carrots, broccoli, etc and steam and mash it just feels natural. Maybe it's a control thing, but I know what my little guy is eating, no preservatives or extra sugars; just plain and simple food. We have just started adding spices too like cinnamon, ginger, etc.
A GREAT resource for making your own food is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. I had no idea how to cook many of foods we wanted to try, but it really is so easy, a lot of them just involve a poping the food in the oven and then blending. I make my own applesauce, squash, broccoli, eggplant, chicken, turkey, all kinds of veggies and fruits. The site also is a really good guide for when to introduce (or not) certain foods.
Hope this helps a bit.
I've never heard of orange before green, but perhaps it's because the green veggies can cause more gas. Derek and Natalie (cousins of ours) made their own baby food... are you FB friends with Natalie? She would probably have some advice. I think they just made stuff for themselves and used a baby puree gizmo to blend it for Julian. They used ice cube trays to freeze it into serving sizes... pretty clever!
ReplyDeletethat photo is classic.
ReplyDeleteI made my sons food for the first 11 months of his life until he decided he wanted burritos and such. I think it's one of the best things you can do for your baby, aside from breast feeding-which i wasn't able to do, so i pumped for 6 months.... anyway. conrad loved squash with bananas.
Good luck with the solids! It'll be a whole new word for Violet. I've never heard of starting with orange before green. We started my little girl (now 2.5) on peas and then went to squash if I remember correctly.
ReplyDeletehi.
ReplyDeletenow to throw something else into the mix.
we did this: http://www.babycenter.com.au/baby/startingsolids/babyledweaning/
with our 3rd babe and we cannot believe how good an eater she is compared to the other 2. worth a look.
all the best from sunny melbourne!!
I found it was super-easy to cook extra veggies with dinner and run them through the food processor with a bit of the water they were cooked in (except for carrots -- they say not to do that because of the nitrites). Froze the stuff in ice cube trays, thawed in the fridge or microwave. I never had much luck pureeing meats, though, so I did supplement with jarred food for that. There is SO much information out there about making your own food, it can quickly become overwhelming. Just stick with the basics, and Violet will let you know what she does and doesn't like!
ReplyDeleteI started with fruits/veggies (I switched them up when introducing)and introduced cereal later. Baby C is 15 months and she's eating pretty much anything. I started with organic purees in jars like you (and we started at about 4.5 months). I still sometimes buy purees now for convenience when we go out, or to keep her from getting bored with food. I don't generally like to puree fresh veggies/fruits on their own, but if you steam them + some yogurt, they come out pretty tasty (especially sweet potato or butternut squash with yogurt). And also, later try soups. They are easy, tasty and really good for baby digestion.
ReplyDeleteI have an Osterizer blender and it's perfect for throwing in whatever veggie you had for dinner (minus salt of course) to serve to baby. I hate that Gerber's organics are served in plastic. I'll have to look for Nature's Promise jars because I do like to have jars on hand too.
ReplyDeleteI found it was super-easy to cook extra veggies with dinner and run them through the food processor with a bit of the water they were cooked in (except for carrots -- they say not to do that because of the nitrites). Froze the stuff in ice cube trays, thawed in the fridge or microwave. I never had much luck pureeing meats, though, so I did supplement with jarred food for that. There is SO much information out there about making your own food, it can quickly become overwhelming. Just stick with the basics, and Violet will let you know what she does and doesn't like!
ReplyDelete