Baby's First Food

Avocado. It is creamy, mild, and full of good fats for their growing brains. Next I chose banana. I never gave any cereals.

My daughter is only 2.5 months old right now but I thought all we could give her is rice cereal as a first food.

Start with rice cereal. Always wait 3 days before introducing a new food to see if there's any kind of allergic reaction. Later you can switch to oatmeal as it tastes better and is hardier to keep them full after breakfast.

Start with fruits first:
applesauce
pears
peaches come later
After trying most fruits and are fine, try canned fruit cocktail.You can blend it up and later they can pick them up with their fingers and chew the soft ones. Pears and pineapple with be firmer though.

Veggies:
instand potatoes (mixed w/formula)
sweet potatoes
beans
peas
squash
carrots come later
brocolli comes even later
Again, canned veggies are softer. Try canned mixed veggies that are soft and finger size. You can blend them up before they've learned to use their pincers.

As soon as they're able to pick things up stop spoon feeding. There will be no need unless you still want to give oatmeal for breakfast, but they'll soon be able to eat Multi Grain Cheerios on their own soon.

This is a good start for meal plans as baby starts eating normally (1 or 2 naps will be added inbetween like after lunch:

Breakfast-
oatmeal or Cheerios, followed by a bottle/cup of formula

Morning Snack-
crackers, Gerber veggie puffs/wheels, followed by juice/water mix

Lunch-
fruit, followed by formula

Afternoon Snack-
crackers, Gerber veggie puffs/wheels, followed by juice/water mix

Dinner-
veggies, followed by formula
(soft diced meat can slowly be introduced as chewing is mastered, but formula for the first year will give all the iron needed)

Then bath and bed with a book or story.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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Tripletmom04 was spot on (as was everyone else!) We started with cereal, then veggies (sweet potatos and squash...green peas were an acquired taste...), then fruit ...blueberries, apples...also try mushed avocado - the consistency and healthy fats are great!

I started with rice cereal when my son was 4 months old. His next food was carrots. I chose carrots because my mom told me to start him out with an orange vegetable. I made sure I followed the rule of only giving him one new food every 3 days to watch for allergies. My son is now a 2-year-old very healthy eater who loves his veggies and fruit so I must have done something right or just been lucky :)

Squash. It was a veggie and seemed the mildest in flavor.

Started with rice ceral, but had to switch to oatmeal becuase she was constipated. Then we went through the veggies, a new one every three days - peas, squash, carrots etc., then pear and apple etc. and last but not least - meats.

Millet is high in protein and iron; gluten free; easily digestible, and high in nutrition which makes this a perfect and highly recommended first cereal for babies and small children. If you use the whole grain, use a 1:2 ratio of grain:water. Cook on the stovetop for 35 minutes. If using millet flour, use 2Tbsp to 1/2 c of cool water and cook for 4 minutes. Barley is also good as it is one of the richest sources of soluble and insoluble fiber. 1:3 ration for whole grain, cooked for 40 minutes. Or, 2 Tbsp to 1/2 c cool water cooked 5 minutes. For fruits, pears and apples are good.Carrots and peas would be good first vegetables. A great book to help with this topic, which also explains how to prepare your own baby foods, gives a good menu for starting on foods, and other wonderful advice is Baby's First Foods: A mother's guide to whole grains and family nourishment by Theresa Powers. Here is her website: http://www.joyoushome.com/

We started with cereal (rice, oat, then barley), then all the veggies one at a time (give them a while to acquire a taste for them), then fruits, then meats. I did this with my first and I'm not sure if this is the reason or not but she LOVES all her fruits and veggies and is a really good eater for a 2 year old. So I'm doing the same now with daughter #2 and hoping to get the same result...**fingers crossed**.

Clear chicken broth was the first thing my daughter ever had except for breastmilk. We where out to eat and she looked interested, so I let her have a few drops.
After that carrot juice - same type of situation.
I didn't intentionally feed her solids until she was close to 6 months, but I let her have a taste of things here and there. When we did start actually feeding solids I think banana and carrot was the first thing she actually got more than a taste of.
We never did cereal, I tried but she didn't like it - and who would fault her, it tastes like cardboard.

And now before you all go bonkers and accuse me of putting her health at risk...we have no food allergy issues and I have done my research: worldwide there is no rhyme or reason to the order of introducing solids, it's a purely cultural preference - and most cultures don't have the issues with food sensitivites we have in the US - go figure!
Our approach worked well for us and my daughter now loves all kinds of foods that other kids won't even look at.
Good luck!

I did rice cereal when my son first starting eating. Once he ate that for a few weeks then we did applesauce. I mixed it with the rice cereal. I felt like it would not be so harsh on his body. For first veggies,we did sweet potatoes,then carrotts and tried other stuff from their. Good luck

After the cereals we started with the green veggies because they're the least tasty in my opinion. I did the green veggies, then the orange veggies, then fruit. I didn't want to start with the better tasting food and have them not eat the not so yummy stuff.

For my first child, grean beans because I expect that they probably taste the worst of all the baby foods. For my 2nd child, it was a fruit. She desperately hated rice cereal, so we tried a fruit first, mixing it with the cereal in the hopes she'd start to like rice cereal. It didn't work. :-)

After cereal, start with mild vegetables (carrots, squash, green beans, peas). Introduce only one food at a time for a few days (if she gets a bellyache or diarrhea, you will know which food it was). After she's tolerating and loving the mild veggies, you can add some of the fruits.

With my first two I did rice cereal but this time around I did sweet pots. I chose cereal beacuse the drs told me too, honestly, but this time we had sweet pots for dinner and I just let the LO have some and he loved it!

Butternut squash! They both loved it.

Actually, that isn't true, we did cereal first, but neither of my boys liked it at all.