Solids ???

[Andrea S]

I am slowly getting through all the single foods and I started buying some of the combo to go through next and in the stage 2 Earth's Best they have things like spinach and pasta. Can I give a 7 month old these? Is there anything I should stay away from? Also he has been getting constipated lately. What can I do about that? I changed his morning cereal to oatmeal. Am I giving him to many veggies and not enough fruit? We have been doing the solids very slow and he only gets 2 meals a day for breakfast I give him cereal and sometimes fruit and dinner 2 oz fruit and 4 oz veggies. Does this sound right? I have not started juice yet we are trying to master the sippy cup so I just put water in it he likes to drink from our cups so we may end up going this route.

I am with Joanne on all this solids business.

Andrea
mom to Andrew 8/14/02

[egoldber]

Is he really constipated or just not pooping as often? As you increase solids, their poops change in frequency and consistency and this is completely normal. If he is constipated, adding some fruits like prunes or using a little diluted fruit juice usually helps.

I would really recommend moving from stage 1 foods to soft regular foods. Like lightly mashed bananas, avocados, yogurts, tofu, sweet potato, regular protato, etc. If your babe is eating a fair bit of stage 1 foods with no trouble, then he is probably ready for more texture than jar baby foods have to offer.

You may want to talk to your ped about what next. There are certain age ranges for wheat and diary products. I know I started giving Sarah yogurt around 7 1/2 months.

HTH,

[juliasdad]

I recall reading that spinach is one of those things that should be put off for a while, I *think* because it's so high in oxalic acid (not sure it that's really the reason)... but perhaps they somehow process it to make it more tolerable for little ones. This is just off the top of my head... I'd do a bit of reading before trying spinach, though.

As for constipation, try giving apples more often (or, if he tolerates them, prunes). Also, make sure he's getting enough fluids, and you can try spiking his water with a little apple juice or prune juice, too.

We're right behind you... Julia is 2.5 weeks younger than Andrew, and right now she gets 2 meals per day. Breakfast is 1/4c cereal (we mix, but usually breakfast has a higher oatmeal content) with nothing else (though this morning she tried a bit of plain yogurt with it). Dinner is 1/4c cereal and about 1/2 jar of a veggie or fruit. We'll slowly up those quantities at this point. So far, she's been through sweet potato, butternut squash, carrot, banana, winter squash, and pear (in that order).

-dan