Ready or Not!

I was going to wait until Graham was six months old to start solids, but because he is starving and only a couple of weeks away from six months, I threw a bib on him, sat him in his cute high chair, and shoved some oh so delicious rice cereal in his mouth. Then I freaked out. I'm not ready for this baby food thing. I have been planning to make baby food for Graham, and I am just not ready. I don't even know how to work my Beaba Babycook machine. When do I give him baby food? Does it have to be three meals a day? How much do I give? How long do I need to give a certain food before introducing another? What foods can he eat at this age? Do I have to add milk to make the foods thinner? In the past two days I have done some research and more importantly asked several moms how to handle the baby food situation. Who would have thought that baby food would stress me out so much? So for any of you wondering.....here's a little bit of what I have discovered.

Don't worry about three meals a day. You can slowly work into it. Some people just give 1 or 2 meals for a month or two when starting solids. Lots of people start with rice cereal first and then begin introducing vegetables and fruits. Some good first foods for babies are sweet potatoes, avocados, bananas, apples, and pears. You have to cook fruits for the first 8 moths with the exception of avocados and bananas. Who knew? You usually wait on meat until your child is 8 months old. Don't give honey or corn syrup to your baby before he is a year old. Don't give cow's milk to your baby before he is a year old. You should not give coke to your baby or to any other living being! (A friend let me borrow a book called Super Baby Food. The book is very helpful, but the author can be a little extreme about some things like not even approving an occasional soft drink for an adult!) You don't want to wait until your baby is starving to give him baby food. Babies should still be getting most of their nutrition from breast milk/formula; baby food is not a replacement. When you introduce a new food, you must wait 3-4 days before introducing another new food. This does not mean you can only serve that one food in the interim. You can continue to feed your baby all the food that you know he is not allergic to. You may have to change your baby's clothes as well as your own clothes at every feeding. Go to http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ for recipes, tips, schedules and more. It is a very helpful site! There is so much information out there on a simple thing called baby food! I'm sure I'll make adjustments along the way, not adhere to everyone's advice, and end up doing what works best for our family. I'm sure I won't buy all organic foods, and I'm sure I will have jars of commerical baby food in my pantry to go along with the food I make.

So ready or not, we've progressed to the baby food stage. I'm off to plan some baby food meals. What do you think the theme of week 1 should be? Mexican? Surely it would be okay for me to throw in a few tortillas and some spicy chicken with the avocados I had planned on serving Graham!