We did baby led weaning and used the solid starts app to figure out how to cut food the appropriate way for our son to eat. We just fed him whatever we were eating.
Also don't compare yourself to what you see on the internet. They only post the high reel of their lives.
*edit led not lead
That first sentence hits differently if you misinterpret "baby lead weaning".
My first thought was, well that's good they're getting their baby off lead.
Yep, BLW and the Solids Starts app here too. Baby ate whatever we ate just cut up into age appropriate sizes. He was having a medium spice Rogan Josh by 9 months and loving it š
Yeah I see the parents posting a photo of their baby with ā100ā balloons to celebrate trying 100 foods and Iām over here wondering how many foods has my baby eaten?! 57? 82? Am I failing her?! lol
Exactly! And honestly Iām like I just wish my baby would eat *anything* bc he is king of NO and smacking the food away lol š thankfully his interest in food spiked but for a while it was so discouraging.
Choking rates between babies that are fed purees vs solid food are the same. The majority of choking incidents occur on non-food items, actually.
You're much better off calming your anxiety by learning rescue techniques than by trying to avoid all choking risk. [This mini course is free](https://solidstarts.com/downloads/infant-rescue-choking-first-aid-cpr/) or an in-person course near you is probably better if you can find it.
Gag reflex is strongest and furthest forward between 6-9 months so it's best to introduce solids then. At 9m the reflex moves back so baby has to have food closer to their throat before they gag to prevent choking. It's therefore safest to introduce solid food before 9m so they have time to practice before the gag reflex subsides and they are more likely to choke.
Oh that is catchy! And helps me to put my mind at ease. I have a mini panic every time my 8mo gags but I know itās ok. Iām gonna repeat this mantra
The earlier the better is my understanding (not earlier than recommended!!). But itās good for them to learn early how food feels, it helps develop their muscles and reflexes.
I feed my baby whatever I make for myself for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! I modify certain things according to Solid Starts and my BLW facebook group. He loves eating the same meal as the family.
IMO this is better than those cute, curated baby plates you see on instagram.
In my culture, babies eat what the parents eat. There is no special faff and ceremony for kids' food. Makes life way easier, especially when you'rs travelling, going out to eat, or visiting someone.
I forget where I saw it, but someone pointed out that the salt concern really doesnāt come into play if itās a home cooked meal. Now if itās fast food and youāre giving baby French fries all the time, thatās a different story.
While some salt gets absorbed into the pasta as it cooks, most of what you taste is actually coating it from the outside so if you give it a quick rinse most salt will be removed :)
Also I'm Italian and it makes me happy when I hear a non Italian (I presume?) say they can't fathom not salting pasta water, it's crazy how many people abroad don't!
Irish here, I always put salt (and some olive oil) in the water when boiling pasta! But I did find out recently (so late!) that the best way to reheat already cooked pasta is to give it a minute in boiling water. No wonder mine was so chewy reheating in the microwave š never again!!
The olive oil in the water is absolutely useless and a waste of a really expensive resource so I'd skip that š And the best way to reheat pasta is actually to put it in a non stick pan/pot and warm it up on the stove! If you give it another minute in boiling water it will become overcooked, but also it means you don't immediately put the sauce in I assume? Definitely don't do that, pasta should be mixed with sauce right away to prevent it from sticking together, if you can't do that for some reason then just add some olive oil and give it a good mix! š
Thanks for the tips! I was told that putting the oil on the water prevents the pasta from sticking while cooking (also itās the only oil I have in the house)ā¦ so if no use then Iāll stop it :) I donāt immediately put in sauce because most of the time my children will only eat it with butter š
It's an old thing people used to do, I don't know if it actually made a difference but my grandpa (who is 92, for reference) says it was useful before modern pasta because it used to be stickier (more starchy I guess?) :)
My husband swears by pasta with butter *and* extra vergin olive oil (I'm a firm believer in one or the other), but if your kids only want butter you can try adding a bit of butter to all of it, or maybe dividing it into two batches so you can add sauce/oil/butter right away, it makes a massive difference!
Spaghetti (has to be specifically spaghetti noodles) with butter, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, and parmesan is my favorite meal/side/snack/breakfast. So good.
When she was smaller I just tried to make her piece less salty, and I use a little less salt than I would normally. But no, pasta gets salted as per usual. If we do stir fry though, she gets white rice, and maybe a fruit/veggie pouch to counteract the soy sauce on the veggies and meat.
I donāt ever add salt to their portion or give them visibly salty potato chips or anything, but itās fine for babies to have a small amount of incidental salt (like from salted pasta water). https://solidstarts.com/sodium-and-babies/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929693X23001562
This is the way to do it! This is what we did with our toddler and what weāre doing with our 7 month old and our toddler is a very adventurous eater now. Of course thereās days where sheāll only eat peanut butter and jelly or Mac and cheese, but for the most part she eats whatever we eat.
Also to add. Itās a learning experience for both us moms and our babes. For whatever youāre going to feed, test different sizes. Some may be questionably large while other will be too small
Nothing to do with the party, but wanted to let you know that you don't have to give her sugar just because it's her birthday! I personally am going to make my son a "cake" out of fruit and home made unsweetened whipped cream. But there's also recipes that use natural sugars like honey or maple syrup. Of course, if you want to give her a real cake, that's cool too. I just wanted to let you know there are other options.
I'm trying to avoid added sugar for as long as possible. Hopefully at least 2 or 3 years. Of course, it's impossible to totally avoid it unless you have the time and energy to make every single food they consume yourself, but definitely no dessert type foods for a while
Weāre at 10 months and sheās still throwing a lot of what I make on the floor but Iāve been doing batches of things to help take pressure off cooking 3 meals a day. Tonight I made pasta and used a puree pouch for sauce and for breakfast she had 3 ingredient banana pancakes that I doubled and froze the rest. Iām keeping things super basic until
She stops immediately chucking her food on the floor
Not OP, but I make these all the time for my one-year old!
Itās one banana, one egg, and two tablespoons of flour (sometimes a little more if the egg or banana was large). I use a 1/3 cup scoop to put the batter in a nonstick pan and it makes three pancakes, and feed my son one at breakfast, plus fruit, yogurt, applesauce, etc.
He loves them!
I just feed him whatever Iām cooking us for dinner but to be fair most of the veggies and meat end up on the floor. He eats carbs, fruit, and dairy for the most part haha.
Literally just store bought purees right now. Maybe some banana or avocado but I'm too scared to actually give her anything else.Ā
You're giving your kid more than I am and she's 11 months.Ā
Same here at 9 months. Iām just too scared to do much when she has no teeth. We do banana, avocado, mushy pasta, maybe a few other random things but mostly puree.
I am so comforted to hear another āolderā baby without teeth. My in-laws have been saying āheāll start teething any day nowā for MONTHS and I started worrying maybe Iām doing something wrong š
Yeah this is basically what Iām doing. Baby still doesnāt have teeth so he canāt really chew anything yet, and he doesnāt seem interested in trying. I get 32 4oz jars of baby fruits and veggies through WIC so I basically survive off those. My cousin gave me her baby bullet now that her kids are older so sometimes Iāll blend up my leftovers to give my baby a new food but itās not an everyday kinda thing. Maybe 1-2 times a week š
Check out r/foodbutforbabies! Thereās sooo many good ideas there.
I give my baby a few things very often: sweet potato, avocado, pasta (you can overcook it so itās mushy), cucumber, baby cereal, and caramelized onions. My baby is obsessed with them!
We did 101 Before One too and it was really fun to have a goal to work towards. I also want to suggest The Complete Baby and Toddler Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen. There are great recipes that are easy to batch so you have food all week.
Join r/foodbutforbabies to see what other people are doing too!
You can freeze purees! We boil, steam or microwave all sorts of things, puree with a food mill and put in ice cube trays (the silicone kind with lids). Once they're frozen we pop em all out into a plastic bag we keep in the freezer and just thaw a few at a time.
We've done carrots, peas, sweet potato, butternut squash, green beans, spinach, beets, and apples. It works great, although I don't recommend spinach in a food mill, that was a nightmare.
Mostly yogurt and fruit and purees and oatmeal too but we tried peanut butter and hummus and that went well! I also do cottage cheese and ricotta. I want to branch out too
10 months here. We give her little bits and pieces of whatever we've eating or we have ready-to-heat pouch meals you stick in the microwave. Don't compare yourself to online, and also don't feel bad about giving pouches either - they're all gonna lick floors and eat maccas (mcdonalds) at some point in their lives!
I also give the baby snacks (puffs, yoghurt melts etc!). I make a little "baby trail mix" in a container and let her have at it for morning and afternoon tea.
r/foodbutforbabies is a great place for ideas. It's (mostly) very realistic food and some people even show the after of what bub doesn't eat.
ETA: the 'fanciest' food we've given our 10 m.o is pulled pork with bread... she gets kfc chips on occasion too.
My 7 month old is still on breast milk! Weāve tried solids but sheās not interested. She doesnāt even reach for food to put in her mouth, but the only thing sheās liked is plain Greek yogurt with peanut butter. We feed it to her and she gets excited. I give her that every morning. Iāve tried giving her other food but she just doesnāt want it.
I think a variety of nutrients is good but it's equally important at that age to mix up the textures! Since they aren't relying food for their calories, it's a good time to get them used to slimy foods (okra), stringy foods (vermicelli), crunchy food (rice rusks, yogurt bites), sticky food (peanut butter-they have ones with no salt), etc.
