My twins started eating solid food around 6 months. Hayven, on the other hand, has been eating solid food for a week now and is turning five months old on Saturday.
I want to share what I do to start her on baby food.
1) Rice/Oatmeal cereal: The first thing I try out. You can make your own by using a coffee grinder to make the rice or oatmeal into a really fine powder. Then add it to a pot of boiling water and stir in. Let it cook for a little while. Otherwise, I really like the brand Earth's Best for Rice, Oatmeal, or Multigrain cereal for babies.
2) Beginning Fruits: Bananas and avocados do not need to be cooked before you give them to baby. Simply mash them up and serve them. You can mix them with rice cereal too for more nutrition.
Pears (good fiber), peaches, blueberries, strawberries ect. These should be steamed and then placed in a food processor or hand mashed. I never peel the skins off; I just make sure it's mashed well. Stay away from acidy fruits like oranges or grapefruit. Baby's stomach can't handle it.
3) Beginning Veggies: Green beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, spinach... pretty much anything except tomatoes (again, to acidy).
4) Protein: I personally do not eat a lof of meat, nor did I feed my twins a lot of meat. I would do eggs though! Wait until baby is about 7 months or so. You can hard-boil them, or scramble them and cut them up for finger food.
Also, beans were my twins favorite! Experiment with different kinds (black, pinto, kidney ect). You could mash these up and add them to a veggie mixture, or use them as finger food!
5) Dairy: PLEASE only use organic dairy products for your family! There is so much bad stuff in commercial dairy (even if it says hormone free). Right now in my house we are eating a lot of goat's cheese and yogurt. We don't drink milk unless it's almond milk.
For baby: Whole-Milk, Whole-Milk Yogurt, Not any "partially fat" cheeses, but good fatty cheeses.
My Favorite Combinations
- Potatoes and Spinach
- Bananas and Avocado
- Sweet Peas and Carrots with Cinnamon
- Pears and Ginger
- Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon and Ginger
Don't be afraid of spices! Of course, be careful of allergies, but babies are just little people... they like flavor too! And there are so many healing and medicinal things in spices that babies can benefit from! For example:
Ginger: helps nausea, indigestion, gas pains ects
Cinnamon: helps digestive upsets, gas, bloating, nausea, indigestion, has mild antibiotic and anti-fungal properties, helps colds, flu, chest infections, and coughs
Oregano: chesty coughs and much more
Also, I would just give the girls what I made for Alex and I. If we ate pasta, I would just mash it up for little baby, or give it to them as finger food when they were older. Great when eating out too! You could even find some sort of food smashing device to carry in your purse :) I know people who did this.
**I add in probiotics to the food I make for Hayven. I have always had her on probiotics since she was in the hospital for pneumonia and RSV**
Finger Foods
I started the twins on finger food at 7 months old.
Starting with Cheerios because (even though they had no teethers) they were able to "gum" it until it dissolved.
Cut of soft fruits and veggies (cooked or uncooked), bits of crackers or whole grain breads, eggs, or beans.
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I hope this helps those of you who are starting your babies on solid food! It's such a fun experience! Try out your own combinations and have a blast feeding your baby the healthiest things you can whip together :)
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