Introducing Baby Foods, Refresh My Memory

For my son we would give him cereal at lunch time and a jar of veggies or fruits at dinner time. Nurse him BEFORE you give him the food, if he's really hungry he won't want to eat something new. Breastmilk is still his primary source of nutrition until a year. We waited for the meats until he was around 9-10 months. Dairy at a year. You can use pumped breastmilk in the cereal, if you can't pump you can use water or regular milk if your doctor oks it. Our pediatrician suggested giving him one new food for 5 days before starting a new one to see if he had any food allergies, although I know some others on here have said that's not necessary. You can make baby food cheaper than buying it (i'm assuming you are on a budget if you're on WIC). Fresh veggies, steam or boil, and smash or blend in a blender. You can freeze it in ice cub trays, then just defrost a cube or two per meal. A jar of baby food costs .75 to $1, and gets you 1 meal. A sweet potato is about 50 cents and can get you 3-4 meals. Butternut squash or a frozen bag of peas can make 10-12 meals. It's very easy and much more economical. Good luck and remember not to stress if he's not eating a whole lot, this is just "practice" food!

Wholesomebabyfoods.com is a wonderful website. Even if you aren't making your own baby food (which is really what the site is all about...), it breaks down what foods are best to start at which ages. It also warns of foods not to give until they reach a certain age. It also tells you how to watch for reactions and all sorts of other baby-eating materials. :) There are even a few different charts on what a healthy diet looks like, how much solids they should be eating, etc. for different ages.

Baby will usually kind of show you they are ready to back off on the milk feedings by eating less and less. You will also be able to tell that they are ready to eat more baby food at once just by how quickly they eat what you are offering. I usually mix a about 1/4 of a jar of the meat in with a vegetable. You can also mix the cereal with the fruits and veggies to thicken them up a little. You probably won't be needing the 3 or 4 jars a day until he's about 9 months old.

Happy Feeding.

We cycled through all the fruits and veggies in the jars before trying anything more substantial or any combination foods. Our son was nearly 1 year before we gave him nibbles of meat and dairy off our plates. He had lactose issues so that altered things for us a bit. Around 10 months and older he was eating a couple jars of baby food per day in addition to his cereals and formula.

We were told to provide formula/breastmilk before anything else at every meal. They would represent the bulk of his nutrition until age 1. The baby foods were to begin the process of adjusting him to real food. There was no meal replacement with the baby foods. They were a supplement to the formula/breastmilk rather than instead of until age 1. Talk to your pediatrician as that was who guided us. Good luck.

He will get more nutrition from the formula than any baby food you give him. It has minimal nutrition in it. They make baby food to supplement formula, they expect you to feed the baby completely formula then offer some baby food to teach the child to chew and swallow. They do not need baby food at all until they are older and I actually won't even buy baby food anymore after talking to the baby food company. They do not make it to be food for your child. That is what their formula is for. They make it to be flavored goo that appeals to grownups. They will buy it and feed it to the baby who in turn will want more and more and more. Since they are getting minimal nutrition from it they are so hungry they'll eat anything.

Stick with formula first then offer a tiny bit of this or that.