I feel stupid asking this... need feeding advice

Jessie - posted on 03/31/2011

do you see a specialist about your sons milk protein allergy? my son is intolerant to dairy and wheat so I gear all questions about foods to his allergist. otherwise I would talk to whomever diagnosed your son with the protein allergy. my son was already on table food at 12 months when when began to figure his intolerance/allergies out though so...

Aimee - posted on 03/30/2011

u are a good mum just need a few bits of help on the way like us all. they can eat anythin from that age carrots peas sweetcorn mash and blend meat down try him with finger foods such as bread and cheese. do a little dish full of food what he dont eat put in the pot for the next day if u have done alot for him freeze some and when u go out put it into your bag and all u have to do is warm it up.also if u ssk your health visitor or doc they can give u leaflets on what they can have and can not have hope this helps

Joanne - posted on 03/30/2011

You are not a moron! I have two kids and I still asked the same questions you are asking. With our first baby, we started giving him adult food pretty early on. (He also had a lot of his baby teeth already.) Since we eat rice with every dinner, I usually would give him rice and mix in a soup broth to make it more mushy for him & tasty. Other food I would add from our dishes would be steamed carrots, green beans, and tofu. Personally, I wasn't in a rush to give him too much meat. I concentrated on veggies & fruits. I also would make him macroni in a soup broth and add carrots. He loved that!

Emily - posted on 12/17/2009

You're fine Tina. I started giving my son some of what I had for dinner early on. Just make sure it's very little pieces and somewhat mushy. Things that arent naturally musjhy, whip in a food processor. Shellfish should definitely wait until he's a lot older, as well as honey. My osn pretty much eats almost anything at this point, and I didn't hold anything back from him unless it could be harmful. Just use your judgement and think about his age. He's 8 months old.. if you were that little with no teeth, what would you eat? And go from there.



You can do it! You're supermom!

Amy - posted on 12/17/2009

Some stores have different variety of stage foods. We found Walmart had the best variety of foods.

Also, by about 7 months we ended up making food and mashing it up. Our son got bananas and sweet potatoes almost every day, as well as other foods. Our son also had a milk protein allergy, and was fine with dairy at 12 months when we switched him to milk, usually they grow out of the milk protean between 9 and 12 months.

I would say that you can mash up anything, just make sure not to introduce too many new foods at once. What we did was cook it long enough, then just use a fork to mash up. For things that are a little hard (like if you want to feed meet) then a blender is fine. We just looked at what foods we were eating and tried to see if it could be "mashed". Yogurt (like the stuff you feed yourself) may be ok (you may want to double check if that was a 9 month food or not), mashed potatoes, oatmeal, mash up avocado (Mmmmm, that is a fav!),

Stay away from Honey, eggs, and nuts until at least a year, Honey is two years I believe, and nuts depends on when you feel like it. I have great maternal instinct at first, but when it came to food I had no clue! My husband figured most of that stuff out.

Does your 8 month old have much for teeth? I believe at 8 months we started giving our soon teething biskets so he can start to figure out how to chew and not just gulp his food down.

Also at 9 or 10 months when our son figured out how to swallow, we started giving him these nutria grain type breakfast bars, they made a mess but he LOVED them.

Callinda - posted on 12/17/2009

It is recommended that you avoid the following foods for babies:

- Honey (until 1 year)

- Peanuts & other nuts (until 1 year, or if family history of allergies 2-3 years)

- Citrus or Acidic fruits such as lemon, pineapple, orange, tomatoes (until 1 year - but may use in small amounts in cooking)

- Strawberries, Raspberries and Blackberries (until 1 year - however it has been suggested if they are cooked, in yoghurt etc it is ok as the cooking changes the proteins in them) Note that Blueberries and Cranberries are OK

- Corn (until 1 year)

- Egg Whites (until 1 year)

- Whole milk as a drink (until 1 year)

- Wheat (8+ month provided no history of allergy)

- Grapes (until 1 year due to choking hazard)

- Shellfish/Crustaceans (1 year or 2-3 years if family history of allergy)

- Chocolate (1 year or later)



I think there is nothing wrong with starting to feed him modified version of what the rest of the family is eating. Puree up the vegies and meat and so long as nothing is on the restricted lists above you should be fine! Enjoy this time and try not to get too stressed about what is and isnt eating at this stage! Food should be fun!!!

Lydia - posted on 12/17/2009

Our daughter started with toast and then we just started experimenting. I know nuts and citrus are high-risk for alleric reactions in young bubs so best avoided. That said - if it can be easily smushed then she should be fine with it even without teeth. Our daughter is now 11 months with no teeth and the only tings she cant really eat is steak (though she does like to try) and bacon. She loves strawberries but lime gives her an allergic reaction. She basically eats whatever we do - just start slowly with small amounts of the new food and see how she goes with it - if she is ok with it then you can give her more - if not you can pull it off the list and try again later.

Kelly - posted on 12/17/2009

You are not a moron , there is nothing to be ashamed about for asking questions :-) , remember , every mum is a first time mum at some stage, and even the ones with their 5th kid , don't have all the answers .
This is a list of foods on my plunket feeding chart for stage three
berries, breakfast cereals , cabbage, cream corn, kiwifruit, oranges ,porrige, spinach , tomatoes,at this stage its more about introducing new textures to them .

