The Battle Over the Baby Food
We first tried giving Bean baby food when he was about four months old. He didn’t want anything to do with it. He cried. He screamed. He flung himself dramatically backwards. We kept trying sporadically every now and then to see if he was ready to go yet, but we always had the same reaction. When he was five months old, we stopped trying and decided to take a break until he was a little older.
Our pediatrician actually suggested we wait until he was six months old, so we decided since Bean was still freaking out that another month of waiting wouldn’t hurt anybody. But when he turned six months old, nothing had changed. He still cried – but louder. He still screamed – but louder. He still flung himself dramatically – but now with shrill shrieks as if we were forcing him to eat glass. It was awful. But we decided not to back down this time.
We bought baby oatmeal instead of rice cereal to see if that was any better. We saw slightly less drama with the oatmeal, but it still wasn’t going down easy. But we pressed on. I packed his lunch bag every day for daycare with a fruit, a veggie, and his box of cereal. Once a week we would introduce a new food, crossing our fingers that maybe this was the one that would turn Bean’s attitude about food. And yet week after week, fruit after fruit, veggie after veggie, Bean screamed on.
We’ve tried mixing the food together and serving it separate. We’ve tried mixing it with oatmeal and then with rice cereal. We’ve tried using a spoon, using our fingers, using BEAN’S fingers (that was a messy couple of days) and even putting it in a bottle. The closest we came to success was a few days where I figured out that if we put food on his binky and then put his binky in his mouth, he would suck it down. That lasted about two days and even daycare had luck with this method. But after those two days of telling myself that maybe we were finally past this, Bean changed his mind. He wanted his binky food-free. So, we were back to square one again.
I had read that babies sometimes need to see you eating in order to understand how to do it, so I started eating all my meals in front of Bean, making it into a big production.
“Yuuummmm, Beanie! Look at these mashed potatoes! So yummmmy!!!”
But he just stared at me like I was an idiot.
But this past weekend when we were standing in line for the Pioneer Woman book signing, I was holding Bean in one arm and eating a cheese biscuit with my other hand. All of a sudden, Bean reached out and started grabbing at my biscuit. When I pulled it away from him and took a bite myself, he just stared at me and started moving his mouth like he was chewing while he watched me eat.
He was clearly interested in my food.
I broke off a little piece of the biscuit and let him have a bite. He took it like he knew just what he was doing. He even made a chewing motion with his little mouth. “HOW GREAT!” I thought. So, when we got home I pulled out all the baby food that Bean is able to eat and started trying them all over again with him, thinking that maybe this time something had changed. But the minute that baby food hit his lips, Bean started crying again.
So, I know he’s interested in food and he’s ready to try some, but it seems that he just isn’t into the baby food. Now, it looks like I’m going to have to start making the homemade stuff. Boiled, mushed up carrots and apples. Pureed green beans and mashed potatoes. Sweet potatoes and bananas. I’ve always been curious about making my own baby food, but I’m a little frustrated with the idea right now. As a working mom, there just isn’t a lot of time for me to make all of Bean’s baby food. But if its real food that he wants, I guess its gonna have to be real food that he gets.
What about you? Do you make your own baby food? Why or why not? And if you don’t mind sharing, do you have any favorite preparation methods that your baby loves? Help a motha’ out!
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42 Comments
Keiko Kasai
A friend of mine had told me (after Serena was done with baby food of course) that he used to mix everything in the blender. Quick and easy. He even mixed whatever was served for dinner in the blender when his sons were ready for stage 3 foods. He said he never bought baby food. Wish I had known that trick! I used to mash, and puree, and all the other good things that come with making your own baby food. It sucked. Time consuming… messy… having to clean up the mess… just not fun. And my mom even bought me the little kit that has all the necessary tools. We ended up doing both baby food and mashing some of the things that were easy.. but I definitely prefer giving home made food over processed food so for child number 2 that is what I’ll be doing 🙂 Good luck!
