Starting Solid Foods

Wow hard to believe that my boy is going to be 6 months old in a matter of days. I could never imagine how fast 6 months could go by. I can not believe that we will be starting solid foods in a few days. I stood my ground with when to start him on solids. Everyone kept asking me what he was eating and to which I would reply " breast milk" and then they would reply "He's still only on breast milk"." He should be eating solids already". "He will sleep through the night"" . "He wont be so skinny." " I did it with my children".

It's even harder when you husband is nervous that your little one is not eating enough and wondering if this child will ever sleep through the night.

I was following my gut, my mother's instincts to know when he was ready and now I think he just about is.

Well there are many reasons I made the decision to wait until he was 6 months old to start solids.

1. The risk of allergies is lower in babies who started solids after 6 months.
2. Babies are not developmentally ready to eat solids until this time . The muscles in their throats have not fully developed until about 4 months. They will push solids out because they still have the extrusion reflex.( I want my son to be ready when he is ready).
3.Starting solids early has been associated later on in life with asthma, obesity and other problems.
4. Starting solids too early can make your breast milk production decrease.
5. Your baby will not sleep through the night because they have started solid foods.
6. Babies digestive systems not ready for solids before 4 months.

You can read more about this in a wonderful book. Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. I highly reccomend this book to all parents.
Another great baby food book I picked up is -The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet: Know What Goes Into Every Bite with More Than 200 of the Most Deliciously Nutritious Homemade Baby Food ... More Than 60 Purees Your Baby Will Love-by Karin Knight.

Right now my dilemna is what to use to puree his food. I am trying to compile all the supplies I will need this week to get me started with this new adventure.
 There are many different options out there. The first one I have looked into was the Baby Beabea Babycook. It looks like a great product, but it is very costly. It also doesn't seem like a big enough container to do batch cooking in.

I was also looking into the Baby Bullet. I like all that it comes with and looks super easy and convient, but it also doesn't look it will last very long.


I was also looking through all of the other baby food processors, but they just seem cheap and too small for batch cooking. I then started to look for just a food processor, but there are not too many made BPA Free.
The only thing I have found so far that I am thinking of giving a try is this



It retails for around $45.00. I am not sure how good it will be, but thought I could use it for other things later on. I was also going to get an immersion blender to just puree the vegetables and fruits right in the pot.
I think I will start with this and see how it works out.

My next dilema was then after I freeze the puree in his BPA Free trays,  I was going to transfer cubes to ziploc bags. Then started to think about this. Are ziploc bags BPA Free? This would defeat the whole purpose. I was online for hours researching all this and read that Glad freezer bags are supposed to be BPA Free.  I would still like to look into this a little more.

I am excited to start this new adventure with my baby, but with it brings many questions. I didn't think starting solids would be this confusing. I guess we will figure it out one step at a time, just like we did with the breastfeeding,  cloth diapers, etc.