First Foods - What do You Feed?

[Raw Vegan Mama]

Of course, until 6 months old, all our babes should be eating is breastmilk.

However, once you have the greenlight for first foods, what shoud they be? My youngest is 9 months old -- and here is what he has enjoyed as first foods:

Raw Avocado
Raw Banana
Raw Apples (scrape the apple with a spoon or put in foodmill)
Hummus

He likes "licking" melon, pineapple and cherries.

I also use a Munchkin Mesh Feeder for most foods now that he is 9 months old because he wants to self feed like his two year old brother! It is great to not worry about choking hazzards with this thing!

[Danny_banany]

My youngest is just one month younger , 8 months.
He has tried:
avocado
banana (not so keen)
nectarine (loved them)
peach
watermelon
honeydew
grapes (halves)
His all time favorite? GREEN smoothies!!
He actually will get mad/sad/frustrated when I stop feeding it to him, and he is so eager he usually sticks his whole face in and gets some up his nose! One of these days I will get a picture
oh, I also let him gnaw on dry figs, banana, pineapple, and the odd date , not sure about the wisdom of that one.

My first son rejected food and went on to exclusively nurse til he was 9 months, when he started crawling, where as Caleb (8mos) wanted food at 5 months and started crawling around that time too, hmm, just noticed that link, veddy veddy interesting....

[RawJules]

our babies always liked chewing on large carrot sticks when they were around 8 months old (our daughter, middle child, didnt get her first tooth until she was 16 months old, she really like those carrots.... her baby brother was born then too!!!!)

[Raw Love]

Green Smoothies of coarse.
Raw Love
Melissa

[Raw Vegan Mama]

3.2 Baby's First Food

What should baby's first food be? Experiment. Some babies love bananas, some watermelon, some peaches, etc. Try one fruit at a time but never more than one at a time. Once you find a fruit your baby enjoys, stick with it for a long enough period for your baby to get used to it. Also give only small amounts at first.

Never be in a hurry to try new foods. If he sees you eat something and seems interested, let him try it (provided it is wholesome). Fruits are naturally the best first food for baby as humans are natural frugivores. The baby is already used to the sweetness of mother's milk and will accept fruits before vegetables. In fact, it is a rare child indeed that even enjoys vegetables. Their taste for vegetables has to be "cultivated."

You need not worry about deficiencies if your child won't eat vegetables at first. Once he is used to a wide variety of fruits, serve him these, one at a time, and he will get a variety of nutrients.

You can add vegetables later. Many children like carrot juice as it is sweet—try this. But not too soon, as carrots are starchy vegetables and children before the age of about two do not have the physiological tools necessary to digest starches. Starch merely ferments inside them and causes indigestion and discomfort. Stick to foods that are easy for him/her to digest—namely fruits.

As the child gets older, about five or so, you can add nuts and seeds. Before this it is difficult for baby to properly masticate nuts and, therefore, they're difficult to digest. Wait on these. The article in this lesson, "Feeding Your Child From Two to Three Years," is very helpful in suggesting particular menus.

[Lightlover]

Originally Posted by Raw Vegan Mama

Of course, until 6 months old, all our babes should be eating is breastmilk.

However, once you have the greenlight for first foods, what shoud they be? My youngest is 9 months old -- and here is what he has enjoyed as first foods:

Raw Avocado
Raw Banana
Raw Apples (scrape the apple with a spoon or put in foodmill)
Hummus

He likes "licking" melon, pineapple and cherries.

I also use a Munchkin Mesh Feeder for most foods now that he is 9 months old because he wants to self feed like his two year old brother! It is great to not worry about choking hazzards with this thing!

I am not a participating specialist , but read that after the favorite period
of 6 months breastfeeding, it is very important to slowly induce chewing to the baby (so not only liquid food..).
(Chewing prepares the stomach for the food that will come (enzymes!) so that it can take action in advance, and also chewing learns the child better when it is saturated with food.

Seems very logic to me.

LL

[fruitlove]

Originally Posted by Lightlover

I am not a participating specialist , but read that after the favorite period
of 6 months breastfeeding, it is very important to slowly induce chewing to the baby (so not only liquid food..).
(Chewing prepares the stomach for the food that will come (enzymes!) so that it can take action in advance, and also chewing learns the child better when it is saturated with food.

Seems very logic to me.

LL

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree.
Breastfeeding for 6 months is an absolute minimum, according to the WHO.
And prechewing food for the baby predigests the food and adds enzymes. Way better than using a blender.
There is a very interesting article on this is The Mother magazine, issue 24. http://themothermagazine.com/
I really recommend this magazine. It is about holistic parenting, their recipe section is written by Shazzie (www.shazzie.com) and all articles are very well researched.
Veronika Robinson, the editor of the magazine, has a very inspirational blog that can be found at www.veronikarobinson.blogspot.com

[holistic_mama]

I am in complete agreement with what everyone has been saying. I just wanted to add some more information and resources on the topic.

