Our First Solid Food Experience

Hi Abbie!

I really enjoyed reading about the rich, early flavor experiences you described in your last post. It gives me hope for so many of us young parents who were ourselves brought up during the jarred baby food craze and who are now on a hunt to rediscover another way - from another time or another place - something more real. Thank you for sharing some of your little one's early favorites; I can't wait to try them out when my guy is a bit farther along!

For weeks, we've been watching our four-month-old eye our meals greedily while bringing whatever he had in his hand to his mouth for a "taste." At last, it was time, and we presented him with his very own helping of steamed, pureed delicata squash. It took him one messy attempt to get the hang of opening his mouth wide for the spoon, and we had to cut him off after he'd downed a quarter of a cup, because I wasn't sure how his insides would take to so much of a new substance. A rousing success! We waited a couple of days before introducing our next choice, avocado, the cost of which is normally prohibitive in our neck of the woods, but which were miraculously three for two dollars this week at our co-op. Alas, its sophisticated subtlety was lost on him, and I was forced to eat most of it.

Peas and prunes followed in close succession. (Because my son drinks soy formula, he tends to get constipated. My midwife suggested we stick to the letter "P," like peas, pears, prunes. I am wondering about oatmeal? Do you have any other suggestions? I know he'll love bananas, but I'm scared about their constipating tendency...). We steamed and pureed the peas much like the squash, with a little extra water. For the prunes - we roughly chopped organic, unsulfurated prunes, added a little water and cooked them in a sauce pan for a few minutes, until their skins had softened. In order to avoid making a very sticky, thick paste, the prunes required substantially more water than the other foods we had prepared. Our son enjoyed the peas and warmed up to the prunes after some initial sour/perplexed expressions. We froze the surplus (except for the avocado) in ice cube trays overnight and popped them out the next morning into a freezer bag.

My husband, son, and I have had lots of fun with this first solid food experience. Even though we still have many new "plain" flavors to try, I am already wondering things like, "when are spices OK?" and "How much solid in addition to his soy milk is reasonable - like how many times a day, etc.?" For now, we plan to stick with single foods for a few more staples, like carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, apples,green beans, etc., but I know that very soon I will want our son to try squash prepared our grown-up way with ginger, a little sugar, and a little oil. Having started solids at four months and three days, he is on the young end of the currently-preached-in-the-USA spectrum, so I do have concerns about the readiness of his digestive system for all of this...I am wondering how long I should wait before introducing him to something more involved, like your saag panir recipe from the last post.

Another concern I have about making my own baby food stems from a section of the pamphlet I referenced last time from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Starting Solid Foods (revised 2008). They warn, "Do not feed your baby home-prepared beets, turnips, carrots, spinach, or collard greens in the first year of life. In some parts of the country, these vegetables have large amounts of nitrates, chemicals that can cause an unusual type of anemia in young babies. Baby food companies are aware of this problem and screen the produce they buy for nitrates. They also avoid buying these vegetables in parts of the country where nitrates have been found. Thus it is safer to use commercially prepared forms of these foods during the first year of life." As I looked into this issue more thoroughly, it seems that the problem has little to do with commercial vs. homemade baby food, but more to do with the maturity of a baby's digestive system and its ability to destroy certain bacteria that change nitrates into nitrites, which impair hemoglobin's ability to carry oxygen. An article I found very helpful in clarifying the phenomenon can be found at http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/nitratearticle.htm. The consensus from this and other sources seems to be that if a baby is over three months old, their digestive system is advanced enough to handle the naturally occurring nitrates which are found in a number of foods. Interesting issue that could be confusing for the home-baby food chef.

I would love to hear about some of your very early, just-started-solids experiences, like when you introduced oils, salts, spices, etc. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!

Marjorie