Approved by the What’s Up Moms Medical Advisory Board
Baby eyeballing your nachos? Wrestling the spoon from you as you sit down with that perfect bowl of Ben and Jerry’s? Yep, she’s getting ready for solid foods and telling you so. Now’s a great time to get your supplies and plan the menu.
Your mom might be nudging rice cereal as baby’s first food, but anything goes. Just as baby’s interest is piqued by colorful toys, same goes for foods. Catch baby’s eye with a variety of brightly-hued, soft foods that are easy to puree, like avocado, banana, carrot and sweet potatoes. (Your mom will never know.)
And FYI, always consult with your own pediatrician, but studies and new guidelines now encourage an early introduction (like, 6 months) of high allergy foods like peanuts, fish, eggs, and soy. Early introduction of pureed meats is also recommended, especially for babies who are breastfed, since iron wanes at six months. And even though you need to wait til the one year mark to serve honey and whole milk, yogurt and other dairy foods are fine from the beginning.
The first few times, start with just a few spoonfuls of puree after breast or bottle feeding. And, please, sister, do not feel obliged to make your own baby food. Jars absolutely get the job done. But – you might not realize how easy it is to make your own purees, so try it, even if just to say you did it. Get your hands on a baby food-specific steam cooker/blender combo — which you can use into toddlerhood to pull off all kinds of culinary magic (foods hidden in foods!).
Other things to have on hand: a high chair, and, if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t thrill at the idea of scraping sweet potato shrapnel out of the grooves in your floorboards, a floor mat. Oh and bibs. We like the plastic kind you can wipe off easily, though sometimes it’s actually easier to just (un)dress for the occasion by going full-on shirtless. After all, what happens in the kitchen stays in the kitchen.
