variety or singe flavours?

[suzie767]

hi all, i have a 16 week old ds who isnt ready for solids yet- he is a text book baby so he probably wont be until he is 6 m o ( he is 50th centile also)

i was just wondering about introducing them- i have been advised by my h v that once he reaches 6 months i can introduce them a lot more quickly and dont need to be as cautious. i have also had some conflicting advise about it.

my mil came in with jars of pork casserole and lamb hot pot which i have no intention of giving him until his feeding is well established ( the jars are from 4 months onward believe it or not)

but in secrets of bw tracys advise about introducing solid foods does seem a little slow to me. i want him to experiment and try many different foods and literally be able to eat anything.

in your experience is it better to go slowly and introduce singl flavours for a long while or be more adventurous and try many varities as soon as solids are well established? and when can you start giving them blended proper dishes such as casserole and sunday lunch?

tia

xxx

[waffler]

Hi Tia

I'd err on the side of caution if I were you. I know it's exciting to start solids, but believe me, there is a LOT of time to add new food! I'd leave it 3 days before introducing something new. And introduce single flavours to start off with. You could start (this is only a suggestion) :

Rice Cereal
Pear
Carrot
Apple
Sweet Potato
Banana
Pumpkin/squash
Parsnip etc

Once these tastes have been established, then add two at a time :
Pear+Pumpkin (a real fave of my LO)
Banana + Apple
Carrot + Sweet Potato

it's suggested that protein should be introduced around the second stage of weaning, once all these tastes have been accepted (or not as the case may be!!). I started mine on Chicken, then some fish, cheese and eventually beef. I noticed that the key to introducing stuff in the early days was the CONSISTENCY. I wanted to speed things up and made it not so pureed and she hated it. Then on holiday I was forced to give jars of food and she really liked it - because it was so runny. So then I learnt, it's best to just take your time. Now my LO is nearly a year old, and I waited 3 days introducing new stuff for the first 2-3 months, and now, she eats a wide variety of food with obvious likes and dislikes.

I'd really say,take your time I know it seems like an eternity to wait those 3 days, but in the long run you'll be glad.

Just checked your post again. Casseroles - I gave her beef casserole round about 10 months.

[suzie767]

thanks waffler, that is good advise- bw advise is one food per week but i think if they seem fine with each food 3 days is enough like you say

id be interested to know what affect giving a casserole to a 4 month old would be- not good for the poor little thing i i imagine

your right i am excited about weaning and i really want to get it right

thanks again

 

[¤ Efka ¤]

Yeah I agree with Ali, take you time, because you never know what could cause problems. Though I must say with some food I did not wait this recommended 3 day waiting period and sometimes introduced 2 at once but then I waited it out later.
And regular food I started to give him when I knew he could eat things in food with no problems.

He is 11 months now and has no problems with food.

[suzie767]

thanks peike- i was curious how i would manage to transition from a few flavours to complex meals. it did seem a little far fetched to try every food individually before mixing but as long as i know that the components of the food (ie protein/carbohydrate) are ok i can then transition to regular meals?

 

[¤ Efka ¤]

By far all means I wont consider myself expert, every LO is different. But for us that was so when I knew he was OK with basic vegetables and had tried meat, I mixed these together.
Like for example I knew he liked potatoes and cauliflower(his favorite) and did tolerate chicken, when we had these for dinner I mixed little from everything and he had it too. Just made sure it was cooked without salt. DH was not too happy about it but he added his own salt.

And just for explanations. I started with solids when he was 6 months and for first month it was basically only rice . That was the time he learned how to eat from spoon.After this I think about 7 months I added more stuff and from 10 months he was eating lots more

[suzie767]

thanks- this clears things for me a lot.

its really confusing before you've started and probably even more confusing when your in the middle of it but we'll get there in the end

 

[¤ Efka ¤]

Yeah, kind of hard to explain but I am sure you will get it when time comes

[waffler]

Just to add to what Efka said, you can introduce new stuff with food your LO already has tried. That makes it more flavoursome too. And by the time you're ready to do that, your LO will probably be another 2 months older so then you can introduce more stuff.

Just to give you an idea, I started Mira on solids at 6months. Now, at one year, I introduce something new to her like... once every 2-3 weeks?? I found out that I have basically introduced her to most food that I would offer her anyway. So you see, it doesn't matter about the waiting. And once she was older, i would wait say 2 days inbetween foods (unless that food was highlighted as being possibly allergenic like kiwi and strawberries). To this day I still haven't offered egg white.... will probably wait till her birthday in 2 days!

[¤ Efka ¤]

We have not introduce egg white either and honey.

[suzie767]

thanks for the advise guys- its cleared alot of things up for me. by a year he should be on (blended) family meals if i introduce things steadily.

have you introduced finger foods yet? is it advisable to do this in stages also?

thanks again

 

[waffler]

He probably won't be ready for finger food. God.. it's only been 5 months and I can't remember half of what I went through already! But I am pretty sure I didn't give Mira any finger food until she was around 9-10 months. I'm not saying you wait that long though. Before that I tried to encourage her to self feed by putting food in the feeder bags (mesh bags that babies can hold). But what you can do is to encourage baby to discover taste and textures. Give your LO a spoon to hold, a bowl, cup etc. And put some pureed/mashed food on his tray - he'll probably smear it all over the place! In my case, it took Mira a while to click that she could feed herself. All I could do was to place things in front of her and see if she'd one day do it. Now she absolutely adores sandwiches (which I cut into slices about a cm wide - i'm still concerned about choking!). It's odd. She will feed herself grapes and s/w but not other stuff. One day ... it'll come..!

GIven that your LO is textbook though, he'll probably be a doddle to feed!

Oh and yes... there will be times when you want to tear your hair out because your previously good solids feeder now refuses to eat anything unless she feeds YOU first!!!

[¤ Efka ¤]

Yep what Ali said. Mesh feeder was first for us also and the I think it was baby cookie for us. Took pretty long time for him to master it but now at 11 months he is a pro

[suzie767]

ah right...so just keep presenting them with opportnities and they will get it in the end- makes sense...

thanks again guys