I am iffy about cereal. I know they need carbs and not protein or at least not high protein due to immature kidneys BUT is cereal a big necessity.

I wanted to stick to fruits and veggies and occasional cereal just to introduce the food.

What do you do? Does everyone give cereal? if so what kind?

We did esp. with the first but not the last one. Fruits, veggies and meat are all good first foods in my opinion. We're totally grain-free and my youngest is not yet 2. The baby cereals are so processed, too.

I have only given my 9mo oatmeal a few times. I have also tried to stay away from teething biscuits, etc. She really likes the meat sticks they sell in the baby food isle. These don't have the nitrites that the Vienna sausages have. She also likes most vegetables, except squash.

The cereal you buy in the package for babies is processed and refined. The one benefit is it is supplemented with iron.

My son gets iron-fortified formula so I make my own baby cereal. It is very easy to do. If you are interested in making your own baby food I highly recommend the book Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron (I will warn you she advocates a vegetarian diet, but there is so much info about making cereal, fruit, veggies that you can ignore that if you want!). Or you can visit wholesomebabyfood.com, lots of info!


I personally believe grains are important, but before a baby is 1 I don't see that you "have" to give them. Breastmilk or formula is the main food until then, so if you add veggies and fruits (and meats if you choose) then it should be OK (of course check with the ped first). I am not introducing meat until my son is at least 12 months (that probably sounds weird on a LC forum :-).

I personally wouldn't feed a kid grains ever. I believe they're not good for you, especially wheat. I won't go into all the reasons why. I wish jschwab had been my Mommy.

As a previous poster mentioned, www.wholesomebabyfood.com is an amazing site!! I plan on making my own baby food once I have little ones, and this is by far the best site I've found!!

I'm not planning on giving my child cereal when they are little. I'm not saying I'll never give it to them (though I will be making my own and not buying the processed stuff), but in the beginning I'd rather start with vegetables and fruit. I think breastmilk and formula are still the most important source of nutrients at that point, the rest is more about teaching your child to eat, not so much about the nutritional content of the food.

Don't most formulas have a ton of sugars in them?

So does breastmilk!

Ahha. Touché!

babies can not be on a high protein diet, they have immature kidneys, most of their nutrition comes in the form of carbs, but having said that, the formula i give is 87% water (i use premade formual because she does not like powder) and then 4.4 percent sucrose. Really really neglible, but most of the calories come from that.

And it is meant to mimick breast milk, so both are "high" carb... but this is normal due to the kidneys... you dont give an infant meat until about 8 months +

A truly high protein diet isn't healthy for anyone - a recent thread ("What humans really ate..." in LC Research/Media) discusses this article:
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.c...otein-diet.html

Babies do well on a high fat diet. Coincidentally, so do adults. Isn't it funny how that works out!

I remember how weird it seemed to us to give meat to babies. There was something scary and taboo about it. With our third we started finding out how in days gone by (and in other cultures today) meat - even raw liver - was one of the first foods for babies.

Babies are getting most of their calories from breastmilk and/or formula, so it really doesn't make too much difference what solid foods they start with. They're eating for fun, to experience the new tastes and textures, etc. They're really not supposed to be eating so much of any one food that it throws off the carb/fat/protein balance. By the time they're old enough for solids, they can handle a slightly different macronutrient ratio than that found in breastmilk, and it doesn't really matter which way the ratio leans.

Yes, babies and toddlers need more carbs than adults do- and most of them get it via milk. There's really no need to give grains, ever, but nor is there really any harm in small portions of grains if your baby isnt' allergic.