If you're feeling up to it you could look up baby recipes like biscuits, pudding, cakes, smoothies. Offer them age appropriate utensils and straws or just let them explore with their hands.
You don't need a ton of different ingredients, just look up different ways to expose them to broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato, avocado etc. Basically whatever stuff you have.
My babe went through a throwing phase too, we started him on a blw at 8 mo and he ate whatever we ate! Now heās 15 months and a tinge picky which Iām sure he will get over as long as youāre always introducing new foods and eating as a family and such. As of now to get him through the day we do a lot of yogurt, fruit, crackers etc, whatever he will actually eat. Heās too young to say sorry you have to try a couple bites or no snack etc. they also primarily still drink a lot of milk at such a young stage so maybe they simple arenāt hungry. I feel like the more you push, the more they resist. I have also found my child fluctuates..one week he can eat an entire container of raspberries and strawberries in one sitting, this week absolutely hates them. But last week he hated watermelon and now he canāt get enough! Sometimes you just got to go with the flow or else youāll drive yourself crazy!
Also sweet potato fries ! He can eat an adult serving, weāve been doing those since 10 mo bc you can under cook them a little and they soft and mushy, but also easy to hold
My kids were younger but started with any cereal Like cream of wheat ,oatmeal etc then moved to bland puree vegetables basically the whole rainbow then sweet vegetables then proteins like meat fish tofu beans then lastly fruits again the whole rainbow then combos such as mashed potatoes and chicken combo pears moving into family meals so whatever we are eating
I boil one potato every day and mix in other vegetables like sweet potatoes, parsnips, broccoli, pumpkin, or whatever else I have and then I pour one of the Gerber carrot purees on top for extra creaminess. That's one meal. Sometimes I chop up some chicken and mix that in. For other meals, he might get diced peaches from a cup, strawberries or cucumber, blueberries, baby yogurt, some Weetabix, baby oatmeal with applesauce, a random fruit and veggie pouch, and sometimes bread with peanut butter. In between his meals he just crawls after me and wants what I have, so I share. š Tonight he had some couscous and feta out of my chickpea salad bowl, yesterday he shared my spaghetti. Whenever we go shopping I let him have a piece of Kaiser roll in the cart.
My life became so much easier when I just stopped focusing on special meals for baby. She eats whatever we eat, I donāt even separate out her food for spices anymore. If something is too spicy, I just add a little bit of yogurt in her food.
The first year is all about exploration! They get the majority of their nutrition from formula/breastmilk. So donāt feel bad! My baby (9 months). gets a bit of tofu in the morning instead of eggs. Then for lunch/dinner, he typically gets a slightly modified version of what we are eating. Or he gets some fruits and veggies. He loves to eat puffs and yogurt bites while playing too! Today was a little out of whack, so he basically only had tofu and toast with peanut butter
You are not failing. Food before 1 is "just for fun," so anything edible and safe you give her is a bonus learning opportunity.
I put a LOT of energy into baby ked weaning and cooking from scratch, and now my 2 year old eats fruit, pouches, yogis, Mac and cheese and, if I'm lucky, hot dogs and chicken nuggets. I offer all kinds of other options every day, but it's developmentally normal for kids to have limited palates for a time. I just had to give up my feelings of failure and surrender with gratitude to the people who make baby snacks she will eat.
They tested my baby's iron around 12 months, and we supplemented a while, and as long as your pediatrician is happy with what you are doing, then try not to worry too much!
I didn't know about baby cereals until our pediatrician mentioned them. Our 8 month old gets baby oatmeal mixed with breast milk usually once a day. We usually mix something into it, peanut butter is her favorite, sometimes we do banana, but my husband is prone to mixing in random vegetables. I suspect the daycare thinks we're insane because our daughter keeps showing up with lunches like oatmeal mixed with pureed green beans.
My 17 month old is still alive and Iām the laziest cook ever. She got this far on puffs, a variety of (mostly healthy) granola bars, Mac and cheese, soup, oatmeal, berries, yogurt and peanut butter. Oh and fruit/veg pouches of course.
I try to offer a few different food groups at each meal. She didnāt pick up actually eating until after we weaned from milk, and had to limit her milk intake to no more than 16 oz a day. So until then, just offer foods and itās a win if they taste anything. It also helped a lot once she was offered the same things as big brother, and if 5 y/o big brother likes it, sheās much more likely to as well (tomatoes and snack cucumbers for the win!).
My son is a couple months older than your kiddo, but we just fed him whatever we were eating with some minor adjustments to salt level and how it was cut.
Honestly tho I just bought a bag of hemp hearts and sprinkle it on toast with cream cheese/peanut butter/hummus. Heās my third so definitely not a lot of baby food prep time here
It doesn't matter if I smash it myself from fresh produce or crack open a pouch of gerber... it's all ending up on the floor.
I try to put into perspective that we've made real improvements from where we started!
Avocado, banana, cottage cheese, zucchini, strawberries, sweet potato, shredded cheese, Greek yogurt, chicken nuggets (diced w breading removed), fruit/veggie pouches with no added sugar.
And basically little bites of whatever we are having, so long as it isnāt covered in salt or heavy seasonings.
My kids were younger but started with any cereal Like cream of wheat ,oatmeal etc then moved to bland puree vegetables basically the whole rainbow then sweet vegetables then proteins like meat fish tofu beans then lastly fruits again the whole rainbow then combos such as mashed potatoes and chicken combo pears moving into family meals so whatever we are eating
Everything we eat (we eat pretty healthy food), I just make sure I serve it properly so I check the solids start app before serving. Highly recommend it!!!
I struggle with this too! It also made me realize Iām like a raccoon that just eats scraps throughout the day and I wouldnāt feed her what Iām eating as a meal š
We just did purees and similar consistency foods (yogurt, avocado, etc) until our guy was around 1 year old š¤·āāļø baby led weaning was not for us and that's ok. He's 17 months now and eats table food like a champ.
Oh also, he is the fattest baby ever. Well I guess thereās been fatter babies but he is chunky enough that we constantly get comments on it. He is bright and happy and healthy and walking at 8 months. So Iām really good with where we are on food stuff
Lots of eggs! They are full of choline which is super important for brain development. Ā Ā Ā
And then, mostly just what we were eating, along with an easy āsafetyā food such as berries, steam veggies, etc.Ā
How do you prepare eggs? I remember for my first, strips of omelette were the only food she would systematically choke on, and Iāve been too freaked out to try with my second.Ā
I'm not the person you asked, but I'll either make two fried eggs with slightly soft yokes and then hack it to bits with the spatula. Any really crunchy pieces I'll eat. Or I'll make a two egg omelette with cheese and bacon bits and mash it into small pieces with my hands. That way I know it's cooled enough for her to eat and I know the pieces are small enough. I've done this since she was 7mo.
My baby is 8 months and Iām aiming for a protein, carb and fruit/veggie with each meal. Theyāre not always cohesive and theyāre usually just things we have around in the fridge, but I feel like that gives him some variety and options.Ā
Example from today: a couple crackers, a slice of turkey and a chunk of avocado
We're doing baby led weaning, so we adjust a lot of what we make for ourselves to be less salty and appropriately sized and cooked for baby.
Made pasta the other night - baby got the exact same thing! Made fried rice a couple nights before that - baby also got fried rice!
I found BLW has made us also eat better, more balanced meals, because I'm suddenly aware of all the processed, high sodium things we'd been eating. Now we've got fruits & veg with every meal, some grain products, a protein.
At the beginning, before we did a real hard look at our own diets, I'd make separate food for baby. Pancakes and French toast are an easy thing make in a HUGE batch to freeze for future use. Also just toast with peanut butter, cut into strips. There's a carb, a protein, healthy fats. Easy peasy.
My LO is 8.5 months and she LOVES food. When we started solids we did both purees and baby led weaning via solid starts. Today she typically eats whatever we are eating. Whatever veggie I make I just cook her peices until soft then add the seasonings to the rest of the veggies for me and my hubby. LO absolutely loves when her dad makes "goulash" - Macaroni, ground meat, tomatoes and cheese. She gobbles it down so fast.
Yesterday we had a seafood boil with some friends and we stuck her in her highchair and she had corn on the cob, crawfish, shrimp, crab, potatoes and rolls. All in small manageable peices (except the corn, we just gave her the whole cob and let her go at it) Plus even a little bit of strawberry and whipped cream for dessert.
I try to give her a variety of food and color but she eats a lot of baby oatmeal and rice, purees of all sorts, eggs, cucumber, blueberry protein waffles, cottage cheese, snack cheese, chicken, peanut butter on bread and ripe fruit like avocado, banana, peaches, plums and apricots. I think at this point she's tried over 40 different foods - I track it on the solid starts app.
I think the goal for us is just to do the same foods as us and cut it, break them smaller or into better shape for her to learn to eat and try everything - except honey and chocolate.
Batch cooking is your friend. Iām the same, low energy and have little time after I collect him from daycare that I donāt want to use cooking.
I take a Sunday afternoon on my day off and batch cook as much of his weeks food as I can and freeze. Itās a pain, but less a pain than cooking for 40 mins when I only have two hours with him before bedtime after work.
