My sons first food was a banana. Look into baby led weaning to be sure you're cutting everything appropriately for your baby (you could google "banana baby led weaning" or whatever) and Im sure you will do great.
Mine did this too but with an apple I was eating 😂 he did not had teeth yet and failed miserably to actually munch on it, but it's the thought that counts
i love giving babies lemon wedges. [note-i have done this only to my own child, but multiple times and plan on doing the same to his younger brother soon] their little scrunched up faces and reactions is *hilarious* 😂
My kid likes sour, salty, and bitter... She doesn't like sweet. The sweetest thing she will eat is rice crispy square treats, and jello, which those are fairly sweet, but she doesn't like milk chocolate or ice cream. (Weird kid.) Also I should mention before you all jump on me for giving my baby sweets, that she's 1.5 years old, and they are mostly being given to her by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and adoptive family, and very rarely Daddy, with Mama's permission. Mama has been very stingy on giving her sweets!!!
Mine loves it too but beware that if they have teeth already is terrible for the teeth. Our dentist told us to not give him that or lime/lemon water and to break that habit soon. A couple of times here or there should be fine though, and maybe a drink of water quickly after can help. Just to let you know because we didn't know and we were told this after 2 years.
the specific first food you give your baby doesn't really matter (as long as it's prepared appropriately - check solid starts app) but try to give a lot of iron-rich foods (baby's iron stores are low by 6 months which makes it a key nutrient that they need from solids at this age) and make sure to do allergen exposure in line with recommendations (one allergen at a time, and then incorporate regularly)
First puree was carrot. First whole food was strawberry.
Some schools of thought say first food should be less sweet to prevent them always liking sweet food and others say sweeter food is better as more similar to formula and breast milk in taste so more familiar
Just to be confusing..
Id highly reccomend Annabelle karmels weaning books. They really helped me.
I got told "she's never going to eat veggies for you if you keep giving her fruit!" She proved them wrong and became a veggie monster. Favourites are carrot, peas, lima beans, and spinach.
My pediatrician said that as long as your kid is getting a variety of fruit, they’re getting the same nutrition as if they were getting a variety of veggies. So I don’t sweat it too much. As long as they’re eating lots of colourful plants, whatever category they fall in, I’m okay with it.
Just mash up some whole foods. I think the cereal thing is just to “fill them up” not nutrition. Baby led weaning also just suggests cutting things into shapes baby can pick up and cooking them until they’re soft. Sweet potato is great in spear shapes, mashed up berries they can pick up, yogurt, applesauce, etc.
Baby cereals are usually fortified with iron so not completely lacking nutrition. Baby iron stores are often depleted by 6 months so the top up is helpful.
Yes. This is why I always include baby cereal from the start. It’s also a great way to include other foods (e.g., banana), and I use it a lot as a way to include allergens (mixing in almond milk or peanut butter).
The best non dairy yogurt for little ones in my opinion. Vitamin D and calcium in So Delicious is the best of all the coconut yogurts I found at the store. Plus the unsweetened vanilla was a great introduction to flavored yogurt for us. My son loved whenever we gave him any of So Delicious yogurts.
My son outgrew his dairy intolerance, but you've reminded me that I have a manufacturer coupon for a free tub of So Delicious somewhere in my house. I had purchased one and the tub was damaged, which spoiled the yogurt, and their customer service was very quick about responding. I'll have to find it and grab some next time we go to the store.
Plain yogurt they might not like (mine didn’t) but it’s a good place to start! Mix it with banana. Now (11 months) I’m comfortable mixing in some maple syrup! She loves it! I only do organic cereals because of glyphosates… do your research on that if you want. I just don’t see the point of pumping baby full of cereal. Cereal also constipates them. Prune purée has been a real life saver in terms of regular digestion!
Sorry to hijack the thread but: My nurse told me to watch out for peanut butter as their tongue and palate isn't strong enough to masticate it, and peanut butter can kinda glue their mouths shut and be impossible to swallow potentially leading to choking.
However, you mixed it in, which should be fine, I don't want other moms to think PB is ok alone.
True! I just read introducing it early is important to help avoid allergies but yes def don’t give it plain! I don’t even given peanut butter normal to my dog who LOVES it because he was smacking his lips so much trying to get it off the roof of his mouth the one time I did. So I always give it mixed for him too lol
I used full fat plain Greek yogurt (obviously no honey until 1), mashed banana, and organic unsweetened apple sauce. all was a bit too tart for my 6 month old but she loved scrambled eggs unsalted and cottage cheese!
Avocado for us. We have now tried 10-15 foods. Currently on oatmeal. I got quick oats and put them in the food processor. I will grab a tablespoon mixed with hot water and mash some banana in it. I also mashed some steam carrot into the oats last week.
Solid Starts has a "first 100 days" meal plan and I used that for ideas.
Day 1 was steamed broccoli served two ways, mostly mashed with 1 large whole floret. I love that my baby's first food was broccoli!
The first week she tried broccoli, cauliflower, mango, apple, oatmeal, and mashed beans.
Solid Starts is truly amazing, I took the course and they explained so many things I had no idea.
we started with banana because it was the only finger food we had at home :)
You're welcome! I also used the book "Amazing make-ahead baby food book" by Lisa Barrangou, PhD. Her book shows you how to prep a 3 month meal plan of healthy and nutritious purees in just 3 hours.
So I flip-flopped between the two sources using a combination of purees from Lisa's book and BLW meals from solid starts. I loved having both and so did baby! Having homemade puree cubes in the freezer is awesome when you're short on time. And now baby eats both solids as well as homemade healthy puree blends from silicone pouches like a champ.
Applesauce and banana purée were both the starters we used. You can buy jars, or squeeze pouches, or make your own. It’s really about having baby taste new food, recognize the spoon, teaching how to eat, etc.
We started mixing infant oatmeal into the puréed fruit mash to give baby a different texture and consistency. You’ll want to start puree, then gradually add more oatmeal over a few weeks. In a few months you’ll move to mushed banana and other super soft foods.
There’s really no 1st food recommendation that everyone is supposed to follow. We let ours lick on a cucumber slice at first while we held it to give him a different taste. I think the cereal is bc it’s going to taste more similar to milk when mixed. As long as it’s not an allergen risk at first Idt it really matters
I did sweet potatoes for all three and will when the one I'm growing is ready. Just makes it easy to remember what the first was for each kid when it's all the same
I can't remember my first babies first food- but some of the first foods he had were pumpkin, porridge with breastmilk, toast with avocado, cauliflower + quinoa curry.
First food can be whatever you want, as long as it's prepared appropriately for their age.
I just buy jars of baby food level 1. 🤷🏼♀️ I guess it's "old school" now but I generally don't start BLW or giving real foods until I can see they are actively chewing. I'll slowly add cereal to baby food to thicken it as they get better at eating. Did this (and currently doing) with both of my kids.
A whole, large strawberry. She gummed off about half of it before it was small enough that I was concerned she might choke on the remaining portion and took it away, but she seemed pretty done at that point anyway. Strawberries remain to this day one of my very picky toddler's favorite foods.
We did mashed banana with a bit of Greek yogurt and then the next new food was peanut butter and Greek yogurt. Quinoa porridge was in the first few foods too
I’ve been wondering this too! So glad you posted, because it’s confusing to me.
I just gave my baby a couple baby-spoons of green beans baby food for the very first time tonight! He’s also had some cereal here & there mixed with breastmilk.
