First Foods to Feed a Baby

First Foods to Feed a Baby with a focus on variety, nutritious foods and lots of vegetables to help encourage your child to be a great eater!

We are still a few months away from feeding Lily solids but I am looking forward to doing so when the time comes. I had a lot of fun choosing first foods to feed my other kids when they were babies. As a dietitian, it has always been very important to me to get my kids to enjoy a large variety of nutritious foods from the very beginning. I always start with a bunch of pureed vegetables and oatmeal and go from there. Today, I want to share some of the first foods to feed a baby that I recommend.


Both of my kids started on pureed steamed carrots at about 5 months old. They loved it! From there, we served them things like pureed green beans, spinach, sweet potatoes, peas and more. I really feel like it is best to give vegetables first since they have less of a sweet flavor compared to fruit and the baby can get used to having that first. I think that when you start them on a sweet food first, they have a preference for that compared to vegetables.


At ages 5 and 2 1/2, my kids are excellent eaters and love almost all foods including all vegetables so I'm sticking with my idea of giving veggies first for baby #3. We also give oatmeal cereal as one of the first foods. We like the Kabrita Organic Goat Milk Porridge. It is made for babies ages 6 months and older. It is multigrain and has no-added sugar. It contains goat milk which is easy for baby to digest. I look forward to having Lily try this when she is old enough.


It is rich in calcium and protein for baby and is a nutrient dense food. You may remember that Oliver had some trouble gaining weight and this cereal which is 50% organic goat milk would have been helpful.


About a month after our kids start solids, we start giving them little pieces of food to eat. Some examples are lightly smashed black beans, pasta, bits of bread, etc. We also give yogurt, finely ground meat and avocado. Our philosophy that we have used for all of parenting is that the kids eat whatever we eat. The exception is spicy food and before the child is 1, we limit added sugar and salt. Whatever we are eating, baby gets a little bit of. This really helps to expand their tastebuds and gets them used to eating all kinds of different foods.


We look forward to trying the Kabrita Snack Puffs with Goat Cheese which are gluten-free, have no added sugar and are made for babies ages 9 months and up. These would be fun for eating as a snack on the go. They are good for baby to practice their motor skills by practicing picking these up. I tried them and they are actually really good! Like a healthy cheese puff.

First Foods to Feed a Baby

Vegetables

Pureed:
-Carrots
-Sweet potatoes
-Green beans
-Spinach
-Peas
-Avocado
-Once baby is a little older- bits of any of the above vegetables, zucchini, eggplant, potato

Grains

-Kabrita Organic Goat Milk Porridge
-Waffles
-Whole-grain bread
-Whole wheat pasta
-Kabrita Snack Puffs with Goat Cheese

Oliver loving homemade applesauce

Fruit

-Peaches, plums, nectarines
-Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries
-Kiwi, mango, cantaloupe, watermelon
-Applesauce
-Fruit pouches with no added sugar

Protein

-Peanut butter, almond butter
-Beans
-Eggs
-Chicken, venison, pork, beef
-Cheese
-Whole-milk plain Greek yogurt

Adalyn's first meal- I think she loved it!

I am a dietitian and a third time mom but am not a child nutrition expert. These feeding philosophies are what work best for us and our kids. I truly love to talk about the topic of feeding kids and babies so feel free to ask me any questions about what foods to feed a baby.

This post is sponsored by Kabrita. All opinions are my own.