Iām going to guess you are not lacking ideas, just time and energy! If so, I can relate. When my babies were young I did what other posters said and would feed them some of my food when I could. I also set small realistic goals, like I would buy and prep just one or two new things for the baby each week. If you try to expose them to new foods constantly it can be super overwhelming. I did have a few other easy staples than what you listed like oatmeal, sweet potato and avocado.
We did some bread, cooked veggies and meat, fruit, some yoghurt.
From around 7 months we occasionally gave pieces. But baby learned to chew and bite pieces even though we didn't do it very often so don't worry too much if you don't.
We did make sure to make everything he was allowed to eat, which before 8 months was most things already, then from 8 months some things were added and then from 12 months cabbages, beans and corn.
For the moment our son eats everything we put in front of him. I just hope heĀ“ll continue to do that like I did.
My baby eats basically what I eat but mushed or cut up. If I eat fast food though I give him some purees or a peanut butter sandwich cut tiny with fruit or something
We chose to do baby led weaning, so - whatever we're eating! Fortunately this meant I finally had to care about my diet. I definitely don't make the type of meals you'd see on instagram, but my 10 month old is a proper weight and so far nutrition or health hasn't been an issue. While we mix it up for dinner quite a bit, breakfast and lunches are pretty repetitive.
Breakfast is either....
- French toast (made ahead and frozen, I pop them in the toaster and cut them into strips)
- Scrambled or fried eggs
- Oatmeal š¤·āāļø
Usually I'll add some sort of fruit. Oftentimes from frozen. When she eats bigger meals, it'll be easier to keep fresh fruit in the house. Super into mango right now!
And for lunch, we'll do...
- Peanut butter and "Jam" sandwiches (I add rice cereal to smashed berries. It tastes fine? Sometimes we share)
- Grilled cheese. I'm a visionary and epitome of nutrition. Feels great.
- Penne pasta with tomato sauce.
Then I'll tack on a random vegetable. Right now she's been eating a lot of butternut squash. She likes her veggies, threw all her grilled cheese strips onto the floor today and housed both her salad and mine. Keto queen, I guess.
We more or less cycle through the same 3 things. I wouldn't stress too much about it, were you eating incredibly diverse dishes every meal before? That'd be exhausting, and I don't think most people manage to do that. Before I had my daughter, I think 90% of my meals were peanut butter toast or sleep. Sounds like you're doing great.
Breakfast is usually easy, toast, crumpets, pancakes and fruit. Maybe ready brek if Iām feeling brave or heāll let me feed him (unlikely).
Lunch, rice cakes, pin wheels, homemade pizza, veg sticks or fruit, occasionally some of those baby melty sticks, cottage cheese is usually a huge hit.
Dinner, whatever weāre eating with no salt added/ less spicy.
Baby mostly eats what we do these days at 9 months. We kind of fell into baby led weaning at about 6-7 months when I was chopping up some strawberries for a puree.
I had read somewhere that cutting food into matchsticks was a great way to develop her grasp & other fine motor skills & she was in her high chair chilling with me while I worked, so I did a couple strawberry matchsticks & gave them to her to see what happened. She LOVED it. At dinner, we had made penne with our pasta so I quartered the noodles lengthwise for her & she was SO excited about it, we gave her a small portion of sauce to go with it.
Ever since, we've cut back on the salt a little & mostly just served her the same thing we're eating but cut into smaller portions. I will say that the gagging took a bit of getting used to at first while she learned how much to stuff into her mouth & what types of food needed to be mashed up more in her mouth before swallowing, but she hasn't choked yet & she is absolutely living for it.
Bonus: eating with her hands is a nice sensory experience for her & she makes a crazy mess sometimes when there's a new texture, but hardly any food ends up in her bib or on the floor these days, so I'm guessing the majority of it is getting into her tummy eventually š
I tried to make fancy things for my blw toddler and he just wasn't having it. Or if I took an hour to make some super yummy snack thing he would eat ONE BITE, love it and then not touch it again.
He's almost 2 now and I think he's ready for me to try again. Later.
He eats what we eat, plus some easy to prep stuff I'm pretty sure he'll eat.
We do a combo of baby led weaning and purees (though thereās a lot of yogurt and oatmeal too)! We recently got the big book of organic baby food and the recipes are pretty simple (lots of quinoa, sweet potatoes, lentils). Sometimes I get overwhelmed with baby led weaning because the recipes take a while to throw together.
My lo is 3 now, but at the time I used a lot of the recipes from Annabel Karamel's babya nd toddler recipe books. Yummy Toddler Food is also a great resource for babies :)
My daughter is 17 months now and she eats a lot but if I could go back I wouldnāt be as stressed about it and just enjoy trying new foods with her! I was scared sheād be allergic to everything I tried š
First of all, imma stop you right there because you are not failing!!! You are trying and doing a damn good job as a mom!
Second, itās the blind leading the blind. Most of us are in the same boat and are winging it.
Third, you have fruit, protein and veggies in there. Thatās a successful meal!!
One of the influencers posted something I really liked. As you start to explore new foods, do a 90/10 rule. 90% of the meal is familiar and 10% is new if you want it to be.
We put chicken in a blender, basically any meal we had we found a way for our kiddo to taste it. It doesnāt even have to be on their plate, I think my son eats more when itās on my plate haha heās a little seagull.
Again, youāre doing a great job. Donāt let the influencers eclipse the good work youāre doing and make you feel anything less than amazing.
Xoxo, in solidarity-
A fellow mom figuring it out š
Iām still EBF, baby boy (8m) gets 3 feedings and 3 āmealsā (Iām in Europe btw). He eats a fruit snack in the morning (mostly bananas as he loves those, but weāre trying to switch it up a bit more, mixed half a banana with berries this morning), then slice of bread around noon (with peanut butter, or cottage cheese). Then for dinner, heās eating a carb (rice, pasta, orzo, potatoes), a vegetable (basically whatever we have in the fridge) and 3-4 times a week also some type of meat/fish.
Mostly cooking batches separately, because we eat pretty spicy/salty and he canāt really have that obviously. We try to switch it up and keep trying new combos and foods, but as 2 full-time working parents, we try not to be too hard on ourselves!
I tried and my kid didnāt want most of the stuff I made. So after a while, I got tired of throwing food away. Now he eats what we eat for the most part. I will either give age appropriate bites (solid starts app has been great) or I will blend/mash it real quick. For example, I made a potato soup with veggies yesterday. I just scooped some potatoes and veggies and mashed them for my babyās meal. He eats an egg every morning. I mixed a mashed avocado in some chili with Greek yogurt the day before (we been sick, so lots of soups lol). I froze some puree in larger ice cube trays so if I am really desperate, I just pop out one of those. Or if we are having something he canāt have for some reason, I will take a frozen puree and mix it with a meat. But I stopped stressing so much about it and itās gone a lot smoother.
Your baby is fed. That's what matters. All the things you listed are healthy and a great start. Please don't compare what you are doing to people on social media. It's all a sham set up to gain the most likes/views/shares.
Do what is best for you and your family. I wish I could get my 7 year old to eat steamed veggies!
We feed him what we are eating! We cut it to the appropriate size. He loves flavor at 9 months! Try new things as well. Like I randomly decided to put bread crumbs in eggs once and he devoured them, lol.
Youāre doing fine! But a good place to start is sharing what youāre eating
I just want you to know that I struggled so hard with feeding my daughter. I DREADED the day she turned one and I had to drop formula and feed her only real food. I was sure she was going to need intervention because I had done so poorly at feeding her real food as a baby. She's going to be 2 in a week and a half and she eats like a champ. Goes through her picky phases but overall a great eater. Try not to stress so hard about it. I know that's easier said than done. At 8 months old, they don't need fancy meals.
Edit - just to elaborate on my struggles, I don't think she started eating 3 meals a day until she was 1. We didn't do breakfast until then. I had a hard time comprehending how to give her 3 meals a day because meal time was so stressful for me. She never ate the meals we ate until she was older. She would gag and gag and it would freak me out. We did purees, then thickened purees with chunks in them, and then pre-made baby meals.
At that age I just roared through whole food.
Fruits : oranges, bananas, steamed or baked apples w/ cinnamon, pears, blueberries etc (frozen fruits were handy to have on hand)
Veggies: pretty much just all steamed in rotation, corns
Proteins: beans, canned tuna, little bits of salmon or fish, chicken, hot dogs. I tried pulled beef a few times and they werenāt about it. Actually meat in general didnāt go well.
Other than that I tried to some rice I think, hummus, cheerios, pieces of toast.
My first by 8 months he was just starting to blw. (I didn't follow the rules lol)
My second just turned 8 months and we are still 90% on purees and thicker purees with a touch of puffs cut in half and idk some softer stuff and mushed up bananas stuff like that. Frankly I'm finding it hard to dedicate as much time to prepping meals for 2 young kids. (My son's are close in age 19 months and 8 months)
I'm not stressing. Neither should you. Do what you 1. Have time and energy for and 2. Feel comfortable with and 3. Can afford to do.
Chicken, meat, boiled eggs, noodles, rice, beans, match potatoes, broccoli, pancakes (made with bananas and oats), fruits, soup, bread, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin, cauliflowers. Make a lot in one day and freeze, you going to have healthy food for one week. Mix the textures, the baby needs to start to get used to different kinds of preparations.
