Introducing Food to Babies

Posted on May 27, 2014 | 0 comments

What a great time in life – discovering food! Tastes, textures, smells – it is all new and exciting! As the parent doing the introducing it can be equally as scary as it can be exciting. This is why it is super important to be sure to talk with your pediatrician BEFORE taking ANYONE’S advice – even mine!

For us, by about four months of literally breast-feeding every 2 hours (and yes my child was putting on great amounts of weight – I just birthed hoovers is all) I was desperate for a bit of sleep longer than the 45 minutes a pop I had been getting. So our doctor suggested introducing some pabulum, rice cereal, mixed with my breast milk in hopes it would sustain him for longer than 2 hours.

Here is my account of that:

I, very excitedly, pumped out many ounces of milk (I was graced with lots and lots of it!) totally thinking I had a four-hour nap coming my way. I immediately mixed in the pabulum, put my son in his chair, got the cutest little bib attached to him, wipes out and ready. I am cooo-ing away to him telling him he is going to love this and he is smiling and laughing.

I get the bowl with the special baby safety spoon all filled up with this mixture.

In my excitement I forgot my rule “When introducing food to babies, always taste it first.” Ooops…

I get the spoon filled and to his tongue… he opens… he tastes… he thinks… his face scrunches up… AND he erupts! Food gets spit back out onto me and the cute little bib, tears come streaming down and oh boy did he let me have it! I attempted one more spoonful that landed on my shirt and I gave in and nursed… knowing I was not getting a longer nap.

Then I remembered and I tasted it…. NASTY! How can I expect him to eat something that made me gag??!!

So back to the doc we went (Ok, really I only called…). They suggested mixing it with organic pear juice. Straight to our local market I went!

That evening I attempted again. I warmed the juice up on the stove, mixed it, filled the spoon… he opens… he tastes… he thinks… he SMILES!! He hungrily ate the whole bowl! Success!

We did this for a couple of weeks. Unfortunately it only increased his sleep to a whole whopping 3 hours, but what can I say… I was given great eaters and bad sleepers! I would not change them for the world though, they are perfect for me!

When it was time to introduce solid foods, as opposed to just juice, I chose to make my own baby food. You can read about how to make your own baby food here, I loved it and am so glad I did it. Making your own baby food is so easy.

I would feed him the food 2x a day, once in the morning and once for dinner. I continued to nurse during the day on our schedule and when he would wake up in the middle of the night.

It felt really good to be introducing food to babies that was fresh, local, seasonal and healthy as their first food experiences.

Beyond the pabulum, my children did not have any processed or jar foods at all. I pureed and made everything which was surprisingly easy to do.

While introducing food to babies, be sure to listen to what their expressions are telling you. Their little bodies know what they need, believe it or not, and the things they react to the best are the things they need.

Have fun with it!

Till then Cheers and Happy Eating!
Malibu Mama Loves Xx