Meghan
Sera NEVER ate baby food, she wanted to feed herself. The only thing she ever let me feed her was yogurt (at 9 months). I never pureed any baby food – I just cut stuff up small and made it mushy. Messy? yes, but it worked. Let him see you cut it up on your plate and then give it to him – so he knows it’s the same stuff. You can drain canned soup – perfect baby sized bites and right amount of mushy; noodles or potatoes might need to be halved. You might try a mesh feeder, but get the one that has replaceable mesh bags, cause they get yucky kinda fast. Gerber “puffs”, although they have little nutritional value, are a great tool to teach self feeding. They basically melt in baby’s mouth. I could go on, but I’m sure other mamas will have lots of advice for you!
Abigail
We had the EXACT same problem with our little girl (also now 6 months) She would make chewing motions while watching us eat and try to swipe food from our plates but emphatically refuse baby food puree. I started giving her bits of bread, and she loved that. So now, she pretty much eats whatever we are eating and she is one HAPPY camper. She LOVES the little desolving cereal things that they sell, you know in the tall canister things. She can even feed herself those. I’ll be putting a video on my blog of that in a bit. Otherwise as I said, I give her the exact same thing we’re having just cut up real small, and minus seasonings. She hated sweet potato baby food, but loves cooked sweet potato chopped up. Any soft cooked or very ripe thing I just cut up really small and she’ll eat it, and loves it. If I give her something new I let her try a piece off of my finger first and then she’ll feed herself whatever it is. Things she has eaten so far: tortillas, refried beans, mango, sweet potato, peas, carrots, green beans, zucchini bread, fruity cheerios (swiped some from her big sister), any kind of bread, banana, mashed potatoes, and daddy gave her a gummy worm once. . .he was letting her suck on it and she bit the head off of it. Had me freaking out that she’d choke (not to mention. . .A GUMMY WORM?!)
Christina
Our baby girl is nearly 10 mos old and wants NOTHING to do with baby food. She only has her 2 bottom teeth but will eat just about any ADULT food and loves it! I have tried making baby food but my thoughts are that Bean won’t eat that either as he doesn’t seem to like the mush/puree texture (at least that’s my guess). Try really soft diced fruits/veggies (I buy them in those little vacuum packed cups – and dice them even smaller. Good luck!!
Lindsey
I am a nanny and I make all of the baby food for the 8 month old little boy I take care of. I use a couple of really good cookbooks, put the food into what looks like individual ice cube containers, freeze them, then pull them out as needed. I just puree it in a food processor, don’t by the contraption that is made for just baby food, waste of money. The food processor and blender do the exact same thing for was less money. I don’t know what time of day you try the food with Bean, but I have often found that the mornings are easiest with new foods. They seem to be most happy after a full nights sleep and are a little more willing to try it…good luck!!! Below are a few links, one for the storage system I use and 2 books that I get all of the recipes from.
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Storage-Contains-Phthalates-Bisphenol/dp/B001B5DTO2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1260853856&sr=8-2
http://www.amazon.com/Top-100-Baby-Purees-Healthy/dp/0743289579/ref=pd_sim_ba_2
http://www.amazon.com/Blender-Baby-Food-Recipes-Homemade/dp/0778801187/ref=pd_sim_b_5
Stephanie
I made all my son’s baby food, and he is a fantastic eater now at the age of 2. I work full time also, and it can be hard to squeeze it all in, but I really think it was worth it. What worked best for me was making about a weeks worth of food and storing it in the freezer. Sweet potatoes were easiest, because you can just pop those in the oven for an hour then swirl them around in the food processor for a bit. Other veggies, like carrots, green beans and peas I would just let steam for a bit while I was off doing other things. And again with the food processor. I did get these great, over priced containers from One Step Ahead, but I’m sure just the smallest plastic ziploc or rubbermaid containers would work.
