Hellobee Boards

Oh and yes, we introduced some water at that age. We didn't want to do sippys so we let him have a straw cup - he didn't really "get" the straw cup though so that part was more for practice. He got a small amount of water out of a bottle. We occasionally mixed in some apple juice at the advice of his pedi as he was super constipated

I also felt like I was winging it and not doing it 'right'! We thought BLW was the way to go but DS was not having it. He would get super frustrated and get upset easily when he couldn't figure it out. So we brought in purées mainly...oatmeal cereal, fruits and vegetables I blended myself and froze, pouches or jars. We did a straw cup around 6 months and onwards with each meal and he picked it up pretty quick. We had his cup available throughout the day when he was more mobile. I would say maybe 10-12 months was when he really started eating bits of what we had so I just stuck to purées and spoon feeding, but would let him try with the spoon or his hands in a dish too. If he showed interest in our food, I would give him a bit to try off my spoon or fork. The veg you mentioned are all ones we did, and we didn't hesitate with fruits like applesauce, mango, berries, pears, prunes, etc. Yogurt mixed with fruit or cereal. Eggs and puffs or Cheerios too. I didn't find he was confused. I thought of it as helpful to have more textures, and different ways of getting the food (hands, spoon, etc) and I just let him lead more than I thought I would.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Last time I bought 2 BLW books and didn't find them any more helpful than what I found online. Since then I read Jessica Seinfeld's book about how to get kids to eat veggies and I thought that was the best one stop shop for summarizing how to steam, roast, puree different veggies and fruits.

We skipped rice cereal and any grains. We did maybe 2-3 weeks of home made puree, then just moved onto BLW. Neither of us had allergies, so we weren't too concerned with foods like eggs. We'd also give some purees here & there in a mesh feeder so she could feed herself. We gave a little bit of water with every meal.

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: scrambled eggs, high fat yogurt, pancakes, muffins.

I don't think it's confusing for blw to spoon feed them as well. I winged it and was going for a combination of blw and spoon feeding I guess. It sort of ended up going in the direction that she would only feed herself so purées were limited until she could figure out pouches. Foods I started with: sweet potato, avocado, grated cheese, and hummus (because she ate some when I was eating it one day and loved it). She shunned all fruit-her choice and is only now at nearly one eating some fruits in their true form. She still hates bananas, not for lack of trying. She also refused baby cereals so I just didn't do them.

I gave sticks of avocado and sweet potato in the beginning and then cut it into smaller pieces. Started a sippy cup with water at meals and just in the day. She likes water and will drink a lot. Now I'm doing homo milk at meals and breastfeeding, but that's just because I'm hoping she'll gain some extra weight.

Another good food was boiled egg cut up into pieces. I found it less messy and easier for her to eat than scrambled eggs. I started with just the yolk for a week or two and then did the whole egg, this was around 7 months.

I started out really cautious, one food at a time (started with avocado mushed up), but then our pediatrician said that new research actually encourages introducing new foods more quickly than that. So we switched to just giving her anything! We mostly did purees--some homemade, some from jars or pouches (I liked happy baby brand for variety of fruits and veggies, and usually there were good deals from diapers.com on them)--but also did eggs pretty early on, and nut butter. Barely did any oatmeal and no other cereal. Rather, we had baby oatmeal and would give her that when we ran out of other purees but wanted to give her something, haha. I forget when we started giving her more blw chunks... I have a picture of her at about 8 months gnawing on bread, so by then!

You really can't mess this up as long as you feed *something* and you have common sense about choking hazards (no raw apples when they don't have any teeth, of course!). Also keep things mostly unsalted.

We did a combo of purees and table food. LO2 was basically exclusively on pouches from 6-9 months. Now at 10 months (with two teeth on the bottom), he eats:
- Lots of fruit (whole bananas, apples sauteed with butter, water and cinnamon until very soft, strawberries cut up thin/small, applesauce by spoon and pouch, mango cut up tiny or gnawing on the pit)
- Veggies cooked till very soft, often with butter or olive oil (frozen peas and carrots, green beans, broccoli, spaghetti squash)
- Breads (plain noodles, tortellini with marinara sauce cut up small, lots and lots of puffs and mum-mums)
- Proteins (black beans, salmon patties, ground beef in a taco skillet)

Honestly, I think it's more a matter of luck and how the parents handle eating as the kids grow older that determines whether kids eat healthy/have a healthy relationship with food in the long-term. For that, I really recommend Ellyn Satter's Division of Responsibility in Feeding. It's basically what we do and so far both of our kids are willing, adventurous eaters (for the most part). She has some advice for infants here: http://ellynsatterinstitute.org/htf/5to9months.php

I think you got a lot of great input above but I just wanted to say that we thicken at least one puree daily with oatmeal too and I don't think it's a big deal We are big fans of whole grains over here and don't believe in demonizing any part of the food pyramid. We never do just straight oatmeal with milk or cereal, but I think it complements fruit & veggies well and balances out the sugars in fruit.

Full-fat yogurt, applesauce, avocado, banana, and cottage cheese are all awesome because you can buy them in big sizes without baby food marketing/prices and some last awhile in the fridge.

We also love teething biscuits for on-the-go.

Lastly, if you want to thicken up / use up some stage 1 or 2 purees, we fill a small container with puffs or cheerios, pour the puree in, and then spoon-feed that. Kind of like chunky soup in terms of texture, and a good way to use up the early purees and puffs before they get stale.