The most natural method of introducing solids is called baby-led weaning or baby-led solids.

Here is some information on that.

Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid food - http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedseli...lw/engels.html

Weaning food introduction schedule for babies older than six months - http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedseli...ma/engels.html

A Baby Led Start to Solids - http://www.tribalbaby.org/babyLedEating.html

Baby Led Weaning Blog and Community (A MUST) - http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/

Baby-Led Weaning - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby-led_weaning

Baby-Led Weaning Yahoo Group (Great Support) - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/B-LW/

A Natural Age of Weaning - http://www.kathydettwyler.org/detwean.html

Weston A. Price Guidlines - http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nourish-baby.html

With this last one I would not recommend meats till at least 1 year of age if you are cooking them and a lot older if using raw meats in your diet, and grains and legumes till closer to 2 years of age. The enzyme to digest grains and legumes is not active till 28 months of age. However, it is still beneficial to start them on grains and legumes before the 28 months of age. Thus, 2 years of age is recommended. Grains are also potential allergens so you want to make sure the digestive tract is matured and their normal diet well established. If you are doing a raw diet then some of the recommendations here are not going to apply like meat and eggs. Those are not things you would want to give raw to a young child.

Raw Milk - http://www.westonaprice.org/children/rawmilk.html

Keep breastfeeding, giving raw milk formula, liver based formula, fortified commercial formula, or giving raw milk till your child is WELL estabilished on fruits and veggies. If giving formula I'd recommend alternating between the raw milk based and the liver based formulas so that your child is getting a variety of nutrients.

Please see this thread for more information on the formula options.
http://www.rawfreedomcommunity.info/...ead.php?t=3303


Some of the best foods to start with are:

Avocado

Banana

Ripe Pears

Lemons (excellent digestive boost for anyone, especially just before eating a meal)

Pureed apples (basically all natural homemade applesauce )

Introduce one food at a time, wait 3 - 5 days before introducing another new food so that any potential allergies can present and be caught. Wait till your child is eating about 5 different types of foods before you start mixing foods at meals, example: feeding a bit of avocado and banana, or any other combination. Don't season at all, even with sea salt, till about 9 months or so. Then you can start seasoning with sea salt or himalayan salt.

The best way to transition from breastfeeding or formula to solids is in the first year of life always offer breastmilk or formula first, then follow with the solid foods. Be sure to give them water to wash their mouths out after eating solids, you don't want the food and sugars sitting on the tooth enamel. If breastfeeding is still dominate there is no need for lots of water. If formula feeding you do want to go ahead and start pushing a bit more water into the diet.

After the first year of life you would want to offer food first, then follow with breastfeeding or formula. Always offer water throughout the day at this point.

This method can be altered if you decide you wish to wean before 12 months of age, then simply start offering solid foods first, then follow with breastmilk. This will fill them up with something other than breastmilk making it easier to transition fully to solids and reduce the amount of breastfeeding. The other method would be to offer solid foods, then one of the formulas mentioned above, then follow with breastfeeding. Do this till they are entirely on solids and formula and not breastfeeding. I do not recommend this later method if you are wishing to breastfeed for 12 months or longer. There is not a nutritional need for it. The only reason for replacing breastfeeding with formula is to ensure that they are getting the nutrients they need still, since their solid foods diet is still very limited in variety.

The baby-led weaning/solids approach applies the exact same even if you have a late solid food starter. You don't rush foods, you still introduce them one at a time, you just have a larger variety of foods to choose from when introducing a new food.

The trick is not to force solids on your child but to continue to offer the foods once you have notices signs of interest, which usually occur around 6 to 7 months of age. When they are ready they will eat. Till then they will play with it, get familiar with food and textures, and eating utinsils if you give them age appropriate utinsils.

I really wouldn't recommend starting any type of solids prior to 6 months as research has shown, time and time again, that it can potentially lead to digestive issues later on in life, leaky gut, IBS, Crohn's disease, diabetes, food allergies and sensitivities, etc. It is best to start solids around or after 6 months of age. The reason for this is that babies are naturally born with a leaky gut that closes on its own around 6 months of age. When solid foods, cereals, even formulas (pretty much anything other than breastmilk which was made for baby) enters the digestive tract is can directly enter the blood stream leading to a host of immune system and digestive system issues.

These are just some general guidelines for anyone interested in healthy raw and natural approach to the introduction of solid foods.

I hope that this information is found helpful.

I would be more than happy to assist anyone if further assistance is felt needed. Just pm me or email me and I will work with you. I am a holistic lifestyle consultant and holistic parenting coach and this is one of the most common areas that I work with parents on.

Peace and Blessings,