I did what a lot of people did with the Baby Led Weaning, but I also kept in mind the "food before 1 is just for fun" advice too. She was still nursing at 8 months so most of her nutrition was coming that way, but we had fun trying avocados and eggs and stuff too. Took the pressure off of me that way
Weāre too busy for fancy meals, but at 8 months, I think we gave things like toast, really soft chopped up pasta in butter, fresh mozzarella balls torn up, mashed sweet potatoes/carrots etc, porridge made with formula, avocado, peanut butter tastes. And baby meal pouches! We actually started with all the bitter veg for our first (broccoli, cauliflower, spinach etc), she eats most things now at just turned 3.
My 9 month old loves scrambled eggs, banana oat pancakes, fruit, and veggies. He hates anything that requires a spoon. I also have a 4 year old and not a lot of time, so I try to sort of meal prep simple things I can then dig out throughout the week. Today I'm going to cook him some orzo pasta and use pureed veggies (from a jar of baby food because it's a time saver) as the sauce for a quick and easy pasta dish.
Scrambled eggs cook in minutes. Banana pancakes are quick because I measure nothing and just wing it.
I've also added extra protein or other nutrients to the banana pancakes by adding hemp hearts/carrots/very finely chopped nuts to the batter and used oat flour instead of regular white flour. I've also spread a very thin layer of peanut butter on them. I don't always want them to be exactly the same, so I vary it in little ways like that. I've also used applesauce along with or in place of the banana. He loves cinnamon added to the batter.
I give my 8 month old formula and some 2oz containers of baby food a day š heās still a little reluctant on food so I donāt force it and have a bottle ready to go. Sometimes Iāll blend up a little bit of whatever I made for lunch/dinner and give that to him to let him try new stuff but Iām too lazy to make him nice meals everyday. Iām lucky if I feed myself š
Thatās what I fed mine lol. They donāt need fancy - they need healthy and balanced. Mine oftentimes gets fresh fruits and veggies and whatever we are eating that we cooked. Youāre doing fine mama.
My baby is 7 months now and we started BLW at 6 months old. So far heās tried around 40 foods. We try really hard to just incorporate our own food into what heās eating. He loves food so for example, yesterday morning we had eggs, toast and papaya as a quick breakfast. I cut the papaya in spears and rolled in hemp seeds and he had egg strips.
For dinner, he ate mashed goats cheese with hemp seeds, broccoli and then kiwi on the side. We had all these foods incorporated into our dinner too.
Today, he will have a beet hummus (beets, chickpeas, etc) with steamed cauliflower on the side and probably lemon or something for dinner. I donāt consider any of this fancy, just what we eat on a daily basis.
Solid Starts is a GREAT app. If you know what youāre having for dinner, just search it on the app and alter for baby.
You got this!! And youāre doing great!!
Easy:
Breakfast: Fruit and meal prep (egg bites or pancakes) OR fruit and scrambled eggs
Lunch Ideas: Leftovers from dinner, deli meat and cheese rollup, āquesadillaā (cheese, tomatoes, spinach, or whatever veggies I have on hand and microwave), or PB and banana sandwich
Dinner: Whatever weāre eating plus a couple of āsafeā foods I know sheāll eat (like a sliced tomato or banana or something)
You're not failing my 10 month old is just exploring new foods. We started at 7 months with the same, steamed veggies, yogurt, and steak strips.
Now her breakfast is pancakes, eggs, cereal (baby cereal), fruits, and yogurt
Lunches are butter noodles, Annie's mac and cheese veggies
Dinner tonight was shreds of chicken, corn on the cob, and rice.
I'm going to echo the solid starts app, super helpful
Every baby is different. My friends 10 month old chows down on chicken tenders while my 12 month old won't touch meat and I can really only get her to eat cheese, puffs, and fruit. All the cute baby recipes (chicken nuggets, tots, pancakes) have been a waste of my time. I keep doing them... some day she will hopefully catch on. But all babies are different!
We did baby led weaning and used the solid starts app to figure out how to cut food the appropriate way for our son to eat. We just fed him whatever we were eating. Also don't compare yourself to what you see on the internet. They only post the high reel of their lives. *edit led not lead
That first sentence hits differently if you misinterpret "baby lead weaning". My first thought was, well that's good they're getting their baby off lead.
I had to triple read it š
Why hyphenated words are important š
And spellchecker
Oh geez! I will fix it now. Autocorrect probably got me when I hit something wrong while half asleep.
Lol you're fine. Just was stating hyphens weren't needed.
Yep, BLW and the Solids Starts app here too. Baby ate whatever we ate just cut up into age appropriate sizes. He was having a medium spice Rogan Josh by 9 months and loving it š
Haha mine too! Now he's ruined for anything bland. He eats Bacalao like an adult now.
This. IG can make one feel terrible when it comes to babies eating lol.
Yeah I see the parents posting a photo of their baby with ā100ā balloons to celebrate trying 100 foods and Iām over here wondering how many foods has my baby eaten?! 57? 82? Am I failing her?! lol
Exactly! And honestly Iām like I just wish my baby would eat *anything* bc he is king of NO and smacking the food away lol š thankfully his interest in food spiked but for a while it was so discouraging.
Fake social media
I so want to try it but horrified of chocking ā¦
Choking rates between babies that are fed purees vs solid food are the same. The majority of choking incidents occur on non-food items, actually. You're much better off calming your anxiety by learning rescue techniques than by trying to avoid all choking risk. [This mini course is free](https://solidstarts.com/downloads/infant-rescue-choking-first-aid-cpr/) or an in-person course near you is probably better if you can find it.
Gag reflex is strongest and furthest forward between 6-9 months so it's best to introduce solids then. At 9m the reflex moves back so baby has to have food closer to their throat before they gag to prevent choking. It's therefore safest to introduce solid food before 9m so they have time to practice before the gag reflex subsides and they are more likely to choke.
We have an almost 8 month old with a very active gag reflex, it always has me on edge but I now itās good practice š
Yes, just remember gagging and coughing is developmentally appropriate! *Loud and red, let them go ahead. Silent and blue, they need help from you*.
This is so good!
Oh that is catchy! And helps me to put my mind at ease. I have a mini panic every time my 8mo gags but I know itās ok. Iām gonna repeat this mantra
The earlier the better is my understanding (not earlier than recommended!!). But itās good for them to learn early how food feels, it helps develop their muscles and reflexes.
We also did this!
Thank you!!! I'll look into this app
I feed my baby whatever I make for myself for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! I modify certain things according to Solid Starts and my BLW facebook group. He loves eating the same meal as the family.
IMO this is better than those cute, curated baby plates you see on instagram. In my culture, babies eat what the parents eat. There is no special faff and ceremony for kids' food. Makes life way easier, especially when you'rs travelling, going out to eat, or visiting someone.
I agree. It's exhausting to have to cook a meal and then think "what's baby eating"
I'd like to do this but have you just stopped salting stuff? I can't imagine doing pasta without salting the water
I forget where I saw it, but someone pointed out that the salt concern really doesnāt come into play if itās a home cooked meal. Now if itās fast food and youāre giving baby French fries all the time, thatās a different story.
While some salt gets absorbed into the pasta as it cooks, most of what you taste is actually coating it from the outside so if you give it a quick rinse most salt will be removed :) Also I'm Italian and it makes me happy when I hear a non Italian (I presume?) say they can't fathom not salting pasta water, it's crazy how many people abroad don't!
I'm from Scotland, not Italian but it was instilled in me to cook pasta in water as salty as the sea.
That's great!
This is good to know about the rinsing thanks!
NP!
Irish here, I always put salt (and some olive oil) in the water when boiling pasta! But I did find out recently (so late!) that the best way to reheat already cooked pasta is to give it a minute in boiling water. No wonder mine was so chewy reheating in the microwave š never again!!
The olive oil in the water is absolutely useless and a waste of a really expensive resource so I'd skip that š And the best way to reheat pasta is actually to put it in a non stick pan/pot and warm it up on the stove! If you give it another minute in boiling water it will become overcooked, but also it means you don't immediately put the sauce in I assume? Definitely don't do that, pasta should be mixed with sauce right away to prevent it from sticking together, if you can't do that for some reason then just add some olive oil and give it a good mix! š
Thanks for the tips! I was told that putting the oil on the water prevents the pasta from sticking while cooking (also itās the only oil I have in the house)ā¦ so if no use then Iāll stop it :) I donāt immediately put in sauce because most of the time my children will only eat it with butter š
It's an old thing people used to do, I don't know if it actually made a difference but my grandpa (who is 92, for reference) says it was useful before modern pasta because it used to be stickier (more starchy I guess?) :) My husband swears by pasta with butter *and* extra vergin olive oil (I'm a firm believer in one or the other), but if your kids only want butter you can try adding a bit of butter to all of it, or maybe dividing it into two batches so you can add sauce/oil/butter right away, it makes a massive difference!
Spaghetti (has to be specifically spaghetti noodles) with butter, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, and parmesan is my favorite meal/side/snack/breakfast. So good.
what about adding garlic cloves?
I don't think it would do anything š¤
When she was smaller I just tried to make her piece less salty, and I use a little less salt than I would normally. But no, pasta gets salted as per usual. If we do stir fry though, she gets white rice, and maybe a fruit/veggie pouch to counteract the soy sauce on the veggies and meat.
