We opted to wait until nearer to 6 months before we started Georgia on solid foods. I wanted her to get as much benefit from breastfeeding as possible, especially since our start was a little rocky. Since she's found her groove and I want to keep my supply up, I saw no reason to rush into things. Plus, Georgia was born a little over 3 weeks early, so there was no harm in waiting that little bit longer.
She's currently almost 24 weeks old & has started becoming VERY intent on food. She watches us eat closely, grabs for drinks when she's in your arms, and wants to touch everything. She's also been a bit fussier than usual when feeding, crying, carrying on, and guzzling down her expressed milk top-up before bedtime. All those things lead me to believe that she's needing something more - so it's nearly time!
Jason is still working interstate Monday-Friday, so I'm waiting until he's home this weekend before we start giving her the first taste of real food - she'll only start solids once, and I want him to be here for it!
The goal is to start with purees (as well as rice cereal/porridge mixed with breast milk), check for allergic reactions, and then move on to more 'formed' foods once we know she can tolerate them well. Hubby had a few intolerances as a child, so we are being fairly conservative - one new food item for 3 days, before moving on to something new & then mixing and matching.
What I've learned so far:
- Pumpkin when pureed is lovely and sweet. I may have snuck a few teaspoons into my mouth while cleaning up.) It doesn't seem to make as much as I imagined it would though. 2x chunks of pumpkin = 1.3 trays.
- Sweet potato yields quite a bit! I only had two and used them both, and it made a fair amount. 2x sweet potatoes = 1.4 trays.
- Apple sauce! Why haven't I ever made homemade apple sauce before? YUM! 5 cored apples = 1 tray.
- Carrots need quite a bit of boiled water added to make them blend well. They also make LOADS. 4 carrots = 1.6 trays.
I need to go fruit/veggie shopping! Need some non-orange items so that Georgia doesn't turn into an oompa loompa.
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4 comments:
YAY for solids :) I have really enjoyed making D's food. We're about to the point where he can eat what we're eating, mashed up of course. Enjoy it! She's precious.
Starting foods can be fun. Bennett only really started enjoying food in the last week and a half. I tried some avocado with him and bananas between 4 - 6 months and he seriously had no interest.
It's cute when they like to eat food, but the poop isn't fun lol. :)
Solids are such fun!
I don't know if you have any interest in this or not, but we took the baby-led weaning approach with E., where we never did any purees- he just started straight away on real food (adapted as necessary to his age- he started with big thick fingers of roasted veggies). He was intolerant to all soy/dairy until he was a year, so we were pretty conservative with how we introduced things (we didn't really get going with solids until 7 months). It worked out really well and meant that meals were fun and not work because he just ate what we ate (modified as required), and we could eat too instead of one of us always having to be feeding him.
Anyway, if you are interested, you could Google it- there is a great book by Gill Rapley and lots of online resources.
The other thing I found very helpful was the statement "food before one is just for fun". It reminded me that until their first birthday their most important nutrition is coming from breastmilk/formula. Anything else they eat is a bonus. So please don't get stressed about how much she is/isn't eating.
Good luck! E. is now solidly into the toddler beige stage and mainly subsists on carbs, but he would eat anything in his first year- quinoa, eggplant, scallops- you name it.
Solids are fun! And messy! And sometimes scary. We too waited until our boy was almost 6 months old.
Fun because you get to experience your child trying new foods for the first time and see what they like, don't like. And then trying again later to see if there is a different reaction. My boy didn't like banana, rice or noodles at first, now he loves banana and rice, but noodles are still spat back out!
Messy because they get it everywhere! Face, crack in between the fingers, clothes, hair, floor and places you can't even imagine yet.
And scary, because no matter when you start them on foods and move into more solid stuff, they will gag sometimes (different than actual choking), and it is difficult to wait a few seconds to see if they are going to work it out.
I/we did a mixture of purees and BLW (baby-led weaning aka self feeding. It has nothing to do with weaning in the American sense). It was/is fun to let my boy learn and explore on his own different foods. It was, as I said before, sometimes scary seeing him gag on food a bit. Thankfully I've only ever had to take him out of his chair once and start to turn in over...and all was fine. He has never fully chocked on anything. He does love eating and playing with his food though.
I too have made almost all of the boy's food. I have bought pureed baby food fruits from the store already (much easier to put in porridge and as snacks), but he refused point blank to ever eat any veggies or meats that were store bought. So, I've made all of his foods myself. Thankfully I love doing it and it doesn't take too long, esp when you make a big-ish batch and freeze the rest. On the other hand, it would be nice to be able to carry around a ready meal without having to keep it cool. But again, a meal/snack of fruit only once in a while never hurt!
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