Who is working on how to introduce infants to solid food?


(Gail P) #1

I am not happy that I was misled about the safe foods to begin feeding my children. I worry about what new parents are being taught today, which is likely the same thing I learned 30 years ago: rice and barley. Mashed potatoes. All carb.

The incident that started me thinking about this was taking my cat to the vet where they fed him baby food (pureed chicken which contained corn starch) as a treat to get him to stay still. After I read the label I wasn’t interested in buying him more. Obligate carnivores do not digest grains.

Are recipes readily available for making your own foods for young children? I know they exist, but are they easy enough to be useful?
Do the cookbooks contain recommendations for what foods to begin with?

I’m happy I do not have to know this but think it could be worked on.


#2

Older mom when I did this, age 43 my one and only lucky miracle kid.
She was perfect and is near 15 now. So yea way older mom.

Lady Dr said to me, keep her 1 yr on formula. Luckily kid got the ‘enriched iron and supp formula’ cause I didn’t do breastfed type stuff and she handled it well. Sucked it down and kept her weight perfect thru it all on growing.

Then her first food at 1 yr. A rib. That kid grabbed hold of a rib bone we put on her eating crib chair thing, whatever ya call it LOL and she ate the meat and begged for more.

Next food…bacon. Omg she went ape on bacon.

I skipped all mashed crap for her. Never did any commercial baby food mush. I was very low carb into extreme and no way was I doing mashed crap, bananas, sweet taters or fruit or veg. Nope

one thing she did love was smashed taters and I let her have them but her thing was meat. I put a few things on her plate to eat and the meat cut up very small was the first grab all the time. Then bacon. Sausage. All meat geared.

of course don’t get me wrong here, later the kid found sugar and loved it LOL

but for me I did what my Dr said. 1 yr formula and the kid’s next move was hit the meat.

I know point blank this will differ big time on all of us. I get that truly.

but to this day my kid says feed me the meat first, then the rest of the crap later LOL I so love her for that :slight_smile:

not sure if it helps at all but you had me thinking back in time and I enjoyed that :slight_smile:


(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #3

I’m actually in the middle of this. I have to admit that I started my baby on carby snacks, just to entice him to pick up food. But, a few of the times I tried to feed him I simply pureed whatever food the rest of us were eating. My baby is 15 months old (in a few days). He’s only got 4 teeth.

There were a few times he’s eat the food off the baby spoon, but he would rather great it from me and play. His doctor said I could give him small pieces of soft food, not much larger than the fingernail on his pinky. Just keep the pieces small, and make sure they are soft enough for him to mash.


#4

Generally they’re interested in whatever mother is having!

In the east, and global south cultures (and throughout ancestral history), solid foods are introduced from what the mother herself is eating, either pre-chewed for the babe (6 months old or older) or torn/cut by hand and fed by hand to the infant rather than using spoons. When a mother chews meat as well as other foods, her saliva contributed enzymes to the food which benefit the child and the chewing ensures that pieces are appropriately small (but not mushy like the commercial jarred baby food). You can also keep a hand grinder at the table and use it if you prefer, or instruct caregivers to.

Non-starchy real foods can vary widely, and little ones can develop quite diverse palates, enjoying all sorts of foods with a tendency towards sweet and sour - a range of sweet/mild/cooling spices are good (things like cinnamon, coriander, dill, fennel, anise, cardamom), excluding the more pungent/hot spices like chili, pepper, abundant ginger, etc. They also and love to chew on sour citrus like lemon and lime as it tastes really good to the early palate, and is great for alkalinizing and Vit. C.

This is encouraging for babies:

This is a great resource for toddlerhood and beyond:


#5

I breastfed her for ages and introduced solid food at about 6 months. I mostly mashed up veggies for her, she liked sweet potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, spinach, for a while, and later fresh crispy veggies. She loved, loved, loved salmon and always loved milk and meat far more than I do. I didn’t give her too much of the grain stuff (semolina, polenta, rice), which is highly recommended here. I never bought processed food or sugary stuff.
I think there’s probably a lot of room for improvement, but it worked for us.
A friend of mine, who has lots of kids, says some of them wanted protein from the word go, the others went for carbs. I think there may be a genetic component somewhere, I mean there are 100 genes related to a higher risk of obesity, there may also be a genetic component to food preferences.


#6

You could ask Professor Tim Noakes on Twitter.


(Ken) #7

Cusinart makes a mini processor for about $35.


(Isa) #8

My LO is 3 now, but we started him on baby led weaning at 6 months. He was EBF prior to that, supplemented with formula starting at 8.5 months.

He had a ton of protein and fat to start: eggs with butter, avocado, cream cheese with veggies. As soon as he was interested, he moved to foods like chicken, meatballs, steak.

At age 3, he still prefers meat and fat. He asked for steak with a pear last night. His favorite food is still scrambled eggs, now with butter and spinach and garlic. I don’t specifically feed him keto or even low carb, but I do encourage low sugar and I am more than happy to have him eat what I eat.


(Katie) #9

Not totally keto, but relevant.


(Gail P) #10

I never did understand why he got in trouble for the part that was clearly a joke, but nobody mentioned the erroneous first part of the tweet!


(Gail P) #11

Sounds like the information is out there for anyone who looks. Thanks very much for sharing!


(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #12

Today I gave my baby (15 months) some keto “mac” & cheese (riced cauliflower) and some chicken. I think he ate some of it…hard to tell…he made more of a mess of things :smiley:


(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #14

Yeah, he dumps about 1/4 on the floor, but will try to use a spoon/fingers :slight_smile: He’s 18 months now. He will also open his mouth like a little bird for me to put food in :slight_smile:


(Rory Adamos) #16

I’d love it if the kid ate more vegetables, but we all know how hard it is to get a kid to like something healthy. My mistake was that I left the child with my grandmother for a few days. For some reason, everyone around thinks that grandmothers are excellent specialists in healthy baby food, but not mine. She gave the two-year-old as much meat as I can’t always eat myself. Now I’m on my second try with a fosterplus baby. True, the age category is not the same, but in this case, I will definitely be able to bring up the right eating habits in a child.


(Joey) #17

This is an old thread, but I’ll add a note in case there are young mothers (and fathers) out there interested in this topic…

My daughter and hubby gave their son various assortments of solid food to try long before he ever turned 1 year old, all while actively breast feeding as his basic nourishment. For the most part, they handed him a baby spoon for him to manipulate - at first quite unsuccessfully. Much of the food wound up on the floor (happy dog) or smushed in his hair. But they kept at it.

Fast forward: He is now over 18 months old, has self-weaned, and is entirely self-feeding with his own little spoon. Rarely misses the mouth and the dog is losing weight.

Along the way, they intentionally introduced 100+ different food items (keeping a spreadsheet to remember them all). They believe they have not only expanded his palate (he eats most everything now) but also have probably fended off potential allergies believed to arise from lack of exposure while one’s key metabolic systems are sprouting.

Google around for self-feeding baby topics. At least based on their experience, this approach has been a screaming winner and they have a very happy eater who is growing beautifully @ 99th percentile.


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #18

As long as the child gets plenty of protein to fuel growth, there should be no problem. In fact, bringing up kids on a ketogenic diet would seem to be the most loving possible approach.