Fruits and Veggies at 5 Months Old

Wow! My kids are all practically young adults now so I never heard all this "veggies first" or allergy concern stuff when they were infants. But some of it makes sense. On the other hand, all my girls started on fruit mixed with their cereal and I never had a problem with any of them preferring fruit/sweets over other foods. The notion of veggies mixed with cereal is enough to make me toss my cookies. LOL!

It is my opinion that a meal of cereal (with or without anything mixed into it) in the evening helps babies to sleep contentedly through the night.

I am a 25 year old single mom to a six month old. I started giving her rice cereal at 4 months mixed in with her milk and then by itself. I then introduced something new once a week so that if she's allergic to something, I know which something she's allergic to. I went to oatmeal before introducing fruits or veggies. I knew I wanted to go through several veggies first so that she didn't get use to the sweet taste of fruit and decide she didn't want veggies, but each child is different. I started with Carrots (be careful this can stain clothing), then Greenbeans, Squash, Sweet Potatoes, and Peas. Then I gave her applesauce and just started her on Pears this week. I serve the veggies slightly warm, she tends to like them better that way.
This is a fun stage as you watch them discover new tastes. When I started feeding her I mixed in oatmeal to make the taste a little more familiar as well as thicker, since my daughter prefers it that way. But like I said earlier, each child is different. Hope it helps.

Hi A.,
It looks like you got a lot of advice. One thing that I did a little different for the "veggie" aspect was use avocados. I mixed them with bananas, which you can try after you've made sure he isn't allergic to bananas. Avocados are great for babies. Lots of vitamins, good fat and a great easy to digest texture.

Hi.. Glad you have a good eater so far!!! OK.... Most say start with veggies... Yellow ones to start.. but I did fruit sort of ahahaha Ok.. What ever you do.. Feed it for 1 week!!!! OK.. to test for allergies!!!!

I did like Pears first.... 1 weeks

squash for a week

Applesauce for a week

Sweetpotatos for a week

Peaches for a week

Carrots * WOW HE LOVED THEM!!! for a week

Bananas.. He did not like them at first... A bit strong!!!

Sooooooooo This was a hard week... WE ended up mixing in some pears cuz he did love them!!! with each bite... so he did get nanners in.... so that took a while....

Then on to green veggies... He hated peas... ehehehhe again that pear trick helped!!! hhahahahah

Also while starting the new foods Switch from rice cereal to oatmeal.. * Keep in mind... Rice cereal will reallly bind up little baby's tummy!!! IF you get a ton of solid poo's... Give baby some Pear juice!!!! that will help get it un blocked *Pear is much easer on tummy than apple juice!!!

Have fun.. and keep camera near by!!!

My daughter started eating cereal at about two weeks. So by five months she was completely ready for some flavor. We started with mixing a small amount of fruit into her cereal. Then, the next time we would give her a little more. That way we didn't overload her with taste. We did the same with veggies at dinner. I know they tell you to only do one at a time, but why? I certainly don't eat that way, do you? So, we would have an open jar of fruit and an open jar of veggies and just add them to the cereal. Then each jar lasted about two days.
It's just a suggestion, do whatever works best for your baby!

A.

Start with a veggie first, sweet potatos or peas. Don't feed from the jar. Feed only one vegetable this week and start an additional one next Wednesday. Go through the vegies first then add fruits.

I was always told to start with the yellow and orange fruits and veggies then the green ones. I also added it into their cereal. S.

i was advised to start vegetables first so they would not favor sweets as much. but i started with applesauce and had to work with it for her to get use to it. i would give it to her along with her cereal. sometimes even mixed it. i also only gave her cereal 2 maybe 3 times a day since they still get most of their nutrients from their milk, which i mixed with the cereal. the rest of the day she had a bottle or a fruit or vegetable to snack on. my daughter loved sweet potatoes, carrots and peas. she's sick of applesauce by now and won't eat bananas because i gave it to her too much. lol. hopefully this helps. good luck and remember he has to get use to it so it may take a couple of tries

Hi A.,
As you can tell from all of your responses so far, there are LOTS of ways that people do this, and I've never heard anyone say they think they did it the wrong way. :) So, my advice to you would be not to worry about it. Do whatever seems right or easiest for you. I don't think you can mess it up as long as you have the goal in mind of getting your son to eventually eat a well-rounded diet. Good luck & have fun with the new foods!
M.

For the fruits u can mix them in with the cereal and as for the veggies just try one and then wait a few days to make sure your lil one isn't allergic to it and then try another one. Start out with veggies first because if you introduce the fruits first they tend to get used to the sweet taste and won't eat veggies well.

With my daughter, who is now 3, her ped suggested starting her with yellow fruits and veggies, then the green ones. So, I started her with squash, then did bananas, then sweet potatoes, pears, etc. After I made it through those, I started with green peas, prunes, green beans, etc. I did each food for about 4 days, then tried the next one. In the beginning, I did cereal twice a day, and the fruit or veggie once a day. I didn't start meat until she was about 8 mos. I'm following the same pattern with my son. Hope this helps!