One thing we did that I’m sure helped was adding a little milk/formula to the food so that it had a familiar taste, something he was already a big fan of.
Good luck, getting our babies to eat is a stress that we have to deal with for many years to come so don’t stress too much, he’ll get it.
Jessica W
My friend did the same thing but frozen them in ice cube trays.
oregonjudy
It’s been many years for me, but invest in a small baby food grinder, Just put whatever you’re having for supper in it and give it a few turns. Add some formula if it’s too thick. Guarantee he’ll eat it.
Sathya
I’ve been looking everywhere for this article and of course can’t find it. It was basically about a little boy who didn’t want mushed up food, all he wanted was finger food and although everyone told his mother it was the wrong thing to do and that he would choke she didn’t know what else to do and gave him finger food and he loved it and gobbled it all up and never choked. She originally par boiled carrot sticks and cucumber sticks and stuff to help him.
Anyway, thats not really what happened to me but I must admit it has been a power struggle. My 9 month old boy, Austen, hated rice cereal and all those things, only liked boiled and pureed pears and then went to sweet potato, pumpkin, potato, zuchini etc. Nowadays I fry off a little meat, add some carrots, potato apple and whatever else I have around (spinach or whatever) and mush it up. The funny thing is he doesn’t like it if I give it to him like that. As soon as I add a dollop of tomato paste or ketchup he wolfs it down. Odd huh?
I think the key is to take it as it comes. Give him a bit of your cracker or toast or apple of whatever and see what he likes and build from there. Just make sure your present when hes eating in case he needs a pat on the back when hes coughing etc.
Good luck!
Jenn
If you google “baby led weaning” you’ll come accross a whole phenomenon which involves skipping the puree’d foods and just giving the baby some of your foods (low allergy ones of course) like toast, pieces of steamed veges, pieces of fruit etc and they pick it up and feed it to themselves. Sounds like Beanie might like that?
We are doing it with Daisy, (who is the same age as Bean) and she loves feeding herself. Hates being spoonfed – always has done. She doesnt actually swallow a heck of a lot just yet, but until 1yr old their main nutrition is supposed to be from milk (either formula or booby) anyway so I figure it doesnt really matter.
Ella
When i first started my son on solids he preferred the bought baby food but after a while i started to make my own and still do. I usually make a weeks worth at a time and freeze it. Potato doesnt freeze well and tends to go watery but most other vegies freeze well. I make a mix of sweet potato, carrot, baby spinich etc. I sometimes add some rice as well. I used to puree it but now mash it up. My son also loved the baby yoplait yogurt – not sure if you can buy it in america like in australia. Its all trial and error as to what your baby likes but if you can manage it i think homemade is the way to go as you know whats in it. Best of luck & have plenty of wipes handy when he starts to feed himself!
JT
You’re actually having the opposite problem we are! Our son (9 months) is thrilled about pureed foods – eats them all, every different kind we’ve given him – but refuses to move on to chunky foods! We’ve tried everything – small bits of potato, banana, etc. – and he chokes. It’s awful. The weird thing is, he’ll eat cheerios – but nothing with a “mashy” consistency. The doctor said not to be worried – he’ll turn to the food when he’s ready. But I understand the frustration of trying the same thing over and over again! Hopefully you’ll have luck when you move to making your own food! 🙂
Amanda
I make my own baby food. I steamed and baked food to start out with. Here is my time saving advice:
When you sit down for dinner, put a pot of water on the stove with a steamer basket in it. Fill it with Peas, green beans, carrots, apples, or pears…whatever you want. Put the timer on for 15-20 minutes, turn the burner on high-ish, and let it do it’s thing while you go eat. When it’s done, set the steamed food aside, put another food in the basket and set the timer for about 5 minutes less time (the time it takes to bring the water to a boil). Do this until you run out of time. After dinner, enlist Chris to play with Beanie while you use your blender! I found that you need to put enough water in the blender to cover about half of the food. Freeze the purees in cheap ice cube trays, then transfer to baggies.
