I was (and still am) pretty excited to start on this whole fruits and vegetable journey. I started out by making a list of all the foods I wanted baby to try and labeled them by the 'stages'. Fun cocktail party fact, it was Beech-Nut, who initially came up with the idea of baby food 'stages'...pretty impressive, right?
Anyway, it seems that the general consensus is to start on veggies first and then move on to fruits. The reason for this is quite obvious when you think about it, humans prefer the sweet taste of fruit over veggies. However, the veggies babies start on are still pretty sweet....yes, I tasted them. I gotta say, I'm definitely not a fan of the rice cereal--it tastes like gluten-free Eggo's from TJ's, which is essentially paste #sorrynotsorry).
I have also read in several books that it is recommended to start on the yellow veggies (sweet potatoes, squash, carrots) first and move to the green vegetables (green beans, peas, etc.) second.
Note: One of my friends wrote down the foods her baby tried as she went along and noted the symptoms (if any) next to food to know what did and did not sit well with baby. I thought this was a great idea and have implemented this as well. It can just be a post-it you keep on the refrigerator or a complete color coded list. I fall into the latter category, again, FTM problems.
Ok, so here's the 'switch'. It's essentially the same as the post I have about starting rice cereal.
You can mix in the veggie into the cereal or provide just the veggie without the cereal during the meal. All new food introductions have a four day 'trial period', during which you should introduce the food in small amounts, watch for a reaction, and increase over the course of several days.
Day 1:
Start with 1oz of veggie (or half the jar or less of a Stage 1) in the am.
Cereal for the second meal.
If you are skipping cereal entirely, start with just one meal in the early morning and work up to two meals a day on day 3 and three times a day on on day 5+ .
Day 2:
1oz of veggie in the am.
Cereal* for the second meal.
Day 3:
2oz of of veggie in the am.
Cereal for the second meal.
Cereal* for the second meal.
*or whatever food you are on at the time
If there's no reaction on day 4, you're in the clear! You can now start offering the veggie at every meal, if you so choose, but there are so many more fun foods to try!
Note: Stage 1 baby food contains 2.5oz of food and Stage 2 has 3.5oz of food.
Note: You can play it by ear and see at what point to increase from 1oz to 2. I stuck with even numbers because my baby food containers are 2oz and I will sometimes mix with cereals.
Lastly, if you're like me , and you read all these books and then decided to introduce a THIRD food into the mix and was stumped...wait, can I give him TWO veggies in the same day? Yes, you can. Say you've introduced squash (did the four days without a reaction) and then decided to introduce sweet potatoes, you can totally continue giving your baby squash for the four days a new food is introduced. I am definitely overthinking this 'solids' thing.
Meanwhile, right next to me is this....
Anyway, it seems that the general consensus is to start on veggies first and then move on to fruits. The reason for this is quite obvious when you think about it, humans prefer the sweet taste of fruit over veggies. However, the veggies babies start on are still pretty sweet....yes, I tasted them. I gotta say, I'm definitely not a fan of the rice cereal--it tastes like gluten-free Eggo's from TJ's, which is essentially paste #sorrynotsorry).
I have also read in several books that it is recommended to start on the yellow veggies (sweet potatoes, squash, carrots) first and move to the green vegetables (green beans, peas, etc.) second.
Here's my list of 'Stage 1' foods:
Sweet potatoes
Carrots
Squash
Zucchini
Peas
Avocado
Pears
Apples
Bananas
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| Max LOVES sweet potatoes! |
Ok, so here's the 'switch'. It's essentially the same as the post I have about starting rice cereal.
You can mix in the veggie into the cereal or provide just the veggie without the cereal during the meal. All new food introductions have a four day 'trial period', during which you should introduce the food in small amounts, watch for a reaction, and increase over the course of several days.
Day 1:
Start with 1oz of veggie (or half the jar or less of a Stage 1) in the am.
Cereal for the second meal.
If you are skipping cereal entirely, start with just one meal in the early morning and work up to two meals a day on day 3 and three times a day on on day 5+ .
Day 2:
1oz of veggie in the am.
Cereal* for the second meal.
Day 3:
2oz of of veggie in the am.
Cereal for the second meal.
Day 4+:
2oz of of veggie in the am.Cereal* for the second meal.
*or whatever food you are on at the time
If there's no reaction on day 4, you're in the clear! You can now start offering the veggie at every meal, if you so choose, but there are so many more fun foods to try!
Note: Stage 1 baby food contains 2.5oz of food and Stage 2 has 3.5oz of food.
Note: You can play it by ear and see at what point to increase from 1oz to 2. I stuck with even numbers because my baby food containers are 2oz and I will sometimes mix with cereals.
Lastly, if you're like me , and you read all these books and then decided to introduce a THIRD food into the mix and was stumped...wait, can I give him TWO veggies in the same day? Yes, you can. Say you've introduced squash (did the four days without a reaction) and then decided to introduce sweet potatoes, you can totally continue giving your baby squash for the four days a new food is introduced. I am definitely overthinking this 'solids' thing.
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| Yum! (Look, he's actually opening his mouth!!) |
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| How does this even happen??? |