regret starting baby on commercial baby food

[sakoon]

i made a big boo boo by starting my baby on commercial baby food, i realise that now. Its just that when it was time to start him on solids i was really busy, travelling and also confused about starting solids.

Anyway, i started him mainly on the fruit and custard baby foods. I know, stupid me. I just recently tried to make my own baby food and it was so easy but he wont eat it, its a constant stuggle at meal times. I made carrot and sweet potato and also chicken on its own. But he wont have any of it.

what do you advise i do from here on in? i feel quite guilty now and i want to avoid commercial baby food as i know it wont be good for him as a home made meal and also its too expensive.

[Doing my best]

Don't feel bad. We all do things that we may end up regretting..

I would give him fruit as it sounds as though he is used to the sweeter foods. Once he starts eating that, then try the veges and chicken.. Or mix your food with the commercial food, and slowly reduce the ratio till he is eating more of your food..

[AnyDream]

I would start by mixing some of the food you made into the food he already has then gradually over a couple of weeks increase the amount of your food and decrease the amount of shop food. He'll get there eventually! .

ETA - also make sure there is plenty of liquid in your food, this can give it a smoother texture like the jars have.

[CrazyLady]

you tried mixing fruit in with the veg and then gradually decreasing it? I know a lot of people that say they can only swap from fruit to veg by blending say apple in too.

It's hard when life gets busy and i honestly feel that you did the best you could while traveling. I'm sure it'll be fixed up!

[beckoes]

dd always prefered the fruit so i would make some apricot/peach/apple/pear purees and mix them with the veggies....like sweet potatoe and apricot.but purees bacame such a battle for us too, she just wouldnt eat anythning...so we moved on to baby led solids. it ended up being easier, less time consuming and she would eat...or at least try nearly everything i gave her...she would just eat off our plates(at 7 months) . there is heaps on here about BLS. might be worth haveing a look into that.

[*Belle*]

Totally agree mix the puree fruit with the vege and decrease the fruit amount gradually and stop the custard. The Rafferty's garden commercial food is not too bad as it is all natural.

Sweet potato and apple goes well so does Pumpkin and apple. Both my kids dont like potato at all just sweet potato. He may like carrot on its own as its quite sweet?

BLS is good idea, we did this with Tara, however I still gave her puree veges as she wasnt getting enough food from just eating it from holding the food. Banana is a good way to start BLS, of course just be there watching the whole time they suck/mangle the nana!

[sakoon]

thanks so much ladies! feel much better now, i was really down about it. i will try your advice and let you know how it goes.

[Dansta]

did you steam/boil the veggeies (Eg sweet spud?) i've found that with things like sweet spud, pumkin and carrot that roasting them makes my DS love them (plus you can wack 'em in the oven and do other things whilest they're cooking). something about it brings out the natural sugar in them? hope that helps. Ohh and in replacement of the custards maybe try yogurt i know my MCHN told us Jelna was a good one (which DS loves!)
hope tonights dinner time isnt so hard

[~Raven~]

At his age you can start moving onto food with lumps so you could try putting him in the high chair with little bits of steamed carrot or zucchini or grated cheese on the tray and let him experiment with feeding himself. It may take a few attempts but once he gets used to the taste of single real foods he might become more interested in what you are making him.

[sakoon]

Dansta, yes i just steamed them. i will try them in the oven
what about fruit, do i have to cook it? or just mash it, puree it

[sakoon]

At his age you can start moving onto food with lumps so you could try putting him in the high chair with little bits of steamed carrot or zucchini or grated cheese on the tray and let him experiment with feeding himself. It may take a few attempts but once he gets used to the taste of single real foods he might become more interested in what you are making him.

i tried giving him banana once, and he gagged on it and it scared me. I thought of trying BLS but its the gagging that scares me, like he is choking

[Indadhanu]

At that age its good to steam the harder fruits like apples and pears, not to cook them just to make them softer, but no need to steam most other fruits like melons or anything else. Jazz used to LOVE watermelon, we pureed it for her into a liquid and bought some of that custard powder and make watermelon custard. OMG she LOVED it!!!!

[~Raven~]

Really small bits shouldn't be a choking hazard. I think part of the gagging is getting used to the lumps and texture more than actually choking. It can be a bit unnerving hearing it though I know.

It won't be long before he is putting anything he can find on the floor into his mouth (fluff, bugs etc) too so it will come about eventually that he gets used to things in his mouth

Watermelon custard! yummo!

[Dansta]

Dansta, yes i just steamed them. i will try them in the oven
what about fruit, do i have to cook it? or just mash it, puree it

with apple and pare i kind of semi boil/steam it and fork mash it and mix it in with yogurt.
as for the gaging, thats normal going from liqard (milk) to soild food is a change, but they get better at the whole "chewing" thing. plus if they gag they tend to spit it back out. DS still will do that with the bigger chunks.

[beckoes]

Gagging is the scariest part of BLS....it terrified me too. but if you keep calm and give him a few seconds he will probably gag a few times, spit it out and then pop it back in and re-eat it!! thats what dd used to do. doesnt make it any less scary. good thing is it doesnt take the long to get the hang of it. took her AGES to eat bread though! spaghetti was a huge hit and you can mix it with the purees so your getting the best of both worlds!
If thats not your thing though def roast the veggies...and you can roast fruit too, apples pear etc, much tastier. good luck

[sakoon]

thank so much for everyones advice. My son is happily eating home made veges for dinner now. I slowly cut out the fruit and it worked a treat. Never ever going back to commercial baby food. He is such a better baby now and i feel so content and happy preparing and feeding him home made food an it tastes so yum.