Need some help/ideas on solids.....

[Mummabear]

Hi all,

Oscar is 7 months next week (:eek: ) and is doing well with his solids. However, I need some ideas and suggestions on what else I can give him as I fear his menu is getting a little boring for him. This is what we have so far......

Breakfast
Rice cereal with pears - he has this every day and loves it so I haven't offered anything else.

Lunch
Day 1 - 2 ice cubes of Mango & some full fat natural yoghurt
Day 2 - 1 ice cubs of prune & 1 ice cube of pear & some full fat natural yoghurt (he has to have prunes at least every 2nd day as he is very prone to constipation)

Dinner
One night he has beef, the other night he has chicken
I have a mix of veg frozen to choose from (homemade)
Broccoli / Cauliflower
Sweet Potato / Zucchini
Potato / Carrot
He won't eat his veg without cheese mixed in, so he also has some full fat cheddar cheese.
I do make other veg for him too, but that's just what is in the freezer atm.

He also has 1 or 2 rusks throughout the day and water also (and his milk too)

Here are my questions:

What other stuff can I give him?

I have some ricotta in the fridge, but I don't know what to give him with it. Is he old enough to have spinach yet? Someone said it would make him constipated because it has so much iron??

He LOVES dairy and fruit. After his veg I usually give him a jar of the Heinz flavoured yoghurt dessert, but I hate giving him jar stuff. What else can I offer?

Is he allowed to have stone fruit? (I was told by my MIL he was too young for apricots, etc, but I see the baby food at the shops with apricot in it :confused: )

Can I overload him with fruit :confused: He loves it and has it at every meal most days. Is this bad?

Sorry, this post is a bit all over the place. Hope you get the general idea of my confusion / questions, lol.

Thanks

[fee's]

I too am trying to vary my 8mth old's solids. I have added baby spinach to his vegies and havn't had any poo trouble except the colour!!!
he gets a combo of vegies and pasta some nights, seems to like chewing it. i sometimes give a little plain tuna through vegies for a change from chicken and beef.
will try cheese with lunch he likes yoghurt so should be ok.
hope i was some help - i think i got more ideas from you though. ta.

[Pommy Mummy]

Hi
I've been using 'the contented babies guide to weaning' as a very rough guide.
She recommends giving the meat meal at lunch and then a vegetarian dinner. I give my 7 month old green beans, sweet potato, zuchini, cauliflower as that is what I have in the freezer, I tried carrot but it gave him a burnt bottom! I would say it is ok to try stone fruit, I'm about to give Jack Peach soon and tomorrow he is going to have avocado with apple for lunch. The book I've mentioned above has some good recipies in such as chicken risotto and tuna pasta. Robyn Barker who wrote baby love has also written a book with babies recipies in you could try looking in some boks for some ideas. Hope that helps

[drewid]

Hi there :)

If you are looking to vary the menu, you could offer a bit of toast at brekky after his cereal, just to gum on and learn about the concept of eating it.

You can pretty much offer anything, if you prepare it suitably, obviously keeping away from the allergy-prone type items like nuts, strawberries etc etc.

Spinach should be fine, its in my book at the 6 month mark.

Andrew loves dairy and fruit too, its always been a big part of his diet.

Have you tried any fruit jellies? They are nice, and you can make them from scratch instead of buying the jars.

Apricot should be fine also.

There is a great book by the Womens Weekly for babies and toddlers that has heaps of ideas for puree, mush and more advanced foods. Well worth a look! Mine has been loved to death and I've only had it 6 months, the cover has already fallen off! :)

TOO much fruit is probably not a great thing, but certainly a few serves a day is good :) Should also help with keeping that constipation at bay too.

Hope some of that helped :)

[Rainbowbrite]

Trying to remember what MJ ate...other than what you've listed;

Avocado & banana
Cheese sticks/slices
Baked beans
Tuna
Salmon
Pasta
Home made jelly, made with Gelatine & juice
Toast with vegemite or cream cheese

Thats all I can think of other than regular veg, fruit etc.

RB

[Mum2Lucas]

DS lucas really loves his fruit too. I made him some pear & sweet potato and that went down really well, then i made him some rockmelon, sweet potato & apple and he loves that. You can do ricotta and tomato, the lady over the road from me does that for her baby.

[Snugglepot]

Creamed cottage cheese with his vegies is a good one to get them to eat veg, I also cook up chicken, pumpkin and corn then blend it or you could do chicken, sweet potatoe and apple. It is good to mix the meat with vegies, they seem to like it more. I also made a beef casserole up and blended it up for DS, he loves meat! I just add rice and fork mash it. I also cook Bolognaise and blend it and add rissoni pasta to it. You could also cook a rissoto and mash it for him. At 7 months you can slowly start giving him some of your food. Toast is great and DS loves it when we eat it together.