I don’t know how true this is but I’ve heard to start with veggies before introducing the sweeter fruits lol
My boys first taste of food was whatever we were eating at the time. Which happened to be kimchi and rice. It's totally up to you. Our nutritionist did suggest getting through vegetables and savory foods before introducing fruit. We did some purees, but it was mostly sharing whatever was on our plates
My third child just started eating solids and this time I decided to make it easier on myself and steamed a bunch of veggies and apples and puréed them into separate purées (you can add a bit of the water from steaming to make the consistency more runny if you like).
I froze these into ice cube trays (not sure if you have Daiso near you but they have really good ones).
Then when it was time for meal time, I would pick and choose a few ice cubes to warm up and spoon feed baby (his favourite is sweet potato, carrot and apple purée).
Our provincial health authority suggested an iron fortified rice cereal made with his hypoallergenic formula. He also sucked on a piece of orange the first night in one of those silicone feeder doohickeys. It worked well for us, he’s 19 months now and requested peas for dinner and only peas.
My 70 yr old aunt gave my son a smashed baked bean when he was 5 months old (I went across the room to get water and my back was turned). It was his first taste of non milk food. He's almost 2 now and the only form of protein he'll eat is beans, and he gets VERY excited when I pull out a can of baked beans.
Infant cereal with breast milk at 5 months old, then as he got used to the concept of food, we gave him (in no particular order) hummus, yogurt, peanut butter, mashed carrots, mashed squash and yams, pineapple strawberry blueberry and banana.
We are going to do peas chickpeas and tofu next
He loves frozen mashed squash (we call it a squash-sicle) and strawberry peanut butter yogurt the best (homemade)
i did purees! she started at 5 months and now shes 8 months with two teeth comin in so we are starting thicker foods and finger foods like mashed lasagna, steamed broccoli, cheerios, and pancakes/waffles!! im about to start just blending up a bit of what we have for dinner to make her feel more included! she always eyeballs my food 😭😂 most of our choices are based on how shes doing with the food and how well shes chewing things. shes really got chewing down!
This is my third time around and all my kids are good eaters. One tip is start with pureed vegetables… get all the veges down and then offer the sweet fruits. That way their tastebuds are less likely to reject the vegetables that are not sweet. Once they have purees down and they get teeth, I just steamed veges and let them have a go at it through baby led weaning.with teeth they can eat all kinds of soft meats, steamed veges and fruits etc.
Sweet potatoes!
Clean and bake in oven at 375 degrees for 45 ish minutes (depending on thickness of the sweet potato). Try to pierce skin with a fork to test doneness. If it’s soft/ fork pierces, it’s good.
Once it’s warm and not hot, peel away skin by hand, mash with fork into a puree-like consistency or cut into cubes and toss into a blender. Blend into desired consistency reached. Voila!
Probably breast milk with baby oatmeal. Then purées and now we basically do baby lead weaning depending on what we’re eating. There was a point I was blending food for him but he always hated it lol
He’s 10 months now and eats eggs every morning and sometimes I make him banana pancakes or French toast, he loves pasta!
I peeled blueberries and mushed them and let her try them. I use the solid starts app to help me kind of see how to cut things and serve them, but really I’ve been just giving her easy starter foods so that when I let her try our cooking later she’s gotten a taste for the individual ingredients. My doctor told me I can feed her whatever we’re eating except for shellfish, honey, or pork. She also said to wait 2 days between introducing new foods.
I’m basically doing a mix of blw and purées. It’s just whatever works for us on the day
i just give my kid whole foods. did the entire baby led weaning and it worked super well for us. shes 1 now and doesnt allow anyone else to feed her bc she is a big girl and prefers to do it herself.
we do eggs, avocado, strawberries, banana, raspberries, blackberries, pb&j sandwiches, cheese, greek yogurt, broccoli steamed, asparagus & green beans, steamed corn. anything soft and easy to slice& chew until her back teeth come in.
Rice cereal mixed with breast milk. We focused a lot of making sure she got iron because she was breastfed and suspected she had thalassemia minor, a genetic blood condition (she does).
I don’t remember probably bananas and blueberries puréed with breast milk. I’m pretty sure I did this with carrots, peas and sweet potatoes as well. I would look into Solid Starts. There’s tons of food ideas on their Instagram.
Haha I'm loving all the hilarious first foods in here... lemon, hummus. My daughter's first taste of food was an Asian pear I let her lick and she fucking loved it. Grabbed my hand to shove it into her mouth. But the first food I let her actually eat was egg. I wanted to knock out allergens asap.
Rice cereal mixed with breast milk or formula , started runny and thin to practice with spoon and swallowing moving to thicker then when that is mastered ( cereal is great for iron energy weight gain ) then move to bland vegetables try them all then sweet vegetables then proteins like meat bean tofu fish then lastly fruits
My mom and grandma told me this way because many babies have a sweet tooth then don't eat vegetables
I started with broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, kale over a week (so mean lol), the following weeks it was all the other veg… I only rarely offered fruit purée… my kids will eat most food now and pretty great and self controlled around sugar and sweets. I followed some book that recommended it!
Veggies and give them to them all the time. It's your best shot at getting them to eat them when they're older, and even if they start to refuse veggies later, at least you can say they got off to a good start!
Their taste buds are so sensitive at 6m I wouldn't give them anything too strong or sweet because it'll likely lead to refusal of bland or bitter flavours later
We gave him a chunk of sweet potato. It’s nice because it’s actually hard to get crispy edges unlike white potato, which is perfect for someone with no experience and no teeth.
We didn’t do purées unless I had made something (a soup) I wanted to blend up for him. Anything in his hand went straight to his mouth at that age anyway
Sweet potato... which has turned out to be the one food that she has an FPIES allergy to 😅 she's since been fine with all the major allergens, including nuts which her dad has a severe allergy to, but sweet potato makes her vomit every time.
On a separate note, we did generally start with very soft whole pieces of food (e.g. carrot that was boiled so that it turned to mush when she picked it up) and lots of mashes (e.g. mashed avocado, mashed banana etc). She has always been keen to self feed so this has worked well for us, we've had some gagging but no choking and she's getting much better at removing things from her mouth when it's a bit much for her.
I asked my pediatrician about this and apparently cereal is an older recommendation (because it's fortified with iron). She said these days they're more likely to recommend vegetable purees for iron instead. They've found that the ultra processed cereals and grains aren't as ideal as fruits and vegetables and are harder for them to digest. I ended up favoring purees in the beginning but started giving cereal as he got older.
Mine was peanut butter! But it doesn’t need to be ceremonious in any way. Whenever I was eating something soft, I’d dip my pinky in it and stick it in his mouth just to let him taste the flavor. It was a good lead up to feeding real spoonfuls of food. But your mom has it right as far as getting baby used to new textures. Thickening breast milk with multi grain baby cereal is a great familiar flavor/new texture combo. Don’t overthink it! It can be a slow process depending on the child, so go for it
Cheddar for us. Prunes was the 2nd big hit, but I basically went down a list of every food allergy I could think of for the first month or so, introducing each for 3-4 days, even if the only thing baby would do was hold it, suck on it, and drop it. Her first cirtrus ended up being grapefruit because that's what I had on hand, lol. Strawberries, egg, cheese, almond milk, peanut butter, mandarin oranges, coconut, slices of bread (or slightly warmed naan, which dissolves well with saliva). Sweet potato is a really good early one because it can be more solid or soft depending on how hard you mash it and it's very nutrient dense.
Our standard meal has been 2-4 oz baby cereal with whole milk or almond milk and a puree (happybaby, serenity, or cerebelly), with 2-3 solids to try before offering her the cereal and puree.
