I love Dr. Greene’s unique perspective on how to introduce baby to solids.  Here is a Q & A used here with permission:

You ask, we answer.  This Q&A is from our friend and Healthy Child Board Member, Dr. Alan Greene, renowned pediatrician and expert on environmental health. 

Question:  What is the difference between 1st Foods and 2nd Foods? Can I skip 1st Foods all together?

Dr. Greene Answers:  The baby food months are a fleeting window for teaching your baby to enjoy a variety of tastes, textures, and combinations. Soon that window will slam shut, and your toddler will be suspicious of foods that don’t seem familiar. This is as it should be: historically you wouldn’t want a child to toddle away from his parents into the wild and pick a berry to eat – it might make him sick. Or to pick a leaf – it could be poison oak. It’s normal for children not to like new fruits or vegetables by then.

I favor using the baby food window to introduce as many delicious tastes and textures as practical. For this reason, I no longer agree with the idea of staged foods, and especially not with introducing one new food every 3 to 5 days.

1st Foods are bland, single ingredient foods that have a very smooth texture. 2nd Foods have greater variety, combined ingredients, and more texture, 1st foods do naturally lead to 2nd foods, to 3rd foods – but I’m concerned they may all lead naturally to convenience foods and kids’ meals.

It can be fine to skip straight to 2nd foods – or even to skip 2nd foods altogether. Feeding Baby Green describes a variety of wonderful ways to feed your baby – perhaps with fresh tasting commercially prepared foods (Including some 2nd foods), and/or perhaps with tastes of food your family is already enjoying. It’s easier than you think.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of Healthy Child Healthy World. Courtesy of Healthy Child Healthy World: a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit inspiring parents to protect young children from harmful chemicals.

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Tags: baby food

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 10:53 am and is filed under Baby & Toddler. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.