Baby Food Options

As far as the meat option, try the gerber stage 2's that already have the meat mixed in. My sons favorite was the apples and chicken. They have a variety. I mixed the cereal right into his fruits and veggies to make it a little thicker to help with his reflux. I did not add any water or formula to it. As far as real food, I would wait and see how he does with soft foods like bananas and other things along those lines. Teeth do not matter. My first son did not have teeth until he was 13 months old and he ate everything like a champ.

HappyBaby has a line of baby food that is different from what you normally buy. They have pouches that have a gain in it that is protein along with fruits and veggies mixed together. They also have frozen foods like salmon or black beans. I do not give them to my son all the time but for a treat they are nice. Yes you can mix oatmeal with the fruit as this is what my son eats every morning for breakfast.

I don't reply very often but had to respond to this one. First of all there is protein in all plant based food. Don't think that just because you haven't fed your little guy meat doesn't mean that he isn't getting excellent protein with his food. Second, Gerber isn't the only way to help your little man get his nutrition. If he is willing to grab at things and pick them up, then he is ready to start feeding himself. My girls NEVER went for the canned baby foods and instead went straight to table food cut up small. Assuming he can pinch and pick up a cheerio with his index finger and thumb, he is ready for this. Our girls would turn their head away from canned baby food but would dig right in for home cooked real food.

Whatever way your little guy enjoys his gerber cereal is fine.

Things my girls loved were sweet potato or regular potato cooked well and cubed. Still in chunks, but easy for the little ones to mash with their gums. Broccoli, cauliflower, pasta especially little penne. I cook it past al dente and they love to pick it up and eat it. Cooked or just chunked up tomato, (without the skin), avacado, kiwi, beans, edamame, peas and so on.

Finish off the jarred baby food you have and let him start enjoying the wider world of foods. I would wait for meat indefinately, (his diet would be healthier without animal protein; see the work of Neal Barnard and Colin Campbell), but everything else your family eats can be added slowly as you determine that he likes it and he doesn't have a reaction. Regular oatmeal at his age should be fine too. And of course cheerios!

Good questions!

Even though they don't have a lot of teeth, you can do small cubes of chicken. Weird, but my sons loved it even before they had "real" teeth! I would also give them the natural lunchmeats, and they really ate those up.

Baby cereal: Our sons were very picky with their cereals. They would not eat rice cereal unless it was mixed with applesauce, pear sauce, or we added cinnamon to it. Yes, experiment and see what he will like. We also added a few drops of vanilla to it every now and again, and they really liked that!

We would also give our little ones well-cooked pasta shapes mixed with pureed vegetables (like a veggie spaghetti sauce), either by itself or mixed with real spaghetti sauce. For example, we would cook and puree carrots and peas and mix it with the pasta. Or we would cook and puree carrots and peas, mix it with a bit of spaghetti sauce, and then mix it with the pasta. The kids really loved it. With my youngest, it was quite a mess, but it was worth it! And yes, he certainly can have regular mashed potatoes.

At this stage, almost whatever you eat, he can eat. Some of my sons' favorites were cream cheese toast, hash browns, cut-up fruits and vegetables (my youngest still is in love with broccoli!), pasta with sauce (or just butter), cheese cubes, hummus on crackers or bread, and adult cereal (my youngest really loved bran flakes... go figure!).

Have fun with the experimenting!

Can I ask why you are concerned with giving him protein already? If you are breastfeeding he is getting the most perfect protein that exists. If you are doing formula, I am sure that he is also getting what he needs. Right now it's just about learning and trying new things. We only used baby food 4 times, other than that, our daughter ate what we ate as long as it was plain and could be smashed smooth. There are the food grinders that you could run personal protein through. I bought one and never used mine. I just waited on the protein until she had enough teeth. Go with your gut in raising your child and you'll be happier.

I have to be honest with you, I never gave my little guy plain baby cereal. I always mixed it with either yogurt or fruit, no water at all. He gobbled it up just fine!

And I found so much stuff on http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/. I third this recommendation! They also have a toddler website for when your kid is older. Remember to have fun with it!

