A Lot Of Firsts
First time parenting is full of a lot of firsts. One of those new adventures is when your baby moves from milk or formula to starting solids. It can feel overwhelming but it should be simple, straightforward, and also fun. Keep the overwhelm at a minimum by following these tips to starting solid foods.
When My Daughter Started Solids
When I knew my daughter was going to need to start solid foods soon, my friend and I had a conversation about what to feed babies who are starting solids. She told me that when her first child was about to start solids, she had read a research study on the benefits of feeding your child a vegetable or meat before grains or fruits. Her experience was pretty interesting!
Her first son was given a vegetable as his first food, but by the time he was a toddler, he seemed to eat similarly to all the other toddlers, so with her second and third boys, she gave them the common rice cereal in milk as their first foods.
Skip ahead a few years and interestingly her oldest is health-conscious and loves proteins like chicken and steak and prioritizes vegetables like salads, broccoli, you name it if it’s healthy it’s found on his plate.
Her other two boys like fried foods, carbs, sweets, and all the things, if we are being honest, most of us crave. Who knows if this was a fluke but it was in keeping with the research study she read so it made us wonder.
The First Food
I researched this theory myself, and at the end of the day, I decided that even if it doesn’t ultimately make my daughter a healthy eater later in life it’s also not going to hurt her to start on solids with a vegetable or protein of some sort.
My choice for what I ultimately picked for her entry into solid foods was carrots. While carrots are a vegetable and are chock full of health benefits they also have a slight sweetness to them. I felt like this might be a happy medium of providing a subtle flavor that would be palatable to a baby but not end up resorting to carbs or fruit right off the bat.
My daughter absolutely loved the carrots and to this day enjoys them. She might just be a pretty good eater but she’s generally done well with most foods. My daughter eats a wide variety of foods and is almost always willing to at least try something new even if she doesn’t end up liking it. She also eats meat and vegetables quite well for a toddler.
I, of course, have no clue if this is because I started her on a vegetable over cereal but again it didn’t hurt anything to try.
The Overwhelm
It can be overwhelming to know what to feed your child let alone find foods they will actually eat. Then figuring out how to serve the food safely or even how to prepare the meal can be a lot more than you expected it to be. At least, that was my experience initially. Add in the complications of baby-led weaning versus the traditional puréed foods and you’ve got a whole other category of questions.
Try not to get caught up in online talk when it comes to the difficulties or fear of starting solids. Can it be scary? Sure, as you don’t want your child to have a severe allergic reaction or choke. But as long as you are careful in preparation and serving and slowly introduce foods, there is no reason your child cannot eat what you eat (within reason). In fact, our pediatrician told us that it is great to give foods that we eat to our child and the broader the foods the better.
What To Feed Your Baby
Now, you may have determined what food you want to start your child on but may not know quite how to do that. Here are my suggestions.
The Options
1. Store-Bought Baby Food
There are always store-bought options for baby food. I’ve never used store-bought baby food and I have a few concerns with it along with finding that they can also be a bit limiting. There have been issues over the years with the quality of ingredients and most especially with the container they are packaged in. Some reports have shown toxic chemicals to be used in the packaging which only adds to further feelings of uncertainty in picking not only the best nutritional foods and liked foods by your baby but also the added stress of finding a safe food.
If you do decide to go with premade foods you don’t have the choice of giving your baby whatever you want but instead are left to pick your favorite option from a handful on the shelf; however, if you are super busy then I can completely understand going the store-bought direction and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that (as long as you make sure that the ingredient list along with packaging materials are safe).
There are a lot of new baby foods coming out on the market that advertise clean ingredients and safe packaging. These newer baby foods also seem to diversify flavors a bit more than the traditional grocery store finds so this is exciting too. Do your homework if you decide to go with store-bought / premade baby food and you will be golden.