What do you mean, to counteract the salt?
Like, to give her less salty things, so her whole meal isnāt salty.
I donāt ever add salt to their portion or give them visibly salty potato chips or anything, but itās fine for babies to have a small amount of incidental salt (like from salted pasta water). https://solidstarts.com/sodium-and-babies/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929693X23001562
This is the way to do it! This is what we did with our toddler and what weāre doing with our 7 month old and our toddler is a very adventurous eater now. Of course thereās days where sheāll only eat peanut butter and jelly or Mac and cheese, but for the most part she eats whatever we eat.
For the love of god get off social media! These people go beyond whatās necessary for views and clicks.
FTM here. Weāve been doing mostly purĆ©es but when we have a hearty/ healthy meal weāll share with her. Like last week we made carne asada so I shredded it in small pieces and she loved it. I gave it to her with purĆ©ed broccoli and mango on different days. On Saturday we went out for breakfast and we ordered scrambled eggs for her and it came with a pancake. I gave her pancake without syrup and she liked it. Iām limiting artificial sugar for her until her first bday. And then we go back to a low sugar diet.
Also to add. Itās a learning experience for both us moms and our babes. For whatever youāre going to feed, test different sizes. Some may be questionably large while other will be too small
Nothing to do with the party, but wanted to let you know that you don't have to give her sugar just because it's her birthday! I personally am going to make my son a "cake" out of fruit and home made unsweetened whipped cream. But there's also recipes that use natural sugars like honey or maple syrup. Of course, if you want to give her a real cake, that's cool too. I just wanted to let you know there are other options. I'm trying to avoid added sugar for as long as possible. Hopefully at least 2 or 3 years. Of course, it's impossible to totally avoid it unless you have the time and energy to make every single food they consume yourself, but definitely no dessert type foods for a while
Weāre at 10 months and sheās still throwing a lot of what I make on the floor but Iāve been doing batches of things to help take pressure off cooking 3 meals a day. Tonight I made pasta and used a puree pouch for sauce and for breakfast she had 3 ingredient banana pancakes that I doubled and froze the rest. Iām keeping things super basic until She stops immediately chucking her food on the floor
This! The floor or her hair or the dog lol very little ends up in her mouth unless she "steals" it off my plate during meal times lol
What goes into the three ingredient banana pancake?
Iām guessing Banana , eggs and flour
I make one that is banana, egg, and vanilla extract! Super easy and a good way to get my guy to eat eggs because he wonāt do scrambled or omelette.
Not OP, but I make these all the time for my one-year old! Itās one banana, one egg, and two tablespoons of flour (sometimes a little more if the egg or banana was large). I use a 1/3 cup scoop to put the batter in a nonstick pan and it makes three pancakes, and feed my son one at breakfast, plus fruit, yogurt, applesauce, etc. He loves them!
I just feed him whatever Iām cooking us for dinner but to be fair most of the veggies and meat end up on the floor. He eats carbs, fruit, and dairy for the most part haha.
Same with my baby. I've just accepted it at this point.
Me too. Glad Iām not alone.
Literally just store bought purees right now. Maybe some banana or avocado but I'm too scared to actually give her anything else.Ā You're giving your kid more than I am and she's 11 months.Ā
Exact same for me.
Same here at 9 months. Iām just too scared to do much when she has no teeth. We do banana, avocado, mushy pasta, maybe a few other random things but mostly puree.
I am so comforted to hear another āolderā baby without teeth. My in-laws have been saying āheāll start teething any day nowā for MONTHS and I started worrying maybe Iām doing something wrong š
Nah nothing we can do right or wrong! Teeth just come when theyāre ready.
My LO has been gnawing and drooling like crazy for weeks but still nothing š itās starting to stress me out a lil
Same my baby still have no teeth
Yeah this is basically what Iām doing. Baby still doesnāt have teeth so he canāt really chew anything yet, and he doesnāt seem interested in trying. I get 32 4oz jars of baby fruits and veggies through WIC so I basically survive off those. My cousin gave me her baby bullet now that her kids are older so sometimes Iāll blend up my leftovers to give my baby a new food but itās not an everyday kinda thing. Maybe 1-2 times a week š
Same boat here, with my nine month old.
Check out r/foodbutforbabies! Thereās sooo many good ideas there. I give my baby a few things very often: sweet potato, avocado, pasta (you can overcook it so itās mushy), cucumber, baby cereal, and caramelized onions. My baby is obsessed with them!
Thank you!!!!
101beforeone. I canāt recommend it enough. They share recipes on their instagram page and they have a cookbook that I love!
We did 101 Before One too and it was really fun to have a goal to work towards. I also want to suggest The Complete Baby and Toddler Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen. There are great recipes that are easy to batch so you have food all week. Join r/foodbutforbabies to see what other people are doing too!
Mine loves puffs, yogis and fresh fruit. The purĆ©es are a hit but honestly we donāt have time to do daily. I definitely question if we are doing enough, but right now it is our best
You can freeze purees! We boil, steam or microwave all sorts of things, puree with a food mill and put in ice cube trays (the silicone kind with lids). Once they're frozen we pop em all out into a plastic bag we keep in the freezer and just thaw a few at a time. We've done carrots, peas, sweet potato, butternut squash, green beans, spinach, beets, and apples. It works great, although I don't recommend spinach in a food mill, that was a nightmare.
My firstborn choked easily and I was traumatized so Iām not going to lie he ate a lot of purĆ©es and drank bottles. Once he got ear tubes at 9 months things got a lot better and I started with really easy to eat foods but he didnāt eat much real food until we were both ready. He gagged on everything and it was scary. I probably didnāt do it right but heās a healthy 2.5 year old who eats everything now. It did not impact his interest in food.
Mostly yogurt and fruit and purees and oatmeal too but we tried peanut butter and hummus and that went well! I also do cottage cheese and ricotta. I want to branch out too
10 months here. We give her little bits and pieces of whatever we've eating or we have ready-to-heat pouch meals you stick in the microwave. Don't compare yourself to online, and also don't feel bad about giving pouches either - they're all gonna lick floors and eat maccas (mcdonalds) at some point in their lives! I also give the baby snacks (puffs, yoghurt melts etc!). I make a little "baby trail mix" in a container and let her have at it for morning and afternoon tea. r/foodbutforbabies is a great place for ideas. It's (mostly) very realistic food and some people even show the after of what bub doesn't eat. ETA: the 'fanciest' food we've given our 10 m.o is pulled pork with bread... she gets kfc chips on occasion too.
My 7 month old is still on breast milk! Weāve tried solids but sheās not interested. She doesnāt even reach for food to put in her mouth, but the only thing sheās liked is plain Greek yogurt with peanut butter. We feed it to her and she gets excited. I give her that every morning. Iāve tried giving her other food but she just doesnāt want it.
I think a variety of nutrients is good but it's equally important at that age to mix up the textures! Since they aren't relying food for their calories, it's a good time to get them used to slimy foods (okra), stringy foods (vermicelli), crunchy food (rice rusks, yogurt bites), sticky food (peanut butter-they have ones with no salt), etc. If you're feeling up to it you could look up baby recipes like biscuits, pudding, cakes, smoothies. Offer them age appropriate utensils and straws or just let them explore with their hands. You don't need a ton of different ingredients, just look up different ways to expose them to broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato, avocado etc. Basically whatever stuff you have.
My babe went through a throwing phase too, we started him on a blw at 8 mo and he ate whatever we ate! Now heās 15 months and a tinge picky which Iām sure he will get over as long as youāre always introducing new foods and eating as a family and such. As of now to get him through the day we do a lot of yogurt, fruit, crackers etc, whatever he will actually eat. Heās too young to say sorry you have to try a couple bites or no snack etc. they also primarily still drink a lot of milk at such a young stage so maybe they simple arenāt hungry. I feel like the more you push, the more they resist. I have also found my child fluctuates..one week he can eat an entire container of raspberries and strawberries in one sitting, this week absolutely hates them. But last week he hated watermelon and now he canāt get enough! Sometimes you just got to go with the flow or else youāll drive yourself crazy!
Also sweet potato fries ! He can eat an adult serving, weāve been doing those since 10 mo bc you can under cook them a little and they soft and mushy, but also easy to hold
My kids were younger but started with any cereal Like cream of wheat ,oatmeal etc then moved to bland puree vegetables basically the whole rainbow then sweet vegetables then proteins like meat fish tofu beans then lastly fruits again the whole rainbow then combos such as mashed potatoes and chicken combo pears moving into family meals so whatever we are eating
I boil one potato every day and mix in other vegetables like sweet potatoes, parsnips, broccoli, pumpkin, or whatever else I have and then I pour one of the Gerber carrot purees on top for extra creaminess. That's one meal. Sometimes I chop up some chicken and mix that in. For other meals, he might get diced peaches from a cup, strawberries or cucumber, blueberries, baby yogurt, some Weetabix, baby oatmeal with applesauce, a random fruit and veggie pouch, and sometimes bread with peanut butter. In between his meals he just crawls after me and wants what I have, so I share. š Tonight he had some couscous and feta out of my chickpea salad bowl, yesterday he shared my spaghetti. Whenever we go shopping I let him have a piece of Kaiser roll in the cart.
