What do you feed your baby?

[sheila rose]

My daughter is almost 8 months old. It seems like all I do is feed her jar baby food. I am trying crackers and graham crackers but it seems as though I should be feeding her more things by now. This is my 3rd child so you would think that I should know what to feed her. It's like my brain just "left the building". Her 2 bottom teeth are just now coming through so I know I can't give her things that need to be chewed really well. What are you guys giving to your babies? I feel as though I'm starving her. Any ideas or help would be appreciated!
Sheila

 

[KimR]

My youngest wouldn't eat baby food, so for the first year or so I struggled with the same thing. She'd eat yoghurt, soggy cheerios (ick), pasta, soup...not much else. The doctor told me not to worry about it and that if all she got was breast milk, she'd be fine!

Kim

 

[peg2001]

Anything that you can think of that is soft, small or cubed, and healthy is fair game! Ripe cubed fruit (banana, peach, pear, etc), well cooked cubed apples are fine too but not raw yet, peas, well cooked and soft beans, tofu, etc.

At 8-months, I wouldn't worry too much about it as the child is probably still getting most of the nutrition from formula or breast milk. After 9-months of age, try to introduce as much variety as possible to get the child used to different flavors and textures before she starts getting pickier!

Good luck. It's so fun to feed at this age!

Peggy

 

[luv2nascar]

How about mashed potatoes, really well cooked noodles cut up, mac-n-cheese, scrambled eggs
I got a really great thing (don't know what its called) at walmart
had seen it in parents magazine. Looks like a popsicle plastic holder for kids to hold with a cone shaped net on the end.
You can put food in the net you are afraid they will swallow like fresh fruit. The kids can suck the juice and small pieces through the net but no big pieces to worry about choking on. I think I paid $3.96 for it. Haven't tried it yet as DD is only 6 weeks old. But I didn't want to chance not finding one when I needed it.

If you are interested I can check on the manufacturer name and name of product. I am really interested to try it.

 

[shortbun]

I didn't start with baby food until 7 months so at
8 months Ds was still experimenting with baby food.
I either made it or bought organic. I later used cubed
boiled potatoes/very cooked carrot sticks/mixed veggies
cooked a lot/french fries/schredded cheese/diced beets/
cooked lentils/various fruits cut in tiny cubes-pears and
cooked apples or shredded raw apples and yes a form of
cheerio type cereal. Also brown rice cooked with a little apple
juice to sweeten it a bit. Applesauce. Avacados. tiny little bits of banana so no choking would occur. mashed chick peas.
bits of rich bread(ds loved pumpernickel!) crackers made for
babies so they didn't crumble or break off in big hunks. crumbled tofu. Really though-at 8 months, most are simply working on
baby food and that swallowing thing. Have fun!

 

[Kermit]

Jacob was 7 months on the 1st, and he still is exclusively breastfed, so I don't have any practical experience feeding him, but I do plan on feeding him a lot of the things listed here when I do start feeding him. It's just so easy to travel with him right now, and he's not acting like he needs anything else. When he cuts his first tooth, I may see if he wants to eat.

If you haven't introduced a lot of different things yet, it's still good to feed things as single ingredients. But you don't have to mash and puree as finely as baby food from jars. Soft cubes that she can pick up are great. The main things that you'd want to avoid right now are tomatoes, corn, wheat (and all those crackers and breads made with wheat, probably until she's at least 9 months or so), egg whites, and berries. And while you don't want to give her regular cow's milk yet, you can introduce yogurt now or sometime soon. Cottage cheese is good after you see that she tolerates yogurt well.

 

[becka]

DS started the jar food about 6 months old and by 7 1/2 months he didn't want any more of the jar stuff and just wanted what was on our plates.

We started out with just real soft foods like mashed potatoes, yogurt, cottage cheese, mac and cheese, bananas, etc.. but he very quickly started eating soft canned fruits like peaches, pears, any kind of pasta (spaghetti, ravioli) with marinara sauce, crackers, cheerios, sweet potatoes (loves them), green beans, corn, cooked carrots (still a big favorite), rice, etc..

By 10 months he pretty much was eating whatever we ate including the meats if they were not too chewy and I cut them into small pieces. He has always been able to handle everything very well and there is nothing he won't eat. It is so nice not to have to worry about making special meals for him most of the time.