If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

What foods did you start with? Did you skip rice cereal entirely? Are there different rules for babies that start later?

Our 6m Ped appt is next week but I want to buy some foods ahead of time to have ready.

Also, quasi-related-but-doesn't-deserve-it's-own-post.... can you switch back and forth between jarred and homemade food? Or is there some kind of "once they have one they'll never eat the other" rule?

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

we tried rice cereal & oatmeal, but only for about a month.

yes, you can switch back and forth. making baby food is the simplest thing to do! 95% of the time DD ate homemade baby food and the few times we were out she would eat ella's kitchen or plum organics.

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

We started at almost 6 months in this order, waiting three days for each:

butternut squash
avocado
sweet potato
peas
green beans
apple
pear
banana
carrots


I made all of those. Then when she got to 6.5 I bought some to see what she liked. I bought Earth's Best Organic:

green beans and brown rice
chicken dinner

I also pureed my mom's chicken soup! This is the first thing she had with salt, and of course she loved it!

Just recently, close to 7 months I added some Gerber yogurt, organic oatmeal and Puffs.

Making the food has saved us so much money! I bought food for the first time just a few weeks ago, and I realized how much!!!

Message edited 3/3/2011 8:07:10 AM.

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

With DS I started with rice cereal for about a week before switching to oatmeal cereal.

With DD I started with oatmeal cereal right away.

My ped said to start with orange veggies first (carrots, butternut squash) then move to green veggies (peas, green beans)

And yes, you can go back and forth between jarred food and homemade food.

Although I will say for DS, he would eat homemade carrots but wouldn't touch jarred carrots. Not sure why but that was the only issue I had going back and forth!

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

i started oatmeal at 6 months. we did that for a couple of weeks then moved on to stage 1 veges and fruits.

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

We attempted cereals at 5 months but DD2 wasnt having it. We tried again at 6 months and she still wouldnt take it so we skipped the cereals and went straight to green beans.
I'm sticking to the same order I did with DD1
green beans
zucchini
yellow squash
eggplant
peas
sweet squash (butternut, pumpkin)
carrots
sweet potatoes

I make my own initially since they dont offer alot of the veggies we started with and once she has had them and I know she is ok with eating them I will use Earth's Best or Plum in a pinch

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

i made food so we started with avacado, then bannas, string beans, squash, and some time i started cereal - i mixed it with the food - he never had it plain

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

I skipped rice but started with oatmeal. I would mix a tablespoon or two with breastmilk just to get him used to eating.

I believe the first food he tried was sweet potato? In the very beginning we did sweet potato, avocado, carrots, peas, string beans, banana, apples and pears. I don't quite remember the order either

I think you should just play it by ear and go with how your baby reacts. DS took to solids really well so we progressed rather quickly. I only waited 2 days in between at first and then as I became more confident he was okay I would even do one new food a day.

You can definitely go between jarred and homemade. As the other girls said though, making it yourself is so incredibly easy (especially in the beginning when they are only try one thing every couple of days). It takes no time at all to bake or steam and puree.

Enjoy!

ETA: Like you, I was so nervous about what to do when and how much. I now realize that this is all a bunch of bullcocky. It's JUST food. Go by your babies cues and as long as you stay away from the potential allergens (and do not have a family history of allergies) you will do fine.

Message edited 3/3/2011 10:39:36 AM.

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

I started at 6 months and I'm still giving DS rice and oatmeal because he LOVES it! It's the one thing he's guaranteed to eat.. he gets picky when it comes to fruit, moreso than veggies.

He actually REFUSED all fruit until after I introduced vegetables. And if I tried to mix it with the cereal that I KNEW he loved, he'd look at me like how dare you try to sneak that yucky fruit in with my delicious cereal..

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

We only did jarred food because I don't have the patience to make my own, but we did skip cereal with DD because there's just no nutritional value in it. We started with a mix, but we did give it 2-3 days between new foods to rule out allergies. As she got older we didn't wait as long. There's no history of allergies in my family or DH's so that's what I felt comfortable with.

I like to start with applies, pears, and orange veggies b/c of the texture, and then move to bananas, peaches, and green veggies.

Re: If you waited until 6 months to start solids...questions..

We tried at 4m with cereal but she wasn't that into it. At 5 mon we did rice and then oatmeal. At 6mon we started with fruit and the alternated fruit and veggies. By 8m we started yogurt and meats. I tried homemade and she liked it for a bit, but then refused it and only ate jarred. My advice is if you do homemade ONLY do that and if dc goes somewhere else give them YOUR food. I was left with a freezer full of baby food and nobody to eat it.