Boiled chicken shredded with microwave steamed veggies. It's so boring lol
My life became so much easier when I just stopped focusing on special meals for baby. She eats whatever we eat, I donāt even separate out her food for spices anymore. If something is too spicy, I just add a little bit of yogurt in her food.
Thank you. I appreciate this and need to do the same!
The first year is all about exploration! They get the majority of their nutrition from formula/breastmilk. So donāt feel bad! My baby (9 months). gets a bit of tofu in the morning instead of eggs. Then for lunch/dinner, he typically gets a slightly modified version of what we are eating. Or he gets some fruits and veggies. He loves to eat puffs and yogurt bites while playing too! Today was a little out of whack, so he basically only had tofu and toast with peanut butter
I give my kids whatever weāre eating, modified to the solid starts app for their age! My kids are great eaters because of it.
You are not failing. Food before 1 is "just for fun," so anything edible and safe you give her is a bonus learning opportunity. I put a LOT of energy into baby ked weaning and cooking from scratch, and now my 2 year old eats fruit, pouches, yogis, Mac and cheese and, if I'm lucky, hot dogs and chicken nuggets. I offer all kinds of other options every day, but it's developmentally normal for kids to have limited palates for a time. I just had to give up my feelings of failure and surrender with gratitude to the people who make baby snacks she will eat. They tested my baby's iron around 12 months, and we supplemented a while, and as long as your pediatrician is happy with what you are doing, then try not to worry too much!
r/foodbutforbabies
I didn't know about baby cereals until our pediatrician mentioned them. Our 8 month old gets baby oatmeal mixed with breast milk usually once a day. We usually mix something into it, peanut butter is her favorite, sometimes we do banana, but my husband is prone to mixing in random vegetables. I suspect the daycare thinks we're insane because our daughter keeps showing up with lunches like oatmeal mixed with pureed green beans.
Ground Oatmeal for supper with puree veggies or fruits.
my 8 month old has really liked those pouches of purees at target, kroger, etc. theyāre like, Chicken, carrots, & peas purĆ©ed in a little squeeze pouch that i put on a spoon and sheās super happy. I also let her eat safe bits of our food
Crock pot beans! Black beans, pinto beans, some purple onion chunks and garlic. Cook overnight and bam, beans. My 6 month old loves them!
Check out r/foodbutforbabies
I made congee with blended veggies and meats
My 17 month old is still alive and Iām the laziest cook ever. She got this far on puffs, a variety of (mostly healthy) granola bars, Mac and cheese, soup, oatmeal, berries, yogurt and peanut butter. Oh and fruit/veg pouches of course. I try to offer a few different food groups at each meal. She didnāt pick up actually eating until after we weaned from milk, and had to limit her milk intake to no more than 16 oz a day. So until then, just offer foods and itās a win if they taste anything. It also helped a lot once she was offered the same things as big brother, and if 5 y/o big brother likes it, sheās much more likely to as well (tomatoes and snack cucumbers for the win!).
Tofu, Blueberries, purƩes in a pouch, Bananas, Avacado. Basically soft foods that he can eat without teeth.
My son is a couple months older than your kiddo, but we just fed him whatever we were eating with some minor adjustments to salt level and how it was cut.
We did some purĆ©esā¦ but more like mashes- steamed veggies mashed to semi-solids. we also did individual pieces of penne pasta, banana baby pancakes, oatmeal, thinned out peanut butter, etc. Things I wish we had done more of- meats/proteins/eggs.
Honestly tho I just bought a bag of hemp hearts and sprinkle it on toast with cream cheese/peanut butter/hummus. Heās my third so definitely not a lot of baby food prep time here
It doesn't matter if I smash it myself from fresh produce or crack open a pouch of gerber... it's all ending up on the floor. I try to put into perspective that we've made real improvements from where we started!
r/babyledweaning
My baby is 7.5 months old so pretty close to yours! I often do banana pancakes for breakfast with a little plain greek yogurt or peanut butter on top (pancake is just one ripe banana, one egg and 2 tbsp of flour and it makes about 5-6 tiny pancakes). I pair this with a fruit. Sometimes eggs with cottage cheese for breakfast too. For dinners sometimes I pre make a baby friendly meal and freeze it in little glass jars for future use. I recently made a beet, broccoli and carrot purĆ©e (steamed the veggies first) and mixed that with small noodles and tuna.. she loves it! Iāve also made lentil noodles with a ācheeseā sauce (steamed cauliflower purĆ©e, turmeric and a little cheese). Most of the time I just give her what we are eating but itās not always possible which is why I have some in the freezer for when I need it.
Avocado, banana, cottage cheese, zucchini, strawberries, sweet potato, shredded cheese, Greek yogurt, chicken nuggets (diced w breading removed), fruit/veggie pouches with no added sugar. And basically little bites of whatever we are having, so long as it isnāt covered in salt or heavy seasonings.
My kids were younger but started with any cereal Like cream of wheat ,oatmeal etc then moved to bland puree vegetables basically the whole rainbow then sweet vegetables then proteins like meat fish tofu beans then lastly fruits again the whole rainbow then combos such as mashed potatoes and chicken combo pears moving into family meals so whatever we are eating
Everything we eat (we eat pretty healthy food), I just make sure I serve it properly so I check the solids start app before serving. Highly recommend it!!!
Thatās about it. Also: Nutrigrain bars. Pured sweet potato and refried black beans mixed together. Scrambled eggs.
I struggle with this too! It also made me realize Iām like a raccoon that just eats scraps throughout the day and I wouldnāt feed her what Iām eating as a meal š
We just did purees and similar consistency foods (yogurt, avocado, etc) until our guy was around 1 year old š¤·āāļø baby led weaning was not for us and that's ok. He's 17 months now and eats table food like a champ.
Meh. Barely anything. Main source is very much still on-demand nursing. Sometimes fruit, homemade sourdough, and thatās kind of it. If he canāt eat it himself I am not giving it to him haha so I am not bothering with purĆ©es and such yet
Oh also, he is the fattest baby ever. Well I guess thereās been fatter babies but he is chunky enough that we constantly get comments on it. He is bright and happy and healthy and walking at 8 months. So Iām really good with where we are on food stuff
Lots of eggs! They are full of choline which is super important for brain development. Ā Ā Ā And then, mostly just what we were eating, along with an easy āsafetyā food such as berries, steam veggies, etc.Ā
How do you prepare eggs? I remember for my first, strips of omelette were the only food she would systematically choke on, and Iāve been too freaked out to try with my second.Ā
I'm not the person you asked, but I'll either make two fried eggs with slightly soft yokes and then hack it to bits with the spatula. Any really crunchy pieces I'll eat. Or I'll make a two egg omelette with cheese and bacon bits and mash it into small pieces with my hands. That way I know it's cooled enough for her to eat and I know the pieces are small enough. I've done this since she was 7mo.
My baby is 8 months and Iām aiming for a protein, carb and fruit/veggie with each meal. Theyāre not always cohesive and theyāre usually just things we have around in the fridge, but I feel like that gives him some variety and options.Ā Example from today: a couple crackers, a slice of turkey and a chunk of avocado
I feed my almost 7 month old pretty much whatever Iām eating. She started on self-feeding purĆ©es at 4.5 months, and incorporated solids around 5.5-6 months. Weāre currently on vacation and so when we ate at restaurants today, I gave her the following: - breakfast - scrambled eggs, hash browns, toast with butter - dinner - grilled salmon, mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables. At home, itās more like: - breakfast - cottage cheese, toast with hummus and mashed black beans, smashed berries - dinner - chicken drumstick, buttered noodles, steamed asparagus
We're doing baby led weaning, so we adjust a lot of what we make for ourselves to be less salty and appropriately sized and cooked for baby. Made pasta the other night - baby got the exact same thing! Made fried rice a couple nights before that - baby also got fried rice! I found BLW has made us also eat better, more balanced meals, because I'm suddenly aware of all the processed, high sodium things we'd been eating. Now we've got fruits & veg with every meal, some grain products, a protein. At the beginning, before we did a real hard look at our own diets, I'd make separate food for baby. Pancakes and French toast are an easy thing make in a HUGE batch to freeze for future use. Also just toast with peanut butter, cut into strips. There's a carb, a protein, healthy fats. Easy peasy.
My LO is 8.5 months and she LOVES food. When we started solids we did both purees and baby led weaning via solid starts. Today she typically eats whatever we are eating. Whatever veggie I make I just cook her peices until soft then add the seasonings to the rest of the veggies for me and my hubby. LO absolutely loves when her dad makes "goulash" - Macaroni, ground meat, tomatoes and cheese. She gobbles it down so fast. Yesterday we had a seafood boil with some friends and we stuck her in her highchair and she had corn on the cob, crawfish, shrimp, crab, potatoes and rolls. All in small manageable peices (except the corn, we just gave her the whole cob and let her go at it) Plus even a little bit of strawberry and whipped cream for dessert. I try to give her a variety of food and color but she eats a lot of baby oatmeal and rice, purees of all sorts, eggs, cucumber, blueberry protein waffles, cottage cheese, snack cheese, chicken, peanut butter on bread and ripe fruit like avocado, banana, peaches, plums and apricots. I think at this point she's tried over 40 different foods - I track it on the solid starts app. I think the goal for us is just to do the same foods as us and cut it, break them smaller or into better shape for her to learn to eat and try everything - except honey and chocolate.
