I was not that excited to start solids because milk was so much easier! But at the same time, I was so curious about entering this new stage. Besides being 6 months old, I wanted to make sure Baby Pencil was ready for solids.
Baby Center gave these signs for when your baby would be ready for solids:
- shows chewing motions (yup)
- has good head/neck control (eh… working on it)
- sitting up well (not really)
- significant weight gain (oh yeah!)
- growing appetite (wasn’t sure because he ate anything all the time!)
- curiosity with what you’re eating (sometimes)
He hit some or most of these, but I was still not sure. I decided to start slowly and because I was a picky eater, I started with very bland foods. I chose to feed these foods in this order:
- Peas
- Carrots
- Pears (mixed with #1 and #2 so it wasn’t too sweet)
- Sweet potato
- Green beans
- Prunes (mixed in, for the poopies)
- Apples
- Bananas
- Yogurt
- Chicken
- Spinach
- Strawberries
Luckily, Baby Pencil pretty much liked everything and ate it all with no problem. However, during his 9 month visit, his pediatrician told me that he was borderline low in iron. Supposedly this is a pretty common problem among 9-12 month old babies. I was given iron supplement drops and WOW he had a bad reaction — he vomited 2-3 times. I realized that I shouldn’t have skipped rice cereal because it actually has a lot of iron! According to the box I had, it provides 45% of daily needs. Along with the iron supplement and rice cereal, I’ve added spinach and leafy greens that are packed with iron.
In addition to those foods, he absolutely LOVES eating puffs and Baby Mum Mums. It’s nice to be able to drop off a handful of puffs and have a few minutes to clean the dishes.
Here’s how I make my purees:
Cut and steam fruit or vegetable in a pot using a stainless steel vegetable steamer.
Blend in my handy Vitamix blender, adding water until I get the consistency that I want.
Allow it to cool before packing them away in various containers. I like that these are made of glass.
It’s amazing how quickly these go, but I know this stage won’t last forever so I’d rather just keep making food little by little and reusing these containers.
That’s it! Here’s Baby Pencil, always asking for more.
grapefruit / 4923 posts
i think i spent 2 whole days making my own purees before throwing in the towel–kudos to you! sounds like your LO is getting a great variety of tasty foods!
guest
I also made my own purees for my son. Freezing it in ice cube trays worked really well in the beginning when he would only eat small portions at a time. I also fell in love with my hand blender – so much quicker and easier to clean than a blender.
guest
also try organic chicken liver cooked with butter and pureed for a natural iron boost. Iron from food is utilized better than supplements
grapefruit / 4731 posts
He’s so cute! We did BLW method and that worked well for us. We did the same as you for a few weeks and then LO just ate whatever we were eating after that…. of course cut up a little more and that became super easy for us to do instead of having special items for him to eat.
guest
we tried purees. those are a killer to make for a baby that spit it all out. after awhile, we just did bLW and bam. HAPPY BABY. we still skipped the rice cereal and ate a lot of iron rich foods. different things for different mamas, but all options are great
blogger / apricot / 335 posts
@edelweiss: To be honest, I still supplement with baby food jars! (Earth’s Best.) It makes the purees last longer, hehe.
@Raindrop: I am looking forward to that stage but in some ways am not also because I heard it gets messy! Haha