Feeding Baby (purees)
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lisapr123
Posts: 863 Member
Any advice on starting baby on purees? Eleanor is six months old and for the last 5 weeks or so we've given her bits of pureed foods but she just doesn't seem to be taking to it. Spoon feeding is a disaster--she just wants to play with it. I have a pacifier-looking thing that she can either suck the puree out or I can squeeze it into her mouth. That's been slightly better. She liked avocado pieces but there are so few foods that are soft enough for her to have as straight up finger foods....
Am I overthinking this? Maybe she's just not ready?? She's plenty big (26" tall, 20 lbs) so I know she's getting enough.
When did your little ones start "really" taking to food? Any suggestions? I'm not trying to push it, but I've noticed she's been spitting up for the last week or two when she doesn't have any solids in her system. If she has solids--even just a little bit--she tends to keep her milk down way better.
Thanks!
Am I overthinking this? Maybe she's just not ready?? She's plenty big (26" tall, 20 lbs) so I know she's getting enough.
When did your little ones start "really" taking to food? Any suggestions? I'm not trying to push it, but I've noticed she's been spitting up for the last week or two when she doesn't have any solids in her system. If she has solids--even just a little bit--she tends to keep her milk down way better.
Thanks!
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My now-2yr old never ate purees. He would spit them out the few times we tried. I gave him things like a hunk of apple or a large cucumber slice and he would just nom on them. He also would suck on graham crackers until they were mush and eat them. He ate a ton of food but did it in his own little way.0
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My 15 month old also rarely ate purees. You can try mashing up regular foods. She ate a lot of bananas and avocados at first. Also she likes the pouches sold in the baby section.0
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None of my 5 kids ate pureed food. I tried it with all of them and they just cried and spit it out. I just mashed what I could and let them eat what they liked. I would not worry about the selection being limited. These first foods are not really about nutrients. Babies get all the nutrients they need from breast milk for at least the 1st year. These early foods are just about practice and introduction to eating solids.0
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Maybe purées in pouches? My little guy preferred those to spoons, though now he gets frustrated with them because I won't let him handle them and prefers to eat things he can feed himself (he's 12 months). At this point I only feed them to him to make sure he gets some good stuff that I might not otherwise cook or have on hand.
They do make reusable baby food pouches if you are making your own, too.0 -
These first foods are not really about nutrients. Babies get all the nutrients they need from breast milk for at least the 1st year. These early foods are just about practice and introduction to eating solids.
I'm not trying to be a jerk or start a debate, but ^that's not true. The whole "food before one is just for fun" thing has been misconstrued to mean that babies don't need anything but breastmilk until their first birthday.
Both the AAP and the WHO agree that additional foods are necessary for good nutrition. Here's the WHO:
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/paho/2003/a85622.pdf
Relevant quote:
"Breast milk can make a substantial contribution to the total nutrient intake of chil- dren between 6 and 24 months of age, particularly for protein and many of the vitamins. However, breast milk is relatively low in several minerals such as iron and zinc, even after accounting for bioavailability. At 9-11 months of age, for example, the proportion of the Recommended Nutrient Intake that needs to be supplied by complementary foods is 97% for iron, 86% for zinc, 81% for phosphorus, 76% for magnesium, 73% for sodium and 72% for calcium (Dewey, 2001)."
The AAP:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2010/10/05/peds.2010-2576.full.pdf+html
Relevant quote:
“Exclusive breastfeeding for more than 6 months has been associated with increased risk of IDA [iron deficiency anemia] at 9 months of age.”
(I happened to have this info on hand because I recently had this discussion with someone else.)
By all means, keep BFing for as long as you can, but I wish that phrase would die already because it's misleading. Iron, for example, is very important for many things, including brain development. My dad is a pediatrician who's been in practice for 40 years and always gets on my back about making sure my kids get proper nutrients. However he is extra vigilant about iron because it's one of the harder things to come by in foods that aren't iron-fortified.
I know kellymom says otherwise, and I usually trust kellymom, but in this case when the AAP and WHO are in agreement, I think I'll go with them instead.
Edited to apologize if this sounds like a rant or like I'm trying to "school" anyone. I am sorry if I sound that way.0 -
Not sure what age to start this at, but my mom said that I always loved to eat cooked peas.0
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Thanks for the feedback. I think we'll keep trying with soft / mashed finger foods. She's had (and enjoyed) pickles, avocado, bread, butternut squash, banana, lemon. Some of them she just sucked on but others have made their way down the pipes, I think. The only food she's actually seemed to dislike is cereal. I'll keep at it!! Eating our foods is so much less waste too, so I think it's a win-win.
I guess I just got hung up on purees after watching a neighbors 5 month old baby eat literally 2-3 ounces of pureed foods 3x a day! I suppose he's just a boy who his loves food. Plus my husband is **really** into spoon feeding her.0 -
I just felt the other side of this should be presented:
http://kellymom.com/nutrition/starting-solids/delay-solids/
http://kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/iron/
I personally don't put much weight in the recommendations given out by the medical community. They are almost always outdated and presented with an agenda. But that is my own opinion, I recognize many don't agree.0 -
It sounds like you are doing all the right things. sometimes it just takes them a long time to suss it out! I know Ros took probably 6-8 weeks to start really swallowing any quantity! I found she preferred some of the bought purees (boo!) mainly because they could make them much smoother than I could... but she got over that eventually!
When I got worried I started doing a bit of a mix of puree and baby led weaning - so she had puree every day and then some finger food too - toast, cucumber sticks, pizza slices (home made - not just a takeaway, lol!), pancakes etc... she has always preferred carbs to veg/meat... at 3 1/2 we are starting to make progress with what she will eat.
And all that stuff about babies who are breastfed accept more food... well it didn't work for us - i love veg, fruit, curries etc and Ros is currently far fussier! But as I said, it's getting better
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My first son hated purees. We finally just started giving him tiny pieces of fruits/veggies/meats and he was happy. He especially liked things he could hold and nom on himself, like bananas, avocado, peach slices, etc.0
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Thanks ladies! We gave her pieces of nearly everything we ate this weekend....apparently we have an egg lover here. I also used a pacifier-looking thing to give her purees (she can suck them our or I can squeeze it into her mouth) and that was pretty successful. She's just so "handsy" that I think spoons are a little too much fun for her at this point!
Felt really bad about one thing though, she had butternut squash and ended up with a terrible diaper rash. Looked like little blisters. Sad. But it cleared up in about a half day so I suppose it wasn't too bad. But no more butternut squash for a while!0
