Forcing Pablum?

Hanna - posted on 08/11/2009

what is pablum? i've never heard of it. at 4 1/2 months i started my son Maxi (who turned 5 months on the 27th) on rice cereal -- 1 tbsp/6 oz of milk first few days once a day, then twice (he's a big baby and is constantly hungry and i simply don't produce enough milk to accommodate his appetite) and soon after, i started giving him veggies -- squashes, sweet potato, pumpkin, then 3 weeks later we started on peas. i had to switch to oatmeal cereal -- seems to be easier to poop but i never gave him anything "special". also, i started giving him our fruits "to taste" around almost 4months (if i was eating apple or banana or pear, i'd give him to lick it and he seemed to like it + he got the taste of it without having to actually digest it). i also didn't do the whole 1 food at a time for 1 week. i did 1 thing at a time, but for maybe 2-3 days and from there on out it was variety, and now i sometimes do one veggie one fruit a day or 2 veggies one fruit a day. he seems to like it so far plus the bottle of cereal + milk before he goes to bed or sometimes cereal and leftover veggie that he hasn't finished during 'dinner' (spoon fed).

i don't know, maybe i'm doing something wrong, but (knock on wood) it seems to be working ok. i do prepare the veggies and fruits myself (except banana) -- steam them for a few minutes, then cool, add a bit of breast milk to thin it out to be able to mash with a hand blender, then pass it through the strainer to get the fibers out (they're a bit harder to pass) and spoon feed. i know they recommend to buy the prepared ones because they're prepared to the highest level of safety and blah blah blah, but most of them are plain nasty! both my husband and i have been working in restaurant industry for years and have both passed food handling safety tests (serve-safe) so we know not to put raw chicken or pork on the same board as the baby veggies and to wash all hands, utensils and boards with antibacterial soap & hot water afterwards.

and as far as everything else, people in this country all seem to be paranoid of bacteria to the point that they recommend to wash children's toys & bottles with bleach. i think it's a bit too much -- yes i keep my house clean, but i don't believe in lysol air spray or whatever else to "neutralize" bacterias in the air -- as far as i'm concerned chemicals do way more damage than the bacteria they're designed to kill and i'm not running a daycare from my house. plus, most of us have started putting our babies on the floor to let them practice rolling over & crawling, so i'm pretty sure no matter how clean your house is, your floor is much more dirty than your kitchen counter and kids do put those hands and feet in their mouth after they're done crawling, so from where i stand, if you wash your veggies/fruits before cutting them & peel & then steam them -- you've pretty much killed everything you brought from outside.

i'm not saying that my way is right, but Maxi seems to love it and i don't see him getting sick. plus, while he's breastfed, his immunity level is higher than even in some adults (because you do pass some of your anti-bodies to the baby through milk), not to mention that kids are "designed" to tolerate more bacteria at this age (being that everything goes in their mouth), so might as well expose them to a bit of germs (i'm not saying don't clean your house, but just not overdo it with the chemicals and sterilizers and all that) and help them build anti-bodies/defense for some of them while their immune system is stronger. anyways, i'm just rambling, the point is, if your baby doesn't like that whatever it is you give him, then just give him regular food. and as far as cereal, just add it to your milk and add enough so that it's not overwhelmingly bland -- i did 1 tbsp for 6 oz of milk, it's thicker than a regular milk and still fits through #3 nipple, you don't have to give the cereal one if your baby can't eat that fast yet. i hope it helps. Good luck to you!!!!

Catherine - posted on 08/11/2009

Skip it and go on to the good stuff. Many babies do not like the infant cereals because they taste horrible. Just be sure to feed him something containing iron if you are nursing. Chicken is a popular choice. Good luck with the new foods!