Comments on: Baby’s first vegan foods

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:11:01 +0000

We did the baby-led weaning with our kiddo and it worked great! He actually started trying to grab food off my plate right about 6 months, so we let him try some.

Favorite first foods were steamed sweet potatoes, bananas, avocado, steamed green beans, apples, pears and cucumber! Once he mastered his pincer grip, black beans were a big hit. Once he was able to use a spoon on his own (right around his first birthday, loaded by us) soy yogurt and applesauce became favorites.

One tip I have for people is to use a crinkle cutter to cut up fresh fruit/veggies. Makes it easier for babe to hold onto, especially as they get them all slobbery.

By: deva

deva — Mon, 24 May 2010 14:00:55 +0000

Both my kids wouldn’t try solids until they were 10 months. And even then, they preferred breast milk. They loathed mush. Since they already had a tooth or two by the time they started eating, pasta and rice were very popular with them. We never did baby food. Well, we tried, but they refused. Instead we just fed them off our plates.

It really wasn’t a big deal. Like breastfeeding, having them eat what we were eating just made life easier. We never worried about their nutrition, did not supplement them with vitamins and now they are 5 and 6.5 and total emblems of health!

By: Dalyn

Dalyn — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:11:53 +0000

Just a quick note about cereals: I’ve found that the easiest thing to do is just take a tablespoon or two of your chosen grain and run it through a coffee bean grinder (the one you use for spices, not coffee). Then all you have to do is add hot water or cook it with fruits/veggies for a short period of time. It cooks much faster and is easy when you’re in a hurry. We never really did rice, but millet and oatmeal are big hits in our house.

Oh, and one more thing: If you have cast iron, try to cook and heat up all your baby food in that (the extra small cast iron pan is a great size for heating up food), because it’s an easy way to add iron to baby’s diet. And, we add nutritional yeast to EVERYTHING to take care of the B’s. It’s a simple way to get some of those tricky vitamins in.

Now, if we could only get the baby to drink soy milk (which he is not interested in) since he’s almost got himself off nursing. Any suggestions for a baby (13 months) who won’t drink anything but water? He’ll eat anything, but seems to be picky about his liquids…

By: Allison, The Busy (Happy!) Vegan

Allison, The Busy (Happy!) Vegan — Fri, 21 May 2010 02:22:50 +0000

I made most of my daughter’s baby food, except for the cereals, until I noticed something a touch disconcerting. Many of the powdered cereals have some form of dairy in them – especially the ones for “older babies”. Just a quick comment so that vegan parents will know to check the ingredient lists – even when it just says “rice” on the front of the package!

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Thu, 20 May 2010 17:27:43 +0000

My son (almost 12 now) refused to eat any of the lovely organic pureed foods I made for him. I started trying to feed him solids at 6 months, he thought it was a hilarious game, would grab the spoons (I ended up using 3 spoons–2 extra so he would have one in each hand) and smear the food around. Very little entered his body, but he was still nursing a lot and growing like a weed.

After three months of these attempts to get him to eat purees, some of the other moms at La Leche League suggested giving him finger foods. I forget what I tried first, cubes of baked sweet potato or cubes of baked butternut squash. Whichever it was, he ate a shockingly large amount.

He still doesn’t like pureed foods. Or soup.

One mom in my LLL group had a son who was still refusing solids at 12 months, and he was perfectly healthy and happy.

By: Erin

Erin — Thu, 20 May 2010 05:56:36 +0000

I make all my daughter’s foods and she moved to table foods very quickly. I would add that rice cereal is not a necessary step, but it can be a nice addition. When I gave my daughter rice cereal too often it seemed to constipate her pretty consistently. The “Happy Bellies” brand makes a brown rice cereal that is easy to mix in to other mashes and adds the same nutrients as your typical rice cereal but it’s made with a whole grain.
Also, I didn’t start yogurt until later, but I wish I had thought of it sooner. My daughter loves plain coconut yogurt, and I add about a teaspoon of coconut oil per half cup of yogurt. I also mix in flax oil or flax meal in with her oatmeal or other foods. To make sure she’s getting enough fats, she has at least a teaspoon of flax or coconut oil a day. She had trouble gaining weight early on, but since she’s been on solids with these oils added her weight gain has greatly improved! Now that she is on to finger foods she eats everything we eat, just with oils added or a side of avocado slices (a first food that has remained a favorite). It’s an easy way to adapt one meal for the whole family instead of making multiple meals.
Finally, I would add that if you aren’t as concerned about nut allergies, almond butter is a great source of healthy fats and calcium and can be mixed in with cereal, yams, or other mushed foods.

By: Steph

Steph — Wed, 19 May 2010 23:55:11 +0000

Another factor to making your own food is that your baby doesn’t become “branded” or immersed in brand culture. I’ve heard of ten month olds that won’t eat food unless it comes from the jar with the baby on the front. Yikes. Talk about raising a picky eater.

It’s all about exploration, my kid never lets me forget that.