pureeing! : by jean

ever since miles started eating solids around 6 months, i was inspired by amys' baby menu post to make my own baby food.  since miles only just started, it's nowhere as complex as amy's menu yet since i just have to mash up or puree different fruits and vegetables for him for now.

one of our avid readers, sk, recommended wholesome baby food to me a while back.  it's a great resource  to know which foods i can start introducing to him now and which i have to wait until a little later.

so far he's had:
rice cereal
bananas
avocados
pears
apples
peaches
carrots
peas
butternut squash

in the very beginning, i went through the traditional route and started him with rice cereal mixed with some breastmilk.  then, i started with bananas and avocados with and without rice cereal since they were easy enough to have around and mush when needed.  in the beginning, i always added a little bit of breastmilk so it wouldn't be too thick for miles.  once i started introducing him to pears and apples, i didn't need to add breastmilk since they were already very watery.  once i moved onto peaches, carrots, peas, and butternut squash, i had to either steam, boil, or roast and then puree.

i also look at ella's kitchen and earth's best websites to get ideas on what combos work well together.  for example, on ella's kitchen, they had a pouch for butternut squash+carrots+apples+prunes (who knew that would be a good combo!).  since those are all the foods miles already had, i made my own and mixed those ingredients together-- it tasted pretty good!  when in doubt, try it yourself.  if you think it's gross, your baby may think that as well. :)

on a side note, my doctor was a big advocate of going straight into fruits and veggies.  she said although rice cereal is a good way to start introducing babies to food, it's sort of "fluff" because it is not a complex carbohydrate and not as nutritious as it claims to be.  many moms like giving rice cereal because it's easy and iron fortified.  my doctor said that be a concern since babies are already getting enough iron from breastmilk or formula.

also, when i asked her about waiting 3-4 days to introduce new foods, she said if babies were going to have a reaction, it wouldn't take 3-4 days-- it would happen right away.  and the worst thing that can happen is for them to get some hives.  i had given miles peaches which he LOVED but a couple hours after he had them, he got a reaction around his face!  so now i'm going to wait a couple more weeks until i give him some again.

miles's reaction to peaches

so far, it's been a fun experience giving him different types of food and seeing his reaction.  i'm sure it'll be a little bit more work once he's ready to eat things from amy's baby menu, but until then, it's been fairly easy and i haven't used any jarred baby food yet!

what are some experiences you had when you first introduced real food to your baby??