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How is the work life balance in mastercard?
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We started with sweet potato mixed with breast milk for both babies 🤷🏼♀️
I suppose we did some version of baby led weaning but some people are militant about it whereas we’d blend up a vegetable here and there and offer finger foods.
Honestly just followed the philosophy of introductory food one and a time and allergens early. By 9 months or so she was just eating what we ate (we cut salt/heavy spices out of our cooking)
Chief
Baby cereals are kind of out of fashion now. We tried them but my son didn’t like them so we didn’t push it. Banana, avocado, sweet potatoes, whatever you’re eating really! Purée or steamed soft to start and then go from there.
Rising Star
We mainly skipped purees and just did chill baby led weaning. In the early months we did a thick mash of banana or sweet potato or whatever for baby to try but beyond tasking a tbsp or two we weren't using it as a meal (still breastfeeding). Not ever dealing with purees was great and both kids eat well. "Food before one is just for fun" was our guiding principle.
Did a mix of Montessori method and BLW starting at 6 months. Baby’s first food was spinach. In the UK they encourage you to alternate sweet and bitter food each day when introducing solids to help diversify the palette so that’s what we did. Didn’t do fruit till two weeks in.
We did homemade as store bought was expensive and not very nutrient dense. It’s really easy to do batches especially for when baby is first starting out since they eat so little. After the first few weeks, baby was eating non salted versions of what we were having so it was super easy.
We also introduced liquids in a small shot glass to encourage independence.
If you’re on Facebook, there is a helpful group called Baby Led Weaning and Combo Feeding Without the Woo.
We started combo feeding from the start, with oatmeal, slices of avocado and sweet potato, pureed squash, etc. Don’t let militant BLW get to you - it’s perfectly acceptable for baby to eat pureed and non-pureed foods, even within the same meal.
At a year old my son basically eats whatever we eat for lunch and dinner plus a more robust breakfast and more snacks.
I started with an oats based organic cereal that was mixed with breastmilk at 4 months (recommendation in Canada FYI ... Where I live)
https://www.gerber.com/gerber-organic-single-grain-cereal-oatmeal
Around 5.5 months switched to homemade purées and relatively quickly on to BLW. Like others above, I wasnt too militant about it. Offered her fingers foods, let her eat what she would and then mashed it up and spoon-fed after. By 9-10 months she was eating independently (also eating what we would eat, sometimes more cooked or softened and definitely less salt or pepper - but all other spices were kept constant).
Edited to add some ages and disclaimers 🤗
I started with soft fruits doing BLW but baby wasn’t really into it. Ended up doing combo feeding and got purée delivery with Little Spoon and Yumi. Rice tends to have high arsenic levels so oatmeal is a better choice if you decide to do baby cereal. I found @solidstarts and @feedinglittles helpful on Instagram
Chief
We introduced a new veggies or fruit home puréed each couple days then mixed them then moved to finger foods
Pro
Raised real made the transition so much easier on us. After a few months we felt confident enough on nutrients and portion size to start regular shopping and cooking.
Raised real introduces a really nice arc of veg, seeds, herbs - our girl is such a great eater now (loves broccoli and peas especially, now a toddler).
Rising Star
I did homemade purées at first, but just didn’t see the point after a couple weeks. Too much effort for me when I’m really not concerned about store-bought foods being “unhealthy.”
I fed my kid all kinds of different vegetable and fruit purées, no cereals unless they were part of a fruit mix, then gradually added meat options when appropriate. My son hated texture, so it was really frustrating trying to introduce new foods as part of what we were eating. I gave up after a few months, and just gave him the various baby food options from the store. He ate those well, but we’d always try to give him food we were eating too. Eventually he figured it out, and by 2 he was eating independently, whatever we were eating. He loves vegetables and variety so we ended up where I wanted to be in the end.
It was a process, but I share this just to say it’s okay if the BLW isn’t the right option for you and you want to go with store-bought baby food for a while. My son is a great eater now and I have no regrets!
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/health/baby-food-metals-arsenic.html?smid=url-share
Because you posted this without context: the general source of heavy metals in baby foods is the water and soil that these foods are grown in. This does not change if you make your own baby food as the food is grown in soil with heavy metals. The best way to avoid these contaminants is to minimize consumption of rice, sweet potatoes, and other foods more likely to be grown in soil with high amounts of heavy metals.