I also bake sweet potatoes like this…put the oven on 400 when you come home, when it’s done, pop in the sweet potato (no need to wrap it or season it) and set the timer for 1 hour. After an hour, take it out and go on with your evening activities. After Beanie goes to bed, peel, chop and mash/puree the cooled potato. Freeze in ice cube trays and then transfer to baggies (usually my food sat in an ice cube tray overnight)
This is the BEST resource for homemade baby food: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
GOOD LUCK!!! (My son eats anything I put on his plate now…maybe because I fed him real food? I don’t know)
Cait
I make all of my son’s food, mostly because it is SO much cheaper. I am a working mom too, but I knew I wanted to feed him organic food. With four apples, five bananas, a squash, and a can of pumpkin, I was able to make him 96 servings of baby food in an hour.
I got a few books out of the library. My favorite so far is The Baby Food Bible. Really simple recipes and good ideas. I also use the So Easy baby food trays (thicker ice cube style trays with lids). You can use ice cube trays, but mine were pretty flimsy, so they didn’t work well. Plus I liked that the other trays were BPA free and covered.
I tend to make big batches all at once, but you could just make him an unsalted/buttered/sugared/etc portion of what you’re eating.
We just got a great new blender and sometimes I will literally make it fresh and give it right to him. Mostly I freeze it and send a big baggie to daycare with a week or two worth of food.
I laughed at my mother when she suggested I make it myself. She made my food, but she also stayed home with me. She kept telling me how easy it was and I didn’t believe her. It really is super easy and worth it.
Don’t be afraid to microwave things or use steamer bags to quicken the process. Take whatever short cuts you can.
Good luck!
Nate's Mom
My cousin totally bypassed the baby jar foods and went straight to table food at 6 months. They give their little girl tiny bits of plain pasta, dinner veggies mashed up with a fork, and other things like that. No pureeing, freezing. Just convenience. Have you tried the mesh bags? We stuck some ripe cantaloupe in there and Nate loves being able to feed himself. (It’s mostly sucking on the juice, but still…) He’s also getting a kick out of re-arranging cheerios on his tray. He’ll suck on a cheerio for five minutes at a time…maybe it makes him think he’s a big boy!
My pediatrician keeps telling us that eating now is to build habits, and isn’t for nutritional purposes. Bean gets all he needs from his bottle and when he’s ready, he’s ready. And heck – there’s nothing wrong with only eating biscuits!!! It’s the only thing I could get consistently get down while pregnant with Nate!
I got a pamphlet from my pediatrician that says that babies should not be fed home-prepared beets, turnips, carrots, spinach or collard greens during their first year of life. (I’m stealing language from the brochure now….) In some parts of the country, these vegetables have large amounts of nitrates, chemicals that can cause an unusual type of anemia in young babies. Baby food companies are aware of this problem and screen the produce they buy for nitrates.
Sarah
crock pot it. you can buy fresh or frozen, make it in the crock pot and freeze it in ice cube trays
Lori @ I Can Grow People
I can offer little advice since my son will eat anything you put in front of him at the moment, however it is cool to read all of the advice that you are getting! Good luck!
rachael hardin
Do you all eat dinner together? When mine were little we all ate dinner together and I used a baby food blender and mashed up whatever veggie we had for dinner that night. It really helped i think because the baby saw everyone else around them eatting. and that they had the same food.
Mindee@ourfrontdoor
Just take what you’re eating and smash it. Baked potato, veggies, whatever. Mine didn’t like baby food either. The whole process of picking stuff up and putting into their mouths all by themselves was too much fun. One book I liked though was. Feed Me I Am Yours by Vicky Lansky.
Don’t stress. He’ll get it.
