First Solid Food

We tried oatmeal with some milk, but the boys never liked it. I think the first food they "ate" was smooshy banana's with bm.

In never gave either of my kids cereal, ever. I started with bananas and apples. Aside from iron, I didn't see the point of getting my kids used to eating processed foods first thing. It helped them poop better too.

Hi Jamie,
Not only do you not have to start your baby on rice cereal, you don't have to use it ever if you don't want to. Try oatmeal if you want to start with something similar to rice cereal, or just skip that all together and go right for fruits and veggies. Bananas, avocados and sweet potatoes were some of the first things we tried when our son was just starting solids and he loved them.
By six months your child is ready to digest foods other than breast milk, and since you are still nursing, your baby is getting everything she needs from you, so have fun with feeding her solids.

My son never liked rice cereal, so I started out with banana (mashed) it was the best.

You can mix it with water or formula if you decide to start with cereal and don't have enough breastmilk. Mine didn't like it with just water so if I handt been able to get milk one day I had a sample can of formula for a backup. It should be thin enough to run off the spoon when you first start, my doctor told me "like that cheap fancy ketchup". But you might find yours likes it thicker or thinner. My son liked it thicker pretty much right away. My son liked the rice cereal until he had other stuff, after that I just used it to thicken other foods. Oatmeal constipated my son but he liked it more. I don't think yogurt is appropriate for a first food. They need some time before they can digest that. I was told 8 or 9 mos for that. And you need to watch the sugar content of yo baby. It has a ton of sugar added, it is more like pudding.

Our son was also around 6-7 months old and exclusively breastfed when we began to introduce solid foods. We used banana, soft pear without the skin, and avocados (maybe some other soft fruits/veggies) cut into spears/ fry like shapes as our baby's first foods. We never used puree's or mashed foods with countless ingredients and preservatives, but rather let baby lead us in what he was ready to eat, called baby led weaning.

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/startingsolids/babyledwe...

http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/

add 1 tbsp of any mashed vegetable in it, start giving yogurt. for constipation add gerber apple and prune juice to her bottle of milk.
sometimes i add her rice or oat cereal to yogurt.

The reason for starting with rice cereal is the possibility of allergies.
If you decide to go with the cereal's just use the water for the cereal and breast milk for after.

Well, we used rice cereal, but my 1st didn't like it, so the pediatrician said it was OK to make it using prune juice instead of breastmilk. We also found that she prefered the barley cereal to either rice or oatmeal. My Dr. Sears book says banana is an OK first food, so we used a bit of that with my 2nd to help the cereal have a bit of flavor. We make everything thinner with breastmilk, so it is less constipating if it isn't as thick.

Also, that baloney about kids not liking vegetables if you start with fruits is just that: baloney. As I said, I started my 1st on prunes, which she loved. Yes, of course she loves sweets, what kid doesn't, but she actually loves vegetables quite a bit. The only veggie I can think of that she doesn't like is celery and that's because of the stringiness of it.

I've given my kids as babies Barley cereal only. Mix enough milk so its not too watery but not too thick. Never had a problem with them eating it! I did try rice cereal but my son hated it.

Go with oatmeal. When you mix it you don't want a paste. Just a creamy but not watery mix. I would go with sweet potatoes or carrots before green beans or avocado - they are a bit milder. Just do not start with fruits! Introduce all of the veggies first or you will never get the baby to take them. She will get the taste for the sweet stuff and reject the veggies. Good luck!

Hello.My son, who is 11 months old now was also exzclusively breastfed and here is what happened and what we did as a result. We always knew that we would make his food, but decided that cereal seemed like something we could do in just the organic box kind. However, when we introduced it as his first food, he did not poop for 9 days. So I read a couple of books (super baby food is my favorite) and decided to make our own - it worked wonders. We just buy brown rice or oatmeal at the store, grind it in the blender for 2 minutes and cook it in the powdered form. I bring 1 cup of water to a boil, put in about 2 spoonfuls, bring to a simmer, and cook (stirring every once in a while) for about 5 - 10 minutes. But before we did the cereal we made, we introduced avocado and he loved it. We just mashed it up and mixed in breast milk that I pumped - it does not require much. For the cereal, it also does not require much brest milk because otherwise it gets to soggy. Early on, however, we wanted to make sure it was soft enough in texture that he would not choke. And once he got used to the cereal, we added mashed bananas and hard boiled egg yolk on alternating days. Good luck with everything!

We tried oatmeal cereal but my son got a mild rash so we went with rice after waiting 3 weeks in between. Later he tolerated oatmeal with no problem. Maybe any first food will be a little hard to tolerate. He did get constipated after a few weeks of cereal and bananas but laying off the food and giving extra breastmilk and pear juice and peas can solve that problem. I used the Fresh Baby So Easy Baby Food Cookbook to make my own food at home (it's really pretty easy) and the book contains a chart for what they can have and when. You don't have to start with cereal but it's an easy thing since you can make it very liquid with the breastmilk and the taste isn't so foreign to the babies. Also breastmilk has a chemical in it that breaks down carbs so if you can't pump much extra just mix up the cereal and let it sit for a few minutes...you'll see it starting to break down.

