What Now?

Go to www.askdrsears.com and look up baby's first foods. Just print it out and put it on the fridge!
M.

I have made my daugher's food since she was 6 months. She is now 8 1/2 months. It has been great for her. She loves the mangos and peaches. If you have a COstco near you, go buy them in bulk. I peel the fruits and then blend them in a MAGIC BULLET. It gets a little messy but so well worth it. I buy the frozen peas from WHole Foods and the butternut squash and yams from there also.

Apricots are coming in from CHile and she loves those also. Plus you also have cantoloupe but u have to add some cereal to that because it tends to get too watery. I have gotten many ideas from the wholesomebabyfood.com website. I have also started feeding her the YO BABY yogurts and she loves those. Plus I began to make lentil soup and chicken soup with veggies and puree them and she loves those also.
I freeze much of her food in babyice food cubes with a lid or in ice cube trays.

You have to experiment to see what you baby likes. Plus my daughter has began eating cherrios....Good luck ..if u have any questions, email me.

Earth's best also makes a Stage 2 level for Infants that has more "blends" of fruits & veggies (& some meats). I buy mine @ whole foods, but this website also has some options: http://www.earthsbest.com/products/2nd-infant-foods.php

My son loves the chicken & sweet potato dinner; and surprisingly, the lentil & rice dinner. The stage 2 stuff is also a little chunkier, which helps introduce a little texture. :-) fun stuff.

Get the book "Super baby foods"! You will love it. It tells you what to introduce when, how to make your own and SOOO MUCH MORE. I live by this book for both my kids. I agree with you on the meat. My son is 9month and still no meat no dairy! Keep up the good work!

I had the same issue, my daughter is a little over 8 months. I tried mixing it up, but was having the same issue, she just didn't seem interested, she would only eat a few bites, make a face and turn her head. Then one of my husbands aunts gave her some homemade chicken broth, SHE LOVED IT. Then for a few weeks we either mixed (just a small amount)of chicken/vegetable broth with the jar food, and it seemed to work. Now, she eats the jars without adding the broth.

I also buy Earth's Best. At Ralph's they sell Earth Best variety pack, which has mixed fruits with Whole Grain Combos as well as dinner varity packs. I also started mashing up bananas, which she loves.

This baby stuff is hard!!! heeee heeee

Orange veggies are a pretty good bet. If you are still breastfeeding, you can mix some expressed milk in with the carrots, sweet potato or winter squash to water it down.

Baby rice cereal mixed with breastmilk or formula is another good starter food. She really only needs to try a teeny spoonful each day, until she's showing real interest in the new texture & method of feeding.

However, I wanted to add that some children are just slower to warm up to solid foods. My kids didn't really start to like them until around 9 months. Try not to worry; as long as you're nursing and/or feeding with formula, your baby will be OK. The only thing doctors really worry about as far as nutrients missing from milks is iron. There is a lot of literature out there on the subject - if you're nursing and worried about iron depletion, check out mothering.com for info.

Try not to stress! Your baby will not starve on milks for another month or two.

We introduced solids to my son around 7 months and he wanted nothing to do with them! So, we just stopped pressing the issue and checked back in with him every week or so to see if he was more into them. It's only as of now that he really eats (he's one year old).

A suggestion I have for you is to try non-pureed foods. It might be that your son doesn't like the texture of the food instead of the taste. I have a feeling that even if you made him homemade pureed food, he probably would not eat them, if this is the case. My son was never big on having someone feed him liquidy stuff with a spoon. Instead, we would offer him soft, small little foods that he could feed himself and that's when he started getting into it. It's really pretty easy - I buy bags of frozen veggies and steam them (which makes them super soft or even mushy) and then I cut them into little bits or let him smash them with his fingers. At first, he would gag because it was so foreign to him to have something truly solid in his mouth, but then he got over it and I always cut the foods up small enough so that he wouldn't choke. We gave (and still give) him sweet potatoes, butternut squash (which is really really soft), peas, carrots, green beans, avocado, banana, pear (really ripe)... And, don't be disappointed if she eats barely anything. This is the time when they are exploring what eating is, the textures, how to do it and not especially filling themselves up. I don't know what I'd do if I wasn't still nursing because there are days when my son eats barely anything and if he wasn't getting my milk, I'd be so worried that he wasn't getting enough to eat. Good luck!

