At our 2-month check-up, my pediatrician informed me that "we" are going to start Cole on solids, rice cereal to be exact, at 4 months. "Actually 'we' are going to wait until 6 months." With Evan, we started him on solids at 5-1/2 months. His first food was poi, I never gave him rice cereal and he's never had an iron deficiency. So I’m going to do the same with Cole. Many pediatricians actually recommend starting at 6 months when the baby’s immune and digestive systems are a little further along in development, and in case new foods predispose them to allergies.

Poi is a super food to start with because it’s very easy to digest, it’s a very unlikely allergen, and it’s highly nutritious. I also think it sets up their palette to not prefer sweet or salty foods. It’s also super easy to make—just buy a pint of Hanalei poi from any supermarket, mix it with a little breastmilk (or formula) until it’s liquidy enough to run off the spoon. You thicken the consistency of the foods as they get older and get better at swallowing.

In general I followed a book called Super Baby Food, except that I don’t do dairy (they include yogurt). You can introduce one new food every week. I would puree the foods in my Vitamix (the best blender around) and then pour it into ice cube trays to freeze it. Once frozen, I'd take them out of the trays and put the babyfood cubes into freezer ziplock bags, labeled with the food name and date. Each night I put the next day’s food cubes into the refrigerator to thaw overnight. So easy and SO much better for baby than the store-bought, processed, bottled, preserved food that sit on the shelves for eons.

Here are the foods I introduced in this order (I tried to do raw, bland foods first):
poi
avocado
pear
papaya
okinawan sweet potato
carrot
peas
cucumber
oats
banana
rice
sweet potato
green beans
apples
blueberries
raspberries
wheat (puffed kamut)
barley (teething biscuits)
watermelon
corn (finger foods)
broccoli

Hope that gives you some good, healthy baby ideas!!!

_dkk0010