What Is Really the Best First Food?

We went with finely mashed/blended avocado or bananas (fresh) as the first foods, and these went fine. I confess, my son has little problems eating anything, and I know from friends that this is certainly not always the case what with children who have allergies and/or particular preferences. If avocados and/or bananas don't digest well, I think she may just not be ready to digest despite the desire to do what she sees those around her doing with their food. If not now, soon.

HI A.,

I would normally suggest sweet potatoes first because they are a perfect balance of nutrition and fiber. You may be starting a little early at six months. Another attempt would be avocados, fresh ones mashed. Most kids love them and they have a "good" fat content as breast milk does too.

M.

Some first foods we tried were plain yoghurt, rice cereals, mashed avocado and mashed banana.

Perhaps studies have been done to change the advice on first cereals, but I have always heard that rice was the best, both for digestion purposes and less likely to cause allergic reactions. Have you asked the doctor to do any type of tests to see if she has any allergies or other reactions to what you are trying with her?
The two first foods for all of my children, per doctor's instructions, were rice cereal, then approximately two weeks later we started trying applesauce. Sweet potatoes were the next thing, and they went down good. I believe I then started them on peas as their first green vegetable.

I would just hold off. Our 2nd didn't get ANYTHING but breastmilk for 9 months...... Even after that point, there were days where he would choose to only nurse.

Our 3rd is 8 1/2 months now. I've tried a couple things (baby food and fresh fruit) but only because he is a really HARD baby and I didn't know what else to do. I was hoping that it would make him happy/ content but it really didn't do anything. He only took 2 small bites each time. We prefer to not push the food...... Breastmilk is what they really need. Not the food.

We prefer to stick with fruits and vegetables for first foods. I didn't feed our 2nd baby cereal ever.......

Basic 1st food is always yogurt in our house. It give the kid the basic bacteria to help break down everything else. (I make mine out of pumped breast milk.... recipe: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/10/you-can-make-yogu... ).

Before we start the game of "what would my child tolerate best" I am going to ask what your childs genetic background is. This is important. I am 1/4 Asian, 3/4 Caucasian and hubby is all Caucasian but because of the Asian, my kids are more likely to be sensitive to oats than to rice cereal. You have to look regionally to where your childs genetic makeup came from and look to see what would be in them way historically. Many of the Caucasian things are actually recessive so I have found so if in doubt, go with the other DNA history.

My second son had no desire to be spoon fed. I tried a couple of times, but he just didn't want anything to do with it. I decided to go the finger food route.

I started with graham crackers and biter biscuits. After he got the hang of those I began giving him food off my plate. I would sit next to him and just put some amounts of food on his tray. I just made sure it was all age appropriate and nothing he could choke on. Lots of kids go straight to table food, so it really is an option.

Some kids just need a little more time, so if you decide to give it a break for a couple of weeks and try again, he might to better.

Good luck!

I had the easiest transition with happy bellies cereals mixed with breastmilk. It has pro biotics in it which aid in digestion.
http://www.diapers.com/product/searchresults.aspx?freetex...

I would encourage you to make everything as plain as possible and mix with breastmilk since she is familiar.
I hope this helps!

Hi there,

I was just reading this site before seeing your post: http://baby-led.com/

We gave my daughter avocado first, and my son has just tried mashed pear, sweet potato, banana as his first 3 foods (I didn't see any nice looking avocados at the store).

Could something else be bothering your little one's tummy? Vitamins or something?

I would think rice cereal might be the easiest to digest. But if it has iron in it it could cause constipation.

As a side note, we are living in Italy and here all babies are first offered a "brodo vegetale" which is boiled, pureed mixed veggies. They give them all veggies mixed together: zucchini, potato, carrots, and other stuff. If you ask around different cultures, each seems to have their own first food. Pretty interesting!

edit: I'm surprised to see so many suggestions of yogurt. I thought dairy wasn't supposed to be offered before 1 year?

Hi,
My younger son was not interested in solid foods at all between the ages of 6 months and 9 months. We tried everything he just rejected them but at the same time he wanted solid foods, because he kept looking at our plates. So eventually at 9 months I started giving him bits and pieces of what we ate. He was much happier trying those. I talked to a lactation/nutrition specialist and she said that if I eat a lot of flavorful foods, the taste of my breastmilk changes and is also more flavorful and babies will be less interested in bland food such as rice cereal etc. I noticed that my baby is much more interested in stronger tasting food such as rice with herbs, etc. So I gave up on all those bland cereals and instead I crushed some multigrain organic cheerios and added some wholemilk to it and he loved it! He does get constipated too, our solution to constipation is one ripe kiwi a day. It's like the miracle solution, I find it works better than prunes and does not give the gas pain that prunes do. He loves it and it really makes his stool softer. Bananas, apples, potatoes are all constipating, so we don't eat a lot of those. We still have a hard time giving him cow milk, he still nurses (he is 14 months now) but he likes plain and flavored yogurt. Yogurt is great, especially plain wholemilk yogurt, it's great for the intestinal flora and helps with a lot of stomach pains. It's great if they get used to eating yogurt because it's the best food to have when they take antibiotics for ear infections etc.
One thing my doctor said is to not worry about him getting constipated and instead try to find food (and not just breast milk) that will help him get regular. Hope this helps. Good luck - Remember ripe Kiwis, :-)

