BABY FOOD

BABY FOOD

At about 6 months of age, your baby will be ready for "solid baby food". Don't be fooled though: at these very early stages, "solid food" isn't very solid. It's all mashed up and gooey.

Start with rice cereal. After a week or two of this, try oatmeal cereal and then barley cereal. If there is one grain that he does not like, you can buy a mixed cereal that has all 3 grains in it. Once you've exhausted all those options, then it is this time to introduce fruits and vegetables. You can mashed fruits into the baby cereal to make it more interesting. As your baby grows older, you can leave the fruits in soft chunks so that it gives the baby cereal texture.

In general, it is not recommended to give your baby breakfast oatmeal that are designed for children & adults. These tend to be too sweet and have lots of added stuffs (honey, cinnamon) which your child may be allergic to. Go for good ol' fashion plain, baby cereals 

If your baby cries during his first few feedings, or he spits all the baby cereal out, he may not be ready (in the latter case, he may still have the Tongue-Thrust Reflex). Stop offering solid foods and wait a month or  two before trying again. Some parents introduce solid food as early as 4 months of age (not recommended by pediatricians) while others start solids after 12 months of formula/breast milk (somewhat extreme), so there's a lot of flexibility in when you introduce solid baby food

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