Finished tasting all (of Gerber's) 1st foods....now what????

[TJ & Stephy's Mommy]

Hi,
DS is 6.5 months old and had just finished all the first foods (carrots, sweet potato, squash, applesauce, pears, etc) and rice cereal without any problems.  Now, I'm stuck with what to do next    Do I continue with the 1st foods for a little while and work my way into the 2nd foods or do I jump right in with the 2nd foods.  When do you start on Gerber's 2nd foods?  Can I also try giving LO oatmeal now?  And when do you introduce purred(sp?) meats and mixed cereals??

Thanks,
Mel

[estherofi20]

Hi there Mel,

well i would follow the advice of your doc, but in my case when i finished trying all the stage 1, i started to give my DS the stage 2, just checking on the ingredients that he had already tried all the foods, or there was only one ingredient that he hadn't tried, so i gave him that same kind of greber for 3 or 4 days.

HTH

[Mum-of-Two]

I went right on to single grain baby oatmeal because my LO started to get backed up on the rice cereal.  You'll find stage 2 is the same puree as stage 1 (no chunks), only they start to mix and match different varieties together.  I read the ingredients and if it is something LO hasn't had yet I just give her a few days to make sure she's OK with it before adding it to my "safe" list.  Our doctor suggested waiting until 8 or 9 months to introduce meats so that was the only thing I've held back on (not everyone does though, I know someone with a boy 6 weeks younger than my girl and he's already had all the meats too).

My LO is teething right now so thats actually slowed us down a bit.  She's had on again off again tummy issues so I'm waiting for things to calm down before introducing yogurt and meats.  She'll be 8 months old next in just a few days.

Good luck!
Jill

[TJ & Stephy's Mommy]

Thanks for all the advice. 

Yesterday I went to the supermarket and practically read all the ingredients for the Gerber stage 2 foods and bought ones that my LO hasn't tried yet.  I've also called my dr and they told me to wait until 8 months to start on meats.  I also just started to DS oatmeal yesterday since he hasn't tried it.  So far DS has been ok with the oatmeal and no reaction.

I too also know a mom that was anxious to start their LO on solids...they started feeding baby cereal before her son turned 4 months.  I think that was too soon but everybody does things their way and he didn't have any reactions.  I rather be cautious than anxious.

[Mum-of-Two]

I err on the side of caution too and have actually felt some pressure by my friend who started early to just move along to the meats and cheeses.  Then again, I have another good friend with an 18 month old and he's just now started getting on to finger foods.  So it seems its different for everyone.

As another note, I bought stage 3 sweet potatoes today thinking maybe it would be chunkier without being a new food introduction and would start getting LO used to the idea of the consistency of puff cereals and other first finger foods... but the sweet potatoes were pureed even in the stage 3 jar so now I don't know what to think!    I guess I'll figure it out as I move along.  I think I saw chunks in the  stage 3 applesauce, I'll try that one in a few days.

[mrsmynub]

From what I can tell, the 2nd foods are EXACTLY the same consistency, so we moved on to second foods pretty early on in our routine.  The oatmeal shouldn't be a big deal either.  As far as the meats and cheeses are concerned, see how your little one does with the mixed foods and new cereals.  I have tried giving my 7 mo ds chicken and weet potato and he seemed to tolerate that.  The best advice I got about introducing proteins was to give it to him during lunch so that we would be able to see his reaction. Is your lo able to feed themselves?  String cheese may be a way to start.....just MHO.