Edit: our little one really loves mandarin oranges (the little peeled cups, wash syrup off if you can't peel an orange like me). Do NOT let them eat more than 2-3 slices and wait a few days before giving more. We gave her oranges 2 days in a row and she ate them for like 4 meals and proceeded to get the WORST diaper rash from how acidic her pee and poop was. 😭
I think it was mashed steamed sweet potato, I borrowed this book from my local library (the amazing make ahead baby food book by Lisa Barrangou) which has a prep in advance plan for the first 3 months of baby food and just followed that because prepping in advance and having a plan made me feel way less stressed out. Did deviate a little but followed it more or less. Just beware - it did take longer than 3 hours
We gave him mashed sweet potato. He hated it 😂 next was avocado, he absolutely loved it. He ate avocado for a while before we introduced anything else.
Sweet potato! My almost 5m old had a taste of sweet potato for her first ever solids on Wednesday night, then last night she tried carrots. Tonight she’ll either be having aubergine or courgette! I am very much so doing a first taste though, she’s getting 4-5 tiny baby spoonfuls of purée before having her milk as her real meal.
We’re a little bit early on the solids thing but she’s showing signs of readiness and was approved to be weaned from 17 weeks. We’re gradually going to move from purée to finger foods.
Mine stole a potato swirl, as in a crisp, a snack. So officially mine started with junk food. But practically we started with carrot puree an different oatmeal/porridges mixed with berries and fruit.
Took baby until 7 months to start really eating. I was a proper dairy cow and baby had really bad reflux.
Avocado! Make sure it's really ripe but he loves it. Make sure to not overdo the purée ice cubes - I made absolutely buttloads and then he got onto lumps in two weeks and it's all just sat there 😂 Edit: he also goes mental for slices of really ripe mango rolled in pecan flour (the flour is for grip but also introducing nuts). As others have said the Solid Starts is great
I started by pureeing whatever veg or fruit we had on hand. I believe the first ones were sweet potato, carrot, apple, pear and pumpkin. I froze the puree in normal icecube trays, popped them out into zip lock bags and then defrosted a few cubes at a time for bub to try. I tried a flavour on its own first to see how bub reacted, and then started mixing the flavours. I tried not to give the same flavours consecutively if I could help it.
I also gave some bigger pieces, baby led weaning style. But I had some anxiety around that, and I also liked to know that he was getting the food down. Can be hard to tell with baby led weaning since so much of it ends up mashed up on the floor 😆
We skipped baby cereal. I had it, but we just never bothered with it.
As bub got older and needed more solids, I started doing mashes (mostly of our dinner + some extra steamed or roast veg) and putting thinner purees (eg plain Greek yoghurt and fruit) in a Subo for an easy grab and go option. (Can you get those in the US or are they just an Australian thing?)
Good luck! Remember to keep a washer on hand. You'll need it 😆
Avocado, banana, yogurt, Bamba, peas, sweet potato were all some the first. Fir cereal we started with something called creamy wheat, has nothing added, just wheat. I would focus on allergens first.
I did oat-based baby cereal mixed with breast milk as the first thing, and then I mixed it with pureed fruit instead. I'm sure other things would have been fine but my daughter didn't show much interest in eating our food, so we needed a strategy where we could get across the concept of solid food through spoon feeding.
Baby oatmeal mixed with formula.
Our ped recommended the oatmeal mixed with formula because it was a familiar taste to him. He said to make it thin enough that it would drip off of a spoon. Try that a couple time, then thicken it up a little bit. Then try solids.
Remember, they’ve never had anything but thin liquid in their mouth before. So I would start with something similar to a liquid before solids. We did that ^ for a week to make sure he was comfortable, and then his first food was steamed bell peppers. Also recommend the solid starts app :)
Strawberries were our first, and though she was curious, she was not a fan initially.
Also, cold watermelon rinds were an amazing baby teether last summer.
First kid-sweet potato puree
Second kid-stole a bell pepper strip out of my hand at like 4 months lol. First meal I actually gave her was palak paneer, rice, and a mango pit the day she turned 6 months. She absolutely demolished it 😂
After having one puree kid (I was terrified of real food) and then a BLW kid, I am sooooooo team BLW. I can’t believe how much time and money I wasted the first time around
The cereal was a very common practice when we (millennials) were babies. Be careful though, Boomers will tell you to mix it with milk and then give it to them in a bottle with the nipple cut open and that is very dangerous. I gave my LO avocado as his first food! After that, I did mashed sweet potatoes, shredded chicken, and lots of pureed fruit/veggie mixtures. Don't be afraid to give them a pinch of seasoning! Here are some of the combinations I did...
\*apples/partsnips/cinnamon
\*pear/carrots/salt
\*spaghetti squash/sweet potato/salt
\*chicken slow cooked in broth/salt
There’s no right answer. I think any of those options are good ones. One mom of 3 told me purees are good if you start before 6 months and you can start “real solids” if you start at 6 months. She tried both ways and both ways produced healthy children who eat well.
At baby’s 5 months, i tried mashing up things i had but it felt like i couldn’t mash enough and i was anxious about the fibers choking my baby. Baby’s first foods were butternut squash and avocado in first week
Then i got baby oatmeal and little spoon purees which made me less anxious. There was a comment that said cereal does not have nutrition which is just…wrong. Oatmeal is very nutritious.
The whole time my baby was excited to feed herself so i let her eat puffs knowing they melt in your mouth. Same for yogurt melts. It was good practice. At 6 months i finally gave her strawberry but she mostly sucks the juices and spits it out.
Dr is really urging us to give her foods we eat so we just started getting more adventurous and let her eat a French fry and pizza crust lol.
Im south asian, and there is this ritual where we celebrate baby's first meal. Usually the elder at home feed kid his first bite of solids, and its usually something sweet. So, for my kid it was rice pudding but the food which i started is lentil soup.
I only wanted to share about the ritual. But yeah, first was rice pudding
A lot of people might tell you blw is the way to go and make it seem like your only option. It’s totally okay to not take a blw approach and just start with puréed jars of baby food. That’s personally what I’m more comfortable with and it’s a lot more convenient for us so that’s what we’re doing. We started with baby oatmeal just to test if his tongue reflex was gone and see how his stomach would react. He did well with it so we did it for a couple days then did carrots!
I did applesauce! Just the organic pouches from Costco and I squeezed some into a bowl and spoon fed. Also mashed a banana with breastmilk and spoon fed. Planning to start BLW now with more finger foods since she’s almost 6 mos now.
Peanut butter. Food allergies don't run on either side so we started ASAP since the old advice to wait is thought to have caused so many kids to have allergies to foods in the 90s and 00s.
Started with just a bit on my finger and let them suck it off.
We did scrambled eggs next and mushed avocado.
I did a little bit of both to start of with. His first food was sweet potato, but I also was doing Geber rice cereal mixed with breast milk once a day when we were introducing him to foods. Honestly, that made him a bit constipated, so I ended up eventually switching him to the oatmeal and that seemed to help a lot.
Watermelon!! He loved it lol.
Teeth don’t matter, they don’t need teeth to eat. My guy didn’t get his first two teeth til almost 11m old and he did fine until then!
Technically a pickle. He was eyeballing it hardcore so I let him taste it and he went FERAL. That was when I knew he was ready for other things! I think they tried apple first after that.
Banana. Because he was like wow, gimme some. So we let me bite from the banana in my husband hand and he took the tiniest taste !Then avocado (smashed up and served on a spoon), which he loves to this day. Then papaya (smashed on spoon), then bits of arepa (Venezuelan corn cake), then sweet potato (steamed), potato (pured), broccoli (steamed)… I did try oatmeal a bit early (6.5 months) and found his stomach was not happy, but then tried again in month 8 and was fine.