Banana or avocado. Skip the cereal. Nasty stuff!

rice cereal is very easy to digest, that's why so many people begin with that. It did constipate my daughter terribly, but it didn't have that same effect on my son, so you never know...although there is a good chance! ;) I would recommend trying it on it's own first for a few days, just to make sure she doesn't have a reaction, and then mix a fruit with it. If you mix prunes it counteracts the constipating effects and makes it more normal/regular.

I would think you would only need 1-2 oz of breastmilk to make it a good consistency, but when you add fruit to the cereal, you can probably cut down on the amount of breastmilk you need. Also, if you're really low on breastmilk, just use water.

Any "stage one" food is fine. I always started with sweet potatoes. Carrots are a good one too... Rice cereal has added iron, so I like to add it into blended steamed apples or something as a supplemental thing. ( would not give yogurt as it is generally suggested to start with dairy a bit later.)

I used the organic oatmeal cereal with no problems at all. Just mix enough milk to make a smooth/ semi runny mixture. I only used one box and switched to regular oatmeal and my little one did just fine.

The only reason they tell you to start with rice is because no one on the planet is allergic to rice, so it's a more or less guaranteed safe first food. But you can certainly use whatever you feel like using, just remember to wait a couple of days before introducing anything else new, but you'd do that anyway.

We mix rice and oatmeal with formula (even though both of our daughters were breastfed, and continued to nurse for snack times). Formula is just a little bit less greasy, and mixes easier. By this age, it's safe to make the formula without boiling the water first.

And yes, it's going to take a couple of days for baby's intestines to get used to any "solids." Breastmilk digests really easily, but anything else is going to require work. Start out really, really watery.

All that being said, there aren't any hard and fast rules. Just do whatever your baby is telling you she's comfortable with.

You don't have to use rice cereal as a first food , you could go straight to puree fruit or veggies. If you do decide on rice cereal then fist off use about 1 or 2 tsp and add milk (breast or formula) until you have a smooth texture that is a little thicker than milk so it stays on the spoon better. I gave rice cereal on a few times until they were used to the texture of something other than milk & then I started adding some mushed banana or cooked/blended apples to it. After around 2 weeks I had stopped the cereal altogether and was just giving fruits & veggies. The yo baby yogurts are also a good first food , you can buy them with or without cereal added.

We gave all 3 of our kids sweet potatoes instead of cereal. Read this at Kellymom for good first food alternatives to cereal and why fortified cereals don't necessarily make the best first foods: http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/iron.html Our kids did well on sweet potatoes and squash, which are completely acceptable introductions in most major guides (What to Expect The First Year, Babycenter.com age by age guide to feeding baby and toddler, etc...).

My daughter hated any and all cereals or first foods, she was practically exclusively breastfed until her first birthday. We made sure her iron levels were good, that was the doctor's main concern in starting solids. She eventually ate those little Gerber star shaped cereal things that come in the tall canister, there were sweet pototoe, banana, and cherry flavor, and there were also Gerber "wagon wheels" that she could suck on/eat the got soft very easily. We tried so many things at first, she'd turn her head away anytime she even saw a spoon!! She's been very healthy, maybe it's not time for your daughter to move on yet, maybe you should talk to her doctor. K.

I used cereal in milk. When my twins started solids at 6 months, I started on oatmeal. Each week I would pick a different new pureed food to make sure there was no reaction. I made food and bought jarred food. For example, I would start with peas, then move to green beans, then butternut squash (homemade). I think I started fruit the 3rd or 4th week. Apples, pears, etc. Single purees went on for 2 months and then I moved to combos. I would mix oatmeal and cereal with the fruits and veggies.

If babies reject the food, they say to keep trying, it is the texture that they sometimes do not care for.

As far as the amount of cereal or oatmeal to mix, it depends on the consistency you want. For younger than 8 months, I think you should keep it loose, so use single grain. Then as they get better at handling chunkier foods, you and mix it to where it is thicker.

Here are some sites:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
http://www.homemade-baby-food-recipes.com/

Good luck.

you don't have to put breast milk in there. Also you can mix rice cereal with pear baby food or peach babyfood. cereal is pretty bland tasting so we mixed it with baby food. We didn't start with rice cereal, we started out with pear baby food and prunes at 4 months then added rice cereal to it around 6 months. Never mixed it with breast milk. Then rice cereal was too constipating so we switched to baby oatmeal later on. We've never went back to rice cereal.

edited to add. Sweet potatoes and carrots may be milder for some babies but my son could not eat them. It would give him a red rash around his anal area. But he loved green beans and squash. Always serve the same food for a few days to see if she has any reactions.