What's baby's second food?

[mullerck]

Hi!

I have no question about rice cereal being the first food. We tried it over the weekend, and our almost 5 month old LOVES it! She's like a hungry baby bird, looking for more...So what is the next food?
I appreciate any suggestions... :o)
Thanks!
excited Momma Bird

(My copy of First Meals is on order, and I think I'll add Super Baby Food too, based on what I've read online here so far!)

[westchicagomom]

Glad that she is taking the cereal so well - but be prepared - when you try to feed it to her the 6th or 7th time, she might not like it - that's what happened to us.

Bananas are actually suggested as a first food in some places.

Also:
avocado
applesauce
pearsauce
sweet potatoes


Definitely educate yourself and if you aren't making your own food, don't rely on Gerber or Earth's Best to tell you what a good first food is (e.g EB has peas as a first food and puts corn in some of their early foods - both are allergenic)

Super Baby Foods is a fairly good reference, but read it cautiously and compare w/ other sources - same w/ First Meals.

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ is one of the best resources I have found.

Do an advanced search here using some key words and you will find lots of ideas.

[mullerck]

Thanks! And thanks for the head's up on the EB. I found a great sale on EB at the local store, and was planning to stock up...but I'll read the labels carefully.
Actually, my preference is for homemade, so I like your suggestions. Your weblink looks great too...And I'll try not to get my hopes up about solids continuing. DD's growing up so fast as it is!!

[charleyc]

EMB-

My ped. recommended starting with cereal and moving into 1st foods with the yellow veggies first and moving to green(of course allowing 3-5 days to ensure no allergies). Zach's progress was something like this: rice cereal, oatmeal, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans(which he hated and still does),peas.
We will begin our trek thru the fruits next week. They say pears are pretty bland, so we'll start with those and move to applesauce, peaches, bananas and prunes.

Zach's a little piggy and practically begs for the next bite of solids. So far this has worked well for us.

Good luck!

[saschalicks]

I'm just starting rice cereal myself. Dr. put us on a strict regimen due to DS's allergic reaction to formulas. So, it's rice one week, Oatmeal the next week and Barley cereal the week after that. Then the 4th week we start veggies. He said to do a green veggie one week and then a yellow veggie the next. HTH

[hellosmiletoday]

My MIL called DD a bird too...so cute! Food #2 = bananas, Food #3 = pears. Food #4 will be apples. Then on to veggies on thanksgiving.

After introducing bananas, she gained a new appreciation for rice cereal. She opens her mouth in anticipation!

[californiamom]

Like Charlotte's, my ped also recommended first yellow vegetables, then green vegetables and then fruits.

Ana

[mullerck]

Thanks so much for all your advice so far! I can't wait to try them out with DD. Unfortunately, we've got some unexplained diaper rash...Rice cereal maybe? So we've paused for a few days for it to clear up...DD seems frustrated to only have the bottle though...She wants more of that yummy "spooned" stuff! :)

[icunurse]

Our ped said to start with yellow veggies, then green and fruits. We stayed away from any other grains other than rice cereal until 6-7 months. We have used the Earth's Best, but have saved the more allergenic ones (corn, berries, etc.) for last. If you do decide to use jar foods, definitely read the labels. Besides ingredients, check out the nutritional stats between different brands (ie. Gerber and EB both list the same ingredients for stage one, but Gerber lists less Vit C and other stuff....I've heard that they use more water). Just something to think about...
Traci
~Connor's Mom~
http://lilypie.com/baby1/050204/1/0/1/-6/.png (http://lilypie.com)

[shamrock]

Thanks for that link. It looks like a great site!