Ellie has been very interested in us eating our food, she holds her head up very well, and doesn’t slump over when sitting assisted, so when I was at Whole Foods today I picked up some rice cereal.  Based on my knowledge of food and how whole grains are better than white starches, I went ahead and got a whole grain brown rice cereal.  I compared two options and went with the one with less ingredients.  That may not be a very scientific method, but I don’t have a better one.

When I got home, I started doing research on how to introduce solids to babies and am finding some very fascinating information. First off, most resources, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, are recommending babies not be given anything other than breast milk for the first six months.  Okay, check, I’m on board with that. Here’s an article for more information if you’re curious: http://www.babycenter.com/0_introducing-solid-food_113.bc

Next, I read on one blog that babies first food shouldn’t even be rice cereal.  This blog, (http://www.foodrenegade.com/why-ditch-infant-cereals/), states that babies don’t develop the enzymes to break down starches like rice until their molars are in.  It said the food that babies need in the beginning is fat and then fat soluble vitamins, such as those which come in traditional baby foods.  This blog stated the first food to feed your baby is organic egg yolks and the next thing should be raw organic grass-fed calf livers.

I wonder what Michael Pollan would say?

I found this article, which also suggests skipping the rice cereal: http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/solids.htm

I know a lot of you out there know a lot more about food than I do – any tips???

I also know a lot of you also have done a lot of research on transitioning babies to solids and would be very interested to hear more – please help advise!

UPDATE 6/26: So when we went to the doctor today we learned a bit about foods. He said the American Academy of Pediatrics changed their recommendation of starting foods to doing so at 4 months. He said there was speculation previously that starting this early led to higher risk of allergies, but they now believe that is not true and that delaying solids could be a bad idea because of the lack of iron babies get from breast milk. We asked about rice cereal versus vegetable baby food and he said the  main reason they recommend the rice cereal is because it’s fortified with iron, something babies need right now. He said the green vegetables also have a lot of iron, so if we prefer we can start there. Hope this information is at least helpful to someone else:)