First foods

Other than rice cereal, which he likes, what foods are safe for my baby?

Once your baby is happy with rice cereal, you can start to introduce other foods. Be sure to only introduce a new food every 2-3 days. In this way, it will be easy to pinpoint the cause of any allergic reactions. These early foods must be very smooth and can be thinned with baby milk if necessary. Once your baby is used to rice porridge you can try other kinds of porridge, such as barley and oat cereal. In this way, baby will get different vitamins and minerals from the different foods. Just make sure that the porridge is thin and smooth. Vegetables must be cooked (use as little water as possible to retain all the vitamins) and pureed to a very smooth consistency. Vegetables such as sweet potato and carrot are a good choice for the early additions. These are nutritious vegetables that are also often the most palatable to babies. The taste and texture of vegetables are frequently not popular with babies, especially green vegetables such as beans. However, your baby may love beans. You won’t know until you try! Other vegetables to try are peas and a variety of squash.

It is a good idea to get baby used to vegetables before you introduce fruits since babies who have fruit very early sometimes prefer only sweet foods. Banana and apple puree are good fruits to start with. Bananas can be mashed very well so that there are no lumps, while apple needs to be lightly cooked and then pureed. Peaches and pears are also good fruits to try early on. If you plan to do your own food for your baby, you can prepare a cup full of puree, and then free it in an ice tray. Then you can defrost individual cubes for baby’s meal. Its a great time saver in the long run.