Jen
Like several other moms here, I also skipped the pur©e stuff. Ellie, who’s 9 months now, absolutely hates the pur©e stuff and would press her lips together and hit the spoon so food gets all over the place. BUT if I put a bowl of whatever I’m eating (cut up and semi mashed) in front of her, she can’t even wait for the spoon and just digs in. Now when I cook, I would portion out a bowl for her before adding seasoning so that she can eat what we eat without all the salt, sugar and other stuff that might be bad for her. It’s also a time saver for me since I don’t have to spend extra time preparing her meal. I just need to make sure her food is a bit smaller so she doesn’t choke on it.
You might want to try and see if that’ll work with Beanie too.
I think someone recommended the book “baby led weaning”… I second that idea since that’s what I read before figuring out what worked for us.
Jordan Holmes
My son Jaggar who is just turning 8 months HATED FOOD!! We did what was recommended and started with the rice cereal at 4 months that was a NO-GO! Got the oatmeal, did a little bit better. Then we stopped all together because he just was not having it, then at 6 months we started again, and it was a little bit better and slowly introduced baby food, (homemade). Our daycare will not allow us to bring homemade food so I have to buy the store bought stuff and he won €™t eat it. He prefers the homemade food, or at least he seems too.
Making homemade baby food is a lot easier than you would think. I would suggest the book Blender Baby. I buy my fruits and veggies at the local farmers market or Sprouts, and make a months worth of food, put it into mason jars and place in the deep freeze and pull out what I want for the week.
Best of luck to you.
Emily
wow, I am the perfect person to answer this..no offense anyone else.! But my little girl who is now 15 months, wanted NOTHING and I mean NOThing to do with baby food. We didn’t try it as early as you but we started at 6 months and EVERYTIME she would scream like bean or just spit it out. Soo what we ended up doing was using finger foods especially those ones that dissolve in their mouths so no choking! She just wasn’t ready and never did eat “baby” food I tried making it and store bought nothing. She wanted to feed herself and hold it. So good luck email if you need more ideas, happy to help! Just know we’ve been there! Good Luck!
Alex
I’m so glad you asked these questions & are getting so many good responses! I’ve been considering making my own baby food (and have quite a while to still consider it before my baby will even be old enough to eat it), but it’s good to hear everyone’s experiences.
Donna
My daughter didn’t like the cereal either. Bur she would get the fruits and veggies, and would eat the cereal when it has a lot of fruit added. Now she eats, Quaker flavored oatmeal. You might try it for the Bean.
Whenever we wanted her to eat with us for dinner we usually just mashed up the veggies that we were eating.
Good luck!
Marlene
It never made sense to me to have a baby learn to eat baby food THEN have to learn to eat people food. And have you TASTED the babyfood? The only thing really worth eating in the first stage of babyfood is the fruit. So I just ground up what we were eating and fed it to the baby of the day. (HINT, don’t add salt etc to meats or potatoes or veggies when cooking – they don’t need that. You can season after you portion out Bean’s share.) After they started eating that OK, I would slip in a jar of babyfood just so they would get a taste of it – that way if you are out and about and it’s food time, you can give the baby a jar of food and eat the greasy burger guilt free! I also would grind up left overs and freeze in ice cube trays and have in zip bag ready to go. Then you have ‘to go’ lunches for day care! Make your life simple and enjoy!
andrea
i actually had a problem getting AJ to take formula and had to start mixing it with his cereal to get him used to the taste.
i’ve known a lot of people that swear by the mesh feeder things, i never tried them so i cant tell you first hand though. they have a handle and a little mesh bag that you stick food in so they can chew away and you don’t have to worry about them swallowing big chunks. migt be worth a shot, he can puree his own baby food that way!
Amanda
Ooo, the mesh teether thing is great! That was one of the first things I used. It’s messy, but they’re great for their sore gums.
Stephanie
People have already said it, but babies can actually just have solid food. Jasper’s been eating rice off and on for a while, and has had biscuits, beans, and a few others. We still mostly do the jarred baby foods, or make our own with a magic bullet blender thing.
