It's been a month since I posted about my trepidation of introducing Liam to solid food. We started a bit earlier than I had planned. At about 5.5 months, Liam had reverted to nursing every two hours (he had been eating every three hours), took great interest in watching us eat and had started imitating our chewing motions. He even tried to grab my garlic bread out of my hand!
So, on Sunday, May 6, halfway through our morning nursing session, we gave Liam his first taste of sweet potato.
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| "Hey! This isn't my regular milk!" |
Since then, he's also tried pears (meh), banana (not so bad), oatmeal (likes it!), and butternut squash (which he thinks is for wearing, not for eating). We've got apples, peaches, peas, carrots, and Greek yogurt ready to go.
So far, I've made all of his food at home (except the yogurt and the oatmeal — we use Trader Joe's Greek Style yogurt and Earth's Best brand, because it is organic, whole-grain, and contains no added sugar or salt. I don't receive any compensation, monetary or otherwise, from Trader Joe's or Earth's Best for recommending their products). I love making Liam's food. It's very easy — it takes about half an hour per food item, from prep to cleanup. I get about 16 one-ounce cubes at a time. I could make more, but babies don't eat purees for long, so I don't want to make too much, and I don't have a ton of freezer space.
I use a saucepan, an immersion blender and occasionally a food mill. I got advice and recipes from the following sources:
- Wholesome Baby Food website
- Super Foods: for Babies and Children and Top 100 Baby Purees, both by Annabel Karmel
- Start Fresh by Tyler Florence
- The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet by Karin Knight, R.N., and Tina Ruggiero, M.S., R.D., L.D.