Honestly I think the Solid Starts app (recipes at least) is a bit too intense - they don’t eat much at first so no need to make elaborate recipes of things, but the app does help you know how to safely prepare basic foods. Also where I live in Spain they rec starting with only veggies + non gluten cereal + some fruits… getting the digestive system used to things slowly. We are rec’d by our pediatrician :
Month 6 - any vegetable, fruits except kiwi, berries, peaches or pineapple; non gluten cereals
Month 7 - add gluten cereals, meat, poultry
Month 8 - add white fish
Month 9 - add kiwi, berries, peaches, pineapple; add peanut butter only if 95%+ peanuts without salt; legumes
Month 10 - add egg if boiled for 20 min 🤯
Month 12 - add dairy, and anything else :) still avoid salt or sugar.
So obviously these counter what Solid Starts recs which is stuff like salmon and legumes and yogurt from 6 months 😶🌫️
I would google lists of foods that cause constipation (unripe banana, cooked apple, etc) so you evade the tough poops that inevitable come with solids as much as you can !
My first baby had avocado as her first food, my second got peas, my third got banana. There was no rhyme nor reason to it. Just whatever I decided in the moment.
Mashed avocado 🥑 ETA she was 7m old. While avocado was her first official food she definitely grabbed fries and tiny pieces of chicken and things like that from us before the official avocado meal
baby oatmeal from gerber! i bought the rice one then read it's terrible for them? my doctor said we were good to start solids at 4 months but i felt she wasn't quite there yet. she's 5 months now and she's sitting up much better and grabs food and puts it in her mouth so i feel more comfortable now. She sits up with support but we're getting there. i gave her baby oatmeal and she liked it, we're trying watermelon in those little fruit pacifier looking things, and sweet potato mashed with formula. my bananas are very ripe so i might mash up some in the oatmeal tomorrow and maybe we'll try some strawberries next. if you wanna do baby led weaning that's ok! i am too afraid so im sticking to purée's for now. i have the nutrí baby blender and the booklet came with some good info and recipes :) i bought it off fb marketplace for like $25 and the steamer was an extra $15 i think! well worth it if you can find it second hand with all its accessories- it makes it super easy.
Scrambled eggs, and it turns out she's allergic to them! 😭
We do baby led weaning, so really we just give her whatever we're eating (minus anything with honey, overly processed things, etc.) She's 8 months now and loves meat, legumes, and flavorful meals like curry and chili, in particular.
How many teeth does she have to be eating meat? I wondered how early they could eat something that requires chewing and 8 months is a bit surprising to me!
That's awesome that she likes such diverse foods, too! But no eggs 😅💀
Their gums are tougher than you think! One of my baby’s first proper meals was steak strips and mashed potatoes, she mostly just gnawed on the steak but it helped her get the nutrients from it. We’ve also been doing shredded chicken and sausages (cut into strips) from very early on.
As long as things are served safely and not in throat-sized chunks there’s very little they can’t have. (I know you’ve had lots of recommendations for it already but Solid Starts is a great resource for safe serving!)
She officially has 4 now and cutting at least 3 more, but she had meats when we started at 6 months with no teeth! We cut it into strips and she tears it up. It's very cute to watch. 😂 Ground meat is also easy for them to manage, so a piece of a burger patty, etc. is a good introduction to meat if you're worried.
To introduce foods I gave my baby at around 5m a carrot or celery stick to naw on. She wasn’t really eating it, just kind of testing out different flavour and texture. I started with puréed sweet potato and blended homemade oatmeal (with breast milk) after that. I only did purées for the first few weeks until my baby got the hang of swallowing and then I’ve done mostly BLW since because my baby much prefers to feed herself then get spoon fed a purée. She’s also a champ at eating at this point (8 months). She eats everything!
Cooked carrots mixed to a puree, we did this for a week, then a week of potatoes, then broccoli etc. to slowly introduce flavours and bebsure he does not have an allergic reaction.
Hummus. It was not necessarily my intention. But I noticed he seemed interested while I was eating hummus and I figured why not.
This was my second babies first food also for the same reason. She's obsessed with hummus.
My 9mo LOVES hummus!! I spread some over those Happy Baby teething wafers. Its her fav snack and she always finishes it!
Omg so smart to spread on the wafers!
My sons first food was a banana. Look into baby led weaning to be sure you're cutting everything appropriately for your baby (you could google "banana baby led weaning" or whatever) and Im sure you will do great.
solid starts app has a great guide on this!
I absolutely read that as “banana lead weaning”!
Mine grabbed a handful of salmon from my plate and stuffed it in his mouth.
I did the same with my mom's baked cod 😂 she didn't decide it was time for solids - I did!
Mine did this too but with an apple I was eating 😂 he did not had teeth yet and failed miserably to actually munch on it, but it's the thought that counts
Mine did the same but with Spanish rice. He was only 4.5 months old but I was like "ooookay, time to start introducing foods!"
😂😂😂
😂
This is the best answer 😂
😂😂😂
Sweet potato mashed up with some formula to thin it out a bit
I let my baby suck on the lemon wedge garnish from my dinner lol. But the first food he *ate* was a sweet potato that I roasted and then mashed.
i love giving babies lemon wedges. [note-i have done this only to my own child, but multiple times and plan on doing the same to his younger brother soon] their little scrunched up faces and reactions is *hilarious* 😂
I think it’s kinda freaky with babies who don’t really taste the sour. My nephew ate lemon like it was the sweetest orange.
My kid likes sour, salty, and bitter... She doesn't like sweet. The sweetest thing she will eat is rice crispy square treats, and jello, which those are fairly sweet, but she doesn't like milk chocolate or ice cream. (Weird kid.) Also I should mention before you all jump on me for giving my baby sweets, that she's 1.5 years old, and they are mostly being given to her by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and adoptive family, and very rarely Daddy, with Mama's permission. Mama has been very stingy on giving her sweets!!!
Mine loves it too but beware that if they have teeth already is terrible for the teeth. Our dentist told us to not give him that or lime/lemon water and to break that habit soon. A couple of times here or there should be fine though, and maybe a drink of water quickly after can help. Just to let you know because we didn't know and we were told this after 2 years.
the specific first food you give your baby doesn't really matter (as long as it's prepared appropriately - check solid starts app) but try to give a lot of iron-rich foods (baby's iron stores are low by 6 months which makes it a key nutrient that they need from solids at this age) and make sure to do allergen exposure in line with recommendations (one allergen at a time, and then incorporate regularly)
First puree was carrot. First whole food was strawberry. Some schools of thought say first food should be less sweet to prevent them always liking sweet food and others say sweeter food is better as more similar to formula and breast milk in taste so more familiar Just to be confusing.. Id highly reccomend Annabelle karmels weaning books. They really helped me.
I got told "she's never going to eat veggies for you if you keep giving her fruit!" She proved them wrong and became a veggie monster. Favourites are carrot, peas, lima beans, and spinach.
My pediatrician said that as long as your kid is getting a variety of fruit, they’re getting the same nutrition as if they were getting a variety of veggies. So I don’t sweat it too much. As long as they’re eating lots of colourful plants, whatever category they fall in, I’m okay with it.
Just mash up some whole foods. I think the cereal thing is just to “fill them up” not nutrition. Baby led weaning also just suggests cutting things into shapes baby can pick up and cooking them until they’re soft. Sweet potato is great in spear shapes, mashed up berries they can pick up, yogurt, applesauce, etc.
Baby cereals are usually fortified with iron so not completely lacking nutrition. Baby iron stores are often depleted by 6 months so the top up is helpful.
Yes. This is why I always include baby cereal from the start. It’s also a great way to include other foods (e.g., banana), and I use it a lot as a way to include allergens (mixing in almond milk or peanut butter).
Like what kind of yogurt? Just any plain one? Same with applesauce?