When I started my son out I did some fruit with his cereal in the morning and evening. Then when he got to where he needed more I would just do cereal mixed with fruit in the morning then a little fruit and veggies at lunch and fruit and veggies at dinner. Sometimes at dinner I would mix in some cereal with his fruit to help hold him over until morning. I think it just depends on how often your son is wanting to eat as to how much I would feed him. I would start with the fruit mixed with cereal though.

Fruits first then vegatables. I started with Stage 1 bannanas and Stage 1 Apple Sauce.

Hi A. M,

I would like to point you to a book that has been incredibly helpful for my husband and I. It is called Baby Blender Food. It not only tells you how to make super easy, cheap baby food - but it also guides you on meal plans. When to switch, what to switch to, etc. It has been our bible for feeding our 10-month old son ever since he started cereal. If you can check it out, I think you would feel good about what it has to say.

We love it!! Good luck with solids, they are a blast and a big mess!!!!

We always started with the green veggies (peas, green beans, broccoli and spinach) first so they become accustomed to those tastes as they are much harder to introduce after sweet fruits etc. We then went to yellow/orange veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potatoes). We made sure we kept to just veggies for about a month or so then introduced fruits. Both of our kids are still big veg eaters and love any kind of fruit out there. Try mixing a little of the greens with the cereal at first so it's not a huge overpowering flavor/texture change. Gradually add less and less cereal until he gets used to the taste - they mostly all do...Good luck!!

Hi A.-

I am sure that you will get a lot of responses to this one. I have almost 6 month old baby boy at home and he is my first. I started him on cereal and then started baby food a couple of weeks ago. When I talked to my doctor he said to start on veggies first and get the baby used to it before you introduce fruit because of the sugar. They may not want veggies after tasting sweet fruit. Also be careful of the fruit that you get because of the many horrors stories that I have heard some fruit is really acidic and babies can have a hard time proccessing it. I started out 4 weeks ago only giving him baby food at night (around dinner time) with cereal and he seems to love it. I am now giving him fruit during the day with his lunchtime cereal and he really likes that as well. I mix the fruit in with his cereal. I started out with a small amount and slowly started giving him more.

I don't know if any of this helps. But just remember that they also need the nutrients from formula for breast milk so don't get rid of those entirely.

J.

To the new mommy. Every kid is different but with my two boys I had them on a schedule that was for breakfast I would make them a bowl of cereal with about 2 to 4 ounces of their morning bottle then a little fruit either separate or in the cereal then the rest of the bottle to drink. For lunch I would give a meat and a veggie or a veggie and a fruit and a bottle. Then for dinner I would give a dinner like the chicken noodle or something and a veggie and a bottle and then before bed I would give them the same thing I did for breakfast. I started with the number 1 jars and then I started using half of the number two jars at a time. Just refrigerate the rest and when your ready to serve again just warm it in the microwave for a few seconds to knock the chill off. My doctor said to start with yellow and orange fruits and veggie and then slowly move to the others. They say to give them the same thing for a couple days to check for allergies. You can also give gerber oatmeal and mixed cereal too. He will start to slowly decrease on milk but this way it is easier to get them on solid foods when it is time because they are eating more like you now. good luck and email me with questions ____@____.com

I always just added a little bit of cereal to the baby food so they are getting more....it also helps to thicken up the runny ones. And I always started out with the yellow and orange baby foods. I think it's a little sweeter so not as much of a shock when they go from formula to food.

Back in the day, the doctors advised us to try one veggie at a time so you can see if there will be any alergies or skin reactions. Not any sweets just yet. maybe in about three weeks and don't combine them with other foods use them as treats so you can see if there are reactions to those also.

____@____.com just a mom and granny

Hi A.,
As far as what to try first, my pediatrician said that it is good to start with the green vegetables first and fruits last because the baby sometimes will prefer only the sweetness of the fruit if fed that first. My daughter is one now, but I remember exactly how you are feeling. You really can't go wrong, because your baby will let you know what he likes. I started out by giving alternate bites of straight vegetables (or fruit) and the cereal that she already liked. After I knew which ones she preferred, then I would mix the cereal and fruit or veg. Sometimes they are soupy and it is easier to just mix some cereal flakes right in instead of preparing the cereal and mixing afterward. I hope this helps, it worked well for me.

My Ped. to me to start with some meat and veggies so she would eat the veggies as she got older. She is now two and loves her veggies she hates sweets. if it is candy or has sugar added she will like one bite spit it out and say " yucky." However, give her any veggie and she hovers. I am a huge sweet tooth so I would of though she would of liked sweets better then she does. Her idea of sweets are fruits. SO I would start with veggies.