Introducing solids is different for every baby. Around four months old, Darlington started having problems sleeping at night. Nothing seemed to satisfy her insatiable appetite. There were twenty-four-hour periods where she drank up to thirty-five and forty ounces of milk. I had mother-friends telling me Darlington was ready for solids. So, I did my research and read that vegetables were the best place to start. I decided to begin with carrots. I even wrote about it and shared my recipe on the Monday Menu. Then, just as soon as the sleepless nights started, they stopped.
But, turns out, it wasn’t due to the introduction of solids. Darlington was finally over her four-month growth spurt. I didn’t realize there were big growth spurts that happen at four months and then again at seven months.
When I tried to feed her the carrots at four months, she wasn’t really interested. I then took the pureed carrots and added them to her bottle. Once I made the hole in the nipple bigger, we were in business. A couple days later, when our pediatrician came over for a checkup, I told her about the carrots. She said she doesn’t recommend introducing solids before six months for two reasons. First, most babies haven’t developed their gag reflexes and secondly, they won’t learn to eat properly if they are bottle-fed solids.
This made perfect sense to me, and I went ahead and pressed pause on the solids until Darlington officially turned six months old. This time around, I thought cereal was the way to go. Cereal makes a good base and adding vegetables or fruit to it makes it even heartier.
After consulting with our pediatrician, I made a plan to introduce all the vegetables first—trying one vegetable for one week at a time. The reason for this is to make sure that the vegetable agrees with the baby and there aren’t any allergies. Then, we can dive into the fruits. And after we make sure that Darlington doesn’t have any vegetable or fruit allergies, we’ll try mixing foods for taste.
As of right now, we’re on cereal and carrots, and Darlington loves both! In fact, she insists on helping me prepare them.
If you and your little want to give Darlington’s Baby Food Recipes a try, please send us photos. We’d love to share them!
- 1 cup of brown rice
- 2 cups of water
- Take a saucepan and turn the heat on high.
- Add the rice and slightly brown it.
- Stir in the water and bring to a boil.
- Allow rice to boil for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to simmer.
- Stir and cover with lid.
- Once the rest of the water evaporates, take a fork and fluff.
- Now take a blender and add the cooked rice and enough water to purée (I’d use water rather than breast milk or formula so it will store better).
- Once it’s puréed, take a couple baby spoonfuls and add enough breast milk or formula to look like a small bowl of oatmeal.
- Put the leftover cereal in ice-cube trays or glass containers and store them in the refrigerator or freezer.
Enjoy!
