Planning to start solids with avocado

[PGTB]

Our Boon Flair high chair has arrived and I am pretty much going to try to give DS avocado today or tomorrow as his first food.

I also purchased oatmeal baby cereal in case avocado won't go well.

Did any of you start with avocado? Did you do BLW approach and just sliced it or did you mash it and spoon fed your LO? Did your LO have any adverse reaction to avocado I should be worried about?

TIA!

[div_0305]

Started at 6mos. Tried BLW at 7mos, and it did not go over well. My DD nearly choked on barely smashed ripe banana and threw up her food. I personally don't think BLW is for every baby. I know other 6m. olds who did swell on BLW.

BTW, to this day at 10mos, avocado is DD's most favorite.

[crl]

We are doing BLW and started with avocado. I just sliced it and set a piece or two at a time down in front of dd on the table (we have a Tripo Trapp). She was interested right away. She gagged a bit and drooled most of what she got in her mouth right back out. After about three weeks she seemed to really get how to swallow.

Good luck and make sure you've got a camera. First food is a great photo op!

Catherine

[wellyes]

Avocado is a pretty strong flavor. I have a youtube video of my 6 month old DD trying to eat it and making a horrible face. I think bananas or sweet potato are more common first foods because of the milder taste and slight sweetness (milk is sweet).

[PGTB]

Avocado is a pretty strong flavor. I have a youtube video of my 6 month old DD trying to eat it and making a horrible face. I think bananas or sweet potato are more common first foods because of the milder taste and slight sweetness (milk is sweet).

Should I start with Oatmeal cereal then? I am worried about DS having a constipation, he is very sensitive to this. He got a horrible constipation from one of the formulas back when he was 1 month old and I had trouble breastfeeding. He also just got over his 3 day constipation from baby tylenol... I was worried to go with the rice cereal because of this.

[Naranjadia]

Avocado is a pretty strong flavor. I have a youtube video of my 6 month old DD trying to eat it and making a horrible face. I think bananas or sweet potato are more common first foods because of the milder taste and slight sweetness (milk is sweet).

Really? Both our twins loved avocado first, which I did because my sister did that first with her kids, also with success. This must be one of those YMMV things.

I had never thought of it as a strong flavor - just creamy and slightly sweet.

Anyway, my advice would be to go for it! We started with pureeing but then discovered a strong fork mashing would work as well.

[AnnieW625]

Avocado was the first non pureed food we tried with DD2. She thought it was okay, but I could tell by her face she was just trying to figure out the texture. I mashed it up with a fork. DD ate about 1/8th of the avocado.

We didn't do baby led weaning. We did cereal first, then added in Earth's Best purees, then did the avocado, and I have also been making her baby food. She is doing just fine with the purees, but is getting pretty close to wanting to hold her own food.

With DD1 the first foods we gave her that weren't purees were yogurt, and bananas or strawberries in one of those mesh food feeders.

[YouAreTheFocus]

We didn't do BLW, we started with rice cereal which he wouldn't even touch...after a few wks of trying, we asked the Doc, she said no reason first food has to be cereal, and go ahead and try a fruit or veg. So we moved onto purees like carrots, sw potato, pear, apple, etc, and then added in baby oatmeal, all of which went over much better than the rice.

As for avocado, he really wouldn't touch that or banana (both of which are supposed to be great first foods!). I think maybe it was the kind of slimey texture they share? He'll eat banana now, but avocado still doesn't go over well at all.

Let us know how it goes for you (with both the avocado & the chair!).

[brittone2]

I think DD's first food was avocado.

She liked it.

[edurnemk]

DS would get constipated from bananas and from rice cereal. He loved banana but I wouldn't give it more than 2-3 times a week. He hated rice cereal so between that and the constipation we switched to oatmeal cereal pretty quickly. But for the first feedings he'll barely swallow anything so it may not affect him as much.
I tried avocado early on but DS was not a fan of it. I've never heard of any baby reacting to avocado.

[LMPC]

DD used to gag on avocado -- it was the second food we introduced (I don't count cereal, since she refused it eat it...so I tried it....ICK!). I mashed it with a fork and then thinned it out with a little BM. Then she loved it. To this day, she loves guacamole!

[BabyH]

DS started with banana, then applesauce, and now he's loving oatmeal w/ banana cereal flakes (I think Earth's Best? I know they are in the organic box) He opens his mouth and smiles after every gulp. Avacado is on our list, I'm just not sure where. Definitely have a camera ready!!

[PGTB]

So.. Avocado hasn't been a hit with DS. I have tried it two different ways - mashing it with the fork and adding a bit of EBM to puree it and just giving him a whole piece. I was trying to implement Baby Lead Weaning approach, but due to slippery nature of avocado it wasn't very successful. DS has smeared the piece all over the chair and himself and choked on whatever piece got into his mouth, which freaked me out. When we tried to give it to him in puree form he ate it better, but didn't seem to enjoy the taste, the expression of his face was priceless, LOL. He just simply wasn't the fan although we managed to feed him some. I also think it makes him gassy and his passing gas now smells like a grownup :ROTFLMAO:

At this point we are pretty much mostly feeding him oatmeal with EBM and nursing, he is almost 7 months old and I am wondering what next foods I should introduce. I am interested in BLW approach of having the baby feed himself, but it seems like in our situation it's harder rather than easier, so we probably would go with standard approach of introducing various purees first. Or maybe I need to start another thread :)

[PGTB]

at all.

Let us know how it goes for you (with both the avocado & the chair!).

Oh yeah, the chair (Boon Flair) has been great! With our attempts of BLW and the mess it created it was super easy to clean and importantly easy to see where the mess is on the white plastic chair :) So, the chair is nice and easy, I just wish I could say the same about the whole introducing solids experience :D

[alirebco]

We started with avocado which I mashed up at 6 months but DS was not ready at all. He gagged and didn't like it. We held off a couple of weeks and would occasionally try other foods but he didn't really eat solid food until 8.5 months. So he did still did homemade baby food that I pureed at that time and then started finger food at 10 months. I think some kids are ready at 6 months but others take longer. Theres no need to rush. Solid food is just for practice before a year old.

Oh and he loves avocado today - in guacamole, and avocado rolls.

[BabbyO]

FWIW we started with avacado and BLW. I quickly learned the same thing you did...avacado is slippery, so we mashed it and spread it on a toast finger. It went over fairly well.

I think we moved on to steamed veggies (broccoli, carrots,green beans, etc)pretty quickly. DS gagged (they're not choking unless they're not breathing) fairly often at first, but once we got daddy to calm down and let DS work through it things went well. By 7-8 mo DS was feeding himself most anything we put on his tray. That is not to say that it was his primary source of nutrition, but he sure enjoyed experimenting with flavors and textures. Oatmeal and bananas were high on the list of daily foods very quickly. I'd say by about 9-10 mo we were seeing a noticable decline in milk intake.

BLW is by no means a mess free way of introducing solids. We cut a cheap shower curtain liner in half and put it down under the highchair, to catch the mess. Other than that...well, that's what the wash machine is for.

BLW has worked well for us, but I will say that you have to be pretty calm about messes at dinner, and understand that it is a process that starts slowly. You also have to have the resolve to stay calm when LO gags, coughs, and sputters on food. For me, my sanity keeper was that I know how to handle him if he REALLY is choking and I know how to recognize it.

Whichever way you decide to go, I wish you the best of luck. Its such a fun time to watch your child grow and explore. It gave me a renewed appreciation of the food we have access to!