Cooked up ground beef and deli sliced lunch meat crumbled up on his tray are a couple good ones. You can also go get a baby food grinder and put chicken bits in it and grind it up.The trick is if you can eat it by mushing it with your tongue on the roof of your mouth it works.
Those jar baby food meats are the nastiest thing on earth as far as I am concerned. I bought exactly one jar for my oldest son when he was first eating food and the smell alone made me gag so bad when I tried to feed it to him, he wouldn't eat it, then I tried tasting it and OMG! How can they keep making that stuff and expecting babies to eat it!

This is a wonderful site with all sorts of food ideas: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

You can feed your month old pasta and regular mashed potato. By 9 months old none of my kids liked baby food from a jar most of the time and was eating what we ate, albiet often cut up or ground up in a way so they could physically eat it.

I made the baby food for my children and they are excellent eaters today. For protein, I would try to make your own chicken baby food. Just bake some chicken then put it in a Magic Bullet with some liquid (breast milk, water) and blend it to your desired consistency. My kids loved it. One warning with making the chicken, however, is that it does not freeze well at all. If you make a large batch and plan to use some later, the chicken will thaw out kind of grainy/flaky (reminded me of tuna from a can).

As for other veggies, definitely make the mashed! Just bake a regular potato, scoop out the inside, put in a Magic Bullet with some liquid and voila! This can be done with most veggies. Squashes are super easy to bake. Just cut in half, put in a baking dish with about an inch of water, and bake for an hour or so. You can even use the baking liquid to puree, adding even more nutrients to the mix!

My son was more picky with veggies, but loved cantaloupe. My solution was to mix one frozen cube of cantaloupe in with his veggies. It worked like a charm. My son is now 4 years old and prefers veggies to any other food group.

Try boiling a chicken breast and cutting it in to small cubes. My girls use to love that. Believe it or not they gum it and break it down. I remember that a couple of times they would eat an entire chicken breast. Yes, we did pasta. When they were that little I would put a LITTLE butter (only REAL butter and only a little to keep them from being sticky) on the noodles. When they hit a year I gave it to them with sauce. They loved pasta sauce...both homemade & from a jar. Neither one of my girls liked any of the green veggies in the jars. They did eat the sweet potatoes & the carrots. They also loved corn. I would buy fresh corn in the summer and give them can corn in the winter. They loved corn and still do. Of course it comes out like it goes in. lol Those meat sticks in a jar......I wouldn't even buy them, they looked so gross. I too used cereal any time of the day. My girls loved it mixed with prunes believe it or not. I started out mixing applesauce with the cereal but when they had trouble pooping I switched to prunes and they loved it!!!!

I should add that by 9-10 months both of my girls were happier picking up food than having me feed them. They ate better and sat longer. Cereal by that age was one of the few things that they let me feed them. I was way past blending everything at that age, but my oldest walked (holding on) at 8 months. I guess reading these answers that was not the norm like I thought it was.

Gerber did not exist a few generations ago. I have never given my child mushy food or cereal . she got pieces of food from the start. as far as meat he is absolutely able to eat pieces. I would crock pot chicken thighs so they were nice and tender and give her those. by eating actual pieces of food he will most likely eat more things!

Hi,
My son is the same age and I too was stressing out over feeding him protien. He loves the YoBaby Yogurt and he really likes the Earth's Best brand of jar foods. Someone else mentioned the chicken and stars and I have to agree, he loves it and I think it smells fine. He has oatmeal every morning for breakfast. I mix it with formula and all kinds of fruits, he loves everything. I have even mixed it with pear juice and prune juice if he is a little constipated.
Good Luck!

I made my son's food and just recently (he's 16 months) he started eating meat. (Except for ground beef/ meatballs etc) So give him other proteins. The best thing I ever gave to my son was beans. I buy goya pink beans in the can....rinse all the gook off and they keep in a tupperware for a week. Anyway, perfect finger food, perfect protein and they are soft enough that your son should be able to just eat them. It sounds weird, but my son LOVES them still...and they travel so well...

I definitely agree that you need to check out www.wholesomebabyfood.com. I was just there yesterday, when I did a big batch of baby food.

