Solids - Floral Park,NY

Hi A.,

I started my daughter on fruits. I think it is perfectly fine to skip the cereal for now and go straight to vegetables or fruit. The rice cereal doesn't have any inherent nutritional value. You just need to make sure your baby is still getting iron. The cereal is iron fortified. If you are using formula that is iron fortified, you'll be fine. If you are using breast milk, you'll need to find another way for her to get iron, since the iron supply in your breast milk is gone at about 6 months. Sweet potatoes are high in iron and an excellent first food for babies.

I agree with others that making your own baby food is simple and economical. If you do use store bought, I would take out a bit at a time like others said (at first your baby may not even take more than a bite because she is not used to it). When I use jar food, I follow the 2 day rule for anything with meat in it. For straight vegetables or fruit, I think it is safe to save it for 3 or 4 days, as long as it is refrigerated and has not been contaminated with your daughter's saliva.

Hi A..

I too started my daughter on solids at 6 months. I started with lunch being her solid intake and the rest of the meals was formula. I did not measure out how much to give her, I just started with the stage 1 foods and if she ate the whole container, then she did. If not, then I saved the rest. If you are warming it up then put half in a bowl, and the rest in the fridge, but in its original container so you can use it later. I think it all depends on the baby and how much she will eat. Hope this helps and good luck.

My pediatrician and many books I have read recommend rice cereal as a first solid to start with. It is easier for babies to digest and in time you can begin to mix pureed fruits with it as well. You also can measure out how much you want to feed your baby and not worry about having to store and save the rest. We referred to a website called www.wholesomebabyfood.com to help us learn what types of food our baby was ready to eat and it had the easiest recipes as well. I am no cook by any means and I found it really easy to puree a sweet potato and carrots. The site suggests storing pureed veggies in ice cube trays because each cube equals about 1 ounce of food. It actually saved us a lot of money making food this way. I will admit we did use Earth's Best Organic baby food for a little while too for convenience. We too only used a little at a time and we wound up throwing out the extras after a couple of days because we didn't want to risk it. I hope this helps a little bit.

You should definitely take the amount you think you will use out of the container and feed her from a separate bowl. Once there is saliva on the spoon and you put it back in the food you should no longer save it. The saliva can cause bacteria to start to grow in the food. If you start with a small amount and she eats it all you can always go back for more.

I would suggest to start her out with a little organic banana mashed with the same milk that you give her now (breast or formula). It worked really well for my daughter.
Also, consider making your own baby food. It is SO easy!! Just steam or boil whichever vegetables or fruit you want to give her and then put it in the blender or food processor. You can add a little bit of the same water you use to cook the food with or a little bit of breast milk or formula until you get a smooth consistency. Make enough to freeze in small containers with the amounts that you will need each day. Some places sell BPA-free plastic containers to use for this purpose, but I used tiny Pyrex glass containers because then I could warm up the food right in the container. If you are able to find small glass containers, you can put them in the fridge the day before you are going to use it so that they start to melt. Then put the glass container in a small pot of water at medium heat to warm up the food a little. It is very easy, more economical and nutritious to make your own baby food. Good luck.

Hi A..

Usually the pediatrician tells you to start the child on baby cereal (i.e. Gerber Rice Cereal). I really don't think that vegetables is the way to go. You can double check with your doctor. Good Luck