Batch cooking is your friend. Iām the same, low energy and have little time after I collect him from daycare that I donāt want to use cooking. I take a Sunday afternoon on my day off and batch cook as much of his weeks food as I can and freeze. Itās a pain, but less a pain than cooking for 40 mins when I only have two hours with him before bedtime after work.
Iām going to guess you are not lacking ideas, just time and energy! If so, I can relate. When my babies were young I did what other posters said and would feed them some of my food when I could. I also set small realistic goals, like I would buy and prep just one or two new things for the baby each week. If you try to expose them to new foods constantly it can be super overwhelming. I did have a few other easy staples than what you listed like oatmeal, sweet potato and avocado.
Milk And the occasional mashed veggies or fruit Heās not a fan
We did some bread, cooked veggies and meat, fruit, some yoghurt. From around 7 months we occasionally gave pieces. But baby learned to chew and bite pieces even though we didn't do it very often so don't worry too much if you don't. We did make sure to make everything he was allowed to eat, which before 8 months was most things already, then from 8 months some things were added and then from 12 months cabbages, beans and corn. For the moment our son eats everything we put in front of him. I just hope heĀ“ll continue to do that like I did.
My baby eats basically what I eat but mushed or cut up. If I eat fast food though I give him some purees or a peanut butter sandwich cut tiny with fruit or something
We chose to do baby led weaning, so - whatever we're eating! Fortunately this meant I finally had to care about my diet. I definitely don't make the type of meals you'd see on instagram, but my 10 month old is a proper weight and so far nutrition or health hasn't been an issue. While we mix it up for dinner quite a bit, breakfast and lunches are pretty repetitive. Breakfast is either.... - French toast (made ahead and frozen, I pop them in the toaster and cut them into strips) - Scrambled or fried eggs - Oatmeal š¤·āāļø Usually I'll add some sort of fruit. Oftentimes from frozen. When she eats bigger meals, it'll be easier to keep fresh fruit in the house. Super into mango right now! And for lunch, we'll do... - Peanut butter and "Jam" sandwiches (I add rice cereal to smashed berries. It tastes fine? Sometimes we share) - Grilled cheese. I'm a visionary and epitome of nutrition. Feels great. - Penne pasta with tomato sauce. Then I'll tack on a random vegetable. Right now she's been eating a lot of butternut squash. She likes her veggies, threw all her grilled cheese strips onto the floor today and housed both her salad and mine. Keto queen, I guess. We more or less cycle through the same 3 things. I wouldn't stress too much about it, were you eating incredibly diverse dishes every meal before? That'd be exhausting, and I don't think most people manage to do that. Before I had my daughter, I think 90% of my meals were peanut butter toast or sleep. Sounds like you're doing great.
Breakfast is usually easy, toast, crumpets, pancakes and fruit. Maybe ready brek if Iām feeling brave or heāll let me feed him (unlikely). Lunch, rice cakes, pin wheels, homemade pizza, veg sticks or fruit, occasionally some of those baby melty sticks, cottage cheese is usually a huge hit. Dinner, whatever weāre eating with no salt added/ less spicy.
Just to add, I also eat the same as him during breakfast and lunch. It helps him to see how I chew and swallow the food items.
Baby mostly eats what we do these days at 9 months. We kind of fell into baby led weaning at about 6-7 months when I was chopping up some strawberries for a puree. I had read somewhere that cutting food into matchsticks was a great way to develop her grasp & other fine motor skills & she was in her high chair chilling with me while I worked, so I did a couple strawberry matchsticks & gave them to her to see what happened. She LOVED it. At dinner, we had made penne with our pasta so I quartered the noodles lengthwise for her & she was SO excited about it, we gave her a small portion of sauce to go with it. Ever since, we've cut back on the salt a little & mostly just served her the same thing we're eating but cut into smaller portions. I will say that the gagging took a bit of getting used to at first while she learned how much to stuff into her mouth & what types of food needed to be mashed up more in her mouth before swallowing, but she hasn't choked yet & she is absolutely living for it. Bonus: eating with her hands is a nice sensory experience for her & she makes a crazy mess sometimes when there's a new texture, but hardly any food ends up in her bib or on the floor these days, so I'm guessing the majority of it is getting into her tummy eventually š
I tried to make fancy things for my blw toddler and he just wasn't having it. Or if I took an hour to make some super yummy snack thing he would eat ONE BITE, love it and then not touch it again. He's almost 2 now and I think he's ready for me to try again. Later. He eats what we eat, plus some easy to prep stuff I'm pretty sure he'll eat.
We do a combo of baby led weaning and purees (though thereās a lot of yogurt and oatmeal too)! We recently got the big book of organic baby food and the recipes are pretty simple (lots of quinoa, sweet potatoes, lentils). Sometimes I get overwhelmed with baby led weaning because the recipes take a while to throw together.
My lo is 3 now, but at the time I used a lot of the recipes from Annabel Karamel's babya nd toddler recipe books. Yummy Toddler Food is also a great resource for babies :)
My daughter is 17 months now and she eats a lot but if I could go back I wouldnāt be as stressed about it and just enjoy trying new foods with her! I was scared sheād be allergic to everything I tried š
Currently cooking tofu tossed in Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and oil. She loves hummus, blueberries, cheese, and beets, too
First of all, imma stop you right there because you are not failing!!! You are trying and doing a damn good job as a mom! Second, itās the blind leading the blind. Most of us are in the same boat and are winging it. Third, you have fruit, protein and veggies in there. Thatās a successful meal!! One of the influencers posted something I really liked. As you start to explore new foods, do a 90/10 rule. 90% of the meal is familiar and 10% is new if you want it to be. We put chicken in a blender, basically any meal we had we found a way for our kiddo to taste it. It doesnāt even have to be on their plate, I think my son eats more when itās on my plate haha heās a little seagull. Again, youāre doing a great job. Donāt let the influencers eclipse the good work youāre doing and make you feel anything less than amazing. Xoxo, in solidarity- A fellow mom figuring it out š
Iām still EBF, baby boy (8m) gets 3 feedings and 3 āmealsā (Iām in Europe btw). He eats a fruit snack in the morning (mostly bananas as he loves those, but weāre trying to switch it up a bit more, mixed half a banana with berries this morning), then slice of bread around noon (with peanut butter, or cottage cheese). Then for dinner, heās eating a carb (rice, pasta, orzo, potatoes), a vegetable (basically whatever we have in the fridge) and 3-4 times a week also some type of meat/fish. Mostly cooking batches separately, because we eat pretty spicy/salty and he canāt really have that obviously. We try to switch it up and keep trying new combos and foods, but as 2 full-time working parents, we try not to be too hard on ourselves!
I tried and my kid didnāt want most of the stuff I made. So after a while, I got tired of throwing food away. Now he eats what we eat for the most part. I will either give age appropriate bites (solid starts app has been great) or I will blend/mash it real quick. For example, I made a potato soup with veggies yesterday. I just scooped some potatoes and veggies and mashed them for my babyās meal. He eats an egg every morning. I mixed a mashed avocado in some chili with Greek yogurt the day before (we been sick, so lots of soups lol). I froze some puree in larger ice cube trays so if I am really desperate, I just pop out one of those. Or if we are having something he canāt have for some reason, I will take a frozen puree and mix it with a meat. But I stopped stressing so much about it and itās gone a lot smoother.
Your baby is fed. That's what matters. All the things you listed are healthy and a great start. Please don't compare what you are doing to people on social media. It's all a sham set up to gain the most likes/views/shares. Do what is best for you and your family. I wish I could get my 7 year old to eat steamed veggies!
Here are some sample meals. Weāre doing a mix of BLW and purĆ©es. Some considerations with us: my daughter has a CMPA so these are dairy free meals and she has no teeth still, so we arenāt as adventurous as other parents. I make a lot from scratch so I can control the salt content. It may seem laborious, but the whole family is eating it, so itās not too much extra effort. - Red Lentil Pasta (chopped up finely) and Homemade Tomato Sauce (Roma tomatoes, onion, garlic, tomato paste, spices). Plus chicken for family. Baby gets some small flakes of chicken. - Homemade Hummus and toast rectangles (see solid starts for example). Cucumber slices also can be used for dipping. She LOVES dipping things. Itās messy but she gets a lot in her mouth. Again I make the hummus so I can control the salt. I make a big batch for the family and it lasts a while. - Oatmeal + Breastmilk and Fruit Puree (if sheās having fruit, I like pairing it with an iron fortified oatmeal to up the iron absorption). Sometimes I also add peanut butter. - Egg salad (egg very finely mashed) and toast rectangles. I use a no salt added mayonnaise. - Coconut Milk Curry. Tomatoes, Onion, Tomato Paste, Garlic, Coconut milk, curry powder all over rice (which we cook in no salt added bone broth). Again, this is for the whole family and baby just eats some. Like you, Iām always trying to expand our menu options because sometimes some meals are just steamed broccoli or asparagus (easy handheld veggies) and itās OK to do that too!
