Here is my unpopular advice for starting your baby on solids. As a Holistic Nutrition Consultant for babies and Mother of four, I’d love to share with you what I have learnt as my babies have transitioned from milk to food.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you purchase an Amazon item from the links below, I earn a small commission at no cost to you. Read more about my T&C’s here.
I have had three of my four babies transition from milk to food. My fourth is still only three months, so he is not there yet. However, I have observed that there is a lot of noise out there about what you should and should not do when it comes to your baby starting solids.
As parents, we want to make sure we cover all the bases. We want to make sure we have the right kind of high chair, the best quality foods, the right kind of bib and did I mention that we want as minimal mess as possible?
Starting solids is a huge milestone. We as parents, want to give our baby the best start to this journey of eating food. But there is a lot of misinformation out there and as a Holistic Nutrition Consultant for babies, I want to simplify things for you.
When I had my first baby, I did not know the knowledge I know now. I would have been more careful about the kind of packaged food I gave her as she got older, and why it is important to follow a starting solids introduction timeline.
You can grab my free resource below.
However, you really do learn as you go. Now that I have my fourth baby, I will do things a lot differently to what I did with my first. That is just a part of growing and evolving as a mother.
So, I want to share this wisdom with you. Please hear me out, that these pieces of unpopular advice are not the be all, end all. However, they are suggestions I will make based on my experience and a holistic nutrition point of view.
Starting Solids Essentials
Baby Joy Convertible High Chair in 3 ways
Let’s dive into unpopular advice for starting your baby on solids.
Unpopular Advice for Starting Your Baby on Solids
- Your baby needs simple whole foods, not a complicated meal with all the trimmings.
Simple whole foods look like baked pumpkin, a piece of slow cooked beef, banana and almond butter and so on.
When you begin your baby on solids, they don’t need a whole lot. Just some real food and nothing else. So please don’t bother cooking up a storm or some fancy recipe with over five ingredients. They just need simple to start with and then you can experiment as they get older.
2. You don’t need to buy cute silicone plates, the high chair tray will do.
I remember wanting to buy the cutest silicone plates for my baby and then overtime I realised that a) they throw it on the floor along with most of the food that you gave them anyway and b) It was just another thing that I didn’t need to wash up later when they have a high chair tray for a reason.
So, please don’t waste your money (yet) by buying the latest silicone plate and cutlery and any other thing on the market that is purely just to hold and serve food.
I’ve learnt that when starting solids, even puréed food can be offered on the high chair tray. It gives them an opportunity to explore the food with their hands (I’m a big believer in the whole experience) and less washing up for you.
3. Try to avoid store bought puréed foods.
They usually have high contents of sugar and are stripped of important nutrients, like iron and choline.
I think a lot of people are more switched on these days about the contents that are in baby food pouches. Even the ones that say ‘organic’ and are made with the highest quality foods still probably contain sugar content to make the food shelf stable.
Of course if food pouches are what is needed in a busy season or on a day where you had no time to prepare something, by all means offer it to your baby. However, I would avoid them most of the time if possible.
4. Don’t be afraid to give your baby foods you don’t particularly like.
Your baby has different tastebuds to you.
This is a huge one and something I didn’t consider until I had my third baby.
For example, I eat kimchi and sauerkraut for its probiotic benefits, but don’t particularly enjoy the taste. Because I know how beneficial it is to offer your baby probiotic-rich foods when they are little, I would give my son some sauerkraut every now and then.
It is so important to expose your babies to a wide variety of food, to support their gut, immunity, quality of life and to help them have a diverse taste palate as they grow older.
5. You don’t need to buy extra storage containers or baby food specific blenders. Simple ice cube trays and your blender at home will do.
I remember with my first baby, we bought these extra storage containers for baby food and was given a blender just to puree her foods. I realised what a waste it was considering we already had ice cube trays that would store the little amounts of food that she needed and my own blender that we could use.
Think about what you already have now that you can use to make and store your baby’s food before you spend money on something you don’t need.
Minimalism and avoiding consumerism in the baby market is key here! At least that’s what I’ve come to learn.
6. Follow an introducing solids checklist that will walk you through which foods should be safely introduced and when (I’ve got one, scroll up!)
This is huge and something that a lot of parents don’t know. Your baby’s gut can only tolerate certain proteins and nutrients as their gut matures.
So giving them dairy, nuts and gluten too early could either cause an unwanted reaction or digestive issues.
Yes, we want them to be introduced to these foods before they are one, but it is important to reduce their risk of a reaction and tummy upset by giving them particular higher risk foods when their digestive system can tolerate it more.
7. Avoid giving your baby rice cereal.
It’s highly glycemic, stripped of important nutrients and often contains fortified ingredients.
Unlike the food pouches, I would avoid rice cereal altogether. You are better off making quinoa porridge or porridge with oats from 10 months old. All you need are two ingredients (water/nut milk and oats/quinoa) and you have got yourself something more nutrient dense than rice cereal.
8. Take the pressure off yourself and enjoy this huge milestone of your little one.
Follow your gut and try to simplify things as much as possible. Your baby starting solids is exciting but it can also be daunting.
Do what you need to to make the journey easier for you. If you need to batch prepare your baby’s foods for the week, do it.
If you need to give your baby food you are already making for yourself, do it.
If you don’t have time to bake some vegetables for your baby, but you have time to mash a banana, do it.
It’s all about what you can do with what you have.
More on the blog
How to naturally treat Group B Strep in Pregnancy
Leave a Reply