My son is also 9mo and isn't a huge fan of veggies or the cereal. But, he eats both, because I mix things together like crazy! He never has the cereal on it's own, I always mix it in, usually oatmeal with fruit and rice with veggies. I've also found that mixing applesauce or sweet potato in with a lot of veggies makes him so much more willing to eat them. For example, yesterday was sweet potato, peas and rice. One of his favorites is carrot and/or squash with apples and sometimes sweet potato too. Lima beans are also pretty sweet and have gone over pretty well.

I completely agree with you about the baby food meats! I never gave them to my older daughter, but I have given them to both my cats and dogs when they've been sick :) For protein, with both kids, I started with plain tofu, usually the firm variety. My son liked it right away and my daughter still eats it when her little brother has it. Our other favorite protein is black beans. Same with the tofu, a big hit with both kids. Chick peas weren't as well liked, but as he gets older, you can give him hummus for protein. Premade and easy! We didn't start meats until my daughter was old enough to feed herself.

Good luck!

Try mashed potatoes, avocado, banannas, a thin smear of peant butter on bread and then cut it up into bite sized pieces. My kids went straight to table food because baby food is expensive and gross. It's fine to mix oatmeal with fruit, too.

At nine months old he has the whole world at his fingertips (or on his dinnertable so to speak). Go slow and whatever on earth he is able to eat, enjoy and get down, that is the food for him. Of course you are providing him with the varieties that mother nature intended, but go ahead and get adventurous. Mashed potatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, whatever is successfully squishable, go ahead and take it easy on him, he'll let you know how much he wants. If you blend some of your own foods he'll like those, too, especially since you will be his main cook for many years to come.
Bon Apetit~!

Agree with the other Mommies answers.
Also try avocado or bananas mashed. Ricotta cheese can be mixed in, or cottage cheese too. I stewed pears, and apples in large batches and use a food processor or what ever you have to puree it to the consistency. Also any berries can be stewed and can be added in for variety as required. Freeze them all in small quantities and take out of the freezer as needed. My baby ate spinach, beans or zucchini too - again just cook and blend with liquid (I used water) to get it to a good consistency. Meats I would just cook as needed, basically poached in water and then blended. I wouldn't freeze the meats either as the consistency when thawed isn't always great.
As for the cereal, I used it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I used the formula or breast milk to mix it, and blended in the fruits or veges. Basically I used it as a carb.
Good luck! They should just about eat anything you eat.

We're vegetarian in my house, so I give my daughter lots of beans, tofu, and quinoa. All are really high in protein, easy for a baby to eat, and she LOVES them.

My third child was not such a fan of cereal, but seemed to prefer it mixed with water and then have some fruit or veggies mixed in. He would not eat any of the jar green vegetables, except the "pouches" of Plum Organics (I would order them at diapers.com) blend of spinach, peas and pear. The good news is now that he is feeding himself, he will eat ANY vegetable I put in front of him. My kids all loved cheese, too, cut up in small pieces. You could feed him cottage cheese, or yogurt (mine all loved the YoBaby yogurt) as well. Mine all loved avocado as well.
I would make pureed zucchini, sometimes with mushrooms (I would steam them first and use their liquid to thin them) or sometimes with broccoli and pureed squash, and freeze it in ice cube trays. It is surprisingly easy.
I found Annabel Karmel's book "First Meals" to be helpful when starting to make baby food.

My daughter loved peas, green beans, corn and squash when it came to veggies. I don't see why you can't mix fruit with the oatmeal. I did from time to time and my daughter loved it. I had really good luck with the Beech-Nut and Earth Organics baby food meats. She loved the Turkey and Rice and Chicken and Stars. She also loved the Gerber pastas. Had my daughter not been allergic to milk, I would of given her regular mashed potatoes. There were times where I mixed the veggies in with the oatmeal as well.

Hi,

In terms of pre-prepared baby foods you can also get some great brands out there that have better recipes than the typical Earth's Best or Gerber jars.

Plum (I found these at Babies R Us) come in sachets and they also have a great red lentil veggie one which is high in protein and not meat per se.

Happy Baby (Whole Foods). Except their salmon flavor is yucky I think :).

Sprout Baby Food (Whole Foods.)

Best of luck!