pelers
Active Member
I tried starting Sprout out on purees at about 4.5 months. He was not interested.
At 4 months we tried some rice cereal. He was not a fan... I tried it myself and can't say as I blame him! After 3 days of bland rice cereal we tried apples. He did okay with them. Did those for 3 days and then tried bananas. He puked those up all over me. Haven't tried them again yet.
He's at 7.5 months now and we're starting up again, this time with much more enthusiastic results. I went out and procured a bunch of stuff to start making my own baby foods (ice cube trays, mini food processor) but still haven't quite gotten to it. I don't do a lot of Gerber foods, but I am doing packaged purees. I just always make sure to read the ingredients list before I buy anything. A lot of the Gerber stuff (except for the Organics line) has a bunch of crap in it. You can find a lot of "organic" styled stuff that ONLY has whatever fruit or veggie is supposed to be in it. Happy Baby, Plum Organics, Earth's Best, etc. It will occasionally have a bit of ascorbic acid or something in it to keep the color, but none of the other filler crap.
Now at 7.5 months I started him back with mangos (the Happy Baby brand) and he LOVED them. Like insanely excited loves them. I let his Granny pick what we wanted to try next since we were down visiting and she picked up sweet potatoes (Earth's Best) and he wasn't thrilled about them, but he ate them. Tried the Earth's Best sweet potatoes/apple blend, he wasn't keen on it either. Tomorrow we are starting pears. I'm doing one thing of plain pears (Happy Baby) and one thing of pears/mango (Plum Organics).
The eating schedule we're on he has a bottle in the morning, about 6 or 7am. Between 10am and 12pm he gets another bottle. Usually about an hour after that bottle we do some pureed fruit or veggie. Between 2pm and 4pm is another bottle, again followed about an hour later by another puree. We usually do the last bottle of the day sometime around 6pm and into bed by 7pm.
I've let him munch on watermelon before (very closely supervised) and he did great. That was at about 6 months. I let him munch on a bit of cucumber and he managed to gum a chunk off without me noticing and scared the hell out of me when he started coughing and then launched a small chunk of cucumber out of his throat at me. Not cool. No cucumbers since unless they are in that mesh teether bag.
The teether bag really is great. Can put ice cubes in it to soothe her teething gums. Can also do fresh or frozen fruit, though I would recommend putting her in the high chair to do it. It can get messy.
At the 4 month check up our pediatrician said it was okay to start fruits. At 6 months he said okay to start veggies. He said wait until 9 months for meats. The order to start things in is a huge debate (allergies, ohnoes!) but I'd say go with what you feel is best. Right now I'm alternating introducing a fruit, then a veggie. I imagine his first bit of meat will be at Thanksgiving (when he's 11 months).
If you have the time I'd say go for making your own. Cut the fruits/veggies into chunks, steam them, puree them, pop 'em in ice cube trays and freeze. If you don't have the time there are purees available that don't have loads of garbage in them. Definitely stick to the one ingredient at a time introduction. If she does have a reaction to something it will make it much easier to isolate rather than having to go through and try a whole slew of stuff.
You'll do great
At 4 months we tried some rice cereal. He was not a fan... I tried it myself and can't say as I blame him! After 3 days of bland rice cereal we tried apples. He did okay with them. Did those for 3 days and then tried bananas. He puked those up all over me. Haven't tried them again yet.
He's at 7.5 months now and we're starting up again, this time with much more enthusiastic results. I went out and procured a bunch of stuff to start making my own baby foods (ice cube trays, mini food processor) but still haven't quite gotten to it. I don't do a lot of Gerber foods, but I am doing packaged purees. I just always make sure to read the ingredients list before I buy anything. A lot of the Gerber stuff (except for the Organics line) has a bunch of crap in it. You can find a lot of "organic" styled stuff that ONLY has whatever fruit or veggie is supposed to be in it. Happy Baby, Plum Organics, Earth's Best, etc. It will occasionally have a bit of ascorbic acid or something in it to keep the color, but none of the other filler crap.
Now at 7.5 months I started him back with mangos (the Happy Baby brand) and he LOVED them. Like insanely excited loves them. I let his Granny pick what we wanted to try next since we were down visiting and she picked up sweet potatoes (Earth's Best) and he wasn't thrilled about them, but he ate them. Tried the Earth's Best sweet potatoes/apple blend, he wasn't keen on it either. Tomorrow we are starting pears. I'm doing one thing of plain pears (Happy Baby) and one thing of pears/mango (Plum Organics).
The eating schedule we're on he has a bottle in the morning, about 6 or 7am. Between 10am and 12pm he gets another bottle. Usually about an hour after that bottle we do some pureed fruit or veggie. Between 2pm and 4pm is another bottle, again followed about an hour later by another puree. We usually do the last bottle of the day sometime around 6pm and into bed by 7pm.
I've let him munch on watermelon before (very closely supervised) and he did great. That was at about 6 months. I let him munch on a bit of cucumber and he managed to gum a chunk off without me noticing and scared the hell out of me when he started coughing and then launched a small chunk of cucumber out of his throat at me. Not cool. No cucumbers since unless they are in that mesh teether bag.
The teether bag really is great. Can put ice cubes in it to soothe her teething gums. Can also do fresh or frozen fruit, though I would recommend putting her in the high chair to do it. It can get messy.
At the 4 month check up our pediatrician said it was okay to start fruits. At 6 months he said okay to start veggies. He said wait until 9 months for meats. The order to start things in is a huge debate (allergies, ohnoes!) but I'd say go with what you feel is best. Right now I'm alternating introducing a fruit, then a veggie. I imagine his first bit of meat will be at Thanksgiving (when he's 11 months).
If you have the time I'd say go for making your own. Cut the fruits/veggies into chunks, steam them, puree them, pop 'em in ice cube trays and freeze. If you don't have the time there are purees available that don't have loads of garbage in them. Definitely stick to the one ingredient at a time introduction. If she does have a reaction to something it will make it much easier to isolate rather than having to go through and try a whole slew of stuff.
You'll do great