starting solids and making own food

I think I might want to try making my own food. My pedi told me to start veggies first and to introduce one color at a time.
My questions:
1. What was your schedule like when introducing solids (what foods did you do)?
2. If you made your own food, how did you do it?
3. How much did you start giving LO at first?

thanks!

Re: starting solids and making own food

1. My boys were both BF every 4 hours by the time they started solids, for a total of 4 times a day. So i would do solids right in between the feedings, about 2 hours after and 2 hours till the next one.
2. www.wholesomebabyfood.com has literally everything you will ever need to know about making baby food!
3. You should ask your ped about how much and how often your baby should have solids because every baby is different.

Enjoy! It's a lot of fun!

Re: starting solids and making own food

When we first started solids, I did just rice cereal mixed with a little breast milk only. My pedi has me do that 2x a day (morning and evening) and then once he got that down, to start introducing the veggies and fruits. 3 day waiting period after each new food to see if allergies are present.

I make my own baby food. I use the Baby Bullet. For breakfast, we started with pureed banana and rice cereal. Will also try apple and pears soon. For dinner, we started with butternut squash, and will soon introduce sweet potato. Another food I will soon make is avocado.

as far as how much, I just fed them with cues to stop when they had enough. I think I am much more relaxed since DC is my 3rd.

Re: starting solids and making own food

we started with the cereals at 4 months. per our ped's instructions, we started w 1 tsp of cereal (+ the formula mixed in), in addition to a full bottle of however much he had been drinking at that time. within a week we were up to 2 tbsp of cereal. (he didn't like rice so we went to oatmeal and stuck w that one). after a few more days of 2 tbsp of cereal, we went to 2 tbsp twice a day. after 2 weeks of cereal twice a day, we started w the veggies & fruits. my ped also said yellow veggies first. i didn't stick w only veggies to start, i gave him carrots first but then switched back and forth, veggie for 4 days, then a fruit for 4 days, and so on. we did 2 ounces of a fruit or veggie at one meal, and the cereal at the other meal. after a few weeks of that, seeing he was looking for more, we started giving him the fruit/veggie AND cereal at each same meal. w the fruit we combine it w the cereal, but w the veggie we will give them separate. (ETA: as the amount of solid food increased, the amount of formula he gets with it has decreased.)

we make his food w the baby bullet. i know there are mixed reviews but i LOVE this thing. it's like my toy. i had read reviews on the all-in-one food makers but there were reviews about mold build-up in the water reservoir and i wasn't into that. i was at a shower and a girl told me she loves her baby bullet so i just went out and bought it the next day and i'm really glad i did. comes w cute little storage containers that have date dials so you know when you made the food. comes w a food guide that tells you which foods to give which months, and tells you how to prepare them. only bad reviews i read online really were that the pieces were ruined in the dishwasher so i wash it all by hand which is not a big deal.

here are the foods we've started with:

carrots, bananas, sweet potato, apples, yellow squash, pears, peas, zucchini, and we will start avocado in a few days.

DS loves all of his food and i love that i know exactly what's in it. i know making baby's food isn't for everyone but it makes me feel so good and i enjoy making it.

good luck w deciding!

Message edited 7/9/2012 3:51:29 PM.