What is a good first food?

[joey123]

What did you feed your baby as their first solid? I'll be starting Lily on BLS in a couple of weeks and will be giving her whole foods (very very soft ones or cooked well) and I am looking for suggestions on what would be good to start her on.

Thanks

[Junglemum]

avocado was our first food. Followed by pear.

[Olive]

avocado here too, then pumpkin

[Liviam]

I'm going to subscribe to get some tips. We'll be going down this road again soon and I can't remember what I did last time, LOL!

[Janie]

It was either apple or pear I think, closely followed by pumpkin. Avocado is a no-go for our DS, so it wasn't a first food for him.

I feel like a bad mum that I can't remember! It must be in a photo somewhere

[LimeSlice]

porridge lol she LOVES it, lumpy, untouched porridge

We did try banana, but she hates it! Avacodo and apples and pumkin were all first food hits.

[Life is Good]

Hi Joey

I did a fair bit of research and spoke to several doctors, nurses and specialists about what early foods are good at reducing potential allergic reactions.

Pear is great one as there is minimal evidence of any allergic reactions in babies - one of the safest foods around. The downside is that it is sweet and ideally you don't want bubs to get a taste for sweet things so early.

Vegetable-wise, pumpkin is a very common first food, but isn't free of documented allergic reactions, particularly with a specific pumpkin grown in North QLD (can't for the life of me remember the name). Sweet potato has a very low rate of allergic reactions, but if you look online you will see some issues that mums have experienced.

Cereal-wise, in the last decade or so, rice cereal has been a common first food because, like pears, it has such a very low risk of reactions. Furthermore it is good because you can mix it with breast milk and bubs will still recognise the family taste. This may not be an option if you are looking to do BLS. The downside to rice cereal is that it does have some (albeit minimal) protein content. This can pose a risk to bubs who already have some form of protein intolerance e.g cows milk protein intolerance in formula-fed bubs.

You will know bubs is having an allergic reaction if they have a violent vomiting episode about 2 hours after ingesting said food. The general consensus amongst the medical professionals I spoke to is to only introduce a new food every 4 days.

Anyway, I am not advocating any of the above, I am sure everyone has their specific opinions on this topic and I really don't want to enter into a discussion re the above. I am simply sharing what I have found out whilst doing some research.

Joey, feel free to PM me if you want some more info.