Jenn
I don’t have any kids myself, but a family I nannied for had me make homemade baby food for thier son (must be nice, right???). Anyway, I just steamed the veggies, processed them in the food processor, and then filled ice cube trays with the food. Once the “food cubes” were frozen, I put them in labeled ziploc bags with the date and food type. When it was time to eat them, I simply thawed them in the microwave. This even worked for chicken once the child started eating meat. It was actually quite simple and not very time consuming. Good luck!!
Sarah C. H.
I’m glad you’ve had a little break through. I’m sure (especially with all this great advice from everyone) that he’ll be eating like a champ in no time.
Danielle Melnyczenko
I’ve left a comment about this already (on another post) and some of the ladies have already touched on the topic of Baby Led Weaning. You have to read this book…
http://www.baby-led.com/
Michelle
hi, i make the boys’ baby food and they really like it. it tastes good to me so it must to them. i have a
“baby cook” that steams and purees. but it’s no different from steaming the fruit or veggies then put it in the food processor, blender or immerson blender. it’s really not that big of a deal. i don’t make a lot at time so they can have fresh food every day. i usually make enough for two days. i love how fresh and bright the food is. i work full time and the boys will be 7 months on sunday. they are just a couple of weeks older than beanie. i just figure that it’s sort of my job now to prepare their meals and it really doesn’t take long.
Miss M!
I made all mine – a stick blender and the frozen food aisle are your friends! Frozen veggies are usually more nutritious than the fresh ones at your supermarket anyway. Just dump them in a bowl, microwave for a couple of minutes, then puree in the same bowl with a stick blender. You can freeze the individual portions in ice cube trays, but those silicone brownie molds that Wilton has make it easier to get them out. You can make your own baby food in under 5 minutes! 🙂
carla
I had the same problem with my daughter who is 10 months old now. she hated baby food, and it was really frustrating. i tried both homemade and store bought – no luck. However, she loved fresh bananas i’d mash up myself. when she was about 8 months old i tried finger foods…peas and carrots with butter on them, whole wheat pasta cut up, diced fruit, etc. she ate it all up! i think once babies can sit up on their own, finger foods are ok. try puffs or cheerios first and see how he does with those. We’ve come to the conclusion that our daughter is just an independent lady who wants to feed herself!
Nate's Mom
Ok – in the food advice frenzy, I didn’t notice that Beanie’s drinking out of a big boy cup! Holla for Beanie! 🙂
Liz, JM, and Leo
I made lots of baby food… and we did try rice cereal but then just switched to making our own baby cereal from raw grains because I read all this stuff about the processed baby cereals basically being bereft of nutrition (I am not quite as obsessed this time around, but I’ll still make homemade stuff because really it’s just not that hard). I just made in bulk and froze in cubes. It’s really easy – steam it, blend it, store it. End of story. 😉 And for us, the imported canned stuff was way too expensive here in China and I wasn’t about to feed Leo canned Chinese baby food.
A website that helped us: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com (don’t know if someone above has already given you that link)… it helped answer a lot of my questions.
Leo really liked his baby cereal/veggies/meats/fruits pureed or mashed. He was sloooowwww to take to solids, and I mean sloowwwwwwwwwww. I love the idea of baby-led weaning, and I think I’ll be trying that with this little girl – but Leo seemed to need to transition from breastmilk, to purees, to cereals, to fingerfoods, to solid meals. So we’ll see what she’s like and take it from there.
I truly would try not to stress about Beanie’s lack of eating – I do think every baby is dif’t and he’s obviously growing beautifully. Just keep offering food to him and try to detach yourself from the end result. I still have to do this with Leo, who sometimes thinks dinner equals a glass of milk plus one bite of a meal I just slaved over. I repeat to myself: I am responsible for offering healthy meals, he is responsible for eating. I can not force him to eat. Breathe in breathe out :).
It’s just so darn satisfying as mothers to see our children stuff themselves silly with what we’ve made for them. NOW we know where our mothers are coming from!