2. Homemade Baby Food
Rather than store-bought baby food the option I chose is to make my own baby purées and eventually more solid meals. The internet is bursting with recipes and the sky is the limit on what foods you can give to your child. It’s also fun to make delicious food combinations like a berry medley puree or add spices like cinnamon to applesauce. There are not only a lot of options but the ingredients are fresh and you know exactly what is going into each puree and how they are being stored.
Benefits To Homemade Baby Food
1. Cost
I find making your own purées to be incredibly cost-effective. Store-bought baby food is quite pricey and you don’t get as much bang for your buck. I can make freezer-friendly food for my child that lasts sometimes months for a fraction of the cost of one pack of baby food.
2. Meal Prep
As stated above, I can make the meals and purées for my daughter ahead of time and freeze them. I have yet to come across a good meal for her that has not been freezer friendly, especially when you are still in the purée stage. If you are busy (let’s face it who isn’t these days?!), and the store-bought baby food was appealing, then the idea of meal prep and freezing baby’s food may change your mind about going the homemade route. You will need a little time for the meal prep, but honestly there are some super easy and speedy recipes that will give you food for weeks and they will last in your freezer without preservatives keeping them shelf stable. Plus, everything that I have frozen has been relatively quick and easy to reheat.
3. The Ingredients
Making my own baby and toddler food means that I can pick what goes into the meals and that’s a big win in my book. My biggest ingredient avoidances for my daughter are sugar and sodium. I try to use natural sugars and minimal sugar in general. Even muffins that use honey or maple syrup I try to limit because while those sugars are healthier and even have some health benefits too much of a good thing isn’t so good. I also like that my daughter doesn’t have a craving for sweets. You don’t miss what you don’t know so the longer I can limit high sugar intake the better.
Don’t get me wrong my daughter still receives her fair share of sugar but it’s more of a treat. If I sweeten muffins I tend to use applesauce or bananas as my sweetener of choice versus brown sugar or maple syrup for instance. I have not found that the muffins I make with less sugar are bad or not sweet enough they just aren’t cupcake sweet and that’s okay in my opinion.
As far as sodium goes I tend to grab low-sodium broths to use in my cooking. I rarely add salt to dishes that are just for my kiddo and if I do I just do a dash here or there.
Recipes
There are two options when making recipes for your kiddo. Here are the breakdowns and tips for each.
1. Online Recipes
If you are unsure of even where to start with feeding your baby then going the online route is ideal for you. Even if you do know where to start, but don’t feel comfortable making up recipes or don’t know exactly what to serve your child and need inspiration then I also suggest you look online.
There are some apps for the phone that have meal ideas and recipes, but I tried a few baby food apps and ultimately decided that they were not for me. I found more of what I was looking for online. If I found a recipe I liked overall, but it didn’t check all my boxes then I would make my own edits, but I definitely didn’t do that at the beginning. This meant I needed a website that I could count on that hit all the marks that I was hoping for.
Recipe Websites
I plan to add baby and toddler recipes to my blog soon so this is one place you’ll be able to come to find recipes! Until then, I can suggest a few of my favorite baby food recipe websites that I have utilized.
- Baby FoodE – This is the number one website I would recommend to someone starting solids for their baby. The website even has great recipes for toddlers, and slightly older kids too. Baby FoodE ended up being my go to website for recipes for my daughter. In fact, it ended up getting me to the comfort level of making my own recipes. It keeps things simple, but also adds some fun spices, textures, and unique but tasty combinations for your child to try.
- Eating Bird Food – A website that has it all. Fun, simple, and creative meals that the whole family can enjoy.
- MJ & Hungryman – Yummy foods that are simple to make with recipes that support you as you start your baby on solids too.
- My Kids Lick the Bowl – If you are looking for simple and clean recipes then this is a great website. I have found several recipes that I use for a solid base and then make edits for what my daughter likes. For instance, I will use a base muffin recipe but swap out the mix-in’s to switch things up. As an example, it is fun to take a berry muffin and keep the base recipe but swap out the berries for a twist such as in the fall turn it into a pumpkin muffin.
