What to feed your baby"My son reacted to peas 12 hours after eating. It is very important to follow the advice of introducing new foods individually and a few days apart. That way, if a reaction occurs, you can know what really caused it."
"Leave fruit juice until much later. Once they taste it, it will be hard to get them to drink water."
"Season your baby's food. Even if it's just pepper (never give a baby salt), it will help her develop a taste for adult foods. Our daughter loves garlic, onions, and other foods that most kids don't like, and I attribute it to her getting paprika, garlic, pepper, and other spices in her baby food."
"It is harder, but make your own. If you try baby food yourself, you will understand why babies make that horrible face. I believe they will become better eaters if the food tastes good."
"You don't need to heat your child's food. If you never introduce hot food, he will probably be just fine with eating it at room temperature straight from the jar."
"Don't let your own likes and dislikes affect what you feed your child. I don't like cottage cheese, but I gave it to my son anyway and he loved it."
"Do not back off on nursing and/or formula. At first, solids should be an addition, not a replacement."
When to feed your baby
"Try to have your meals at the same time as your baby. This encourages her to eat, too."
"When you first start solids, don't wait until the baby is starving to feed him. If he's too hungry, he'll get frustrated and reject everything."
Handling food rejection
"After a couple of spoonfuls of applesauce, slip in one or two bites of spinach or green beans — anything your baby has been picky about. It's like they swallow it before they realize it's different."
"If your baby doesn't like a food, give him a bite of something he likes after it, or put a little of the food he likes on it."
"Be creative; my baby doesn't accept milk in a bottle, but drinks it from a straw, a cup, or a spoon."
"What they eat from a jar and what they eat from the table later on are totally separate entities. There are foods that my baby wouldn't eat from a jar that she now eats happily from the table. Don't give up!"
"I just assumed that she would open her mouth and eat anything I gave her. She can love something one day and hate it the next. Some days she eats a ton; the next, hardly anything. I just wish I had known to expect this."
"If your baby acts like you are completely nuts when you give him the extremely runny cereal made the way it is recommended for 'baby's first feeding,' try making it thicker. Some children like very smooth, runny food, but others just don't."
"If you wouldn't eat it, why should your baby? I taste-tested everything. Sometimes it was obvious why my daughter wouldn't eat certain foods; they tasted terrible."
Handling the mess
"Buy bibs with a rubber backing so nothing seeps through to your baby's clothes."
"Feeding is really messy. I keep a bucket filled with water and color-safe bleach so I can just toss the bibs in after feeding him and clean them later."
"Feed your baby in her diaper — it will be easier to clean up afterward."
"It's OK for babies to be messy! We can always clean them up, but we would do more harm if we never let them try new things."
General advice
"Have the camera ready. The faces they make are priceless, especially when you give them a new texture."
"Once the solid food starts, the solid waste starts. It seems obvious, but I never thought about it, and I was shocked at first and called the doctor, really freaked out. I can laugh about it now."
"Starting solids early does not help a baby sleep through the night. Only teaching good sleep habits will do that."
source from http://www.babycenter.com
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