First Foods for a Five Month Old

I didn't start solids until my son was much older, but just remember that breastmilk (or formula if you must) is the main food for up until 12 months. The rest is just experimenting. I made my son mashed spuds, sweet spuds, peas, carrots, brown rice and lentil, squashes... he didn't like fruits so that made it easy to avoid. I bought one of those baby food making contraptions and it helped because I could make my own instead of haveing to rely on processed.

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Peas are a good choice. Carrots and spinach, I think, are okay as long as you don't make them yourself to avoid nitrogen. Oatmeal and other types of cereal are also great. I'm not sure. We're still on sweet potatoes.

good luck.

my kids LOVED avocado. Just squish it with a tiny bit of salt and pepper. we made carrots ourself...i dont know why you couldnt. clean them and the spinach really well, and a tiny bit of butter and there you go. butternut squash is a yummy one too. we put a tiny bit of cinnamon on it and the kids went crazy over it. the earlier you start and the more variety you choose the less likely you will be to have finicky eaters. They may not like it all but 3 out of 4 would be good! Good luck!

Hi N.,

One thing about starting first foods, our lactation specialist stressed that we should give a regular feeding (breastmilk or formula) first and then offer the solids about half an hour later. As your baby approaches one year, you'll switch that around.

I have never heard about not making any of the veggies yourself... I apologize if I offend anyone, but that's just crazy. How many centuries have women been making first foods for babies? And why are we suddenly unqualified? Gah! A better question is Why are "baby food" bananas *pink*?!?

Here's the order our doctor recommended: Dark green, light green, orange, yellow. Vegetables before fruit. (Some people believe that the whole "veggies before fruit" thing doesn't really matter if a baby is breastfed, because breastmilk is sweet, too... however, our daughter now thinks she's a fruitatarian, so we're glad we got some veg in while we could, haha).

We did organics whenever possible, with spinach first (it's amazing how pretty it is), followed by broccoli, green beans*, asparagus, peas, lima beans, avocado... and so on. Our doc recommended spacing new things out by a week. Eventually we realized that WE don't have food allergies and she's not likely to either, so we closed the gap, but that was after a few months.

*We like our green beans to have a little crunch, so that's how I made them for Madelyn. Turned out that they had a bitter aftertaste when pureed, so I cooked them a little longer after that.

We steamed or roasted everything and then pureed it. I highly recommend the stick blender from Kitchen Aid, NOT the one from Oster. We bought three ice cube trays from Osco for about $2. One tablespoon of whatever webt into ice cube molds. Popped 'em into the freezer overnight and then into a ziplock baggie after that. (Or you could spend $15 and buy ONE ice cube tray with a lid online, if that's your thing, haha.)

I added a good amount of any cooking liquids, but some of the stuff had to be thinned out after defrosting (lima bean paste anyone?!?). We used breastmilk or formula, depending on what was available at the time.

It was a lot of fun making food for our daughter, and super easy. I spent about an hour to 90 minutes, once every three weeks or so. When she could have more variety, roasting a covered pan of whatever yummy stuff was a super simple way to get it all done at once (350 degrees, check for doneness after an hour).

When your little one's got enough teeth for chewing, you can keep making the huge variety of veggies and fruit available in your area. Just don't puree them. Cut them into bite-sized pieces and still put them in the trays.

Oh, and don't forget the camera!

try buying a cook book for how to prepare food for babies. i believe you can buy it at any book store.

banana

jarred spinach and carrots are perfectly safe. It's the homemade stuff that has too much or some thing from the soil. i don't even remember.

My kids all LOVED mango.

The book "Super Baby Food" has a comprehensive and easy to follow guide, of sorts, about when to introduce which solids to your little one. It is most usually advised to allow breast milk to be the dominant, if not sole, source of nutrition for a baby prior to six months of age.
There are some easy, inexpensive ways to make and freeze your own baby food and it is a cheaper and healthier way to feed your baby.
Check out some information about common allergies and the relationship to introducing some foods too early.
I hope that mealtimem with your little one continues to be fun and healthy!

You have so many good suggestions but I wanted to let you know of a quick guide my doctor gave us.
Start with veggies first and once you have completed them all then go to fruit with cereal or as dessert. try each separately (no combos)for 4 days each so you know if there is an allergy. Then you can do combos. Babies also don't need spices,sugar,egg,milk.
First-yellow/orange veggies
2nd-green veggies
3rd-yellow/orange fruits
4th-purple fruits
5th-meats
Last-red fruits (9-12mths best because of allergy concerns)
No dairy until 12 mth. Babies digestive system is not ready for it.

I have a 7 month old and started him on solids about a month ago. First food was avocado, which he loved and is very gentle on the stomach (and easy for you since no cooking!). We also did yellow summer squash, yams, green peas and sweet potato. For fruits, I've been trying to keep them raw where possible, so I get very very ripe fruit and mash it or puree it - peaches, nectarines, apricots, blueberries, figs, dates. All of these have been easy to prepare and he's enjoyed. He likes the consistency to be a little less soupy, and most of these have interesting textures when pureed. Good luck and have fun with it!

HI N.-I started at 5mos also...closer to the 6 mo ..I started with sweet peas, butternut squash.., yams...and I did do my own carrots. She loved all fruits, even til this day (she is now 26 months old)and mango is still her favorite. it is so easy to make her own food...I froze it in the baby food cubes and/or ice cube trays. For the apples, I started putting cinammon...for a little sweeter taste. Good luck!

