Baby Food

Our pediatrician has given us the go ahead to start eating solids and well last night didnt go over so well. We took a video and Morgan cried just about the entire time. I dont think it was necessarily the taste she didnt like she just couldnt figure out how to swallow it and started to get very frustrated with it.

Some ideas of when to start solids...
  • doubles birth weight and weighs at least 13 lbs (Morgan now weighs 13 lbs but hasnt doubled her birth weight yet)
  • seems hungry after 8 to 10 breastfeedings a day or drinks 32 oz of formula a day (has a long way to go before this)
  • lifts and supports head (can do this pretty well)
Schedule of what to do and when...
Single Grain Cereal-rice, oatmeal or barley cereal
Day 1-1 tbsp + 4 tbsp of breastmilk or formula
Day 2-2 tbsp + 4 tbsp of breastmilk or formula
Day 3-3 tbsp + 4 tbsp of breastmilk or formula
Day 4-4 tbsp + 4 tbsp of breastmilk or formula

Until they have totally completed the stage dont move on to the next day. So for instance Morgan didnt come close to finishing day 1 so we will be back to day 1 tonight to try it out.

Next thing she recommends is a vegetable. The reason to do a vegetable before a fruit is if you introduce a sweet before a vegetable they may not go back.
Single Vegetables-2.5 oz jar portion
Green Beans, Peas, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Squash
Day 1-1/4 jar of one vegetable
Day 2-1/4 jar of same vegetable
Day 3-1/2 jar of same vegetable
Day 4-1 jar of same vegetable

Single Fruits-2.5 oz jar portion
Applesauce, Peaches, Prunes, Bananas, Pears
Day 1-1/4 jar of one fruit
Day 2-1/4 jar of same fruit
Day 3-1/2 jar of same fruit
Day 4-1 jar of same fruit

100% Infant Juice-Single Ingredient
Apple, Pear, White Grape Juice
Day 1- 1 fl oz
Day 2-1.5 fl. oz
Day 3-1.5 fl. oz
Day 4-2 fl. oz
Dont try until they have had a variety of 1st Foods (vegetables and fruits)

Our pediatrician also said to make sure to keep things to 1 product every 3-4 days to make sure they have no allergic reaction to the product.

Hope this helps! If anyone has any suggestions on things please share. Day 2 of Day 1  cereal went a littl e better but still not great. She ended up eating about half of it so we will be back to day 1 tomorrow until she can finish the entire thing.

For 2nd foods-Our pediatrician said to  not start those until she was 6 mths old.


5 comments:

Sarah's Smile said...

Did your ped recommend juice? kids don't need juice. It is fully empty calories and sugars. Wade still doesn't get it and he's 3.5.

Sometimes it takes 10 tries before a child will like a food. So you have to keep on trying.

4mckenzies said...

I also water my kids juice down b/c it has so much sugar in it. My kids are 5 & almost 2. I know the 5 yr old would be fine but habits...
I never gave juice to my babies before they were 1. Just me...

And it does take time getting used to swallowing solids. The textures are so different, too. It took my daughter a long time to adjust to solids/cereal. :) She's just not a good eater! Even at almost 2!

Angie said...

When we were first starting out I didn't give the "solid" foods until Cooper had part of a bottle/breastfed for a while....that way he didn't get too frustrated with figuring out how to get the food down into his tummy. At this stage it's more like experimenting and getting used to it....not where she is getting the bulk of her nutrition so she doesn't have to get a lot in/down.

Chrissy said...

Addison only gets juice on occasion as a special treat. Even then we water it down, it is way to full of sugar. We didn't start her on solids until she got interested in our food. Once she was eyeing foods and grabbing at our plates we started (around 5.5 months) and she gobbled it all right up. If Morgan doesn't seem to take to it, you can always hold off longer. No need to rush. Like someone else said, eating solids now is just practice, not for nutrition. I too breastfed her first so she was full of what she needed, then let her try some cereal. We started with fruits because breast milk is already so sweet the veggies can be a bit shocking to babies. I've always heard formula fed babies are better off starting with veggies though.

Good luck! It is fun when they start new stuff, enjoy.

derek and brittney said...

We tried rice cereal with Beckett at 4 months and he hated it. After a few nights of trying I just gave up until 6 months and went straight to the Gerber rice cereal w/ applesauce in the jar and it didn't take him long to get the hang of it. Let me know how the steamer works out-I've been thinking about making some of Lilla's food too!

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