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My baby girl is only 4 months but we'll be doing BLW when the time comes. We'll also most likely be skipping cereals. I don't feel like there is a lot of nutritional value in it and research doesn't seem to make it sound necessary to me. I'm writing a paper for my english class on baby-led weaning and can send you my sources if you'd like... Also I think Mrs DG did BLW with her little one so hopefully she'll chime in...
You do not have to START with cereals. It is perfectly fine to start with plain, single ingredient pureed homemade veggies.
We're not there yet but I agree, I'm not sold on rice cereal, sounds gross.
I'm too excited to use my food masher to not use purees, I think my husbands even excited to try the different combos we have planned. But letting them feed themselves and try to gnaw things down is a good idea so we'll probably do a bit of both, no need to go all purees or all BLW.
I remember reading that Mrs. Avocado started her son on a wheat cereal. I think I'll do that when the time comes instead of the traditional white rice. The only problem I see with only vegetables is that they won't fill the baby up as long like grains do. Otherwise, I don't see a problem starting just veggies. Good luck!!!
@mszebra: I think for BLW, the idea is for the baby to sample/taste different foods. Not necessarily get filled up on them.
@flamingred: I say go for it, that's how I plan on starting foods with my kids.
The idea to start with rice cereal is that is is one of the less allergenic foods so it is one of the "safer" foods to start with. That being said, it is not so much for nutritional content and "filling up" as it is for learning to move the food to the back of the mouth and swallow. It's all about practice at first, not so much food. I would say go ahead and skip the cereal and start with single ingredient purees.
And ask the pedi about your child's iron needs. Things I've read have said that babies need more around this time if they're breastfed. That being said, our daughter doesn't really like cereal. But I have a box of rice and one of oatmeal and I mix a little with whatever fruit/veggie she's eating.
My FSIL mashed up steamed white rice with breastmilk as the first foods for her 2 kids. She would over steam the rice so it was soft and mushy, then add breastmilk to get the right consistancy.I'll probably do the same with my future kiddos.
I am attempting a mixture of purees and BLW. Kayla doesn't really seem to "get" gnawing on the finger foods we've given her. I'm not sure she is ready for textures yet because we've tried some homemade purees with meat and fish but she's not really into it yet! Your LO will probably help guide you!
Like Candicemcc said, we do a little bit of either rice cereal or oatmeal once a day at least (usually mixed with fruit or veggies) when our pedi told us to continue the cereal for baby's iron needs. :)
We never gave our daughter cereal. Our pediatrician actually told us not to because it's empty calories filling them up instead of getting their milk which should still be the main source of nutrition. Also, he said grains can be tough on a baby's tummy (and many adults' tummies as well.) He suggested starting with vegetables because if they have sweeter food first they'll prefer it more and it'll be harder to get them to eat veggies.
Of course, I've heard other pediatricians say the exact opposite and really push grains, so who knows?
We started her on carrots and peas. Her favorite food was sweet potatoes when she still did mashes. We also let her gnaw on some real foods a la baby fed weaning, but it was more teething on some broccoli than actually eating anything.
I gave her a piece of sliced peach to "play with" last night. She was so into it!! lol!
We didn't do cereal at all. We started with babyled weaning, which resulted in some weird first foods like waffles and rice... (real rice, couldn't get her to eat the cereal!)
The reason you are to start with cereal is because by six months, particularly if you are breast feeding the baby is no longer receiving as much iron as it requires. Therefore, it is important to start with either iron fortified cereal or pureed meats. If you are using iron fortified formula than this isn't as big of an issue.
The only cereal that I ever did was alittle mixed up in his formula to make it slightly thicker, this helped him to sleep through the night as he had something heavier in his stomach. He went right to purees from the bottle.
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DD will be six months next month (OMG!!!) andwe will be starting solids. I just think I want to go right to veggies (my baby bullet is ready to use!!!). but everyone keeps saying I have to do cereal. Of course I am going to discuss with my pedi next month before we start, but I was just wondering what everyone else did.
Also, anyone do baby lead weaning? It sort of scares me because of choking, but I'm kind of interested at the same time.