Baby Food 101

September 14th, 2011 in Parenting Tips, Babies, Raising Kids on Read Food, recipes

Preface: You should do baby food the way you and your pediatrician feel is right. These are just my opinions and what has worked for me. Every single mama, family and BABY are so different!

For about two weeks, Baby Shae has been acting like she needs something more than Mama’s milk! Silly me, I thought she was going to be just like her sisters so I started her first on avocados and bananas. Secondly, yams (or sometimes sweet potatoes) or pears (or sometimes peaches). Thirdly, organic baby yogurt with fruit and cereal in it.

She wasn’t having it. My other babies DESPISED rice cereal and honestly I have never wanted my kids to like it. Well, I never wanted them to like white rice cereal, that is. Some people say it’s the most gentle thing you can start your babies on. But I just don’t want my kids being started on bleached, artificial, white cereal. If I am going to do cereal I want it to be whole grain and organic. My kids know I refuse to buy white bread and I’ll never allow cutting off crusts or skins on produce. It drives me bonkers, I tell you.

But this baby is a new baby. She has a different personality and different likes than my other two. So she gobbles up this cereal:

Now I am getting her used to avacados, bananas, pears and yams by mixing them into the cereal. I’ll also start making my own whole grain cereal after she finishes this box, although I am really happy with the quality of the ingredients and with the company that makes the cereal so I’ll probably do both!

The Best Homemade Baby Food on The Planet by Karin Knight

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron

I also highly recommend these two books. They will teach you how to SAFELY prepare your own baby food, tell you what foods to do first and why and how to watch out for allergies. They have tons of great recipes and helpful tips.

With my first two babies I made all their food. They also sprouted teeth early so they were eating the same food as us pretty early on. Now there are a lot of organic and sugar free options for STORE BOUGHT baby food. So one day I was in a pinch and I bought this brand and was really impressed. The packaging is nice because you can squirt out however much you want and save the rest for later.

You can find the website for Ella’s Kitchen Organic Baby Food here.

I really believe that whatever baby food you decide on deserves some pretty important decision making. I *KNOW* that starting babies off right on food leads to healthy children and healthy eating habits that will follow them their whole lives.