What was baby's first food and when did you start it?

[flashy09]

Is there a risk of choking by giving a slice of avocado or chunk of banana? What if the baby crams the whole thing in her mouth and tries to swallow?

I am still a month or so out from solids, but just trying to figure out how to start. Pediatrician said rice cereal, but from what I have read that tastes terrible and besides iron does not have a lot of nutrients or fiber. I would rather she started on a fruit or vegetable, but I know rice is very low risk for allergies. Is there a much higher risk she would have a bad reaction to avocados or bananas?

Did you follow the same food for 4 days rule?

[edurnemk]

Banana at 6 months. Followed by rice cereal (didn't know any better), which he hated so I stopped giving it to him, and we just moved on to other fruits and veggies. I sometimes used oatmeal cereal to thicken up the purees I made at home for him.

[marymoo86]

Is there a risk of choking by giving a slice of avocado or chunk of banana? What if the baby crams the whole thing in her mouth and tries to swallow?

I am still a month or so out from solids, but just trying to figure out how to start. Pediatrician said rice cereal, but from what I have read that tastes terrible and besides iron does not have a lot of nutrients or fiber. I would rather she started on a fruit or vegetable, but I know rice is very low risk for allergies. Is there a much higher risk she would have a bad reaction to avocados or bananas?

Did you follow the same food for 4 days rule?

I didn't start DD on solids until she was about 7.5 months old to give her digestive system a bit more time to mature and totally skipped rice cereal. Worthless IMO BM or even formula is better nutritionally. Also give the baby more time to develop the ability to self regulate intake starting later.

Those 2 are generally low risk in terms of allergies. I started with avocado, then sweet potato, pears, bananas. I gave the new food in the morning and watched for any signs of allergy.

Google BLW (baby lead weaning) there's a lot of info. I was super scared the first few times I gave her food but she was fairly cautious. A couple of times she gagged which is not the same as choking.

[crl]

Is there a risk of choking by giving a slice of avocado or chunk of banana? What if the baby crams the whole thing in her mouth and tries to swallow?

I am still a month or so out from solids, but just trying to figure out how to start. Pediatrician said rice cereal, but from what I have read that tastes terrible and besides iron does not have a lot of nutrients or fiber. I would rather she started on a fruit or vegetable, but I know rice is very low risk for allergies. Is there a much higher risk she would have a bad reaction to avocados or bananas?

Did you follow the same food for 4 days rule?

You should search for baby led weaning and decide if it is for you. We did not have choking problems with dd. We did big pieces for her to bite off rather than hunks she could cram in.

I am sure someone somewhere is allergic to avocado, but I have never heard of it. I don't mean to be flippant as my older ds does have minor food allergies, but I didn't worry a ton about it with dd. I did separate trying new foods. I don't remember anymore how many days I waited.

Catherine

[indigo99]

We did some sort of EarthsBest one ingredient oatmeal around 6mo. with DS, but it didn't go very well. I don't know what the problem was, but he was throwing up every time so we switched to regular rice cereal. He was fine with that.

With dS2, we just started with the rice cereal mixed with breastmilk around 6mo. I know that it isn't very nutritious, but the point for us was to get him eating from a spoon with something that is quick, easy, and cheap (since so much ends up on him or the tray). After a few days, we did sweet potato puree and then banana (because he was grabbing and crying for mine when I ate it). He LOVES banana. I do mash it up well though. Whether it's choking or not, I don't like to see him gag.

[daisymommy]

#1 rice cereal and jar fruits at 4 months. He hated it and I pushed it on him because the Ped said that's when babies start solids, and I was a first time obedient mom.

#2 mashed banana at 6 months, she was okay with it, but didn't really want much to do with solids until 8 months, then started eating table food happily.

#3 same as above.

For some weird reason, none of my kids liked avocado! Even though I adore it


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[teo]

Is there a risk of choking by giving a slice of avocado or chunk of banana? What if the baby crams the whole thing in her mouth and tries to swallow?

I am still a month or so out from solids, but just trying to figure out how to start. Pediatrician said rice cereal, but from what I have read that tastes terrible and besides iron does not have a lot of nutrients or fiber. I would rather she started on a fruit or vegetable, but I know rice is very low risk for allergies. Is there a much higher risk she would have a bad reaction to avocados or bananas?

Did you follow the same food for 4 days rule?

Advice above is good--I'd also add from our experience (we are just starting too!) that I agree on researching BLW to see how you feel about it. Our ped recommended starting with cereal, but waiting till six months. We decided to start with table food using BLW instead, so we went by milestones rather than by age, which meant we started at 5.5 months (when he learned to sit on his own--he'd met the other milestones a few weeks earlier).