My daughter is 6 months old and I have been making her solid food for about a month now. (She started solids earlier than most because we had breastfeeding problems and she has been strictly on formula since she was 3 months.) You know, it is so easy and probably less expensive too. One of her favorites is "chicken soup". Here is my recipe*:

1 t olive oil
1 chicken breast
2 T onion
2 T celery
1 small potato (or a yam / sweet potato)
1 cup carrots (or other vegetables / mixed veggies)
1 clove garlic
2 cups chicken stock/broth
salt to taste (but you may not even need it because the celery has sodium in it)

Roughly chop all ingredients. (You don't have to cut anything very small because you will be blending it into a mush at the end). Add the ingredients to a small saucepan in the order listed above. After adding the chicken broth, bring to a boil and let it cook for about 20 minutes (just make sure the meat is FULLY cooked). Then, put the "soup" into a blender or mix with a hand mixer until it is smooth. If it seems too thick, add some more chicken broth. If it seems too thin, you can add some rice cereal to thicken it up a bit. I store mine is an air tight glass jar in the fridge. This makes about 4 servings (maybe more depending on your child's appetite).

HINT: I've also thrown in different veggies such as peas, spinach, greens/chard, green beans, & corn.
HINT: I've also substitued 1 can of rinsed garbanzo beans for the chicken breast

Here is another easy recipe for breakfast oatmeal:

boil 1 cup of water
add 1/2 cup rolled oats
blend with a hand mixer or in the blender until it is really smooth with no chunks
add 1/2 serving of formula or breast milk
(I also sweeten it up with a little (less than 1 t) maple syrup. I'm not sure if this is a "no-no", but so far it's been okay for us.)

My theory is that I dont' want to force her to eat anything that I wouldn't eat myself, so give it a taste. If it seems gross to you, then you can't blame her for not wanting to eat it. Also, especially if you are breastfeeding, don't stress out if she just doesn't seem ready for solids yet. All kids go at their own pace for a reason - just go with your instincts and let nature runs its natural course.

* Please check with your doctor to make sure your child is permitted to eat all of these ingredients. My doctor has given us the okay for all of these things, which is why I feel comfortable feeding them to my little one.

There is a wonderful, yet hard to find, book called Total Nutrition for breast-feeding mothers by Betty Kamen, Ph.D. and it has a fantastic weaning program with a nutritional guide for babies starting in chapter 9.

http://www.amazon.com/Total-Nutrition-Breast-Feeding-Moth...

It goes over a suggested weaning schedule and food preparation hints. The weaning stages have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th levels.

Some other great sections of this book are contrasted out comes nutritionally with two different breast feeding mothers. She also includes an alphabetized list of nutrients and the clear symptoms of deficiency in both mother and baby. There also are lists of the foods available that are packed with the nutrients we might be deficient in.

The premise of the book is how to invest our children with the best nutrition possible and that it does make a difference. It is amazing reading.

GaGa gourmet has a great variety of fresh frozen homemade baby food. I have been feeding it to my now 12 month old from 7 months and he LOVES it! It is sooo much better than jarred food. Nothing beats fresh. Jarred foods are able to sit on shelves for 2 years! That grosses me out. Fresh baby food is available lots of places. Mother's Market is great. Also Pomme Bebe in Newport has a complete tasting bar for babies!

You could probably get it to a thinner consistency by making your own food, so I would try that. But, keep at it and don't stress some babies never take to the baby food.

I'm a 38 mom to a 11 month old boy and 3 1/2 year old girl. Fortunately both of our kids loved to eat from the get go but I have several friends that didn't have it so easy.
Does she like cereal? If she does, try adding some vegis or fruit to that and she how she does.
Home cooking may be a good thing to try because you can try different things. You can also try mix foods together. Like say if she loves bananas, mix the bananas in. Or if it's a food that's a bit more bitter, add a little cinnamon. A web site I used for making my own food was www.wholesomebabyfood.com. I didn't do it at all with my daughter but decided to try it with my son and I was amazed at how easy it was. I didn't buy any special equipment, just a food processor and ice cube trays for freezing.
I personally would not introduce meats until she is eating fruits and vegis. If she doesn't like them it's doubtful she'll like the meat.

