What solid to start with?

[wolverine2]

I'm about to start solids with #2, and don't necessarily want to do the rice cereal thing this time. What other food is good to start with? Should I make sure I'm doing some sort of cereal for the iron eventually? (exclusively BF right now).

Thanks!

[mamaoftwins]

Your DC will need the extra iron starting at abt 6mo, so I would do some type of cereal (rice or oat?) and talk to your pedi abt baby vitamins/supplements if you're still going to BF (with no formula feeds) after 6mo in addition to solids.

We started rice cereal at abt 4.5mo, then added baby food at abt 5.5mo. First one we did was carrots. After 3 days of carrots, they still hated it. Peas was next, which they loved. And I added carrots back a week later for a day, and they ate it right up.

Anyway, hope this helps a bit!

[o_mom]

We started around 7 months with puffed rice cereal on the highchair tray to practice picking up small things. Once they could pick that up, I added small pieces of table foods. Sweet potato, banana, avacado, pears, grated apple, Cheerios, etc.

You may or may not need extra iron. Not all babies need it and many do just fine without baby cereal. You can add other iron-rich foods, such as kidney beans, red meat, etc. Most peds will do a check of iron levels at 9 or 12 months, so you could wait and see the results of that before deciding on supplementing.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I am skipping the cereal for the most part. I did buy some Happy Babies' rice cereal w/ probiotics and I have added it to his veggies a few times (He has been fed solids 5 whole times now ). I have been doing veggies by spoon and some avacado in his mesh feeder. Does anyone know how well absorbed the iron in cereals even is?

My ped says that the iron check isn't something he routinely checks anymore. He looks for reasons to test it but found that in his practice and experience it isn't very accurate to do it on infants (I can't remember his reasoning very well, sorry! we talked about it when ds was 2 months old).

We just had our 6m appointment and aside from things like honey he didn't really say to avoid anything. he just said to offer tastes of whatever we are eating. So, I am kind of doing a hybrid of his advice and then following my gut. Oh, and factoring in the fact that ds only has 1 tooth so can only handle some foods. I was thinking about pureeing some cooked quinoa and mixing it with some breastmilk to make a cereal of sorts.

I found these baby crackers, btw, that have been fun for ds. They are called Baby Mum Mums and they are rice rusks. They dissolve quickly in baby's mouth. Ds loves feeding himself these. Ped ok'ed the ingredient list (rice and milk basically). I found them at Whole Foods and some moms say they have them at Wal-Mart. Not much to offer nutritionally but something to offer them if you are looking for a food they can feed themselves.


GL!
Beth

[elliput]

DD's first solid food was bbq ribs. Or at least that is what she would have first given her choice.

Banana's are what we started with. Thinned out with a little breast milk. I only used cereals (rice, barley, mixed) as thickeners or extenders in purees to give a bit of variety in texture and taste.

[wendibird22]

Mushed banana and avocado were first. Then we moved to other fruits and veggies. We did do a bit of rice, oat, and barley cereal, but they were very constipating. She likes beechnut muslix cereal now.

[wolverine2]

DD's first solid food was bbq ribs. Or at least that is what she would have first given her choice.

DS was eyeing my steak the other night... I really think he would have wolfed it down if I hadn't fended him off!

I'll ask my ped about the iron thing. He has never advocated vitamins of any kind- I eventually ignored his reassurance and give my older DS one daily now because it makes me feel better as he's a ridiculously picky eater. So here's to the second one eating everything!!

[wolverine2]

oh, and I assume the 4-day rule thing is still good? No allergies in my family...

[mamaoftwins]

[QUOTE=wolverine2]DS was eyeing my steak the other night... I really think he would have wolfed it down if I hadn't fended him off!

Ha! Same thing for us last night.

I bet if you took a survey of pedis, they would all say different things when it comes to vitamins, etc.! Ours is crazy abt them for bf'd babies.

[mominmarch]

We started with Earth's Best rice cereal and she hated it. We waited a few weeks and then added in Earth's best oatmeal and she loved it and she never got rice cereal again. We either mixed a little bit of EB's banannnas, pears, or other fruit in it too. She was never a great veggie eater but devoured the fruits. Now as she eats only solids at 15 months old, the child couldn't get enough brocolli and a lot of other vegetables, so we are proof that one can still eat veggies even if you start with fruit.