Starting Solids (Again)

Now that Tyler is four months old, his pediatrician has given us the go-ahead to start solids. However, the American College of Asthma, Allergy, & Immunology recommends that the exclusively breast-fed baby not start solids until six months. So I've got a few weeks to prepare still, but I can't believe how much I've forgotten.

To start, here are the guidelines that our pediatrician provided:

1. Start with 2 to 4 tablespoons of rice or oatmeal cereal mixed with breast milk (or formula) twice a day.
2. A few days later, introduce some fruit also. He recommended applesauce, bananas, peaches, pears, plums and prunes.
   
3. After a couple of kinds of fruit, introduce some veggies, starting with orange vegetables like squash, carrots, or sweet potatoes since they taste better, and then moving on to green vegetables.
4. Go 2 to 3 days between new foods and call if hives or other serious symptoms develop within a half of hour of eating a new food.

That all seems very manageable, except for the tiny little fact that I made all of Alex's food and I want to make all of Tyler's food too (with the exception of cereal - for that, I'll buy an organic version). Being a foodie myself, I can't help but feel that homemade food must taste better (and I only use organic produce to make things as healthy as possible). But with Alex around now, I'm a little daunted about finding time to make Tyler's food. On the other hand, I have some experience under my belt and I'm hoping things like how long to steam the apples and squash will come back to me. I just need to get another set of Fresh Baby food trays, and I'll be all set. (I liked the Fresh Baby trays much more than the KidCo trays - I always had a very hard time geting the frozen cubes out of those.)

I already plan on doing one thing a little differently. With Alex's food, I relied on a regular food mill, and I'll definitely be using it again at first. But for reasons I can't articulate, I was always reluctant to liquify what Marc and I were eating and serve it to him. This time, however, I'm already thinking about the time I will save by serving Tyler what the rest of us are having. Therefore, once he's gotten used to solids and I'm pretty confident he's not allergic to most things that we eat regularly, I plan to puree our dinner in a Kidco Electric Food Mill, which several of my friends have raved about. I just hope he's as good an eater as Alex has always been.