All the things RB said are good options. Pieces of fresh fruit for finger food as long as they are soft, rockmelon is good as is stone fruit.

Good luck and enjoy the mess Mummabear!

[Rainbowbrite]

On the fresh fruit thing, you can get a "thing" from BIGW for fruit. Its basically a piece of netting, with a teething ring attached. You put fresh fruit of any kind into the net & seal it, then bub can teeth on it, get all the goodness out of the fruit without the choking hazard. From memory they are about $7 in the same aisle as the dummy's :)

Hope that helps
RB

[Mummabear]

On the fresh fruit thing, you can get a "thing" from BIGW for fruit. Its basically a piece of netting, with a teething ring attached. You put fresh fruit of any kind into the net & seal it, then bub can teeth on it, get all the goodness out of the fruit without the choking hazard. From memory they are about $7 in the same aisle as the dummy's :)

Hope that helps
RB

Oh RB - thank you, thank you, thank you.

I have heard about these things and I have looked everywhere (well I thought I had :rolleyes: lol). I even searched the net and could only find an Americal site.

I will be off to BigW ASAP now. Thank you so much.

Thanks for the tips girls. I introduced spinach last night (spinach/pumpkin/brussel sprouts) he had it with beef and cheese. He wasn't a massive fan, but it usually takes him a while to get the taste for something.

I bought some fresh asparagus this week too, I remember someone saying that giving them a piece of steamed asparagus to hold and chew on was good (and messy :p ).

I wasn't sure when I should introduce things like wheat (bread) into his diet. Am I supposed to hold off on eggs for a while? Although they make egg custard for bubbies don't they?? There is so much conflicting advice out there - no wonder we all get confused.

Nic - thanks for the heads up on the book. I think I'll get one of those - I could use a little direction.

Thanks again girls. I'm still open to more suggestions/info :)

[JenNT]

Hey Riss,
I was just talking to my gf this morning about what she fed her bub.She makes up a big batch of this,then processes it in the blender.

Chicken or beef or whatever meat they had for dinner at the time.
pasta, fills them up better and makes the mix go further.
Carrots,pumpkin,potatoes,zuchini,spinach,brocoli. She cooks this in water with a stock cube,retains some stock for blending. Freezes into those take n toss containers.
Not sure I would add the stock cube.

She advised to stay away from brussel sprouts,cabbage and cauliflower as they cause gas.

Personally I wouldn't add egg til 12 months but thats just me:p
Same with bread.I'd be frightened Lucas would choke! I can't even remember what I did with the first two...just winged it I think and hoped they liked what I made!

I think your menu is fine, I'd eat at your restaurant.....IF I WASN'T ON THAT BLOODY DIET :eek:

Maybe steamed white fish? Corned Meat? Rice? make rice pudding for desert,

If you can come up with something yummy containing salmon,tell Heinz,they are paying $500 for a good recipe:D

Cheers Jen

[reAllytee]

Hey Larissa .... Isnt scary how quickly they are growing !!!! Harry will be one soon !!!! :eek: :(
With eggs its around the 8th or 9th month mark that you can introduce them but only the yolks as the whites are usually what causes allergies but make sure when you do say make him a little bit to have at either brekky or morning tea this way it gives you the whole day with you to monitor him. Imagine they had a reaction when put to bed for the nite :eek: Harry still hasnt really had much in the way of eggs just a little every now & then but now he is almost one i will give him more.
Have your tried couscous ? bubs loves this & you can either make it sweet or savoury. I often make sweet as i can soak it in baby apple juice & then add some fruit in & you can blend it for them to make it more palatable.
But as JenNT said there is also rice pudding. I actually cooked rice last nite so im off to make some up for bubs shortly but if you check the recipes section there is a greta recipe for it there & that is only small servings great for bubs !
There is always risotto make it for everyone & keep some aside for bubs to mash.
Or how about a tuna pasta ? You can buy risoni pasta which is almost like rice then use a tine of tuna in springwater then make a cheese or white sauce & add in some carrots & peas again everyone can eat this with a serve or more kept aside for bubs to be mashed eaten & frozen.
If you dont want to give bubs bread yet you can just make toast & rusks from it. Someone on here gave the tip of cutting bread into soldiers then smearing the bread with vegemite & baking it in the oven for 2hrs on slow heat bubs loves this especially when teeth are bothering him.
Lastly you can always make your own custard & add whatever fruit you want bubs prefers this than the store tins guess its tastier but is definately cheaper thats for sure !

[Rainbowbrite]

Oh RB - thank you, thank you, thank you.

No problem at all :) Let me know if you cant find one as I know mine has them. Then I can post it to you.

RB