You have a lot of advice here! They are not ready for yogurt until 9 months minimum, but I waited a year...and any cereal you do it probably is easier to mix with breast milk over water to help digest. Apples can make some kids real gassy and uncomfortable. I would suggest feeding in the morning or lunchtime, not dinner, and that would probably be easier to do fruit (think of our eating habits - we don't eat veggies for breakfast!? I would try pear next then, it is easy to digest and soft on the stomach. Then maybe squash - potatoes are technically a carb which can be h*** o* little tummies and believe it or not avacados are acidic (great food for babies but not if they are sensitive to things), and I am allergic to egg whites so I'm kind of against them for first foods. Sorry if this is jumbled!

First, baby should be able to sit up without support, no tongue thrust, ready and willing to chew. Digestive tract is becoming mature at 6 months.
Start in the morning with one food.
Try a cooked veggie -- like squash..peas, potato, beans, chicken, tofu.
Wait on cereals .. Closer to age 7-8 months. Same with cooked egg yolks.
Start with tiny amounts of food. At 6 months it doesn't need to be purred-- mashed cooked table foods-- no salt or sugar added.
Remember they know how to do liquids (breast milk) so solids will take some time and effort to learn. Go slow-- no rush. If they are taking the purée quickly - times to change the texture.
Hope that helps.
Suzanne dietitian and lactation counselor.

Maybe try some squash, carrots, or peas.. Veg first, then fruit. Bananas & applesauce are great too. Keep the cereals liquidy..

Mine were breast milk exclusively till 10 and 11 months. Then one had fruit first and the other had hummus (I know weird but she loved it and did well with it) I would suggest fruits and veggies (one item at a time to see how she does). I would avoid all dairy and eggs for now. Also stay away from processed foods (biter biscuits and such) The banana and avocado suggestions are good. Sometimes interest in food is not really interest in eating it but interest in exploring it and playing with it. We're often in to much of a rush to start feeding our babies solids because WE think they need or want them. I waited to lessen the chance of allergies.

Try mashed up banana or avocado mixed with a little breast milk. Congratulations on breast feeding. You've already given your daughter a great start!
www.emilywebber.com

At 6 mos their little intestinal tract is still very immature so you do have to be careful what you introduce and make it very small. A little bite of mashed potatoes, yogurt, and anything else that is smooth or pureed. If your baby seems hungry and liquid nutrition doesnt seem like enough, you probably should start with cereals in a bottle to compensate.

Well-start small-and rice is the most digestible. Try the yellow veggies-sweet potatoes, carrots, squash-then after they are tolerated-and we're talking about a tablespoon or so-go to fruits, then meat, then green veggies. If she spits up a lot-try thickening her food at that time with a little rice cereal. Agiain-start with yellow veggies-not cereal.

I'd suggest avocado and garnet yams- which are different from sweet potatoes. Try one new food every 3 or 4 days, and only in the mornings. Here is the order of my baby's first solids, starting at 6.5 months: yams, applesauce (constipation- holding off), prune juice, butternut squash, avocado, banana, baked pear, papaya, garbanzo beans, corn ( some issues- holding off for a few months), oats ( some issue- holding off), egg yolk, goat yogurt, yogurt cheese, apricot, zucchini, carrot, kidney beans, watermelon, peach, mango, spinach, peas, fresh coconut, blueberries, sweet potato, rice bread. He's now 10.5 months old and very healthy!

Hi A., my nursed babies did not really have solid food until they could grab it off their highchair tray with their own little fists. A mushed up version of whatever we were eating. Never really spoon fed any of them.

I'm with the other moms who say let a little time go by and try it again. Babies systems all develop differently.

:)

I'd go with rice mixed with breastmilk, though I'm wondering how old is your baby?

We didn't introduce solid food until about 9 months - neither of my girls were great nursers, so I didn't want to fill them up with less nutritious calories. Then when we started food, I think we did lentils first, followed by sweet potatoes, bananas and rice. If you want foods that are easy to digest, think about the BRAT diet, and maybe try bananas or apples.