Comments on: Starting Solids the Easy Way, Feeding Babies Frugally Part III

By: Cooking for a Family with a New Baby | Cooking Manager

Cooking for a Family with a New Baby | Cooking Manager — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:45:46 +0000

[...] Starting Solids the Easy Way [...]

By: Hannah

Hannah — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:53:34 +0000

BB, I used a straw cup with my older kids, but eventually stopped because the kind I was using was really hard to clean. I worried about the bacteria stuck in the straw. Don’t know about the speech theory.

By: BB

BB — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:48:32 +0000

I heard that it’s a good idea to let your child get used to drinking from a straw cup. It’s supposedly better for the kids’ speach. We start that early because it makes it easy to bring along a drink for baby when you go out of the house. At the same time, I get them used to drinking from a regular cup although that always takes longer. One other thing I do is to get them used to sports bottles. There you can adjust the amount of water that comes out at once. This makes it easier for baby to drink.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:07:59 +0000

Kate, that post is already being written in my head. Breakfast cereal is like prepared baby food–good marketing changing healthy habits in order to make money.

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:34:20 +0000

LOL, I had priced plain Cheerios in the four local supermarkets around here within 10 days of our arrival. My kids will not have anything to do with a typical “Israeli breakfast” (vegetables, eggs, etc.)–outside of the chocolate spread sandwich aspect, of course–and this is just part of the price of aliyah, for now. We mix 2/3 plain Cheerios with 1/3 another Cheerios (honey nut or multigrain, which have more sugar).

I can imagine, though, if I had 3x the number of kids I’d have to rethink my position.

Hey, would you do a post on healthy breakfast options that take five minutes or less? Ok, 10 minutes.

By: Mrs. S.

Mrs. S. — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:39:19 +0000

On trips or in the car, I always let my babies use regular water bottles with built-in straws – like this one.

For some reason, people were always surprised to see a six month old baby drinking with a straw….

By: Hannah

Hannah — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:41:09 +0000

Abbi,
Thanks for your comment. You’re right that an regular cup isn’t practical in the car. My kids didn’t have sippy cups, and they still weren’t handy with regular cups till close to a year.

By: Abbi

Abbi — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:18:52 +0000

It’s a nice idea about the cup, but not very practical for drinking outside of the house or even around the house. My son likes taking quick sips here and there and likes to have a drink in the car. I can’t see a cup being that practical for those settings.

A sippy cup hasn’t hindered his learning how to drink from a regular cup and it’s definitely saved my sanity.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:11:27 +0000

Thanks, Kate, for your comment. I’m strict about boxed cereals in my house because they are expensive and seem to disappear in minutes. Especially Cheerios, which are imported, and the plain ones are hard to find. They are easy though, and though they contain some sugar when you need something ready made they are better than many alternatives.

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:59:14 +0000

Are you including plain Cheerios in the no-cereals category? Because I cannot think of a 8-12 month snack food I relied on more. I have yet to meet a baby who doesn’t like them, and they seem to have more going for them than, say, Bamba. (Plus fine motor practice!)

I personally didn’t use jarred food because it seemed ridiculous to pay Beech Nut or Earth’s Best a premium to mash a banana (or sweet potato, etc) for me. What? Like I don’t have a banana and a fork? And in my experience one of the absolute best baby foods (healthy fats, calorie dense, high fiber) is avocado, which isn’t even available in jars.

I do have to say, though, that I hate the first experience of solids–it’s a lot of effort and mess and there is so much I was told not to give my kids between 6 and 12 months (between the hyper allergy worries in the US and some slowness to give dairy on my part) it sucked any potential fun out of the situation.