Introducing Gerber Baby Food

I have a 7 month old little girl. Her doctor said to feed her solids 4 times a day and give her breastmilk either separately from meals or after the solids. My daughter eats cereal, fruits, veggies and I just started her on the gerber meat mixed with veggies. I give her the little gerber puffs finger foods too.

No, you don't replace!! You feed the food WITH breastmilk!! However, the thing you should do first is start with the basic cereals, (try rice again, oatmeal, and barley) I guess about a week each. I would give my son a bottle, then jar food till he stopped accepting it---he could put away some food!! Good Luck!!

please dont feed him gerber! you will be setting him up for all kinds of pickiness later when he transitions to real food, especially after being breastfed. your milk has so many flavors, and gerber is so bland, and tastes NOTHING like real food. just puree the actual foods that you want him to eat. i read super baby food by ruth yaron and it gaives you how-to, how much, and a timetable for each food. if you feed him baby food in a jar, he will learn to eat only jarred food, and won't learn to like how food really tastes.

breastmilk is the most important food for him til he is over a year. i would start with a smallish meal in the morning, when you might be quieter and he has already had his first thing in the morning nurse. maybe an ounce of food. i would also mix whatever you introduce first with your milk, as it is a familiar taste to him. i didn't move to two meals a day til nine or ten months, and then i didn't do three til one year old or so. my daughter had similar probs with the cereal, and when we re-started solids i started with avocado and she did really well.

If he didn't do well with rice you might try oatmeal mixed with breastmilk both my girls liked it much better than the rice. I've heard the whole fruits will make him crave sweets thing is a myth, after all breastmilk is sweet! But I would start just once a day, give him cereal or fruit and let him eat until he won't accept anymore. You can easily make your own, especially bananas and pears, carrots, mashed potatoes and when in season peaches are really easy too.(I made some of my own and some from the jar) At first it took 2 or 3 feedings to finish one of the smallest jars, so don't expect him to eat too much to start. This is a really fun time, so enjoy it! God Bless!

You should introduce one new food at a time so you can tell if he has problems with that food, like a rash or gas problems like the cereal did. I would just food him a little maybe a half of a small jar at a meal. You can still breast feed him , just not as much because he will be getting some whayt full with the food.

if you go to www.gerber.com they have sample menus for breast fed babies. my breast fed twins also just turned 6 months and i've been checking out their website frequently.

I would feed him as much as he'll eat at breakfast, lunch, and dinner and then nurse afterward.

YOu've gotten some really good responses. I would just like to add that you are obviously listening to your mom instincts. Some people think if the doctor says then well that is what we have to do. But you saw that he wasn't ready yet. Listen to your instincts girl!! They are the best thing you have. Good luck.

Hi! This is going to be fun for you!

First, congratulations on breastfeeding.

Skip the little jars. They're so expensive, and the nutrients are so broken down and in a lot of cases, even completely destroyed in the processing of it. Also, they often add bad things like food coloring to it.

Try just mashing up some baked squash or sweet potato (no oil, no seasonings), yourself. Freeze it and, when you're ready, pull out just a teaspoon or two. Thaw it by adding just a little boiling water (say, teaspoon or two), and strain it (I use a big tea strainer; use whatever). You want to make it wet enough to pour off the spoon - it really should be only a little thicker than breastmilk. Make sure to use only boiled water because it is sterile, and utensils that have gone through the dishwasher or that you have boiled (so you don't want to use plastic; only use metal because you don't want your baby chewing on boiled plastic - the chemicals leach).

For more information, get Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. She is WAY into it (and does a lot more than I have time for!), but you can take away from it what you like.

I do recommend starting with squash or sweet potato because they're very easy to digest. Also, starting with vegetables will help your baby to have an interest in flavors other than just straight-up sweet.

Also, never "double dip" and then return half-eaten foods to the fridge or freezer. No saliva can come into contact with the food if it is to be stored and eaten later. Bacteria are introduced and thrive in that, even in the fridge, and though they stop being active in the freezer, they "wake" right back up when they warm up again.

Those are the basics. Oh, and only introduce one new food per four days (some pediatricians suggest a week, to be safe). This way, if your baby has an allergic reaction, you know exactly which food caused it and don't have to subject your baby to a possible allergen a second time).

Oh! Couple more things: no matter what happens, always stay calm and happy while feeding solids to help prevent discipline and eating issues later in childhood. Resign yourself to plenty of mess-making. It's part of learning. You can teach him table manners in due time ;) Also, introduce new foods in the morning (but not when your baby is very hungry or tired; this is begging for trouble!), so that if there are any allergic reactions, they don't keep you up all night :)

Also, offer a little cooled, boiled water after every feeding. This helps prevent constipation. Just a few sips is fine.

Only do one feeding a day for the first couple of weeks.

Don't give him baby food instead of breastmilk. Baby food is ONLY on top of your normal feeding routine until he is at least one year of age! This is very important. In the meantime, introducing solids is really just a way of getting him familiar with the eating process, and getting his body used to solids. And this is very reassuring, you will see, when you realize how little actually gets down his gullet :) :) :)

Again, forget about jarred baby food. The stuff is no good. And making your own is actually very easy. Like cereal? Just make brown rice (I prefer quinoa because it's only 15 minutes) for you and your husband with no seasonings. When it's cooked, set aside some for your baby, let it cool and put it in the blender. When it's good and uniform, put it into separate containers (there are BPA-free plastic ice-cube-style trays, but intended for baby food, online) and freeze; you pop one out per feeding, it takes no time to thaw. You can add cooked, mashed lentils or split peas or whatever for more nutrition, and/or some veggies like broccoli, whatever, as your baby gets introduced to these one by one. Again, all very easy. Cook in batches, freeze, voila.

