Starting Your Baby On Solids – Prep, Starter Foods and Allergens

Your baby is finally ready to start on solid foods, YAY!  This might sound nerve wracking, but honestly it is so freeing.  Just think, you can go to a cafe, order an extra side of scrambled eggs and BAM! Your child has their breakfast good to go without you having to prepare anything. 

There are a wide variety of foods to let your little one experience taste as well as texture.  Introducing allergens before your child hits the 12 month mark is also very important and can be a little stressful at the thought of it, however it is VERY rare for a child to have a big enough reaction to a food that requires medical attention.  For the mums who have a hungry child, making sure they are getting enough fuel and long lasting carbs in their diet to keep them full throughout the night for a good night's rest is also top priority.  This is such an exciting and fun time, so here are some easy ideas to prepare and include in your child's diet.

Before we dive in, remember that when a baby is starting out eating solids don’t worry if they don’t swallow the food and just dribble it out!  They are learning how to use their throat muscles and all of this is VERY new to them.  Give them time and let them explore the flavours and textures, soon your beautiful baby will work it out over time.

Rice, Mixed Grain or Oat Cereal

This is the typical baby cereal that you mix with formula or breast milk. This is a good starter food (and filler!) because it is easily tolerated and you can make it as thin as you like for those first meals. Start with just about a tablespoon of the cereal.  Once your baby is eating a good amount of solids, you can add some of these to their dinner to fill them up a little bit more before their big sleep at nighttime.

Yellow Vegetables

Mild yellow vegetables like pumpkin, carrots and sweet potatoes are great starters too. They are easy on the stomach (great for reflux babies) and they usually love the taste, mostly because they are sweeter vegetables

Yogurt

Many babies love plain, unsweetened yogurt, and it is a very healthy first food. If your baby doesn’t like it, try adding a little pureed fruit like apple to it.  Always check labels, and buy yogurt with low sugar content (preferably under 4gms of sugar per serving).  Perfect little filler at the end of a meal if your baby is still wanting a bit more to eat.

Mild Fruits

Applesauce, bananas, peaches and pears are all good choices, and babies love them.  You can boil them to soften them for pureeing, mashing or cutting into handheld sizes if you are starting to let baby feed them self.  These are super easy to freeze if you want to boil a bunch in bulk - just remove the skins and boil until soft and place in a container, defrost a couple of fruits each week to cut up or blend.

All of these are some of the best foods to offer first. Many pediatricians recommend offering vegetables, cereals and unsweetened yogurt first.  Offering less sweet foods at this age has been proven to help your child have less of a sweet tooth later on in life.

Be certain that you introduce only one new food at a time when they are just starting out. This will let you determine if there is any food that your child is allergic to or does not tolerate well. Once you have introduced the foods above successfully, you can add other vegetables like green beans, peas and meat.

Allergens

Introducing the common allergens is very important prior to baby being a year old (this helps their bodies accept the allergens and to not react to them).  Do this slowly and take your time, make sure you feel as confident as you need to and talk to your doctor or pediatrician if you have any concerns.  Like I said before, the majority of children do not have a severe reaction (anaphylaxis).  Personally my daughter reacted to strawberries and also had swelling from pineapple, I could tell it wasn’t spreading down her throat though so I gave her some ice cubes in a mesh net to calm the swelling.  She has now grown out of her allergy to strawberries and I just keep her away from Pineapple (she still reacts).

The common allergens are the following; eggs, fish, nuts such as almonds or cashews, peanuts or peanut butter, sesame, shellfish such as shrimp, some fruits such as strawberries and kiwifruit and wheat (including iron-fortified infant cereals).  

Note - it is not recommended to put allergens on baby’s skin first, this has been proven to enhance the risk of reaction and their bodies see it as something “foreign” and could try to attack it.  Digesting it first is the best way for their tiny bodies to accept different foods.

Beware trying to approach those first few solid meals when your baby is really hungry – he/she is likely to rebel. Give them just a little breast milk or formula, and they will be likely to be much more patient with the process.  In those first few weeks your baby will wear more than they eat. Try to be patient though, it will get better – and these first few meals are more about learning the skill than actual nutrition, anyway!