Sarah - posted on 12/17/2009

I've been told no cows milk, nuts, grapes, strawberries, popcorn, honey, eggs until 12 months old (longer if theres an allergy in the family). Here in Australia we also get advised not to rely on the jars of baby food, they're considered to be too high in salt and sugar for a baby to eat regularly. I've been told that when we start solids (i'm holding off for now) to gradually make the mushed up fruit and veg more chunky and that close to 12 months you can cook meat or chicken, blend it up till its very fine and mix it with some mashed veggies. I've also been told very fine mince is ok.

Amanda - posted on 12/16/2009

Stage 3 veg are alot like stage 2 same with the fruits, really the difference is the dinners and breakfasts they have chunks. The veg and fruits are still pureed in 3 but just alittle thicker. I had the same problem and with me when there wasn't enough stage 3 veg and fruits, I just got stage 2 till she was old enough for solids. I wouldn't push soild foods my daughter just got them at like 12 months, we always had a hard time with it before 12 months and now she's 15 months and I don't even have to really cut the food up as much, they do it at there own pace. and anything you can mush he can have. really everything in the jar food is the same thing that you could make at home. cook carrots till they mush (like way longer then normal), even broccoli (they don't have those in the jar) mashes potatos add cauliflower to sneak more veg. really anything you can mash do it! (well if you want) even cooked chicken you could blend up with some cooked vegs to soften it a bit(if you have a blender). Never give honey till 12 months (because of the bacteria or syrup same thing), peanut butter, strawberrys, chocolate, nuts. I have a list somewhere but, I can't find it. all of these not till 12 months. and just by asking these questions shows you have maternal instincts! No mom wants to do things wrong, and really you can't do things wrong, being a mom deals with trials and errors! I hope I helped! if you have more questions just ask me! I spend all my time with my daughter and since she's alittle older i'm just a step ahead...lol

Melissa - posted on 12/16/2009

I'm a new mom, so I don't have any helpful tips, but rest assured you are not a moron! Our instincts are based on the natural world, and let's face it, most of our ideas about childrearing are synthetic manipulations of nature based on the last fifty years or so of 'innovations' that make things more complicated than necessary. I won't go into that...point is, asking for help is actually necessary now that we have complicated life. Don't be afraid to, especially if it's for your child's benefit.

Jen - posted on 12/16/2009

First off take a deep breath. Being a mommy is a learning experience. When you think you have the hang of things, your child or children will throw you for a loop anyway lol.

If your son in ready for stage 3 foods then you can give him that and table food if you choose. Start off by giving him Gerber cereal puffs and their other suggested snacks for his developmental stage. If he gets the hang of that pretty well you can start giving him cheerios and bananas cut up in small pieces. Applesauce, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes. Pretty much everything you already give him as baby food, but you'll want to mush it up a bit and cut it small enough for him to pick up and chew or gnaw on properly. As for keeping foods bland. You should until a year and then you can start adding in seasoning. My daughter was off baby food at 11.5 months and on gerber graduates and table food. After 1 you can pretty much give him everything you're eating, just cut up enough for him to pick up.

Foods to avoid until over a year: strawberries if there is an allergy in the family, nuts, honey, hot dogs, hard foods, candy, anything you can see as a choking hazard.

Foods to avoid until 2: peanut butter (I have heard some doctors say they can have it at 1, but it is still a choking hazard), and any other allergies that run in the family.

Good luck! :)

Laura - posted on 12/16/2009

no not a moron.. lol.. just try to get a list from doc or nutritionist on what you can feed him w/o it hurting him.. dont worry you're doing fine just get some advice and direction

Jennifer - posted on 12/16/2009

First off, I don't think your a moron at all and that your maternal instinct is in full force. You are concerned about the well being of your child and your are taking the necessary precautions before moving to the next step. With that said, I would talk with your doctor because they are the one (besides you) who knows the most about your son's health issues. And they can tell you what to feed and what to avoid (i.e.-honey, peanut butter, strawberries, etc.). As far as how much, when i started giving my daughter "real food" or solids i started with an avacado mashed with a fork because it is soft enough that she could gum it (the rule of thumb is if you can smash it pretty easily with your tongue against the roof of your mouth and swallow it without difficulty then baby can have it) and the baby meat in a jar mixed together. And I mixed up a 2 ounce baby food jar full and fed her half at one feeding be it lunch or dinner and then the other half at the next feeding, dinner or lunch the next day. And if she wanted more then she could have more. Something else you could start with to stay away from milk would be to use the stage 2 veggies and meats and give him jarred or canned fruits like peaches or cherries. You can also give him canned beans-peas, butter beans, lima beans, kidney beans. And bananas are always an easy thing to do to. My daughter also LOVES if you take an apple and put it in the oven for 30 minutes with apples juice or water and bake it until mush. Then let it cool and give her spoon-sized bites and let her mush it in her mouth. I hope this has helped. Sorry so long, but feel free to email me on here with other questions. Also try google-ing homemade babyfoods. Good Luck!