how long does a baby eat baby food?

[Mrs. Charming]

DD stopped getting baby food around 9.5 months or so. She wanted *real* food. I agree with a PP about the stage 3 food, at that point, it's table food time.

On the other hand, my nephew has every kind of food allergy imaginable and he's still getting baby food at 1.5. (You'd think SIL could get a tad bit creative with say, vegan or whole foods.)

 

[worm761]

DD is just about to turn 5 months. Dr said that she can have stage two foods when she was 4 months and that is what she has been eating.

 

[Minniemouse07]

DD is just about to turn 5 months. Dr said that she can have stage two foods when she was 4 months and that is what she has been eating.

WOW...4mo? Our ped said nothing but breastmilk (or formula) until minimum 5mo, ideally 6mo!

Of course kids have other ideas. Ds was chomping at the bit to start solids at 5.5mo but his older sister refused everything until about 8 or 9mo!

 

[Mrs. Charming]

WOW...4mo? Our ped said nothing but breastmilk (or formula) until minimum 5mo, ideally 6mo!

Of course kids have other ideas. Ds was chomping at the bit to start solids at 5.5mo but his older sister refused everything until about 8 or 9mo!

DD was formula fed, so the Ped was OK with food at 4mos This kid is now a human garbage disposal.

 

[Ava]

You would think with all my questions that I am a first time mom. DS will be 14 on Mother's Day. He was different though as he has Autism and he is the only other child I have. DD, being neurotypical, is totally new for me.
She is starting to teeth now. I thought it was too soon to teeth but Dr assures me that she is and it isn't too early. She loves her morning cereal and I make that kind of thickish. She loved the sweet potatoes and hated the peas. When you try to give her peas, she clamps her mouth shut and won't open it until you move the spoon away from her. She is grabbing at the spoon and trying to put it in her mouth. We have her sit with us at dinner time though I try to feed her just before so that I can eat a hot meal. But if you eat in front of her, she watches your hand go from your plate to your mouth. I make almost everything we eat from scratch and use very little (read almost no) salt when I am cooking. Is it too early to try to give her some food? I honestly cannot remember with my son, nieces or nephews. She fusses at some of the foods but I am pretty sure it is because of the texture because she will eat them. Any suggestions?

Your DD sounds like mine - she was very interested in our food from a young age. She also got teeth early, her first one came in on her 5-month birthday. We started her on baby food just before she turned 6 months old and not too long after that she grabbed a french fry off of my plate - that was her first table food, lol. I can't remember exactly how old she was but we started giving her little bits of table foods pretty early on (mostly veggies & fruits cooked soft).

I would say if your DD is interested in table food, it's okay to let her try some. Just make sure it's small & soft enough that she won't choke. I think it's better to get kids onto table foods quickly if they don't have any issues.

My DD only ate baby food for a short time, maybe a few months. We also didn't bother with the Stage 1 jars; Stage 2 is only a tad thicker, and its a larger jar so its a better deal. (We figured if DD could gum down a french fry at 6 months old, she'd be okay with Stage 2 jars.) She was probably completely on table food by around 9-10 months; we tried to give her a Stage 3 jar when we went on a trip when she was 11 months old, because we needed something easy to take on the train and she would not eat it at all! She just turned 1 and she eats pretty much everything we eat, you can't eat anything in front of her without giving her some, lol.

 

[luvmy2babies]

My son hasn't had any yet, but if I remember correctly my daughter had stage 1 from about 6.5mo to 9mo, stage 2 from 9-11mo and stage 3, from 11mo to about 13mo. I tried table food at 1, but she tossed her cookies, so I went to Gerber graduates and she did fine with those until she was ready for real food.

Only thing about stocking up is the possibility of allergies. We're advised to only try one food at a time so if there is an allergy it can be pin pointed easily. If that happens you can always give food away or trade with another mom.

My dd had cereal from month 5 on. Back then my pediatrician said no cereal until 4 months and we stuck with that. Introduced rice cereal at 4months and she hated it. Thought she wasn't ready so we waited until 5mo. Turned out she just hated the rice cereal. She loved the oatmeal though…especially with banannas. I don't remember when I stopped giving that.

Ds is a little chubbo. I nurse 50% and formula feed 50%. He probably won't see cereal until month 6 after we get back from summer vacation.

 

[badblackpug]

I'm another one whose kids wouldn't/won't touch the stuff.

 

[MickeyShow]

So many people always say their kids wouldn't eat it but my son was the opposite. He enjoyed baby food even after he moved on to finger and table foods. It was great because I would always add a jar of veggies to whatever he was feeding himself and felt like he got a complete meal. He probably stopped eating it somewhere around 14/15 months when he didn't want to be spoon fed anymore. You just never know.

 

[crisi]

My kids - a month? Both pretty much wanted to feed themselves the moment they got the eye hand coordination to get little peices of cheese or fruit or bread into their mouths and then didn't want me and the spoon near them.

