Baby's Food

When is Baby ready for solids? There are some that say between 4-6 months. I am of the belief that month six is the best time for healthy babies to begin on solids. During the first six months breast milk is best for baby and no additional juices, or foods are needed. The maturity of baby’s digestive system is not something that we can readily observe, research indicates that 6 months appears to be ideal for avoiding the allergies and other health risks of too-early solids. Of course all babies are different so watch for these signs to tell if your baby is ready to begin on solids.

Signs that indicate baby is developmentally ready for solids include:

•Baby can sit up well without support.
•Baby has lost the tongue-thrust reflex and does not automatically push solids out of his mouth with his tongue.
•Baby is ready and willing to chew.
•Baby is developing a “pincer” grasp, where he picks up food or other objects between thumb and forefinger. Using the fingers and scraping the food into the palm of the hand (palmar grasp) does not substitute for pincer grasp development.
•Baby is eager to participate in mealtime and may try to grab food and put it in his mouth.

Here are two sources for additional feeding timeline suggestions:
http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_breastfeeding.html

http://www.aafp.org/online/en/home/policy/policies/b/breastfeedingpolicy.html

Once your baby is ready for solids your family will need to decide whether you will purchase baby food from the store, or make your own at home.

If you decide on purchasing commercial baby foods read the labels carefully. Choose foods without added sugars, modified starches, wheat, rice or other flours. Products with single ingredients and water are best, and avoid baby food "desserts". Purchasing commercial baby food can be costly. New parents spend an average of $300 on baby food during their infant's first year of life. Many parents spend much more, while a few never buy prepared baby foods.

You can prepare your own baby food at home. Doing so will save you money, and will give you the comfort of knowing what's in the food, and when it was prepared. There are many gadgets on the market for preparing baby food. While they are all probably wonderful products, you can get by with using a standard food processor, blender, or even a potato masher. It is best to start with single ingredients first to watch for allergies.

Simply boil, bake or steam the food, let cool, then puree it (You may wish to push green beans (or peas) through a sieve or mesh strainer to get rid of any remaining skins).

You can make large batches and freeze in ice cube trays covered with plastic wrap, or glass containers with lids.

Each cube is equal to approximately 1 ounce of food.

Once the cubes of puree have set and are frozen, take the trays out of the freezer and transfer the cubes into freezer bags.

Be sure to label the bag with the date of preparation as well as the type of food. The baby food cubes should be used within a month of freezing.

When it is time to feed baby, simply take out the number of food cubes needed and thaw and then reheat.

Once baby has tried several fruits and veggies experiment with combining ingredients like sweet potatoes and apples or pears and butternut squash. To thin out veggies, and to help baby adapt to the new flavors you can add some breast milk to give baby a familiar and comforting taste.

If you don't want to puree your baby food, you can consider Baby Led Weaning. To read more information about this go to: http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/babyledweaning.htm

Each baby and families circumstances are differant, so just enjoy this phase of baby and get ready for baby to walk!