Introducing new foods

[bnme]

When introducing a new type of food I know you are supposed to wait about 5 days to see if they have a reaction to it. My question is, if introducing sweet potatoes, for example, do you give them ONLY that for 5 days or can you combine it with other foods they've already tried out?

Right now DS is on cereal. When I introduce other foods can I give him cereal as well during the 5 day trail for a new food? Should you do this only only on a limited basis, for example if hes already tried cereal and sweet potatoes and now I am introducung apples -is it OK to give all 3 during the trial for apples? Or should I just stick to cereal and apples and no sweet potatoes until he "passes" on apples.

I don't know if I am the only one who finds this confusing.
Help!

[Momof3Labs]

My understanding (and the way we've done it) is that once they've had a food and made it past the 3-5 day waiting period, then they can have that food at any time. So, once he's okay on apples, you can give him apples while offering peas for the first time.

Curious to hear what others have to say...

[Karenn]

I've always done the same thing: If he's had a food, and gone 5 days without a reaction, I'll continue to feed him that food, AND introduce new foods. So when I introduced green beans the other day, he also had bananas, bread and cheese on his plate.

[Rachels]

That's right. The idea is to be able to tell what your baby is reacting to. If you feed a new food and an old food and he reacts, you can assume the new food is the culprit. It gets more complicated if you've given two new foods, because then you can't know which caused the problem.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[mommyb]

My ped said we only have to wait 3 days. Once you make it through the 3-5 day period, you can mix the foods. My ped suggested giving 1 oz of the new food in the morning so I could watch DS and then the other 1 oz. in the evening if he seems ok.