 

[2binak]

Our DD ate Stage 1's for 2.5 months and Stage 2's for 3.5 months. She started when she was 6 months old and finished 2 weeks shy of her 1st birthday. DD never took to Stage 3's. I think the mixing of the smooth & chunky textures bothered her.

 

[2Pinks]

Kids can be so different.

Our pediatrician told us no baby food until after 6 months old. I started my oldest on rice cereal just before 7 months. I mostly made my own baby food with her as we didn't have a lot of money to be buying the jarred stuff and DD1 didn't seem to like it much anyway. It would take her at least 2 sittings to finish a single jar, sometimes more. I made her sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, apples, bananas, carrots and pears by the time she started refusing to be spoon-fed right before 10 months. I think we bought maybe 6-7 jars total for her, had a few given to use by friends whose kiddos had moved on from jarred food.

My second, OTOH, was a huge eater and with a toddler and an infant (the girls are 16 months apart) to care for, I just didn't have as much time to make the food myself so we bought the jarred stuff. And DD2 ate it like crazy! Eating between 6-9 jars a day by the time she was 9 months old - 2-3 jars per meal. The girl had her own cupboard just for her baby food. Fortunately she went quickly to table food as well, feeding herself before she was a year old.

So even though, time-wise, they both stopped eating the jarred food at the same time - they ate very different quantities.

 

[Ennazus8810]

My DD ate it until she was about 9 months old, and even then it was sporadic. She refused all stage 3 foods. She wanted nothing to do with table foods, and our MD suggested the Gerber Graduates Puffs and yogurt drops. They melt in the mouth, so there is a reduced chocking hazard. Took a few days of giving them to her as snacks, but now she is totally on table food cut small.

 

[heatherwillmom]

As a Primary Care Provider & mother, I recommend keeping a baby on baby food for as long as possible. With the toddler foods today, they have more options. If a parent is careful enough when they make they own food without seasoning, it is great. However, no one's kitchen is controlled by the FDA like the baby food factory. Most mother who make their own baby food start off good, then justgive them what ever they are eating. I have seen many mothers bring in an anemic, sick baby who has been eating table foods that should not be given to an infant. Honey, which is used as a sweetner in many products, can be deadly for an infant under 1 year. Infants can also suffer from gastrointestional bleeding if given whole milk under the age of one.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

None of my kids ever ate the stage 3's. We went from 2's to table food. They all gagged on the texture of 3's.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

As a Primary Care Provider & mother, I recommend keeping a baby on baby food for as long as possible. With the toddler foods today, they have more options. If a parent is careful enough when they make they own food without seasoning, it is great. However, no one's kitchen is controlled by the FDA like the baby food factory. Most mother who make their own baby food start off good, then justgive them what ever they are eating. I have seen many mothers bring in an anemic, sick baby who has been eating table foods that should not be given to an infant. Honey, which is used as a sweetner in many products, can be deadly for an infant under 1 year. Infants can also suffer from gastrointestional bleeding if given whole milk under the age of one.

lol, the FDA was right on top the apple juice/sugar water...I will take education of the parent over counting on govt. officials and big business any day of the week.

 

[heatherwillmom]

Too bad no one has to have a license to be a parent, any idiot can do it. Once you've seen the results on children of parent's bad decisions, you realize the government regulators are the lesser of 2 evils. Many grandparents insist on doing things the same way they did it years ago. They don't see the children who have severe chronic problems as a result. as an example, just because their children took aspirin without a problem, they think it's OK to give to their grandchildren. If they had ever seen a child with Reye Syndrome, they would think twice. The same goes for the young child or teenager with hypertension whose parents have always fed him whatever they ate, including a large amount of salt & preservatives.

 

[monkeybug]

Too bad no one has to have a license to be a parent, any idiot can do it. Once you've seen the results on children of parent's bad decisions, you realize the government regulators are the lesser of 2 evils. Many grandparents insist on doing things the same way they did it years ago. They don't see the children who have severe chronic problems as a result. as an example, just because their children took aspirin without a problem, they think it's OK to give to their grandchildren. If they had ever seen a child with Reye Syndrome, they would think twice. The same goes for the young child or teenager with hypertension whose parents have always fed him whatever they ate, including a large amount of salt & preservatives.

I think the problems you see are more about uneducated parents/caregivers, and less about preparing baby food at home.
I made all my own baby food, but I always consulted with my pediatrician and made sure I was doing it in a way that was safe for baby.
There is nothing wrong with a parent buying organic apples (or picking them fresh from a tree), baking them, pureeing them, and freezing them for baby. It's just as healthy as if you buy them in a jar.
When a child is old enough, there is also nothing wrong with giving them seasoned food. Obviously not with loads of salt or spicy things like cayenne pepper, but herbs and seasonings are not all bad for baby. The meals I prepare for my family are generally healthy and well rounded. My ped. had no problem (once my child was old enough) with me putting some of the chicken, broccoli, and brown rice from our dinner into a food processor for baby.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Oh please. I have spent 30 years working with high risk families. Any idiot can work for big business sort of like Johnson and Johnson. Any idiot van work for the govt and be bought off by lobbiests. I'll take a parent's judgement over theirs any day if the week.

