My DD just turned 6 months old on 9/10. Her Dr ok'd us to start on baby food/cereal. Although I started her on cereal before the "official" OK from her Dr, I waited to start the baby food. We are going to be working our way thru all of the veggies before the fruits as per his recommendation. I have 2 stupid questions that I thought I would run by you girls:

1). He said to start with the stage 1 veggies but also suggested to go thru ALL of the veggies before starting on the fruits. When I went to the store to get all stocked up on this stuff, they only had carrots, squash and sweet potatoes in stage 1 and peas and green beans in stage 2. Is it OK to give her the peas and green beans once we've gone thru the carrots, squash and sweet potatoes?

2). Do I still give her cereal too? I'm assuming I should be mixing her cereal as before and then mixing in her veggies too, right? That's what I've been doing anyway (except for the last two days when DH has pretty much ONLY given her the veggies :rolleyes: )

3). Also, I only gave her about 1/2 of the container of veggies w/ her cereal and then the other 1/2 the next day. DH on the other hand gave her an entire container of veggies the past 2 nights. :rolleyes:

Apparently I wasn't clear enough when I told him to mix the cereal as before and add in only 1/2 of the container of veggies and put the other 1/2 in the fridge for the next day. :rolleyes: At least he's trying...

1. Yes, stage 2s are totally fine. Actually the are the same consistancy as stage 1s, but they have more variety. IMO stage 1 jars are a rip off. You get 1/2 the food for almost the same price. :disbelief I'd personally just buy the single item stage 2s (as opposed to the mixed veggies/fruit in stage 2 jars) and skip stage 1 all together. Then move onto the stage 2 mixed ones. For us we did orange veggies, then green veggies, then fruit, then mixtures. I mostly made all my own food but followed the same guidelines. :)

2. You can do it either way. I rarely ever mixed cereal with fruit/veggies. I just made those totally seperate meals. Like for breakfast they'd have cereal and then get a fruit or veggie in the evening. But you can do whatever works best for you. Either way is fine.

There is nothing wrong with her having a whole stage 1 jar. I'd just feed her until she's content and doesn't want more. If she's still hungry at after 1/2 a jar, then I'd give her more. Just follow her cues. Every baby is different and the amt. they eat each time will vary.

We were similar to Mandy, but we didn't present new foods by color, it was a mishmash. Our pediatrician said, "fruit, veggies, cereal, go." We started with pears since she had pear juice when she was constipated once, then started a bit of cereal. So for breakfast she would have cereal and fruit, and for dinner cereal and a veggie. We did wait 2 days before introducing a new fruit or vegetable.

I completely agree about the stage 1 foods being a total rip off! Not worth it in my opinion.

See Mandi's answers for mine :) Except, I occasionally would mix fruit or veggies into the cereal. Sara hated plain cereal and wouldn't eat it at all.

1) I agree with Mandi. Stage 1 is a waste of money. For about the same amount of money, you can serve her 2-3 meals of the Stage 2. We would split them up and mix with 2oz of milk and 2 scoops of cereal (we use the formula scoop to measure out rice cereal).

2-3) Sometimes, Ella didn't like the whole cereal mixed in thing, so we'd give her pure veggies. But, we'd make sure that at least 1-2 of her meals had cereal (for the iron).

Men don't like to have to fuss with measurements and such. So, I bought another travel container thing (the one used for powdered formula) and started measuring out cereal and powdered formula. That way, DH could just pour it on top of the veggies and mix in the appropriate amount of water.

hth