Really. Get the book. It's very, very helpful. Just use whatever you find most useful; skip the fancy stuff like how to carve a watermelon to look like a whale next summer if you wish!

Have fun! Take pictures! Or video!

L.

Congrats on your happy marriage and your new addition!

I got a lot of guidance from "Baby 411" by Denise Fields and Ari Brown. The chapter on solid foods covers different stages, amounts, how often, and even ideas for pureeing your table food to feed baby. I fed my son Nature's Goodness (they might be under the Del Monte label now, I don't know). Their food is less expensive, has fewer additives, and appears to retain more nutrients. But all baby food will taste/smell like canned food, because it's prepared similarly. When my son started the stage one foods, I would put half a tiny jar in a little glass custard bowl or a plastic baby bowl and feed him that; then save the other half for later. I also did this when starting new foods in the larger Stage 2 jars. (I only warmed refrigerated foods, so he got used to eating room temperature baby food. He liked it just fine.)

You'll have to determine for yourself what your son will eat, and how much per feeding. I generally breast fed first then gave solids, since he still needed the fat and nutrients from breast milk and the solid foods are mainly so he learns how to use his mouth muscles to eat food, instead of sucking. Over time my son preferred to sit up to eat so he could look around, so he weaned himself around 11 months.

I do recommend "Baby 411" - it's very straightforward and easy to follow. It also has some home remedies in an appendix, including one for homemade Pedialyte, which has saved us a lot of trouble. :)

do not replace breast milk with food. he needs all the breast milk plus the food. i tend to follow babycenter.com's guide to feeding. you can follow this link: http://www.babycenter.com/0_age-by-age-guide-to-feeding-y...
or go to babycenter.com and type in what to feed my 6 month old. i have a 7 month old and a 3.5 yr old. the 7 month old is still breastfed and she gets food at daycare and at home - so it turns out to be twice a day. i started both my girls on veggies first - so they wouldn't just like the sweet of the fruits. she has been eating veggies for a month and a half now and i just started with the fruits this weekend. also, you MUST know that you need to introduce foods slowly - just eat squash for 3 days and then move to something else - green beans or whatever. that way if he has a reaction, you know what caused it. he definitely needs cereal too!! hope that helps!

You add it to his nursing. I started at 2 times per day. You do 1 new food every 3 days, alternating fruit and veggie. This way if there is a problem with something not agreeing with him you will know what it was. His showing interest in your plate is a sign he is ready. Start with like pears for 3 days, then carrots for 3 days, then peaches for 3, then peas for 3, and so on. After you have a good mix and he is really used to things, you can do half and half. at the same time or add fruit with rice cereal. good luck. this is so much fun, keep the camera ready for those great expressions good and bad.!

When i started my son on baby food, i would feed him the food and then give him a small bottle to top him off. I did this at every meal until he got older and was eating all the foods. I usually gave him some cereal, a fruit and a veggie until the doc told me to add meats. He actually started on foods very early under doctors orders. So, if i were you, i would feed him the food, small amount to start, and then fill him up with a breastfeeding. Hope this helps. I am sure you will get lots of advice on this one!!
Best of luck and god bless!!

I made my baby's food. I purchased a book that I called my food bible. The book is calle Super Baby Food. You can buy it at any book store. If you don't want to make the food you would find helpful hints and schedules on what to feed at what age and how much of it. I used this book for both of my kids and they are wonderful eaters. They don't steer clear of veggies. Also, I exclusively nuresed for exactly 6 months so I can relate.

Hope this helps.

Don't feed him baby food from a jar - give him real food. Most pre-packaged baby food is full of sugar. I started my daughter with it, and quit giving it to her soon after starting it, after I tasted it and realized how nasty it is. You don't want him getting the idea that all foods are supposed to be sweet. IMO, overly sweetened baby foods are part of the reason so many little ones don't like real veggies once they start eating table food - they expect everything to be sweet.

Steam a few baby carrots until they're soft, mash them up and give them to him. Do the same with other veggies and fruits as you intorduce them. That's what I did with my daughter, and by the time she was a year old, she was eating whatever I ate, seasonings, spices, and all.

Start off slowly. Pick a meal time that is the least rushed in your house and introduce solids then. I would feed my kids right before a meal and then let them sit in their high chair during the meal with finger foods or toys. Once or twice a day is enough and they may only eat a few spoonfuls at first. This is okay. Right now giving them solids is mostly to get them used to the texture, taste, and eating from a spoon and isn't meant to take the place of the breastmilk.

Also, you don't have to give them food from a jar. Making baby food is very easy. Here is a website that I used for both of my kids. They are 2 and 4 and still eat very well.

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

This website also gives good information about which foods to introduce first and second and so on based on ease of digestion and possibility of allergies.

Good luck, have fun and take lots of pictures.

Try introducing it around the regular meal times (breakfast, lunch & dinner). Let him tell you how much he wants, at first it may be just a few spoon fulls. When he acts like he is done you can go ahead and breastfeed to make sure he has enough to eat. He will catch on and he will let you know what he wants.

Our pediatrician said always start with a fruit (apples or pears are easiest on the stomach). Mix half a jar of stage 1 with enough oatmeal or rice to thicken it a little. Do this every morning for 4 days. Then you can pick a veggie for lunch and do the same thing. Never introduce 2 new foods at the same time. Always give your child 4 consecutive days with a new food to see if there will be an allergic reaction. On the meals he is getting solids, cut his breast milk in half. Feed him the same amount on the in-between feedings. When he acts hungry after half a jar and his milk, it's time to move to a full jar. He may get a little constipated from the food change. Every baby does. Pears and prunes with a little juice are both good for getting things moving again.
J.