By Erin Losie
A few months ago, at my daughter’s four-month check-up her pediatrician gave me a list of “approved” foods for a four-to-six month old baby. While the doctor did say we didn’t have to start solids at this point, it would be ok, if we wanted to. I couldn’t believe she was handing me this list, because my baby is still “so little!” Feeding her real food had not even crossed my mind! I was still so focused on maintaining her sleep schedule; I’d not even considered when solids start.
As I reviewed the list, I noticed first few items on the list were grains, so I immediately thought, “I have some research to do!” And then, “Great! Something else to do…!”
After discussing it with my husband, we agreed that even though we could start our baby girl on solids she was not sitting-up on her own and she was not showing any interest in food, so we decided to use these two things as trigger points for starting solids. The last thing I needed was to figure out a way to feed solids to an uninterested, non-sitting-up baby.
After a lot of research, I boiled my baby’s first foods guidance to two main sources, The Paleo Mom’s Blog by Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, PhD and Super Nutrition for Babies by Dr. Katherine Erlich, M.D. and Kelly Genzliner, C.N.C, C.M.T.A. Both of these places give at month-by-by Paleo approach to feeding your baby and the science behind it.
The Paleo Mom Blog has a great post about Paleo Baby Foods-What to Introduce When and Making Your Own Baby Food. She also has a TON of information on autoimmune protocol.
Through The Paleo Mom website, I started listening to The Paleo View, a podcast in which Sarah and Stacy Toth of Paleo Parents, discuss life as Paleo moms. In their episode on Breastfeeding and First Foods, the book, Super Nutrition for Babies is recommended. This book not only explains the science behind what to feed your baby, when, it also give you a detailed plan. This is what I needed!
Super Nutrition makes a strong case for the baby’s first foods closely resembling the nutrient make-up of the mother’s milk. Looking at the nutrients, protein, and fat content, animal foods most closely resemble the make-up of the mother’s milk, making these the ideal first foods for babies.
With is in mind, I took the recommendation of Super Nutrition and decided on a soft-boiled egg yolk (according to my pediatrician, the egg white is a possible allergen, so it’s best to wait on giving this to the baby) as baby girl’s first solid food. At six and a half months she was finally sitting-up and showing interest in food, so I cooked-up the egg yolk and feed it to her!
She gave me a puzzled look on her face for the first couple bites, but then decided she liked it! After a few days she LOVED it and still does! It’s still one of her favorite foods.
While I do use these as my main sources, I also review this guidance with the lists the pediatrician gives me at the baby’s wellness visits. And I talk to the doctor about what we’re feeding her.
It took a few tries to get the consistency of the egg yolk right, but here’s what works for me. You may need to adjust the cooking time.
– Fill a small pan with water, enough to cover the egg
– On hight heat, bring the water to a boil, without the egg
– Once boiling place the egg in the water
– Turn the heat down to medium
– Cook egg for 4:15 minutes, without a lid
– Take the egg out, place in cold water
– After 2-3 minutes take the egg out and peel it
– Cut open the egg and scoop out the yolk
– Feed to baby!