First foods for babies has been a hot topic for years. When do I give them solids, what foods give me my biggest bang for my buck, if baby isn’t sleeping is it ok to give the cereal? To make matters worse, everyone has a different opinion for 
what worked for them, or this is what my parents gave me and I turned out alright. It’s tough not to fall into this trap and give our kids sub-optimal nutrient dead foods, that can be loaded with things like; heavy metals, corn syrup, MSG, and other synthetic minerals and additives that are never meant to be in a baby’s body.
Let’s tackle the most common problem I see in the office, a 2 month old kid that isn’t sleeping through the night yet. First things first we need to understand, babies are not designed to sleep through the night in the first couple of months. A baby’s stomach at birth is the size of a pea, imagine how small that it. Because mama’s milk is so high in nutrients, it absorbs very quickly across the gut lining leaving your baby hungry for more. It’s not uncommon for you baby to feed every 2-3 hours in the first month of life.
Here is where you’ve probably heard of people adding cereal to the diet, since it helps them sleep throughout the night. Babies do not have the enzymes needed to properly digest grains until between 7-10 months. What does this mean for your baby? When you feed them cereal, it literally sits in their stomach, and intestines remaining undigested. It makes the baby feel full, but is denying them building blocks of life. Does this sound like a healthy way to grow a baby, by taking away essential nutrients while are growing leaps and bounds in the first couple of months, as well as trying to develop a healthy brain, and heart? If that wasn’t enough, it also leads to damage of the intestinal tract, increasing potential for allergies, and chronic digestive disorders in early life. Lots of babies receiving cereal experience colic, are constipated, develop eczema, as well as the numerous allergies.
Another popular question is when can I add real food into my kid’s diet? At a minimum we like to wait until 6 months of age. There are a few things that you can look for to decide when your kid is ready to eat real food. First, your baby should be able to sit up without any help or even be able to crawl. Secondly, your kid should have good head control and develop a pincer grasp that they can use to pick up food. And lastly, when your baby is ready for food they should be losing their tongue-thrust reflex. What does that look like? When you place food in your babies mouth and they push it back out with their tongue it’s not because they don’t like the food, it’s because they aren’t quite ready for it.
So now that you know what to look for, here are a list of my favorite first foods to give to baby. Remember when giving kids food, you want to start with one food a week and make sure your baby doesn’t have any issues with the food. 
- Organic Avocado- They taste pleasant, and are very easily digested for baby. You can mash it up into “baby guacamole” to make it easier to feed to your kid. It is loaded with healthy fat, potassium, phosphorous, and magnesium.
- Raw Egg Yolks- Up to the first year of life, we want to avoid egg whites due to their allergy potential. The yolks of an egg are an amazing food for your kid, packed with numerous vitamins, and mineral including lecithin, choline, protein, cholesterol and fat to help with brain development. Remember to get high quality eggs!
- Sweet Potatoes- Baked or steamed sweet potatoes make a great food for your baby. It’s very easy for you baby to chew, and loaded with things like beta carotene, vitamin A, and fat.
- Red Meat- I always get a little funny look when I mention red meat for a baby. Your baby is growing by leaps and bounds, and what he or she needs is a great source of fat and protein. Red meat is an awesome source of both. Your baby will also need another source of iron as mom can no longer supply what your baby needs for iron. Just be sure that your red meat is coming from a grass fed animal not loaded with antibiotics or growth hormone. Than simply cook beef or steak to medium rare and send it through food processor before giving it to baby.
- Sardines- Also a little bit of a weird one, but they contain a ton of great stuff for developing baby including calcium, and vitamins A, D, and B12. They also contain low levels of mercury compared to larger fish due to what they are eating. Mash or break into bite-size pieces to feed to baby.
Hope you enjoyed my list of favorite foods for baby. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to give us a call at Brooks Chiropractic, (952)456-6611. Enjoy your time with you newborn, it goes fast 🙂