My daughter will be 4 month old this week. I'm curious what age others began feeding their children baby food. I have two boys and I started them on it around 4 months but they were getting to the point of no longer being full of BM. Bella seems very content however, the evenings seem to be getting tougher as she seems to fuss a lot between the hours of 5-8pm. Maybe a sign??? I bought my new blender, and ice trays, and am all ready to start making and freezing purees... Just unsure of when to start feeding.
I would always start with cereal...usually rice cereal, mixed very thin with breast milk or formula (sounds like you BF though....so use Breast Milk). Maybe only do it in the evening when she seems more fussy, maybe she is more hungry? Then introduce vegetables not sweet ones, but things like peas, green beans, etc. Remember to wait a few days between each so you can wait for any reactions that they might have. Also...if they don't like it one day, keep trying, it takes up to 10 times of introduction before they start to "like" things. After they do well with veggies then introduce fruits. They say that if you start them off on a sweet palate, they will rarely gain a taste for vegetables. I don't know how true that is. My kids were always partial to the fruits once I started them, but they are all very good veggie eaters now, too....so....I think it depends on your family attitude towards food. GOOD LUCK!!!
This is just my personal experience, so take it as that. At 4 months, I had asked my pediatrician about starting on food. His advice was that if there are no known family allergies to food, make it a free for all. Do not give baby food from a jar (who wants to eat unseasoned stuff). Take what we were eating, and mash it up, and allow him to eat it himself. He actually was against spoon feeding babies. He said that if they are hungry, they will eat as much as they want to and (one cause for) obese babies occur from parents feeling like they have to feed a certain amount. I gave it a go and was glad that I did. Ds never had any reactions. I guess all of that to say I feel that your purees at 4 months is just fine.
Living in Louisiana as we do, we eat a lot of rice, and a lot of babies around here get their first taste of solid food as rice and gravy (mashed together with a fork) while sitting on mama's or grandma's lap while the family eats. Tiny tastes at first of course, mostly just a speck on the lips, and they'll "get it". Whatever's on mama's plate, peas, beans, other veg, usually the baby gets, even some fairly spicy stuff (as compared to bland jar baby food, ANYthing would be fairly spicy!). What age? Whenever the baby sees people eating and wants some too.
The new 'rule" is to never give a baby under 6 months anything but breast or formula. Sorry American Pediatric Academy, but my youngest would not have tolerated waiting so long!LOL Back when my first was born (22yrs ago) drs would tell you to put rice cereal in a bottle for an 8 week old to help them sleep throught the night. All that to say this...do what you think is best for your baby. The expert advice is going to change in a couple of years anyway. I personally like starting out with rice cereal about 3-4 months. None of my kids ever had allergy issues, though. I cringe to think what a doctor would say now about an incident when my dd was about 4 months old and I came home to find her with a stick of beef jerky dh had given her! She just chomped away on that thing. I was horrified and dh had no clue he had done anything wrong!
We had to do that for Beau when he was tiny. He never would sleep through the night unless he had the rice in a bottle. Our Pediatrician had a fit and said never to do it again, but we did it anyway. Just go by what works for your baby!
Please do some research before giving your little one rice (or any other starch) at such a young age. I realize it's popular, and what the pediatricians spew (for lack of knowledge; ours changed her mind when I showed some research), but it's actually dangerous in the long run. I'm not going to debate and I'm not judging (I did it with my first three). Just suggesting you not go with the flow. Also, there are certain signs you need to look for before giving solids. If she's content with BM, she does not NEED anything else. Nor is she ready.
Totally agree with Amie on the rice cereal. I am currently pregnant with my third child and I have an entire new way of looking at things this time around. I've done a lot of research and plan to feed this child in an entirely new way. No jar baby foods or even pureed foods. I plan to do what azhomeschooler mentioned and that is to include baby at mealtime with what we are eating. Just mashed up. I know avacado and banana are great first foods. Anyway this is just my plan. You must do what you feel comfortable with for your baby.
I think I am confused in this method you speak of, "include them in what we are eating". What exactly do you mean, for example, tonight I am making taco's, and last night was lasagna, tomorrow pot roast. You mean grind or mash these meals for my 4 month old? With my last two children, I steamed, apples, pears, sweet Potatoe, peas, squash etc and pureed them and frooze them in ice trays. this other method you you mention is new to me.
I do have to reiterate the question the others have mentioned: does she seem interested and acts as if she wants to eat? By that age, ds was always trying to grab at our food and really acted as if he wanted it. If she does not seem interested, let it go. What I would have done is for taco night, maybe put a little of the meat or better yet, beans on the high chair tray. If she plays with it or eats a little good. If not, that is fine too. Lasagna night, I would have chopped up a scoop of lasagna into tiny bits (or maybe some of the bread if I had a bread with it). Again allowing free reign to eat or not. Roast night, I would have skipped the meat and just smashed up some of the veggies. Now once again, that was just my approach and you have to do what you feel comfortable with. When ds was little, he did have some dairy intolerance (would get a runny nose), so that was omitted from his diet as well as mine since I was breastfeeding, but all other food was just fine. My pediatrician oddly enough was against giving cheerios (a common first finger food) because he said they are dry and more likely to cause a choking hazard. I thought that was an interesting thing to think about.
Interesting. I've never heard of this. I'm interested in reading the pro's and cons of each approach. It's amazing how many different ways you can nurish your child.
This is interesting to me too. I use wholesomebabyfood.com for ideas. And it talks about possibly needing to peel fruit b4 pureeing to avoid upset stomachs b4 8-9 months due to theirinability to digest many things. I cant imagine what taco seasoning would do! But I guess if your baby can handle it...go for it!
That's what I was thinking too! I was also thinking about the amount of carbs, or sugar in general our foods seem to have. Fruits and veggies seem to be a much easier food to begin with.
