How to introduce new foods without going nuts (or broke)?

0 votes

I understand the "wait 4 day" rule when introducing solid foods. We seem to have touched on a possible intolerance or allergy with green beans, lentils and barley. All result in a small amount of a dry skin rash on our son's belly and red bumps and/or rash under his diaper. While waiting for the rash to heal, we go back to the tried-and-true veggies so that he can still eat and we don't revert to a liquid diet. We haven't moved on to fruits or anything beyond Gerber and Earth's Best. I'm starting to feel like there's a world of food out there that he won't get to try until he's in college. Also, every time we go back to the tried-and-true, I need to go buy more and the next phase stuff sits in the pantry.

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Alana

1 little boy, girl on the way, still many ?s
Cupertino, CA

Dec 29, 2009

1 Answers

  • 0 votes

    For our first kid, we stuck fast to the 4 day rule, made a list of what he was allowed to eat, and went slowly. He doesn't have any food allergies. For our second we were fairly lax and he wound up with a lot of allergies plus serious lactose intolerance. Not only do I worry that maybe we caused the allergies by going too fast, but it took us about 8 months to catch the lactose intolerance. Nothing like having to pin your 14-month old baby while the ER doctors put in an IV to make you appreciate going slow.

    With our first, when we introduced new foods, we would buy 1 jar. The first day he got 1 bite. The second day, he got several bites. The third day, he got the rest of the jar. If there were no problems, we added it to the list of acceptable foods. Yes, slow. Yes, he ate a lot of carrots and sweet potatoes. But now he can eat anything and our 3.5 year old still needs to have his food policed. But at least only buying 1 jar you won't have 6 jars of the new food sitting on your shelf for a few months until you're ready to try again.

    Anonymous

    Jan 5, 2010



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