Starting Solids: Where Should I Start?

Question

Hi! My sweet girl will be 5 months next week and I know we have some time before we can start giving her purées and other foods — but I wanted everyone’s opinion: what should we start with? Store bought baby foods, homemade baby foods, baby led weaning? 
I am really interested in making baby foods myself! As I think it would be fun (new mom excitement?) and I like knowing what she’s eating! I have no objection to store bought baby foods either though. We are also interested in baby led weaning, but don’t want to miss out on the fun of feeding her purées and seeing those silly faces!
Any tips, personal stories, recommendations? We won’t start anything till we get the go from our pediatrician but I wanted to hear opinions! 
Post your sweet baby pictures below with your answer!

Answer

We start at 6mos (or a tad before of sitting independently like our daughter was, we started her at 5.5 months) - we do combo feeding which is self feeding pre-loaded spoons of purées that baby feeds themselves, purée on the tray that they can explore/eat, as well as appropriately cut other foods.

Answer

My son is going to be 6months in less than 3 weeks. We are planning on hopefully doing BLW but if he doesn’t start actually eating it within like 2-3 weeks I’ll probably do some purées so I can make sure he’s getting all of his nutritional needs but I’ll still offer the normal foods as well. At least that’s what I think I’m going to do lol

Answer

We do baby led weaning, and have with all of our girls! Just what we prefer! It’s all preference!

Answer

My daughter started oat cereal around 3.5 -4 months in a bottle ( was told it's ok longs if you don't put in more than a teaspoon of powder and have a close eye on baby) because of how much she demands I can't make how much she needs. We we started bowl and bottle about 2 or 3 weeks ago next weekend she'll be starting homemade baby food and that will be peas

Answer

My son will be 5 months on Friday and I’m choosing to do a mix of homemade purées as well as BLW. I’m choosing to do it this way because I noticed there just isn’t a wide variety of flavor options in the store for baby food as well as I really don’t know what’s going into jarred food. This way I can give him more options as well as ensure all the ingredients are good!

Answer

So we started at 4 months after her appointment with the oatmeal and stage 1 baby food. She’s now starting to have interest and tries to feed herself with the spoon. She’ll be 6 months in a couple weeks and I’m really looking into BLW, as well! I’ve been following videos on social media and Pinterest and just feel so excited to introduce her to all the good foods the best we can and just hope for the best ☺️

Answer

We've started with solid foods (purees) at midday. I find it important as you can see for few hours if the baby has any stomach issues and if she/he has some- there are still several hours before bed- so they get good sleep after they can process.
At the beginning we did vegetables (it's not only for tastes/being picky but also- they are easier on the stomach). Zucchini, potato, parsley root, selerie (watch for allergies but it's better to introduce allergens in a window somwhere between 5-9 month if ai remember correctly), sweet potato, carrots, couliflower, broccoli - that was our order more or less.
It was few spoons for the first weeks and increased in time. One vegetable at once for 3 days to see for reaction. Then mixes of two vegetables and afyer about a month second meal- I believe it was fruit for a snack in the afternoon. And I wasn't that careful anymore with amount as she's already had veggies.
I was bf and gave my daughter my milk every time after the few spoons. Even when we got to the "whole meal" I've just tried if she wanted to "drink".
I don't remember when we introduced water- but it was in a doidy cup and we switched to a regular cup quite quickly.
I was coocking by myself- or more accurate - at the beginning I just took a bit of our food and smashed it for her. When we came to regular and whole meals I was preparing them in a steam-thing (I don't know the name for it 🤣🤣) so I could make a dish with 2 veggies and meat- but that was a bit later, maybe with 8/9 months.
I believe we've added one meal every month.

Starting Solids: Where Should I Start?

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