We had to start our DS early too. I purchase store food for convenience, but when we're at home, I make my own. I use a Braun stick blender and in the morning mix up 1/2 cup cooked fruit or veggie with 1/4 unsweetened apple sauce (sometimes homemade, sometimes store bought), 1/4 cup cereal and 1/8-1/4 cup water. Blend until smooth, and this is what he'll eat mid-morning and late afternoon. Other then that it's Bfd'ing. I really like the stick blender because you can control the texture, it goes in pretty much any container and we use it all the time for other things as well. Of course, start with single foods first for allergy watch and if you are every looking for new ideas, just walk down the baby food aisle for ideas.

I made all my food, even carrots and spinach, not sure what you've been told. If you use canned foods, buy the no salt no sugar kind. Cubed tofu, beans, peas, yams... any veg or fruit you want. No sugar plain lowfat yogurt, cheese, meats... Whole wheat noodles plain, canned plain pumpkin, eggs, tuna....

My daughter loved her first carrots! I bought organic babyfood carrots from the store- made more sterile than we could ever make at home. Plus its so easy.

Hi N., you've got some great suggestions here, but I wanted to help clear up the spinach question. Here's what I found: "Beets and spinach have high concentrations of naturally-occurring nitrates which can reduce the ability of the baby's hemoglobin to transport oxygen. Use these foods in moderation until the baby reaches his or her first birthday."
So, I wouldn't say spinach is OFF limits, just make sure to keep the diet varied and fun. And considering how much a five month old ingests (usually not more than a tablespoon full) of spinach puree, I can't imagine it would cause more harm than good. Either way, my little guy got started on steamed/boiled and pureed carrots, potatoes, zucchini, sweet potato, apple, banana and spinach.

Get the book - Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. It's a great resource especially if you plan to make your own baby food. Good luck!

Hi we started our baby (he's 18 months now) on solids at 4 months and his first foods were cereal w/breast milk, squash, peas, and carrots, apples, pears and bananas. We introduced a new food to him every week. I cooked everything myself in huge batches and froze them in portions. Here is a wonderful site that I used to get my nutritional information, recipes, allergy information and other food questions: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ This site also offers a food chart for your baby's age.

Good Luck!

BTW, babies cannot have spinach b/c the nitrate levels are too high.

Super Baby Food is a good book (someone mentioned it earlier) but I LOVE the book MOMMY MADE & Daddy too! It is easy to read and then easy to rereference the parts you want to think about again - it has a great reference chart for when to introduce what kinds of foods (I photocopy it and then write above each food the day I first gave it to my child, incase there is an allergy issue or some other reaction - I've done that for each of my kids) - it tells you how to prepare "first foods" and also has a lot of recipies for kid friendly meals as they get older - Good Luck - my youngest daughter is 5.5months and I am starting on the solid feeding adventure for the third time - each experience has been a bit different - take cues from your baby and have fun with your child

Avocado was a great first food for us. Just ripen the avocado and mash it, add water until you get the 'watery' consistency that your daughter likes. Bananas are great and easy too. You can also make it in a blender and pour into ice cube trays to freeze. I used the book 'Super Baby Foods' by Ruth Yaron. She provides tables for each age/stage regarding which foods are appropriate. Also, many fruits will need to be cooked at this age, so do your research. I'm not sure why you think you can't do carrots and spinach? You can but she is a little young according to the book I mentioned. Try all the 'single' grain cereals and wait 4 days before introducing another new food. Also you can do cooked and pureed/strained apriconts nectarines, peaches, plums, pears and prunes. Sweet potato is another good choice. Yogurt is good after 6 months. Mine still love the plain - yogurt.

Hope that helps!

Starting with grains and fruits are not necessarily the best idea. We have such a huge diabetes issue in America and those foods will increase the blood sugar without any protein to stabilize it. Starting with greens and even sweet potatoes with chicken in it is a better idea than pure grains which, literally, turns into pure sugar in the body after it's broken down.

My kids were all breastfed exclusively until:

#1: Started solids at 8.5 months (sweet potatoes, fed himself a banana) and BF until 16 months.

#2: Started solids at 4.5 months when he reached out and grabbed my chile relleno burrito and shoved it in his mouth. He ate several more bites with black beans, rice, slasa verde, etc...and never, ever ate any baby food. BF until 16 months.

#3: Started solids at 12 months. She wasn't interested in food and still isn't so much. She dabbles with eggs, sandwiches with avocado and turkey, snap pea snacks, etc. NOT interested in baby food. Still BFing at almost 17 months.

The spinach and carrot thing si probably just a scare tactic about E coli. I prepared those, but they need to be steamed and not fresh. I always have given my kids probiotics (PB8), so even if they did come in contact with E coli, this would help fight it off.

N.,
I love Shan's response(pretty much what I was going to say). Please do your baby a favor and make all her food with raw organic produce(from farmers market if possible). My baby pretty much did not like the rice/wheat cereal, so we skipped ahead to avocado. I'm doing all veggies first as well. If you have total mommy brain and would like to be guided, I highly suggest purchasing the fresh baby so easy baby food kit.
http://freshbaby.com/buy_our_products/startkit.cfm
You don't really need the whole kit, you could do ice trays and cover them till the food freezes. Do get the book though, great info and suggestions!
Good luck!
A.