Keri
Katie — We are making our own food, too, and it’s not too bad. It’s actually cheaper to buy organic veggies and make it yourself then it is to buy organic baby food (or not organic, you’re call). Anyway, my husband likes to cook, so this is helpful for us. And we just make a bunch of things in advance on a Sunday and then freeze it in ice cube trays (transferring the cubes to tupperware once they’ve frozen). It’s not too bad just to steam and then put them in the food processor with the water from the steamer. When I’m gathering her bottles for the next morning, I pull out a cube or two and let it thaw in the fridge before sending to daycare with her stash for the day. So far, we’ve mastered avocado, banana, squash and sweet potatoes.
I have the book “Super Baby Food” as recommended to me by my pediatrician. I don’t follow the whole thing (ie I don’t make my own cereal or yogurt), but there are helpful tips.
Keep us posted and good luck!
Keri
PS I agree with an earlier comment! Way to go, Beanie, with the sippy cup. Now THAT is something we can’t seem to master with our 6.5 mo old!
Vicki
Good thing for you that he is bottle fed Katie. It would be ok for an 18yr old to whip out his bottle but if he was breast fed…… I guess thats a reality show.
Jennifer
I make my sons food, and have for about 3 months. Its SUPER EASY!!! I usually do it on the weekend. The key is to freeze it in little ice cube trays. I found some at our grocery store that were the “stick” ice cubes for water bottles. This website is great… http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/FreezePage.htm
For apples, I cut the apple in half (leave skin and core it) and place it skin side up in a baking pan with water in the oven at 350 ° for about 45 minutes. I scoop out the good stuff and fill the ice cube trays. Once the apples are frozen I take them out and put them in a ziplock bag and start another food, like butternut squash (I add some cinnimon to mine). My son screamed and cried when we frist started, but now it seems that I can’t feed him fast enough!
Good Luck!!! I know some babies skip the baby food adn go straight for the goos stuff 😉
Michelle, Mom of Henry (7m)
Okay- we are like livin’ the same life (I swear sometimes!)- Henry (7 months) was in the same boat. HATED rice, oatmeal and all things baby. So at 6 months, our ped said that all food was game (except really spicy stuff and honey and straight cows milk). (((This worked for us with Henry but by no means is this law- do what you are comfortable with!))) The ped said that if Henry was going to get a food allergy, that it was going to come regardless of how we introduced it. So, we started feeding him our food- just in smaller versions. For instance, Spaghetti is his favorite. I make the meat really small, mashing it with a fork and mashing the noodles. I give him little bites and he eats quite a bit. The doctor said the secret is the make the food smaller than the baby’s nostril because that’s how big the baby’s esophagus is (if he were to get food lodged in it). So now, Henry is an eating pro. I try baby food when we are out and about- but he’ll have nothing to do with it. Here are a couple of ideas: sliced avocado (Henry’s favorite and so healthy for the baby), rice (real, cooked rice- Henry is now mashing it with his gums and swallowing, no issues), meat like chicken and fish cut into super small pieces, ground lean beef in super small pieces (Henry €™s favorite and it has lots of iron which is good for baby), and veggie cut into small pieces. At first I started to mash everything with a baby grinder but that got real old, real fast. And I swear Henry likes the pieces. Try feeding him with your hands (vs. a spoon) at first. Then get him used to the spoon. Try soup broth too- has lots of flavor. Hope this helps!
Janet
Unless you or someone in your family are predisposed to food allergies, I say feed him what you eat, within reason, of course, obviously you wouldn’t give him tacos! This is pretty old school, but it works. Have you actually tasted baby food? Ugh. Just my suggestion…it didn’t harm myself or my two brothers, or my three kids! Here’s a link to amazon, of course (hope it works): http://www.amazon.com/Kidco-Food-Mill-Carrying-Case/dp/B0012XGNKK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1261335839&sr=8-4