Making My Own Recipes
I started seeing how simple recipes really could come together especially when it comes to children’s meals. It’s best not to overcomplicate them and keep simple wholesome ingredients. Because of this, baby food is a great place to actually gain a comfort level in the kitchen and it’s given me confidence in making other from-scratch recipes too.
Baby and toddler food can be very simple even if it feels daunting at first. Puréed food is also very forgiving and easy to work with. If you learn to make purées then an easy bridge to solids is to make homemade sauces (easy-to-sneak veggies) for pasta for your little or continue pureeing some meal additions like applesauce. It’s also fun to include your kiddo in trying new recipes and they are usually more than happy to be your taste tester!
Not Just Cooking But Adventures in Baking Too
Baking is another area in which I have started experimenting with and making my own recipes. Especially for toddlers or older children, mini muffins or mini pancakes, making homemade bread are all pretty easy and inexpensive items you can make for your little but also allow for easy additions or swaps. Mini muffins can be on the sweeter side or more savory and the sky is the limit here too on what kind of muffins to make.
I love to make seasonal foods for instance strawberry, blueberry, or banana muffins in the spring and summer are fresh and fun whereas in the fall and winter, I enjoy making spicier treats like pumpkin or cinnamon apple muffins. This also makes shopping easier and the food a little better nutrition-wise because I’m using what is in the growing season too.
The Overall Goal
My main focus is making sure that no matter what I am feeding my daughter it needs to have nutritional value. I avoid a lot of sugar, sodium, processed foods, and even a lot of supposedly healthier alternative options like stevia for instance. I prefer wholesome, natural ingredients and if I use something like sugar I just make sure to use either the real thing like on special occasions for birthday cakes, or limit its use and use natural alternatives like fruit such as banana or applesauce.
At the end of the day as long as your kiddo is healthy and growing they are probably getting all they need nutritionally. Some kids are pickier than others too so just find what works for your child. Don’t force things but instead just keep trying items on occasion that maybe aren’t so loved. Serve them items in moderation and provide a variety. This doesn’t mean you need to make 40 different meals each week though! Keep it simple. Make a few different meals to have on hand that provide some variation but don’t cause extra stress and time to make that you don’t have daily.
Daily Example
For example, now that my daughter is a toddler I usually have two different types of pasta on hand that I have made in large batches and freeze individual portions. On the nights my husband and I eat something that my daughter either doesn’t like or can’t eat (a super spicy meal for instance) then I can grab one of the pastas and heat them. The pasta I make always has some kind of protein and veggies in it. I can also heat a side of frozen vegetables or cut up some fruit as a side. Easy and fun meals like quesadillas or grilled cheese sandwiches are fun to mix in and things like sandwiches can add easy variety from peanut butter or other spreads to meats and cheese. If you are still in the early stages of starting solids you can keep multiple purées in the freezer and it is super easy to heat up a few for your baby to enjoy.
The Truth
Children can eat pretty much anything that we can within reason. Of course, the proper size of food, and keeping the food items safe for tiny bodies are important. Also, keeping in mind that their bodies are clean and pure so digesting some things that we easily digest may not be so easy for them. So while we may need to be conscientious about what we feed our kids it doesn’t have to be boring. In fact, it’s important to have fun with food!
Whether you go the route of baby-led weaning or the traditional route of puréed food (which personally I found easier and less stressful) the truth is it’s all about having fun and giving your baby or toddler the sustenance they need. They should get the opportunity to try different foods and flavors because you never know what they will like and what their bodies may need which may differ from your likes or needs.
The key takeaways are to keep it simple, and nutritionally valuable, the more natural the better but have special occasions for fun new (maybe less healthy) foods. Make sure the food has been properly handled and cooked and is safe for your child to eat but the world is your oyster on what foods to have your little one try. Have fun, make messes, giggle as you try new things, and don’t stress by keeping it simple on yourself with easy quick go-to meals and some straightforward meal prep. Happy eating with your food adventurer!
