starting solids

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My little guy has now been eating solids for over a month. Being a larger baby, I introduced them just after he turned 5 months because I also wanted the time to ease into them. Now that we are a month in and he is taking them well I'm starting to feel that it's time to get a bit more serious. Up until this point I have given him bananas, squash, sweet potatoes and pears - all of which I made with my Baby Bullet (love, love, love) aside from the pears because I was given a jar by a friend so I just stuck that into the rotation. Henry has also had cereal, but I wasn't as keen on starting that right at the beginning because he already gets a lot of iron in his diet because he is formula fed.

I have been doing the safe introduction - introducing only one food at a time for 3 days to ensure that he is not allergic and so far that so good. However, I have not been consistent in the time of day that he gets it, it has been more when it is convenient for whatever we have going on that day. So I have decided that it's
                                                                time for a schedule!

And the research begins ...

I have found valuable information on the following sites:

• Baby Center
• Wholesome Baby Food
• The Bump 

There are many different theories out there about how/when to introduce solids to your baby:

• Some say to go blah first and introduce sweet later because your baby won't be interested in veggies once they try fruit 
• There's a theory about going in colours - orange first (squash, sweet potatoes, carrots,etc,) then green (peas, green beans, etc.)
• I have heard that you should introduce cereal right at the start, but I have also heard not until they are 9 months old

At the end of the day, you just need to figure out what you feel comfortable with and go with it. It's best to make sure that you do not introduce 2 new things at one time and that you do not introduce another new food for 3 days because this will help you isolate allergies - but other than that, the majority of foods seem to be safe to try out on your baby.

That said - there are certain foods that you need to avoid in the first year:

• Nuts & Peanuts
• Egg Whites
• Honey
• Cow's Milk
• Wheat
• Juice
• Shellfish
• Strawberries
• Chocolate

*What To Expect - gives some great tips on which foods to avoid and then how to introduce them when the time is right.

I personally recommend Wholesome Baby Food because it gives really amazing charts to get you started and I find that very easy to follow. I have even printed them out and put them on my fridge to get myself organized. On top of that, you can pin them!

I'm also in love with the fact that they have menus on the site to give you an idea of what you should be feeding your baby each day, along with a chart that will tell you how much formula or BM your baby should drink each day.

So I have decided to go the following route: I will continue with the cereal once per day, which will be the solid food that my little guy receives each morning and then I will start working my way through the following list of vegetables/fruits in the late afternoon until we reach month 8 and can start on a new list:

• Bananas*
• Sweet Potatoes*
• Squash*
• Advocados
• Carrots
• Green Beans
• Peas
• Yellow Squash/Zucchini
• Apricots
• Apples
• Mangos
• Nectartines
• Peaches
• Pears*
• Plums
• Pumpkin

*done and done!

Who knew meal planning could be so much work!

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