Good First Foods for Baby

(my youngest son eating mashed avocado)

There are many theories about the best foods to feed baby.  With my first 2 sons, the first food they got was rice cereal. We were instructed by our pediatrician as well as other books to start off with rice cereal.  I started mixing it with breast milk, then mixed it with water and I often heated it in the microwave. (until we ditched our microwave, read about that here)  My oldest son had lots of constipation in his first 6 months of eating real foods. To this day he is still a bit sensitive to grains.  The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care has a whole chapter on feeding growing children. I really wish that they had the book available when I had my oldest sons.  They recommend starting to feed baby around 4-6 months. There is a fad going around of exclusive breastfeeding up until the first year. This may be tempting because it is so much easier and less messy to nurse than to feed solids. However, the results from holding off on feeding solids can result in an anemic baby who can be timid and clingy. The main reason for this is because at 6 months baby runs out of iron and breast milk cannot supply them with enough iron to meet baby's needs. In most traditional cultures one of the first foods given to baby was liver that was pre-chewed by mom.  Liver is high in iron and b vitamins. Another weaning food was a grass-fed egg yolk, loaded with vitamins and cholesterol.

As new foods are introduced to baby it is important to go slow and add in one food at a time to see if there are signs of reactions.  Any reaction like bloating, gas, constipation, irritability, fussiness, over activity, awaking through the night; vomiting, diarrhea, nasal or chest congestion, or inflamed rashes. If you notice any of these symptoms hold off from giving that food to baby again for a few months, then try again.

Babies have tiny little digestive systems that are still developing. Their bodies do not produce all the enzymes needed to digest all foods. Foods like breads, grains, and cereals are hard for little ones to digest, so they should be some of the last foods given to baby.  Foods introduced too early can cause digestive trouble and increase likelihood of allergies. (particularly allergies to those foods introduced too early)

Feeding baby:

4-6 months minimal solid foods

- egg yolk if tolerated, preferably from pastured chickens, lightly boiled and salted

- organic liver, frozen for 14 day then grated and added to egg yolk

- banana or avocado, mashed (for mature babies who seem hungry)

- cod liver oil 

6-8 months

- organic chicken or duck liver, cooked and puréed.

- puréed meat, lamb, turkey, chicken.

- bone broth

- fermented foods: small amounts of yogurt, kefir, lacto-fermented sweet potatoes.
- raw mashed fruits like banana, melon, mangoes, papaya, avocado.

- cooked, puréed fruits like, apricots, peaches, pears, apples, berries with cream.

- cooked vegetables like zucchini, squash sweet potato, carrots, beets with butter or coconut oil.

- cod liver oil

8-12 months

- creamed vegetable soups

- homemade stews with ingredients cut small or mashed

- dairy like yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, cream, custard

- lacto-fermented sauerkraut or pickles
- finger foods that baby can grab and adequately chew, like lightly steamed veggie sticks, mild cheese, avocado chunks, pieces of banana, peeled tropical fruit.

- cod liver oil

Over one year

- Grains and legumes properly soaked and cooked.

- nut butters

- leafy green vegetables cooked with butter

- raw tomatoes, cucumbers

- citrus fruit

- whole egg, cooked

- meats

- cod liver oil

Foods to avoid

- up to 6 months- raw and cooked vegetables, they are hard to digest

- up to 9 months- citrus and tomato which are common allergens

- up to one year- no honey until after a year, the baby does not have enough stomach acid to deactivate potential spores. No egg whites since they can by highly allergenic. Withhold grains until the first year.

-  commercial dairy products, modern soy foods, margarine and shortening, fruit juices, reduced fat or low fat foods, and processed foods.

Excerpts taken from the Nourishing Traditions Book for Baby and Child Care, chapter 9.

Hope you find this helpful. I know it was helpful for me for my last two sons. I decided not to start my youngest two sons on rice cereal per the traditional cooking advice.  My third son, I started feeding him a lightly boiled egg yolk and he liked it, then I moved on to mashed banana and cooked pureed fruits and veggies. With my fourth son, I started him on an egg yolk but he had a bad reaction to it, so I'm waiting a couple more months to try to introduce it again. He started eating avocado and bananas and loves carrots. I have not done the liver with any of them. I have one in my freezer but I haven't use it yet. I didn't grow up eating liver and it is new and a little scary for me. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough to use it or cook it.