Hi L.,

Give your daughter some variety. Sticking with the same things will bore her and she'll find that eating solids is no fun because it's the same old stuff.

I would suggest you make your own food. If you can't think of what to make for you daughter, there are plenty of cook books for babies. i use an organic baby cook book for my son. So far, it's really easy to understand and it's help me figure out what I should and shouldn't feed my son at 7 months.

I have a 91/2 month old she has enjoyed butternut squash. I've gotten frozen squash and cooked it and it purees very easily or make mash potatoes using chicken broth instead of water and mixing it with some breast milk or formula. These things are pretty fast and easy to make. I wouldn't start meats without talking to your doctor first. Every doctor is different. With the food you have tried you can mix some ceral with it too. Sometimes just changing the consistancey of food makes a differece.

Try making your own food. My son never really liked baby food. He loved avacado, potato, squash, carrots (fresh with a hand blender and water or milk to thin it out).

Keep trying new things, one at a time of naturally to ensure not allergic.

Hi,
I just had this same conversation with my pediatrician. My daughter is about 6 months and I wanted to know what the protocol was. Here's what she said: Go thru all of the vegetables first. Cook them yourself and then just puree and add water or organic chicken broth if necessary to make them very easy to swallow. Obviously gives you lots to choose from: peas, carrots, corn, all squash varieties (she loves butternut and acorn), green beans, yellow beans, potato- sweet and regular, spinach etc. Once you've gone through them all, then start on the fruits and do the same thing. I think the idea is to get her used to vegetables first, develop a taste etc., because almost certainly she will go for the fruits. I realize this contradicts what you've started but it's something you could easily try now. It is super easy to make it ourselves and we store them (per pedi suggestion) either in those tiny tupperware containers at any supermaket, or she said to use an ice cube tray which I guess is about the right amount (we're not doing that- just the tupperware). I end up cooking two vegetables a week and then give her one in the morning and one at night, alternating.

Hope this helps.
B.
Oh- and we have a lot in common. I have been married about 3 1/2 yearas and am also 39, with a 6 month baby girl! Take care.

Hi L.,
I am a first time mom and I'm 38. My son is almost 7 months too and has been eating solid for since 5 months old. We are lucky b/c he LOVES food and eats everything we give him. There is another organic fresh baby food sold at Whole Foods called Homemade Baby. They make green beans, peas, squash, apples, pears, sweet potatoes. It is fresh and tastes like REAL food. We use Earth's Best for back up and traveling, but the flavors taste like canned food to me. I also make my son's food with organic veggies and freeze batches into cubes. Rightstart.com and OneStepAhead.com sell the "Baby Cubes" to freeze in. I make yams, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots and peas, so far. Have you tried rice cereal or oatmeal with your daughter yet? I mash 1/3 of a banana and dilute with a little spring water and add to oatmeal or rice cereal with a squirt of flaxseed oil for breakfast. I change the fruit up each morning. We are waiting on dairy, like yogurt until my baby is 1 year. We are waiting on meats until 9 months old too. He gets most of his nutrition from breast milk. Solid foods are for experimentation with eating, flavors, textures, etc. - and a calorie boost. As long as your daughter is nursing or getting formula don't worry that she isn't into it yet. Just keep introducing - but try some of the fresher foods. Either homemade by you or the Homemade Baby brand at Whole Foods. Good Luck!
D.

MY Daughter is the same age and has been having the same issue with her baby food. I just keep giving it to her and now I wait until she is really hunger. Another thing to try is to give her rice krispy and cheeros and when she opens her month to take it shove a spoonfull in her month.Or put the cheero on the tip of the spoon with the food mixed in.
Mine loves the texture in her month and then move to 2nds and get the blueberry and apple etc.
Just to note mine still has no teeth and she has been eating the cheeros since December.
Good Luck,
C.