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Beginning Solid Food

Between 6 months and 9 months of age is a good time to introduce solid food. Eating solids can help your baby learn new tastes and textures and learn how to swallow food. Before you know it, your baby will learn how to eat on his or her own. It's important, however, to feed your baby milk first since solid food at this timewon't provide much nutrition or calories.

Never add cereal or baby foods to your baby's bottle since that won't help your baby learn to chew and swallow solid food.

Making Sure Your Baby Gets Enough Iron

Your baby is beginning to need extra iron so an iron-fortified baby cereal is a good first choice. Here are some ideas for feeding iron-fortified baby cereal to your baby:

• Mix several tablespoons of dry cereal with formula, water or breast milk.
• The cereal should be smooth and semi-liquid.
• Use a small spoon to feed your baby.
• If your baby spits out the cereal, stop the feeding and try again in a few days.

Choosing New Foods

Although you can stick with feeding your baby plain cereal for several months, most parents enjoy giving their baby a variety of new foods. When introducing a new food, wait four to five days before trying another new food so that you can watch for any allergic reactions. If your baby develops new symptoms such as a skin rash, diarrhea, constipation or vomiting, please eliminate the new food from his or her diet immediately.

When you are ready to try a new food, choose a vegetable first such as squash, peas or carrots. After your baby is enjoying several different vegetables, you can try fruit. Remember that cereal, applesauce and bananas can cause constipation. If your baby becomes constipated, you may want to try giving him or her an ounce or two of diluted prune juice or trying other fruits, like plums. Also, bananas can cause little black threads to appear in your baby's stool -- this is nothing to worry about as the black threads are just the center part of the banana.

You may want to try making your own foods, for this can save you money. Cook the food well and take out your baby's portion before you add salt or seasoning -- it is important that you do not add salt, sugar or seasoning to your baby's food. Also, you can freeze extra food in ice cube trays so that you can defrost small portions as needed.

When you buy baby food, make sure you:

• Choose single item foods
• Don't use baby desserts
• Remember not to give your baby honey during the first year of life
• Look at the labels to make sure foods that may cause allergies have not been added, such as orange juice
• Avoid foods that can cause allergies, such as chocolate, peanuts, peanut butter, citrus fruits (such as tomatoes, lemons, oranges, pineapples) and berries
• Avoid foods that may cause choking, such as corn, nuts, raisins, candy, grapes and hot dogs cut in circles
• Avoid foods that may irritate your baby's digestive system, such as spicy and greasy foods as well as pastries

This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the advice of your doctor or health care provider. We encourage you to discuss with your doctor any questions or concerns you may have.