Introducing new food questions

I started DD on applesauce this week. It was her first baby food other than rice cereal... we mixed it with rice cereal and she loved it so much better than mixing the cereal with formula - daycare gave me that little "recipe". It worked great - she devour's it.

Anyway, this week we thought we'd go for Pears. Is it correct you introduce a new item each week? I want to keep it to the weekends so I can watch for any reactions. So should I use pears instead of applesauce? Or do I do Pears with breakfast and applesauce for dinner or just pears for both? Sorry if this is a silly question. I was thinking we could do bananas sometime soon too. Someone told me peaches are yummy as well. Since bananas are more "starchy" should we wait a little bit - maybe her last fruit to be introduced? Finally, I personally get sick when I eat mango or anything with mango in it - I get like a migrane type of thing. Should I forgo giving her mango babyfood? I saw it at Stop and Shop and was curious, but then remembered I get a bad reaction - could that be inherited? I wanted to offer her some oatmeal too, but I've noticed her BM's have been a bit loose - I was afraid oatmeal may give her diareah? Is introducing oatmeal and a new fruit too much? Should I just do one or the other? Sorry for all the questions.

Also, how long before we start veggies? What are good first veggies for babies?

Re: Introducing new food questions

There is no right or wrong way to introduce foods. The only thing that the "experts" agree on is the 3/4 day rule . . . IE: give baby new food for 3 (or 4 depending on who you listen to) consecutive days before moving on to the next food.

So, that said, if you follow the rule, you wouldn't introduce oatmeal and a new fruit at the same time.

As for giving baby applesauce for one meal and pears for another, that is entirely up to you. Same thing goes for the mango - entirely up to you whether or not you want to try it. Food allergies are inherited, but it's not 100% guarantee that your DC will have the same allergy/reaction to a food that you have.

You can introduce veggies whenever you want. But again, only one new food at a time.

Personally, I did rice cereal, then oatmeal, then stage one veggies, stage one fruits (there are only 3 of each), then moved on to whatever I could find in no particular order.

Re: Introducing new food questions

My ped said that I could "build" into what I already knew was safe.

So, if DS already had cereal and apples without any problems, I could mix cereal and pears, or apples and pears, or cereal, apple and pears. I just had to only introduce only one new thing at a time to the mix.

Re: Introducing new food questions

Thank you - this all makes sense...

I probably won't follow the 3/4 day rule to a T... meaning it will be more like a 6 day rule. I wouldn't want to give her something new and send her off to daycare. I'd rather wait until the weekend so I can monitor her myself.

Other than diareah - what else am I "looking for" in a reaction? Hives? choking?

TIA.

Message edited 9/24/2008 10:58:46 PM.