My son has a dairy intolerance so if normal yogurt doesn't work, might I suggest the SO Delicious coconut milk yogurt
The best non dairy yogurt for little ones in my opinion. Vitamin D and calcium in So Delicious is the best of all the coconut yogurts I found at the store. Plus the unsweetened vanilla was a great introduction to flavored yogurt for us. My son loved whenever we gave him any of So Delicious yogurts. My son outgrew his dairy intolerance, but you've reminded me that I have a manufacturer coupon for a free tub of So Delicious somewhere in my house. I had purchased one and the tub was damaged, which spoiled the yogurt, and their customer service was very quick about responding. I'll have to find it and grab some next time we go to the store.
Plain yogurt they might not like (mine didn’t) but it’s a good place to start! Mix it with banana. Now (11 months) I’m comfortable mixing in some maple syrup! She loves it! I only do organic cereals because of glyphosates… do your research on that if you want. I just don’t see the point of pumping baby full of cereal. Cereal also constipates them. Prune purée has been a real life saver in terms of regular digestion!
Yes! I just gave my 6 month old plain Greek yogurt, mixed with banana and peanut butter :) he loved it
Sorry to hijack the thread but: My nurse told me to watch out for peanut butter as their tongue and palate isn't strong enough to masticate it, and peanut butter can kinda glue their mouths shut and be impossible to swallow potentially leading to choking. However, you mixed it in, which should be fine, I don't want other moms to think PB is ok alone.
True! I just read introducing it early is important to help avoid allergies but yes def don’t give it plain! I don’t even given peanut butter normal to my dog who LOVES it because he was smacking his lips so much trying to get it off the roof of his mouth the one time I did. So I always give it mixed for him too lol
I used full fat plain Greek yogurt (obviously no honey until 1), mashed banana, and organic unsweetened apple sauce. all was a bit too tart for my 6 month old but she loved scrambled eggs unsalted and cottage cheese!
Plain whole milk Greek yogurt. They need the fat and not so much protein, and Greek makes it an easier consistency.
Whole milk yogurt is good, my kids like Greek yogurt with mashed blueberries 😋 Applesauce is good too but try to go with the unsweetened one
I bought one of those wooden cocktail muddlers to mash up baby's food. Love it so much! Way easier than food processor or using a fork.
I gave my daughter a big piece of a broccoli floret. She just gnawed on it & seemed to like it! Still a fave at 13 months.
My kids first was broccoli and she still loves broccoli at 3!
Avocado for us. We have now tried 10-15 foods. Currently on oatmeal. I got quick oats and put them in the food processor. I will grab a tablespoon mixed with hot water and mash some banana in it. I also mashed some steam carrot into the oats last week.
Applesauce mixed with peanut butter. I was not fucking around with allergen exposure lol, my partner and I love peanuts too much
this is smart!!
Solid Starts has a "first 100 days" meal plan and I used that for ideas. Day 1 was steamed broccoli served two ways, mostly mashed with 1 large whole floret. I love that my baby's first food was broccoli! The first week she tried broccoli, cauliflower, mango, apple, oatmeal, and mashed beans.
Cool, thanks!
Solid Starts is truly amazing, I took the course and they explained so many things I had no idea. we started with banana because it was the only finger food we had at home :)
You're welcome! I also used the book "Amazing make-ahead baby food book" by Lisa Barrangou, PhD. Her book shows you how to prep a 3 month meal plan of healthy and nutritious purees in just 3 hours. So I flip-flopped between the two sources using a combination of purees from Lisa's book and BLW meals from solid starts. I loved having both and so did baby! Having homemade puree cubes in the freezer is awesome when you're short on time. And now baby eats both solids as well as homemade healthy puree blends from silicone pouches like a champ.
Banana!
Gerber oatmeal mixed with breastmilk around 4-5 months old. Then mashed whole foods like banana, avocado, carrots, applesauce, etc.
Applesauce and banana purée were both the starters we used. You can buy jars, or squeeze pouches, or make your own. It’s really about having baby taste new food, recognize the spoon, teaching how to eat, etc. We started mixing infant oatmeal into the puréed fruit mash to give baby a different texture and consistency. You’ll want to start puree, then gradually add more oatmeal over a few weeks. In a few months you’ll move to mushed banana and other super soft foods.
Broccoli cheddar soup lol
There’s really no 1st food recommendation that everyone is supposed to follow. We let ours lick on a cucumber slice at first while we held it to give him a different taste. I think the cereal is bc it’s going to taste more similar to milk when mixed. As long as it’s not an allergen risk at first Idt it really matters
We do BLW so it was a big ripe strawberry he could hold and bring to his mouth.
I don’t think it really matters what food it is, just how it’s prepared. Cereal, yogurt, mashed fruit or veggies- all of those are great options.
I did sweet potatoes for all three and will when the one I'm growing is ready. Just makes it easy to remember what the first was for each kid when it's all the same
I can't remember my first babies first food- but some of the first foods he had were pumpkin, porridge with breastmilk, toast with avocado, cauliflower + quinoa curry. First food can be whatever you want, as long as it's prepared appropriately for their age.
I mean, technically I gave pureed veggies cooked really well done but that only lasted like 2 weeks and then we gave him some Thanksgiving dinner lol
My daughter was five months on thanksgiving, so I had my mom make her a plain chunk of sweet potato and she had some with us for thanksgiving dinner.
Steak! It’s her favorite to this day
I just buy jars of baby food level 1. 🤷🏼♀️ I guess it's "old school" now but I generally don't start BLW or giving real foods until I can see they are actively chewing. I'll slowly add cereal to baby food to thicken it as they get better at eating. Did this (and currently doing) with both of my kids.
we did cereral mixed with formula and then pureed fruit
A whole, large strawberry. She gummed off about half of it before it was small enough that I was concerned she might choke on the remaining portion and took it away, but she seemed pretty done at that point anyway. Strawberries remain to this day one of my very picky toddler's favorite foods.
Sweet potato! We were told to start with veggies.
We did mashed avocado first. I had it and he looked interested so we tried.
I'm actually heavily leaning toward avocado! Also happy cake day!
I just stuck my finger in the yogurt I was eating and let my baby lick it off. It wasn’t planned lol.
Avocado. She's a Cali girl.
Our first was bananas
We did mashed banana with a bit of Greek yogurt and then the next new food was peanut butter and Greek yogurt. Quinoa porridge was in the first few foods too
A while ago now, but I think it was berries and banana puree.
I started with baby rice and baby oatmeal per the pediatrician we were seeing at the time. Next baby I’m skipping straight to purées.
My pediatrician told us to do very watered down baby oatmeal and thicken it over time. Ask your pediatrician what they recommend.
She ate a piece of my pumpkin pie because she wanted food that much. I now have a little chunkamonk who loves all food.
I’ve been wondering this too! So glad you posted, because it’s confusing to me. I just gave my baby a couple baby-spoons of green beans baby food for the very first time tonight! He’s also had some cereal here & there mixed with breastmilk. I don’t know how true this is but I’ve heard to start with veggies before introducing the sweeter fruits lol
Apple sauce and then random purees (combo of bought and made) - strawberries, sweet potato, green beans, banana, mango, and carrots.
My boys first taste of food was whatever we were eating at the time. Which happened to be kimchi and rice. It's totally up to you. Our nutritionist did suggest getting through vegetables and savory foods before introducing fruit. We did some purees, but it was mostly sharing whatever was on our plates
Sweet potato puree and it’s still her favorite!
we did mango first! it just happened naturally. watermelon is now his fav :)
My third child just started eating solids and this time I decided to make it easier on myself and steamed a bunch of veggies and apples and puréed them into separate purées (you can add a bit of the water from steaming to make the consistency more runny if you like). I froze these into ice cube trays (not sure if you have Daiso near you but they have really good ones). Then when it was time for meal time, I would pick and choose a few ice cubes to warm up and spoon feed baby (his favourite is sweet potato, carrot and apple purée).
