First foods

This post is about introducing foods to our little ones. As a dietitian I've always told parents about the scientific evidence that babies do not need anything other than breastmilk/formula all the way up to 6 months. Even though many doctors say it is ok to introduce it at 4 months, and many parents do, which in most cases is fine, there is no need to do so. And I decided to follow my advice with my baby. I did not introduce any food until 6 months, no baby food and not even water.
That's another big one, water! People insist on giving babies water, oh gosh, they must be thristy. Really? are you kidding me :) Did your baby tell you he/she was thirsty? Than how did you conclude that? Anyways, thruth is, only in extreme cases a baby will need water. A breastfed baby does not need any extra water. Did you know that our body is so amazing that they analyzed breastmilk from women during the summer months and compared to the winter months, and found that the summer time milk has higher water content. The body addapted to give baby what they need!
But back to food. So I waited until 6 months, and I am happy I did so. My baby probably could have tolerated foods at 4 months like most do, but why cut down the benefits of breastmilk/formula by introducing foods early. After all, babies grow so fast, I didn't feel the need to rush to any stage. The important thing is to make sure the baby can hold his/her head up before you start feeding anything, they must be able to support their head. The first food I introduced was oatmeal cereal (finely ground oatmeal flakes with expressed breastmilk). From then on I followed the general guidelines.. introducing one food every 3-4 days to be sure there is no reaction or allergy. Some tips: start with fruits and veggies, alternating them. Try to introduce all of them, don't stop at carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, banana and applesauce. Go beyond that, introduce avocado, cauliflower, green beans, pears, papaya, mango. Each fruit has its distinct flavor, and introducing them to your baby will begin to teach their palate about different tastes. When you can, introduce fresh versus jared. So much better to pureed the fruit and veggies yourself! But of course, time is hard to come by sometimes. So no problem using the jars, just make sure you read the labels!!! I can not stress that enough. It should only contain the fruit (one only at first), some citric acid for conservation and that is it! No sugars or any other additives. With the vegetables the same thing. Make sure there is no added ingredients.
Hint- you can buy frozen veggies/fruits (much cheaper!) and pureed those too. When you pureed your own fruits and veggies, use water to help in the blender. And then if they are too liquidy, use oatmeal cereal to thicken to be easier to feed the baby.
When you start to combine foods further along you can still make your own. I had a system with my daughter that worked pretty well. Around 9-10 months when she was already eating most foods I would make a soup with: vegetables (varied weekly, green beans, carrots, potatoes, broccolli, cauliflower, yuca, spinach, peas, etc..), with chicken or fish (just chicken breast - lean, or fish, yes! it is a good time to intruduce fish also, make sure to choose one with lowe mercury content like tilapia), rice or potato ( pick one) and water on the pot. That is it. NO SALT, NO OIL! nothing else. I used a pressure cooker to speed up the process. Made a big batch, then pureed it all at once using the blender and portion it out in containers for the whole week (you can actually buy little plastic -BPA free containers to freeze baby foods, they are perfect size, but you can always use glass jars too). This made it very easy to keep up with the demand. After all I had no time to cook and puree food everyday!
side note about teething cookies- read the labels, make sure you check what you are getting. No need to have sugar in them.
I'm not gonna get into the organic debate.. that would be another post. But lets just say that I am not 100% convinced on organic... the guidelines to be considered organic aren't all that great. So unless you are actually growing it yourself you don't really know what additives are being used.
The important thing is to introduce good foods. Delay the introduction of junk the food! My two year old has never had chocolate, candy, syrup, and many other sweets. Some people consider that being mean, or not allowing my child to be a kid. But the truth is that she is so excited about fruits as deserts, and the good things, why would I spoil that! Eventually .. yes, she will get introduced to those things at school, but for now, why not keep building the foundation for a healthy lifestyle!
And in a lot of ways sugar can be dangerous, afterall, after you tasted chocolate chip cookies, would you be happy eating a whole wheat cracker :) But we'll save that discussion for another post.
This one was about baby food introduction. And I think I covered the basics and some hints that I wanted to share. If you have any questions, please just ask!
You can't control if your child will be a picky eater, or have difficulty transitioning through consistencies, or be a good or difficult eater, most of those things are from their genetic make up, personalities and psychological or physiological issues. But what you can control is what you do about it, and how you react to it. So build a good foundation is the first step.
Thanks!