We don't have a cautious eater--he goes all out!--and I had to learn to resist the urge to pull food out of his mouth, but fortunately DH is mellower than I am and was the voice of reason, reminding me to let him sort it out himself. And DS did figure it out--a few times he's taken too big a bite (usually of avocado or banana, his faves) and he will get this "uh oh..." look on his face and then spit out half the bite, swallow, and then grab what was left and finish it off. He has gagged once, but quickly swallowed (before I had time to process what was happening and worry, happily!) We did start with soft foods to minimize choking hazards as we (and he) got used to it, though, and we both took a choking/CPR course pre-baby and reviewed the choking protocol right before starting solids to be sure we felt comfortable with it.

We're starting with the Wholesome Baby Food recommended first foods: avocado, apple, banana, pears, winter squash, sweet potatoes, oats, and rice (though not in that order--put the higher iron foods earlier since we were skipping cereals, and we left out barley and green beans, which they also recommend). They're pretty non-allergenic foods, so we do two foods a week (or about 3.5 days between each new food). We will space out potentially allergenic foods (wheat, etc.) a bit more but have no family history of food allergies so I'm a bit less careful than I would be if we did. I do keep track of which foods he has when so we could trace a reaction, but once he's done 3+ days on a food, we put it into the rotation. We also let DS use a spoon for some foods (e.g., oatmeal--I just take a little out of the pan, add a little extra water, and spin an immersion blender in it for a minute to make it a little less sticky/chewy than the version that DH and I eat since we use steel cut oats--baby does fine with feeding this to himself).

Also, if you do decide to start on cereals, you can always make your own, too--you can grind oats, rice, etc. into a powder and then cook it (or if you wait till six months to start and baby is okay with texture, you can just cook regular rice and oatmeal and then puree a bit afterwards with some water or breastmilk/formula to thin it). It's also fine to mix and match approaches--it's more about what you're at ease with and what your baby seems to like, IMO. You can always switch it up if one way isn't working! Have fun!

[flashy09]

Advice above is good--I'd also add from our experience (we are just starting too!) that I agree on researching BLW to see how you feel about it. Our ped recommended starting with cereal, but waiting till six months. We decided to start with table food using BLW instead, so we went by milestones rather than by age, which meant we started at 5.5 months (when he learned to sit on his own--he'd met the other milestones a few weeks earlier).

We don't have a cautious eater--he goes all out!--and I had to learn to resist the urge to pull food out of his mouth, but fortunately DH is mellower than I am and was the voice of reason, reminding me to let him sort it out himself. And DS did figure it out--a few times he's taken too big a bite (usually of avocado or banana, his faves) and he will get this "uh oh..." look on his face and then spit out half the bite, swallow, and then grab what was left and finish it off. He has gagged once, but quickly swallowed (before I had time to process what was happening and worry, happily!) We did start with soft foods to minimize choking hazards as we (and he) got used to it, though, and we both took a choking/CPR course pre-baby and reviewed the choking protocol right before starting solids to be sure we felt comfortable with it.

We're starting with the Wholesome Baby Food recommended first foods: avocado, apple, banana, pears, winter squash, sweet potatoes, oats, and rice (though not in that order--put the higher iron foods earlier since we were skipping cereals, and we left out barley and green beans, which they also recommend). They're pretty non-allergenic foods, so we do two foods a week (or about 3.5 days between each new food). We will space out potentially allergenic foods (wheat, etc.) a bit more but have no family history of food allergies so I'm a bit less careful than I would be if we did. I do keep track of which foods he has when so we could trace a reaction, but once he's done 3+ days on a food, we put it into the rotation. We also let DS use a spoon for some foods (e.g., oatmeal--I just take a little out of the pan, add a little extra water, and spin an immersion blender in it for a minute to make it a little less sticky/chewy than the version that DH and I eat since we use steel cut oats--baby does fine with feeding this to himself).

Also, if you do decide to start on cereals, you can always make your own, too--you can grind oats, rice, etc. into a powder and then cook it (or if you wait till six months to start and baby is okay with texture, you can just cook regular rice and oatmeal and then puree a bit afterwards with some water or breastmilk/formula to thin it). It's also fine to mix and match approaches--it's more about what you're at ease with and what your baby seems to like, IMO. You can always switch it up if one way isn't working! Have fun!

Thanks so much (and to everyone else, I don't know how to quote multiple posts!) for such a detailed response! I am thinking of doing a little of each if that is possible. Maybe mashing/puree some foods and letting her use her hands for others. She is so interested right now I can't wait to let her eat! Sometimes I am tempted give her a bottle of formula (she has been only BF) just so she can have a 6 or 7 oz bottle as she gets done nursing so fast and then starts sucking my arm or shoulder.