Starting Solids | Iya’s Favorite Products

Slow down Iya!! Solids already?! *cries*

I can’t believe my tiny little baby is eating food already & boy does she love to eat! Just like her mommy 😉

Iya’s pediatrician gave her the green light to start solids during her 4 month appointment since she was able to sit supported with good head control. I personally didn’t want to start until 6 months because of AAP guidelines so I asked if it would be alright to wait until after her 6 month appointment (she said no problem!) Iya didn’t seem interested in food anyways. She never watched us eat or eyed our food – so I figured why force it when food is just for fun at this age anyways. A few weeks later I woke up one morning and just had a gut feeling that she was ready for food. All my mom friends told me that would happen, I would just know when Iya is ready. Nobody knows a baby like their mommy! I spent the day researching baby cereals, talking to mom friends, and we were off to Target to buy her first food – oatmeal!

I decided on Happy Baby Probiotic Baby Cereal, but please talk to your pediatrician because every baby is different. I hand expressed some milk (OUCH! I pumped every time since then lol) and mixed her up some oatmeal! SHE. LOVED. IT!! Man, the level of satisfaction when your kid eats lol!

I’m a work-from-home mom so as of now, I really want to make her baby food myself. I say as of now because my sentiments or situation may change, who knows? Five months in, I’m happy to say I still love exclusively breastfeeding and now that I’m beginning to ween, I enjoy making her food myself. Both may change and that is perfectly okay! Don’t let mommy blogs or forums make you feel inadequate about things like formula or pre-packaged food… fed is best and every situation is different. Mom’s well-being is just as important as baby’s. I work from home and have a singleton, who knows what my situation will allow next week or with baby #2. That was my roundabout way of saying every mom needs to be and feel supported. I know how much pressure this all is, I support you. <3

I’ve tried a few first foods with her and so far she loves apples & sweet potato; she even loves them mixed together! She didn’t love avocado or banana but I think its a texture thing since those are mashed raw not puréed, I’ll try introducing them again soon. After she successfully ate her oatmeal, I made a huge Amazon order to get all the new things she’ll need as well as supplies for me to make and store baby food. Let’s get to it!

Highchair

I’m still shopping around for a highchair that will help Iya socialize, is functional, comfortable, but still stylish. A few that I have my eye on are the Bloom Fresco, Mima Moon, Nuna Zaaz, & the Cybex Marcel Wanders High Chair. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated 🙂 leave a comment below mamas! I needed something right away because I was feeding her in her Bjorn bouncer and just didn’t feel comfortable making that a habit. I want Iya to learn to eat at the table and know that food is always eaten sitting up and from a spoon!

I’ve been wanting to buy a Bumbo Floor Seat for Iya anyways as she’s learning to sit so I opted for their upgraded Multi Seat instead which serves as a floor seat, booster, & feeding seat with a tray! I bought some suction toys to keep her entertained and I seriously just love this seat! I do still feel like I’ll need a proper hair chair when she starts eating more often because I’d like something higher but I love that this seat can work as a booster up until age 3. Honestly, I plan to take it with us to restaurants instead of using their germy highchairs and its coming with us to grandma’s for Thanksgiving this week too!

Food Prep

I just bought the Nutri Ninja Auto-IQ Blender recently as I’m trying to get my diet right and it’s been fantastic for making Iya’s purées! For both her applesauce and sweet potato mash all I did was peel and boil them before throwing them in the large blender cup. So easy!

I also purchased a simple steamer basket for veggies (which I haven’t gotten to yet!) and a NUK Mash and Serve Bowl which I used for avocados and bananas. She didn’t nom up either of those like her purées so I just use it as an serving bowl for now.

Freezing & Storage

Initially I bought these silicone freezer storage cubes because the sections are a perfect 2oz each – great for one-ingredient purées! I just pop out a cube, thaw/warm it up and Iya’s ready to eat! Now that I’ve started mixing flavors I also like having 1oz cubes on deck so I purchased these Mumi & Bubi Freezer Trays too! They hold a lot more than they look like they can, one tray held purée from three large sweet potatoes! My friend gave me a great tip to pop out all of the cubes once frozen and keep them in a ziplock bag in the freezer.

Let’s Eat!

I haven’t bought any bowls yet! Most of the time I pop a frozen cube of purée into one of my pump bottles, heat it up in my Avent bottle warmer, & feed her with a spoon directly from the bottle. Sometimes I even pump a little milk directly into the bottle to thin her mash a little if needed. I use Munchkin White Hot Safety Spoons – they’re super cute, indicate if the food is too hot, and I like that they aren’t very deep. I can’t imagine Iya’s little mouth can handle a big scoop of food just yet! I got her some great silicone bibs that easily wipe clean and can even be thrown in the dish washer!

I just ordered some OXO Tot Glass Baby Blocks, a lot of moms love them for freezing food but I bought them to use as bowls! I like that they’re small enough to fit in my bottle warmer since I’m trying my best to not microwave her food.

Lastly, I picked up some Munchkin Mesh Feeders — I’m always hearing moms rave about these but I can’t get the dang things open lol! Maybe I didn’t try hard enough because I’m not dying to use them yet, I just wanted to have them on deck (Amazon is addicting). Iya’s just started chewing on her fingers so once she’s full blown teething I think these will be great for frozen fruit.