Introducing New Foods

Now that you have painstakingly made all of your purees, researched countless baby cereals, and poised your camera for the first feeding, you cannot forget about food allergies and sensitivities.

In a former life, I worked with picky eaters and food sensitivities. It isn't easy forming your child into a well rounded eater, and it is even harder if there are food sensitivities and allergies involved.

Some children have sensitivities and allergies. It just happens, be prepared and diligent, but don't let it cripple your child's first bites.

It is recommended that you start with orange foods - carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash - so go for it! But in case you are a little apprehensive, here is how I did it.

Day one:

Beech-but rice cereal (they recommend only giving 1 tablespoon at the first feeding). SO, that is what I did, and enough expressed breast milk* that you couldn't even tell there was cereal in it - oops. We had our cameras ready and our little guy gave us a look like "whats the big deal?" He was right, because we had diluted the cereal so much that he was basically drinking breast milk off of a spoon.

* you can also use water to mix up your cereal, I just happened to have some expressed milk in the fridge

Day two/three:

Nevertheless, he didn't seem to be bothered by the cereal, so at each subsequent "meal" I put less and less breast milk until he was eating a little bit more of a paste. He liked his as chunky as we could make it!

After that I would set aside three days in a row when I would introduce a new food.

[Example: Mon/Tues/ Wed we would have a carrot puree mixed with cereal, Thurs/ Fri/Sat we would have a sweet potato puree mixed with cereal] 

That way I knew that if there was a reaction I knew exactly what caused it.

All Days after:

I always tried to introduce the new food at "breakfast," that way if there was a reaction I could easily get in contact with my pediatrician before the day was over.

Once we had a few new foods under our belt, that is when I started having more than one meal a day. Our guy was hungry! He loved eating!

If there is a reaction, or you think there might be a reaction - get in contact with you pediatrician ASAP.

Don't worry if your new eater isn't took keen on the flavors you are presenting - this could mean that they aren't ready to eat just yet. If they are ready to eat, and they turn their nose up at something, give it a taste yourself, if it tastes good to you keep trying it, sometimes it takes a few tries before they warm up to a new flavor. I'm still trying (unsuccessfully) to sneak chicken into things, and he just came around to avocado (who doesn't like avocado - ugh).

Good luck! And don't forget to get some great pictures!