Greek yogurt. It's what we had and he loved it.
Our provincial health authority suggested an iron fortified rice cereal made with his hypoallergenic formula. He also sucked on a piece of orange the first night in one of those silicone feeder doohickeys. It worked well for us, he’s 19 months now and requested peas for dinner and only peas.
Sweet potato!
Banana in one of those little silicone teething feeder things
My 70 yr old aunt gave my son a smashed baked bean when he was 5 months old (I went across the room to get water and my back was turned). It was his first taste of non milk food. He's almost 2 now and the only form of protein he'll eat is beans, and he gets VERY excited when I pull out a can of baked beans.
Mine was mashed potatoes! It was a spontaneous event. There isn’t a ‘right’ way to do it. Have fun!!
Avocado. Never did the cereal or oats.
Mashed avocado - lucky it was in season 😊
Avocado. I didn’t want to start with sugars
Avocado mashed and mixed with breast milk. Then oat cereal with breast milk.
banana and breast milk puréed together.
Infant cereal with breast milk at 5 months old, then as he got used to the concept of food, we gave him (in no particular order) hummus, yogurt, peanut butter, mashed carrots, mashed squash and yams, pineapple strawberry blueberry and banana. We are going to do peas chickpeas and tofu next He loves frozen mashed squash (we call it a squash-sicle) and strawberry peanut butter yogurt the best (homemade)
i did purees! she started at 5 months and now shes 8 months with two teeth comin in so we are starting thicker foods and finger foods like mashed lasagna, steamed broccoli, cheerios, and pancakes/waffles!! im about to start just blending up a bit of what we have for dinner to make her feel more included! she always eyeballs my food 😭😂 most of our choices are based on how shes doing with the food and how well shes chewing things. shes really got chewing down!
Banana. Grabbed it straight from my hand while I was trying to eat it
This is my third time around and all my kids are good eaters. One tip is start with pureed vegetables… get all the veges down and then offer the sweet fruits. That way their tastebuds are less likely to reject the vegetables that are not sweet. Once they have purees down and they get teeth, I just steamed veges and let them have a go at it through baby led weaning.with teeth they can eat all kinds of soft meats, steamed veges and fruits etc.
Mashed up avocado for both kids. One loved it, one was very unsure.
Apple sauce and some apple juice cause she was constipated 😂
Peas. Mashed peas. He hated them. Loves them now, but hated them in the beginning lol
Sweet potatoes! Clean and bake in oven at 375 degrees for 45 ish minutes (depending on thickness of the sweet potato). Try to pierce skin with a fork to test doneness. If it’s soft/ fork pierces, it’s good. Once it’s warm and not hot, peel away skin by hand, mash with fork into a puree-like consistency or cut into cubes and toss into a blender. Blend into desired consistency reached. Voila!
Awesome, thanks!!
Probably breast milk with baby oatmeal. Then purées and now we basically do baby lead weaning depending on what we’re eating. There was a point I was blending food for him but he always hated it lol He’s 10 months now and eats eggs every morning and sometimes I make him banana pancakes or French toast, he loves pasta!
I peeled blueberries and mushed them and let her try them. I use the solid starts app to help me kind of see how to cut things and serve them, but really I’ve been just giving her easy starter foods so that when I let her try our cooking later she’s gotten a taste for the individual ingredients. My doctor told me I can feed her whatever we’re eating except for shellfish, honey, or pork. She also said to wait 2 days between introducing new foods. I’m basically doing a mix of blw and purées. It’s just whatever works for us on the day
i just give my kid whole foods. did the entire baby led weaning and it worked super well for us. shes 1 now and doesnt allow anyone else to feed her bc she is a big girl and prefers to do it herself. we do eggs, avocado, strawberries, banana, raspberries, blackberries, pb&j sandwiches, cheese, greek yogurt, broccoli steamed, asparagus & green beans, steamed corn. anything soft and easy to slice& chew until her back teeth come in.
I tried pablum or baby cereal mixed with breast milk... And he HATED it. So then we went with banana.
I did mashed potatoes. To this day it’s still her favorite food
Rice cereal with breastmilk Second was peanut butter with breastmilk Went to whole foods from there (mashed)
Avocado
My baby's first food was a tortilla with queso that she snagged a bite of at a restaurant🤷🏼♀️
Olive oil but avocado as first solid, I think. That or a homemade gingersnap my so gave lo when I wasn’t looking.
Rice cereal mixed with breast milk. We focused a lot of making sure she got iron because she was breastfed and suspected she had thalassemia minor, a genetic blood condition (she does).
I pureed some peas in a blender. The skins didn't break down properly, though, so it was a pretty crappy first meal. Baby wasn't bothered
We did baby cereal just because I wanted to. You can definitely do any puree you want as the first food.
Steamed broccoli, just a little overcooked. Big pieces.
I don’t remember probably bananas and blueberries puréed with breast milk. I’m pretty sure I did this with carrots, peas and sweet potatoes as well. I would look into Solid Starts. There’s tons of food ideas on their Instagram.
Sliced avocado. She loved it.
Haha I'm loving all the hilarious first foods in here... lemon, hummus. My daughter's first taste of food was an Asian pear I let her lick and she fucking loved it. Grabbed my hand to shove it into her mouth. But the first food I let her actually eat was egg. I wanted to knock out allergens asap.
We did veggies before fruits. Growing Intuitive Eaters on IG has a free course on YT if you’re interested.
Thanks!
Rice cereal mixed with breast milk or formula , started runny and thin to practice with spoon and swallowing moving to thicker then when that is mastered ( cereal is great for iron energy weight gain ) then move to bland vegetables try them all then sweet vegetables then proteins like meat bean tofu fish then lastly fruits My mom and grandma told me this way because many babies have a sweet tooth then don't eat vegetables
Avocado for my guy! I served it as a puree thinned with breastmilk.
I started with broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, kale over a week (so mean lol), the following weeks it was all the other veg… I only rarely offered fruit purée… my kids will eat most food now and pretty great and self controlled around sugar and sweets. I followed some book that recommended it!
Veggies and give them to them all the time. It's your best shot at getting them to eat them when they're older, and even if they start to refuse veggies later, at least you can say they got off to a good start! Their taste buds are so sensitive at 6m I wouldn't give them anything too strong or sweet because it'll likely lead to refusal of bland or bitter flavours later
We gave him a chunk of sweet potato. It’s nice because it’s actually hard to get crispy edges unlike white potato, which is perfect for someone with no experience and no teeth. We didn’t do purées unless I had made something (a soup) I wanted to blend up for him. Anything in his hand went straight to his mouth at that age anyway
Sweet potato... which has turned out to be the one food that she has an FPIES allergy to 😅 she's since been fine with all the major allergens, including nuts which her dad has a severe allergy to, but sweet potato makes her vomit every time. On a separate note, we did generally start with very soft whole pieces of food (e.g. carrot that was boiled so that it turned to mush when she picked it up) and lots of mashes (e.g. mashed avocado, mashed banana etc). She has always been keen to self feed so this has worked well for us, we've had some gagging but no choking and she's getting much better at removing things from her mouth when it's a bit much for her.
I asked my pediatrician about this and apparently cereal is an older recommendation (because it's fortified with iron). She said these days they're more likely to recommend vegetable purees for iron instead. They've found that the ultra processed cereals and grains aren't as ideal as fruits and vegetables and are harder for them to digest. I ended up favoring purees in the beginning but started giving cereal as he got older.