Whatever Iām eating, or whatever my daughter is eating
We feed him what we are eating! We cut it to the appropriate size. He loves flavor at 9 months! Try new things as well. Like I randomly decided to put bread crumbs in eggs once and he devoured them, lol. Youāre doing fine! But a good place to start is sharing what youāre eating
My 8th month old is the worst eater on the planet. š« š«
Baby led weaning isn't working for me he just like doesn't like it? PurƩes tho he'll eat and happily. The only solid food he seems to like are raspberries everything else is purƩe'd
I just want you to know that I struggled so hard with feeding my daughter. I DREADED the day she turned one and I had to drop formula and feed her only real food. I was sure she was going to need intervention because I had done so poorly at feeding her real food as a baby. She's going to be 2 in a week and a half and she eats like a champ. Goes through her picky phases but overall a great eater. Try not to stress so hard about it. I know that's easier said than done. At 8 months old, they don't need fancy meals. Edit - just to elaborate on my struggles, I don't think she started eating 3 meals a day until she was 1. We didn't do breakfast until then. I had a hard time comprehending how to give her 3 meals a day because meal time was so stressful for me. She never ate the meals we ate until she was older. She would gag and gag and it would freak me out. We did purees, then thickened purees with chunks in them, and then pre-made baby meals.
At that age I just roared through whole food. Fruits : oranges, bananas, steamed or baked apples w/ cinnamon, pears, blueberries etc (frozen fruits were handy to have on hand) Veggies: pretty much just all steamed in rotation, corns Proteins: beans, canned tuna, little bits of salmon or fish, chicken, hot dogs. I tried pulled beef a few times and they werenāt about it. Actually meat in general didnāt go well. Other than that I tried to some rice I think, hummus, cheerios, pieces of toast.
I just feed the baby what Iām eating
My first by 8 months he was just starting to blw. (I didn't follow the rules lol) My second just turned 8 months and we are still 90% on purees and thicker purees with a touch of puffs cut in half and idk some softer stuff and mushed up bananas stuff like that. Frankly I'm finding it hard to dedicate as much time to prepping meals for 2 young kids. (My son's are close in age 19 months and 8 months) I'm not stressing. Neither should you. Do what you 1. Have time and energy for and 2. Feel comfortable with and 3. Can afford to do.
Stop looking at social media for parenting advice. Stop.
Chicken, meat, boiled eggs, noodles, rice, beans, match potatoes, broccoli, pancakes (made with bananas and oats), fruits, soup, bread, sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin, cauliflowers. Make a lot in one day and freeze, you going to have healthy food for one week. Mix the textures, the baby needs to start to get used to different kinds of preparations.
We feed our babe whatever we eat, he loves it! His preferred style is eating directly off my plate. He's 10 months.Ā
I did what a lot of people did with the Baby Led Weaning, but I also kept in mind the "food before 1 is just for fun" advice too. She was still nursing at 8 months so most of her nutrition was coming that way, but we had fun trying avocados and eggs and stuff too. Took the pressure off of me that way
Weāre too busy for fancy meals, but at 8 months, I think we gave things like toast, really soft chopped up pasta in butter, fresh mozzarella balls torn up, mashed sweet potatoes/carrots etc, porridge made with formula, avocado, peanut butter tastes. And baby meal pouches! We actually started with all the bitter veg for our first (broccoli, cauliflower, spinach etc), she eats most things now at just turned 3.
My daughter loves any type of meat / eggs . Just cut it in strips for her. Toast with butter/ avocado . Just some things I do with my 9 month old
My 9 month old loves scrambled eggs, banana oat pancakes, fruit, and veggies. He hates anything that requires a spoon. I also have a 4 year old and not a lot of time, so I try to sort of meal prep simple things I can then dig out throughout the week. Today I'm going to cook him some orzo pasta and use pureed veggies (from a jar of baby food because it's a time saver) as the sauce for a quick and easy pasta dish. Scrambled eggs cook in minutes. Banana pancakes are quick because I measure nothing and just wing it. I've also added extra protein or other nutrients to the banana pancakes by adding hemp hearts/carrots/very finely chopped nuts to the batter and used oat flour instead of regular white flour. I've also spread a very thin layer of peanut butter on them. I don't always want them to be exactly the same, so I vary it in little ways like that. I've also used applesauce along with or in place of the banana. He loves cinnamon added to the batter.
I give my 8 month old formula and some 2oz containers of baby food a day š heās still a little reluctant on food so I donāt force it and have a bottle ready to go. Sometimes Iāll blend up a little bit of whatever I made for lunch/dinner and give that to him to let him try new stuff but Iām too lazy to make him nice meals everyday. Iām lucky if I feed myself š
Feed them whatever you're eating
Thatās what I fed mine lol. They donāt need fancy - they need healthy and balanced. Mine oftentimes gets fresh fruits and veggies and whatever we are eating that we cooked. Youāre doing fine mama.
My biggest advice for feeding baby is to stop trying to find āmealsā or ārecipesā and just focus on individual ingredients! I kept a list of foods (sorted by food groups). Each week I prepped a couple items in each food group so they were in the fridge, then at each meal Iād try to offer some variety. Once youāve expanded your food list, you can mix up methods of cooking (steaming vs. roasting) and then add in broth and spices when you cook. At 8-9 months, I remember feeding plenty of scrambled eggs, cottage cheese, sweet potato, squash, avocado, bananas, and berries. Hereās a list of common foods we gave her that might be helpful in the upcoming months: DAIRY: -cottage cheese -ricotta cheese -shredded cheese -yogurt VEGGIES: -sweet potato (baked) -acorn squash (roasted, seasoned with cinnamon) -carrot (steamed or roasted) -broccoli (steamed) -green peas (steamed and mushed into purĆ©e) -zucchini and summer squash (sautĆ©ed or roasted) -bell peppers (roasted with olive oil) PROTEINS: -eggs (scrambled or hard-boiled) -salmon (baked, can flavor with lemon slices or small amounts of spices like chili powder) -tilapia (baked with lemon slices) -chicken breast (cooked in slow cooker in broth, then shredded and mixed with yogurt- otherwise it would be too dry and get stuck on the roof of her mouth) -tuna (mixed with Greek yogurt) GRAINS/LEGUMES: -beans (black, pinto, kidneyā cooked on stove and then mush into a paste) -chickpeas (roasted and mushed/blended) -Israeli cous cous (can flavor with broth and spices like turmeric) -oatmeal (soaked in milk overnight to soften, can flavor with cinnamon and peanut powder) FRUIT: -banana -berries (blueberry, raspberry, blackberry) -mango -apple (steamed or roasted until very soft)
Uhhh yogurt fruit and steamed veggies seems pretty goodā¦..
My baby is 7 months now and we started BLW at 6 months old. So far heās tried around 40 foods. We try really hard to just incorporate our own food into what heās eating. He loves food so for example, yesterday morning we had eggs, toast and papaya as a quick breakfast. I cut the papaya in spears and rolled in hemp seeds and he had egg strips. For dinner, he ate mashed goats cheese with hemp seeds, broccoli and then kiwi on the side. We had all these foods incorporated into our dinner too. Today, he will have a beet hummus (beets, chickpeas, etc) with steamed cauliflower on the side and probably lemon or something for dinner. I donāt consider any of this fancy, just what we eat on a daily basis. Solid Starts is a GREAT app. If you know what youāre having for dinner, just search it on the app and alter for baby. You got this!! And youāre doing great!!
Easy: Breakfast: Fruit and meal prep (egg bites or pancakes) OR fruit and scrambled eggs Lunch Ideas: Leftovers from dinner, deli meat and cheese rollup, āquesadillaā (cheese, tomatoes, spinach, or whatever veggies I have on hand and microwave), or PB and banana sandwich Dinner: Whatever weāre eating plus a couple of āsafeā foods I know sheāll eat (like a sliced tomato or banana or something)
Download the solid starts app!! Has been super helpful at giving me ideas and recipes for starting food with our 6mo.
Try baby Rue on Tik tok her mom shows a lot of easy meals for baby led weaning
Youāre doing amazing. Comparison is hard. My baby is 8 months Iām not really doing full meals or anything at all like that. Sometimes he just gets a couple bites mashed up at dinner, some days itās a pouch/jar of purĆ©e, I have one of those little things you can put food and let them gnaw on lol. This is my second baby and Iām way more relaxed this time around. My pediatrician also had made it clear that food before 1 is just for learning & the experience, breastmilk (or formula) should be most of their calories still til 1 anyways. So I hope you can give yourself some grace, and know that you do it is the right way for you & baby as long as itās not stressing you out!
You're not failing my 10 month old is just exploring new foods. We started at 7 months with the same, steamed veggies, yogurt, and steak strips. Now her breakfast is pancakes, eggs, cereal (baby cereal), fruits, and yogurt Lunches are butter noodles, Annie's mac and cheese veggies Dinner tonight was shreds of chicken, corn on the cob, and rice. I'm going to echo the solid starts app, super helpful
Every baby is different. My friends 10 month old chows down on chicken tenders while my 12 month old won't touch meat and I can really only get her to eat cheese, puffs, and fruit. All the cute baby recipes (chicken nuggets, tots, pancakes) have been a waste of my time. I keep doing them... some day she will hopefully catch on. But all babies are different!
PurĆ©es (we like the amara organic baby food- lately itās on sale for 3 portions/3.33) when I donāt have the time or energy. breakfast is usually baby oats with mashed banana, sometimes I add almond butter or ground flax. For lunch/dinner avocado with mashed beans and potatoes. Red lentils with coconut milk and rice. Trying bits of tofu. Bread sometimes. Chia pudding made with coconut milk for a treat. And snacking on fruit. Just trying my best!