Spoon feeding a 5 month old baby

lalalulu

I have recently started to spoon feed my 20 week old little girl porridge in the morning's, just a few small spoonfuls. She loves it so far and has taken to solids quite well. I was wondering what everyone else has given their baby's at the beginning as i'd like to move away from the pre made packaged food's.
Also she has been a little constipated so i have given her cooled boiled water to help her along :P.. Is this a normal reaction to starting solids?

Banrion

Hi there, that sounds about right, the constipation. Is this the basic adult porridge? Dunno about that? I suppose youre alright. Youd have to make sure the porridge isnt lumpy though.I didnt start my fella on rice, but I did wait til he was 6 months.

lalalulu

No it's baby porridge. My mother suggested adult porridge but i don't think it's the best starter food for a baby.. I would just like an alternative to packaged foods.. My bab's wouldn't hold out till 6 months, she's a savage

Banrion

Oh ok. Baby porridge is perfect. So youre looking for alternatives to the packaged food. Gosh I cant be much help cos my boy was older so I gave him banana which he could hold...but yeah you could give mashed up banana (that was one of my first foods). Very nice mixed with avocado for a dinner.
I mostly gave my babs fruit. He didnt like the baby rice. YOu dont have the Annabel Karmel book of recipes cos thats very good?

lalalulu

Yeah i was thinking i could give her mashed up banana, never thought of giving it as dinner though thanks. I've heard of those receipes alright must look it up so..

Banrion

Off the top of my head

• Sweet potato boiled, pureed with a teaspoon of cinammon.
• Butternut squash(1) steamed with 1 pear(also steamed but not as long)
• Banana and blueberry.
• Simmer two apples n apple joice and puree.
• Apple and banana with orange juice(steam/boil them first)

Sweet potato is great cos its sweet. I tried my babs (7months) on the butternut today and he loved it (and hes very fussy) so would definitely recommend that.
Good luck

marti101

Just give babs what you are having,without salt added or gravy.Go with your own instinct my son was like this loved his grub,would eat anything.Just trust your gut and obviously new foods added gradual but apart from that, take your cue from the baby and good luck.:D

lalalulu

Thanks for all the suggestions. Is it not hard to get sweet potato in ireland? I thought that it was quite popular in america?!

Ludo

You can get sweet potatoes in pretty much all supermarkets. We are always able to get them in Dunnes and Tesco. Local fruit and veg shops have them also...very common. And yes babies love them (well I guess there will always the the odd few who won't I guess).

lalalulu

Ah i see i shouldn't listen to what bab's daddy says He said it's pretty hard to get sweet potato over here... hmmmm men!
I think i'll give that a try.. Thanks again..

metrovelvet

Mix in some pureed fruit into the porridge. Will help with the contipation. Are you using water, milk or formula to make the porridge. Cows milk is constipating.

Quality

I cannot recommend the anabel karmel book highly enough. I personally think it is the bible of weaning.

With my last fella I started with Baby rice moved on to pureed fruits..apple, pears, then onto sweet potato and carrots.

Sweet potatoes are great ... Really good for freezing, they still keep their taste.

lalalulu

metrovelvet wrote: »

Mix in some pureed fruit into the porridge. Will help with the contipation. Are you using water, milk or formula to make the porridge. Cows milk is constipating.

I'm using formula to make the porridge. I don't plan on giving babs cow's milk till she's a year old.
What fruit would you recommend i mix with the porridge?

lalalulu

Quality wrote: »

I cannot recommend the anabel karmel book highly enough. I personally think it is the bible of weaning.

With my last fella I started with Baby rice moved on to pureed fruits..apple, pears, then onto sweet potato and carrots.

Sweet potatoes are great ... Really good for freezing, they still keep their taste.

Thanks.. i'm definitely going to give the sweet potato a go. I'll keep going with baby porridge then gradually introduce fruit..

metrovelvet

lalalulu wrote: »

I'm using formula to make the porridge. I don't plan on giving babs cow's milk till she's a year old.
What fruit would you recommend i mix with the porridge?

Technically what you should do first is give the baby a small taste of one kind of pureed fruit first, like pear or apple, that way if there is an allergic reaction you can identify it. The docs always say introduce one food at a time.

Then when you know baby isnt allergic mix it in. Any kind of fruit will aid the smooth passage of waste.

Crea

If I were you i'd stick with fruit and veg and baby rice to start with. I found with my kids that cereals were very heavy for their systems which is why your babs might be constipated.

Mrs Fed

I started giving my baby some fruit when she was about 3 months old. She loved it!
Fruit will also help her with her constipation.

Ciao :rolleyes:

IsThatSo?

If baby is having problems with consitpation then don't introduce banana just yet, that can cause constipation.

Pears are lovely, light, tasty and easily digested

mymo

My girl was also very hungry(still is and now 11)I started with baby rice mixed with breast milk, and added carrot, potatoes, broccoli, bananas, kiwi and apples and pears in the first month or so. Tried something new every week, whatever we had minus the meat, gave fish and chicken about 7 months.
Just puree something every couple of days and freeze excess in icecube trays.
Just start with more rice and gradually increase fruit and veg. you'll know pretty quickly if something doesn't agree, always found very ripe (brown)banana helped to loosen things up, green or yellow firm things up.

Sleepy

Another one for constipation with a little one is diluted orange juice. Recommended by out little one's RHN so I'm pretty happy to recommend it.

babyboom

Make sure if your giving your baby porridge that its gluten free. Babies under six months old shouldn't be fed anything with gluten in it as it may lead to coeliac disease later in life. I found very ripe avacado pureed with banana a great food for babies, also pears and apples boiled together and pureed is lovely and easy to eat. Mine never liked the recipes from the Annabel Karmel books for some reason.

lalalulu

babyboom wrote: »

Make sure if your giving your baby porridge that its gluten free. Babies under six months old shouldn't be fed anything with gluten in it as it may lead to coeliac disease later in life. I found very ripe avacado pureed with banana a great food for babies, also pears and apples boiled together and pureed is lovely and easy to eat. Mine never liked the recipes from the Annabel Karmel books for some reason.

Hi babyboom yeah i made sure it was gluten free. My mam suffers from coeliac disease so i don't think i'd forgive myself if my babs got sick

I don't want to be feeding my babs packaged porridge, i'd rather she was eating freshly prepared food. What would you suggest as a breakfast?

I might seem like a dummy but she's my first baby and i'm terrified i'm going to kill her some how