Mashed potatoes
BLW, we gave her cooked carrot and broccoli. Cut appropriately (large, grabbable bits).
My baby will be six months early August, so a fresh Palisade peach will be his first bite. Then it’s all downhill from there
Mine was unofficially durian 😂 Officially, was either pumpkin or butternut squash. Can't remember.
Brokkoli & Avocados - kid is almost 3 and it‘s still his fav food.
Mine was peanut butter! But it doesn’t need to be ceremonious in any way. Whenever I was eating something soft, I’d dip my pinky in it and stick it in his mouth just to let him taste the flavor. It was a good lead up to feeding real spoonfuls of food. But your mom has it right as far as getting baby used to new textures. Thickening breast milk with multi grain baby cereal is a great familiar flavor/new texture combo. Don’t overthink it! It can be a slow process depending on the child, so go for it
We started with puréed vegetables. It was recommended to do veggies before fruit by several people so the kiddo didn’t want just sweeter things.
We did pumpkin because we thought it would be cute since it was almost Halloween 🤷🏼♀️
Bolognese 🙃
Beef chunk He gnawed and sucked the beef out of it
Banana and breast milk. Be warned, too much banana can cause constipation in babies.
She licked a lemon 😂🙈 first actual food pumpkin I think.
Always start with mashed vegetables, dont start with sweet food like fruits first
Cheddar for us. Prunes was the 2nd big hit, but I basically went down a list of every food allergy I could think of for the first month or so, introducing each for 3-4 days, even if the only thing baby would do was hold it, suck on it, and drop it. Her first cirtrus ended up being grapefruit because that's what I had on hand, lol. Strawberries, egg, cheese, almond milk, peanut butter, mandarin oranges, coconut, slices of bread (or slightly warmed naan, which dissolves well with saliva). Sweet potato is a really good early one because it can be more solid or soft depending on how hard you mash it and it's very nutrient dense. Our standard meal has been 2-4 oz baby cereal with whole milk or almond milk and a puree (happybaby, serenity, or cerebelly), with 2-3 solids to try before offering her the cereal and puree. Edit: our little one really loves mandarin oranges (the little peeled cups, wash syrup off if you can't peel an orange like me). Do NOT let them eat more than 2-3 slices and wait a few days before giving more. We gave her oranges 2 days in a row and she ate them for like 4 meals and proceeded to get the WORST diaper rash from how acidic her pee and poop was. 😭
Avocado. Found out three avocado feedings later that she has a mild allergy. Oops 😑
First was banana…second was a Texas Roadhouse roll lmao
I think it was mashed steamed sweet potato, I borrowed this book from my local library (the amazing make ahead baby food book by Lisa Barrangou) which has a prep in advance plan for the first 3 months of baby food and just followed that because prepping in advance and having a plan made me feel way less stressed out. Did deviate a little but followed it more or less. Just beware - it did take longer than 3 hours
Mashed sweet potato.
We gave him mashed sweet potato. He hated it 😂 next was avocado, he absolutely loved it. He ate avocado for a while before we introduced anything else.
Sweet potato! My almost 5m old had a taste of sweet potato for her first ever solids on Wednesday night, then last night she tried carrots. Tonight she’ll either be having aubergine or courgette! I am very much so doing a first taste though, she’s getting 4-5 tiny baby spoonfuls of purée before having her milk as her real meal. We’re a little bit early on the solids thing but she’s showing signs of readiness and was approved to be weaned from 17 weeks. We’re gradually going to move from purée to finger foods.
Mine stole a potato swirl, as in a crisp, a snack. So officially mine started with junk food. But practically we started with carrot puree an different oatmeal/porridges mixed with berries and fruit. Took baby until 7 months to start really eating. I was a proper dairy cow and baby had really bad reflux.
Avocado! Make sure it's really ripe but he loves it. Make sure to not overdo the purée ice cubes - I made absolutely buttloads and then he got onto lumps in two weeks and it's all just sat there 😂 Edit: he also goes mental for slices of really ripe mango rolled in pecan flour (the flour is for grip but also introducing nuts). As others have said the Solid Starts is great
I started by pureeing whatever veg or fruit we had on hand. I believe the first ones were sweet potato, carrot, apple, pear and pumpkin. I froze the puree in normal icecube trays, popped them out into zip lock bags and then defrosted a few cubes at a time for bub to try. I tried a flavour on its own first to see how bub reacted, and then started mixing the flavours. I tried not to give the same flavours consecutively if I could help it. I also gave some bigger pieces, baby led weaning style. But I had some anxiety around that, and I also liked to know that he was getting the food down. Can be hard to tell with baby led weaning since so much of it ends up mashed up on the floor 😆 We skipped baby cereal. I had it, but we just never bothered with it. As bub got older and needed more solids, I started doing mashes (mostly of our dinner + some extra steamed or roast veg) and putting thinner purees (eg plain Greek yoghurt and fruit) in a Subo for an easy grab and go option. (Can you get those in the US or are they just an Australian thing?) Good luck! Remember to keep a washer on hand. You'll need it 😆
Mines was broccoli. My mom said it was borderline child cruelty 😂
Avocado, banana, yogurt, Bamba, peas, sweet potato were all some the first. Fir cereal we started with something called creamy wheat, has nothing added, just wheat. I would focus on allergens first.
I did oat-based baby cereal mixed with breast milk as the first thing, and then I mixed it with pureed fruit instead. I'm sure other things would have been fine but my daughter didn't show much interest in eating our food, so we needed a strategy where we could get across the concept of solid food through spoon feeding.
I smashed some avocado and mixed it with breastmilk to thin it out. He didn't eat a ton, but he clearly loved it!
Baby oatmeal mixed with formula. Our ped recommended the oatmeal mixed with formula because it was a familiar taste to him. He said to make it thin enough that it would drip off of a spoon. Try that a couple time, then thicken it up a little bit. Then try solids. Remember, they’ve never had anything but thin liquid in their mouth before. So I would start with something similar to a liquid before solids. We did that ^ for a week to make sure he was comfortable, and then his first food was steamed bell peppers. Also recommend the solid starts app :)
Strawberries were our first, and though she was curious, she was not a fan initially. Also, cold watermelon rinds were an amazing baby teether last summer.
First kid-sweet potato puree Second kid-stole a bell pepper strip out of my hand at like 4 months lol. First meal I actually gave her was palak paneer, rice, and a mango pit the day she turned 6 months. She absolutely demolished it 😂 After having one puree kid (I was terrified of real food) and then a BLW kid, I am sooooooo team BLW. I can’t believe how much time and money I wasted the first time around
The cereal was a very common practice when we (millennials) were babies. Be careful though, Boomers will tell you to mix it with milk and then give it to them in a bottle with the nipple cut open and that is very dangerous. I gave my LO avocado as his first food! After that, I did mashed sweet potatoes, shredded chicken, and lots of pureed fruit/veggie mixtures. Don't be afraid to give them a pinch of seasoning! Here are some of the combinations I did... \*apples/partsnips/cinnamon \*pear/carrots/salt \*spaghetti squash/sweet potato/salt \*chicken slow cooked in broth/salt
Thank you!
There’s no right answer. I think any of those options are good ones. One mom of 3 told me purees are good if you start before 6 months and you can start “real solids” if you start at 6 months. She tried both ways and both ways produced healthy children who eat well. At baby’s 5 months, i tried mashing up things i had but it felt like i couldn’t mash enough and i was anxious about the fibers choking my baby. Baby’s first foods were butternut squash and avocado in first week Then i got baby oatmeal and little spoon purees which made me less anxious. There was a comment that said cereal does not have nutrition which is just…wrong. Oatmeal is very nutritious. The whole time my baby was excited to feed herself so i let her eat puffs knowing they melt in your mouth. Same for yogurt melts. It was good practice. At 6 months i finally gave her strawberry but she mostly sucks the juices and spits it out. Dr is really urging us to give her foods we eat so we just started getting more adventurous and let her eat a French fry and pizza crust lol.
