introducing solid foods

[Anonymous]

How did you do it (what order, what foods, how much)?

DD is almost 7 months, and at 6 mo. we started with rice cereal for one meal a day (she's only eating about 2-3 oz of cereal, plus some breastmilk, for her "dinner" meal). We just tried carrots, and for the past couple of days she's eaten about 1 oz of carrots. We'll build up to a bigger serving and other veggies. But for now, I'm wondering if I should be feeding her the veggie AND cereal for that meal, or just one solid food at a time. Or should I be giving her cereal at one time of day and the veggie at another? She's exclusively BF otherwise.

If anyone knows of any good sources of info on this, that would be helpful, too. The books I have don't go into detail (amounts, frequency, combination)--just what order to introduce the foods in.

[Anonymous]

I will probably be flamed by purists, but we let our babies try everything that we were eating on our plates, and didn't introduce foods in any particular order. We didn't really give much in the way of cereal to our babies, because they didn't seem to like it much. We gave our babies beans, rice, meats, avocados, bananas, and the usual vegetable purees.

[Anonymous]

Our ped told us to start with one solid meal a day at 6 months old, and work up to three per day by 9 months old. She also said basically to feed as much of the solid as DS would eat at one sitting, which was never a huge amount. We liked the Happy Bellies cereal with probiotics, and would mix a tablespoon or so with about half a stage 2 jar or fruit or vegetable (we skipped the stage 1 purees and DS had no problem) plus a little BM. We did introduce foods one at a time, because food insensitivities run in my family, but in no particular order. Some of his early faves were carrots, avocados, sweet potatoes, apples, and pears.

I feel like I was relatively relaxed about the solid food thing, but I wish now that I had worried about it even less than I did. It's so easy to get caught up in the details, but it's just for practice at this stage. I don't think there's a necessarily wrong way to do it -- as long as BM is her primary food, let your DD try some different fruits, veggies, and cereal to see what she likes and to get used to moving food around her mouth and swallowing it. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

there actually is an "order"....you should introduce new foods to your baby every 3 days, and incorporate the ones he/she already tolerates along the way....so rice cereal for breakfast, carrots for lunch, maybe peas for supper....there are certain foods that your baby shouldn't have before age one (spinach b/c of the nitrates, egg whites, peanut butter). you'll get the hang of it. we just followed the What to Expect the First Year book's guidelines to keep it safe. after your baby gets used to the basics, you can have a lot of fun mixing and matching meals, making your own, etc... and, by the way, keep feeding breastmilk, too! babies don't get a whole lot of calories from food the first year. one or two tablespoons at a feeding are the norm. your baby is just learning HOW to eat, and developing tastes, for now.

good luck! have fun!

[Anonymous]

I find the 6-12 month period confusing food-wise (and this is our 2nd child). Right now the baby is almost 7 months and this is our eating schedule:

7:30 - bottle
11 - bottle
noon lunch - formula w/oatmeal at lunch
3pm - bottle
5:30 - dinner (stage 1 jar mixed w/cereal)
6:30 bedtime bottle

We started w/apples, moved to carrots, then bananas, now pears. Next will try peas. We are doing the same fruit/veg for 3 days each to see if there are allergies. If all goes well, I am thinking of moving to "real" avacado and sweet potato next (not jarred, just mashed). We have a dr appt tomorrow and am planning to ask about timing for introducing yogurt and mashed lentils since I plan to phase those in at some point too. Probably next week we will also move from the formula and cereal at noon to jar & cereal. Not planning on introducing breakfast until 10 months or so when baby can eat cheerios since mornings are such a rush for us (we work FT).

My understanding is that eating at this stage is mainly to teach them eating skills and the bulk of nutrition should still come from BM/formula. However, the "bulk" seems mysteriously not defined!

[Anonymous]

Agree with the poster who said to work up to three meals by 9-months. One morning and one evening meal would probably be good at your son's age.

I give my son cereal mixed with a little pureed fruit for breakfast every day. This is about 1.5 hours after his morning bottle. We also do lunch which is a few finger foods and about .5-1 jar of pureed veggies. For dinner, we do another variety of finger foods, veggies, and fruit. My son is a little older (just turned 12 months). Ped said at this age babies are typically eating about a cup of food at each meal - so maybe somewhat less for a 7-month old?

At this point, I would just focus on introducing new foods to him and let him eat as much or as little as he likes. As I'm sure you know, he's getting is needs met from the milk now and not the solids, so don't stress too much about it. Try to make meals fun.

[Anonymous]

I also give rice cereal or oatmeal at each meal as a staple because of the nutrients. I mix it with BM (I too EBF). DD is turning 7 months this week and I give her solids twice a day - for breakfast and dinner. My pedititrician said there aren't any real rules either in terms of what order to introduce things. Basically, she will eat as much as she is hungry and will let you know when she is done. As others mentioned, it's to get them in practice of eating. I like that she joins us in her high chair at dinner with us - and she does too. It used to be that we ate dinner after I put her to bed, but now it's become a family dinner hour which is nice (although we are now eating dinner around 6pm which is funny). I find making things are really easy too, e.g. buy a bag of organic baby carrots, boil, puree, put in ice cube trays. But overall firsts - pears (her favorite which I use to "hide" the green veggies she doesn't like by mixing together), sweet potato, banana. And I agree, it's confusing.

[Anonymous]

So confusing to me too, and I keep trying to read about this...
This is what we do with our 7.5 mo.

6am- nurse
8:30 am- nurse
10am- 3tbsp cereal mixed with 1/2 jar of stage 2 fruits.
12:30pm- nurse
2pm- 1/2 jar gerber mixed dinner (like chicken and sweet potatoes) 1/2 jar veggies
3:30pm-2 tbps cereal mixed with bm
4-bottle
7-nurse
8- sometimes 1/2 jar baby food
9:30 nurse

on the weekends i just nurse and try to do 1 food but usually skip it.... nanny feeds db on weekdays and i leave work at lunchtime to nurse her.... it is confusing, but i console myself thinking bm is the most important for now, and like other posters said, solids is just to introduce and teach!

[Anonymous]

op here--thank you all!

[Anonymous]

I just got back from the ped and had asked this same question for our 6 month old.

At DS's 5 month appt, the ped told us to only feed him rice cereal and fruits. So we'd been feeding DS 2 Tbs cereal + 1/2 jar of fruit twice a day, following his 7 am breakfast and 7 pm dinner bottles. We started with much smaller portions and increased as his appetite increased. DS just started wanting more midday so we added a 1/2 jar of fruit to follow his 11 am bottle.

The ped gave us a different routine today (and told us to nix breakfast saying he didn't need it), so here it is:

7 am - Bottle
11 am - 1/2 bottle, then fruit + cereal (any kind) with rest of bottle.
3 pm - 1/2 bottle, then veggie + chicken with rest of bottle. Haven't started this yet, so not sure how much.
7 pm - 1/2 bottle, then do either the fruit + cereal or veggie + chicken with rest of bottle.

I'm still a little confused as to why we're supposed to do a meal at 3 instead of breakfast. I'm guessing it's to load solids at the end of the day so DS stays full overnight, even though he's been sleeping through for over a month now.