This has gotten our society this far.

 

[Ava]

As a Primary Care Provider & mother, I recommend keeping a baby on baby food for as long as possible. With the toddler foods today, they have more options. If a parent is careful enough when they make they own food without seasoning, it is great. However, no one's kitchen is controlled by the FDA like the baby food factory. Most mother who make their own baby food start off good, then justgive them what ever they are eating. I have seen many mothers bring in an anemic, sick baby who has been eating table foods that should not be given to an infant. Honey, which is used as a sweetner in many products, can be deadly for an infant under 1 year. Infants can also suffer from gastrointestional bleeding if given whole milk under the age of one.

With all due respect, I know how clean my own kitchen is. I also know exactly what is going into the food I make myself. I don't know either of these things about a baby food factory, FDA or no FDA. I did feed my DD jarred food when she was first starting solids, but that was more for convenience than because I thought it was better for her. Once DD was past needing to eat only 1 new food at a time to rule out allergies, our pediatrician told us it was fine to feed her whatever we were eating, with a few exceptions. (No dairy or eggs until 7 months, no whole milk or honey until 1 year. And obviously puree, mush, or cut things up small so its not a choking hazard.)

The problems you mentioned with infants having honey or milk before age 1 are due to uneducated parents/caregivers, something the FDA cannot control. I believe it is up to the child's pediatrician to make sure the parents are educated on which foods are unsafe for their babies. I also believe that giving a child a variety of REAL foods from a young age fosters good eating habits for life. My DD just turned 1 and she likes almost everything; the only thing I can think of that she doesn't really like is eggs, although she will eat them if you put cheese in. She even likes stronger flavors, such as garlic, tomato sauce, and sharp cheeses. Oh and she LOVES pickles! We only let her have a little piece every once in a while because we don't want her to have too much salt, but she loves them.

As far as things like salt & sugar (since you mentioned children with hypertension in your second post), NO ONE should have too much of these things. Overabundance of salt & sugar in our diets is a larger societal problem; adults who eat too much junk food will usually end up having children who also eat too much junk food. There's nothing wrong with feeding a baby a healthy, well-rounded diet of table foods. There is something wrong if your family's table food consists of pizza & fast food and you in turn feed that to your baby.

 

[monkeybug]

With all due respect, I know how clean my own kitchen is. I also know exactly what is going into the food I make myself. I don't know either of these things about a baby food factory, FDA or no FDA. I did feed my DD jarred food when she was first starting solids, but that was more for convenience than because I thought it was better for her. Once DD was past needing to eat only 1 new food at a time to rule out allergies, our pediatrician told us it was fine to feed her whatever we were eating, with a few exceptions. (No dairy or eggs until 7 months, no whole milk or honey until 1 year. And obviously puree, mush, or cut things up small so its not a choking hazard.)

The problems you mentioned with infants having honey or milk before age 1 are due to uneducated parents/caregivers, something the FDA cannot control. I believe it is up to the child's pediatrician to make sure the parents are educated on which foods are unsafe for their babies. I also believe that giving a child a variety of REAL foods from a young age fosters good eating habits for life. My DD just turned 1 and she likes almost everything; the only thing I can think of that she doesn't really like is eggs, although she will eat them if you put cheese in. She even likes stronger flavors, such as garlic, tomato sauce, and sharp cheeses. Oh and she LOVES pickles! We only let her have a little piece every once in a while because we don't want her to have too much salt, but she loves them.

As far as things like salt & sugar (since you mentioned children with hypertension in your second post), NO ONE should have too much of these things. Overabundance of salt & sugar in our diets is a larger societal problem; adults who eat too much junk food will usually end up having children who also eat too much junk food. There's nothing wrong with feeding a baby a healthy, well-rounded diet of table foods. There is something wrong if your family's table food consists of pizza & fast food and you in turn feed that to your baby.

Couldn't agree more!!!
My kids are some of the most well rounded eaters I know! There are very few things they don't like, and they honestly prefer homemade food over processed fast foods. Both would rather have salmon than a chicken nugget!
I have no way of knowing for sure, but I like to think it's because I fed them both homemade food from the beginning (they both had jarred baby food from time to time as well) and gave them lot's of different foods to try (under the guidance of my ped. and one new food at a time to rule out allergies). Of course they both like junk too, just homemade junk.
I think baby food tastes gross! I've tasted pureed squash (we've all been to those baby showers where they make you eat the stuff right? Or maybe I've just been unlucky when it comes to baby showers?) from a baby food jar, and even if I don't add any seasoning at all, it doesn't taste nearly as good as the squash that comes out of my oven.
No wonder so many families eat way too much fat and sodium, half the food processed in factories doesn't even taste like food with out it!