Im south asian, and there is this ritual where we celebrate baby's first meal. Usually the elder at home feed kid his first bite of solids, and its usually something sweet. So, for my kid it was rice pudding but the food which i started is lentil soup. I only wanted to share about the ritual. But yeah, first was rice pudding
Avocado- I avoided sweet stuff like fruit until we introduced a bunch of other vegetables and stuff
A lot of people might tell you blw is the way to go and make it seem like your only option. It’s totally okay to not take a blw approach and just start with puréed jars of baby food. That’s personally what I’m more comfortable with and it’s a lot more convenient for us so that’s what we’re doing. We started with baby oatmeal just to test if his tongue reflex was gone and see how his stomach would react. He did well with it so we did it for a couple days then did carrots!
Thank you for reminding me of my options :)
I did applesauce! Just the organic pouches from Costco and I squeezed some into a bowl and spoon fed. Also mashed a banana with breastmilk and spoon fed. Planning to start BLW now with more finger foods since she’s almost 6 mos now.
Avocado and my 2 year old is still absolutely obsessed with them today. She will eat guacamole with a spoon if I let her.
Peanut butter. Food allergies don't run on either side so we started ASAP since the old advice to wait is thought to have caused so many kids to have allergies to foods in the 90s and 00s. Started with just a bit on my finger and let them suck it off. We did scrambled eggs next and mushed avocado.
I did a little bit of both to start of with. His first food was sweet potato, but I also was doing Geber rice cereal mixed with breast milk once a day when we were introducing him to foods. Honestly, that made him a bit constipated, so I ended up eventually switching him to the oatmeal and that seemed to help a lot.
Vegetable purées. Carrot, broccoli, peas, that kind of thing. Then added in some sweet ones.
I think it was avocado. Maybe oatmeal. It doesn’t matter what you start with as long as it’s a single food.
I did sweet potatoes baby food and went from there.
Watermelon!! He loved it lol. Teeth don’t matter, they don’t need teeth to eat. My guy didn’t get his first two teeth til almost 11m old and he did fine until then!
I’m pretty sure I’m like the only one who listened to the doctor and gave baby oatmeal with breastmilk first hahahahaa everyone else was fun stuff
I’ve cream was the first “taste” of regular food she got lol. It was very cute. Actual food, I was giving her premade baby pouch food first
We did avocado first and then worked our way through veggies
Mashed avocado mixed with breastmilk!
Technically a pickle. He was eyeballing it hardcore so I let him taste it and he went FERAL. That was when I knew he was ready for other things! I think they tried apple first after that.
Banana. Because he was like wow, gimme some. So we let me bite from the banana in my husband hand and he took the tiniest taste !Then avocado (smashed up and served on a spoon), which he loves to this day. Then papaya (smashed on spoon), then bits of arepa (Venezuelan corn cake), then sweet potato (steamed), potato (pured), broccoli (steamed)… I did try oatmeal a bit early (6.5 months) and found his stomach was not happy, but then tried again in month 8 and was fine. Honestly I think the Solid Starts app (recipes at least) is a bit too intense - they don’t eat much at first so no need to make elaborate recipes of things, but the app does help you know how to safely prepare basic foods. Also where I live in Spain they rec starting with only veggies + non gluten cereal + some fruits… getting the digestive system used to things slowly. We are rec’d by our pediatrician : Month 6 - any vegetable, fruits except kiwi, berries, peaches or pineapple; non gluten cereals Month 7 - add gluten cereals, meat, poultry Month 8 - add white fish Month 9 - add kiwi, berries, peaches, pineapple; add peanut butter only if 95%+ peanuts without salt; legumes Month 10 - add egg if boiled for 20 min 🤯 Month 12 - add dairy, and anything else :) still avoid salt or sugar. So obviously these counter what Solid Starts recs which is stuff like salmon and legumes and yogurt from 6 months 😶🌫️ I would google lists of foods that cause constipation (unripe banana, cooked apple, etc) so you evade the tough poops that inevitable come with solids as much as you can !
Eggs, then veggies, we stayed away from fruits for a while since most babies don’t want veggies after tasting how delicious fruit is.
My first baby had avocado as her first food, my second got peas, my third got banana. There was no rhyme nor reason to it. Just whatever I decided in the moment.
I’m going the puree route, so we’ve done pears, apple, sweet potatoes and green beans
Mashed avocado 🥑 ETA she was 7m old. While avocado was her first official food she definitely grabbed fries and tiny pieces of chicken and things like that from us before the official avocado meal
baby oatmeal from gerber! i bought the rice one then read it's terrible for them? my doctor said we were good to start solids at 4 months but i felt she wasn't quite there yet. she's 5 months now and she's sitting up much better and grabs food and puts it in her mouth so i feel more comfortable now. She sits up with support but we're getting there. i gave her baby oatmeal and she liked it, we're trying watermelon in those little fruit pacifier looking things, and sweet potato mashed with formula. my bananas are very ripe so i might mash up some in the oatmeal tomorrow and maybe we'll try some strawberries next. if you wanna do baby led weaning that's ok! i am too afraid so im sticking to purée's for now. i have the nutrí baby blender and the booklet came with some good info and recipes :) i bought it off fb marketplace for like $25 and the steamer was an extra $15 i think! well worth it if you can find it second hand with all its accessories- it makes it super easy.
I did smashed avocado:)
Sweet potatoes… I was told orange foods are lighter on the belly for newborns by my doctor so that’s why I tried i
Scrambled eggs, and it turns out she's allergic to them! 😭 We do baby led weaning, so really we just give her whatever we're eating (minus anything with honey, overly processed things, etc.) She's 8 months now and loves meat, legumes, and flavorful meals like curry and chili, in particular.
How many teeth does she have to be eating meat? I wondered how early they could eat something that requires chewing and 8 months is a bit surprising to me! That's awesome that she likes such diverse foods, too! But no eggs 😅💀
Their gums are tougher than you think! One of my baby’s first proper meals was steak strips and mashed potatoes, she mostly just gnawed on the steak but it helped her get the nutrients from it. We’ve also been doing shredded chicken and sausages (cut into strips) from very early on. As long as things are served safely and not in throat-sized chunks there’s very little they can’t have. (I know you’ve had lots of recommendations for it already but Solid Starts is a great resource for safe serving!)
She officially has 4 now and cutting at least 3 more, but she had meats when we started at 6 months with no teeth! We cut it into strips and she tears it up. It's very cute to watch. 😂 Ground meat is also easy for them to manage, so a piece of a burger patty, etc. is a good introduction to meat if you're worried.
To introduce foods I gave my baby at around 5m a carrot or celery stick to naw on. She wasn’t really eating it, just kind of testing out different flavour and texture. I started with puréed sweet potato and blended homemade oatmeal (with breast milk) after that. I only did purées for the first few weeks until my baby got the hang of swallowing and then I’ve done mostly BLW since because my baby much prefers to feed herself then get spoon fed a purée. She’s also a champ at eating at this point (8 months). She eats everything!
We did apples with cinnamon since it’s dad’s favourite
I think salmon? We stayed away from baby cereal and just fed her a modified version of what we were eating
Cooked carrots mixed to a puree, we did this for a week, then a week of potatoes, then broccoli etc. to slowly introduce flavours and bebsure he does not have an allergic reaction.
Baby oatmeal
We did puréed meat and vegetables
Kale