What first foods would you start/did you start your baby on?

[mrsm22]

I have heard loads recently about weaning your baby and am about to start this process in a couple of weeks and would like to know what people would advise to start my baby with first. It seems that most or a lot of mums start their baby on baby rice for the first days but I have heard recently that this contains toxins that are in arsenic poisoning, which has worried me a bit. I am planning to give my baby his first spoonful of food somewhere in the morning between his first and second bottle feed but am wondering what would be good/ideal to try first for the first few days. Do people think go for baby rice, baby porridge that you mix with baby milk, baby porridge from a jar or something completely different? I like the idea of boiling my own pieces of pear and blending that and possibly adding some formula milk but I'm not sure if this should be one of his first tastes of better for later after a breakfast type food is tried first. Can anyone advise or share their opinions?
Also when babies first try foods are they likely to experience tummyache or gripe while their bodies are getting used to the food, and should I expect this?
A friend of mine suggests that I buy the Annabel Karmel complete guide to weaning baby book. I think its called something like that or meal planner.
Any advice appreciated and thank you in advance!

We started with roast chicken dinner at 26 weeks.

Chicken strips
Butternut squash fingers
Roast potatoes
Stuffing

We did BLW.

www.babyledweaning.com

DS nearly 7mo, started weaning at 6m.
I have to admit things are a but slow at the moment (had a rough couple of weeks "teething" - but no teeth yet )
I was a bit confused like yourself too still am
My DS has porridge in morning - I started with a normal adult organic stone-ground(or something??) one but took forever to cook so now he has ready brek. I use a hand blender to mix with banana, boiled pear or boiled apple (he loves bananas the most as sweet)
I've also tried shredded wheat as no salt/sugar - didn't go down very well but will try again.
Later in day I go for veg incl.
Broccoli
Sweet potato
Carrot etc
Combinations
I started giving a couple sticks to hold as well as spoon feeding purée (he prefers thicker rather than liquidy but tends to gag a lot on grainy or lumps)
I'd say go with whatever you feel comfortable with regards to consistency - I'd love to just hand him finger food of everything and leave him to it but have seen him struggle too much with it and I'm a wuss I think I'll try to encourage it again tho as want him to progress from purées

And with the food is it cooled down boiled water in a sippy cup or some of the Heinz baby juices if baby isn't keen on water? I have ordered the cup today.
Also, is it best when you first try just to give one meal for the first week? So one spoonful of something say late morning and do that for a full week or longer before moving up to a spoon of something else in the same day and then to eventually move up to 3 meals a day? Surely they still need to get used to the food.

Ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, puddings, snacks, baking, etc.

www.amazon.co.uk/The-Baby-led-Weaning-Cookbook-delicious/dp/0091935288

Just water, there's no need for any kind of juice until they are much older if at all. They may not be keen on water or much use at drinking it to begin with but that's ok. Just keep offering it at mealtimes and you'll get there eventually.

We have started with just a little bit at lunchtime (because it was more convenient) and they often say start and finish with milk (don't try solids when starving or they'll get frustrated, but don't give when stuffed or they won't bother). But I appreciate that might be more challenging when BF (plus I don't care if the bottle gets covered in mashed sweet potato).

We moved on to bottle/solids at tea time as well and now because of timings with DS' and our tea, she has had a couple of days with solids at an early tea only, and then milk at bedtime.

Be prepared for them not to like the cup, and give water in a bottle if they are used to a cup. We also found that the "4mo plus" spouts were very hard - the soft silicone spouts (Nuk, or apparently Dr Brown do one) are nicer for them.

(And we have only given juice regularly while potty training to encourage DS to drink - so about 2 years later! Other than that it's milk or water and he's liked it, though I know not all children are like that).

I never used any baby food at all and that sounds really weird now, but our eldest is 23.
I have never cooked with salt or added sugar so this was never a problem.
We bought a blender and started with rice, cooked and blended.
Then introduced veggies, but not sprouts or other greens at first.

Then chips.
Finally moving onto Greggs soothers (sausage rolls)

Yoghurts are OK but commercial baby yoghurts are very sugary which can be a problem. Natural, plain or greek yoghurt is good. They don't know it's meant to taste sweet but you can add fruit puree to it if you want to sweeten it.

I started out letting DS play around with little bits of what I was eating when he was awake at the same time as I was eating. At first that was one or two meals a day and hardly anything went in. Over time he was more awake and more demanding and it sort of moved up to more meals a day.

You don't need to boil their drinking water past 6 months.

zzzz- it is rice, but so processed it has little in common with a whole grain. I meant highly processed like white flour.

I also just don't understand the purpose of baby rice. It seems boring and a bit pointless to me.

Dd is 24 weeks we have been weaning for about 10 days, we're going with purees for now as she's not quite 6 months and introducing a new food every couple of days I bought the annabel karmel book it is good for recipes and the meal planner as I had no idea about what time of day to start and when to introduce an extra meal etc. First 2 days she had baby rice then has has pear, apple, carrott, banana and sweet potato she loves everything. She has her food with her luchtime bottle milk first though and has a cup with cool bolied water in.

Oh yes. By all means use if it suits you.

I just don't understand the push mothers often have to using baby rice when it is fundamentally very little different to thickening everything with white flour paste- which people would find exceedingly odd.

We went down the baby led weaning route, the tradition of purées was when babies were being weaned at 4 months.

Her first food was carrot baton from the roast, and we did some broccoli batons which she loved!

I do recommend seeing if your baby enjoys it, as it saves a lot of hassle.

Thanks everyone who has responded, you have all been a great help! DS is 24 weeks old but not 6 months until 21 Dec so I'm thinking of starting soon. You start off counting in weeks when you first have your babh but should I now be counting in months?

First babies count in weeks till they are 5. Second babies till about a month old.

... Third babies, look blank and count age on fingers from about three days old. It is a good job there will be no fourth!

Penguins - Ha ha thank you! I'll be stopping at two! When people ask you how many weeks you have to start looking at the calendar to work it all out so I'm glad it goes in months now.
Sorry just back to the weaning, is FS likely to have any tummyache when he starts on the solid food as his body gets used to it?

Some people say that their baby has. But none of my three have ever shown any problems.

I weaned my kids the simplest way ever.

Step 1: stop adding salt to your food, and eat readonably unprocessed food.

Step 2: Eat meals with the baby on your lap.

Step 3: when the baby is almost 6 months old, don't stop them from grabbing bits of food from your plate and putting it into their mouth.

Step 4: at some point, your baby will not only grab food from your plate, but will chew and swallow it.

Step 5: after a few weeks (or months because all babies do things in their own time) your baby will be eating enough of the food on your plate for it to be worth giving them the food on their own plate. Sit them in a highchair with a plateful of food and watch them eat it.

Congratulations! Your baby is now weaned onto solid foods.

My dd started pooing at night again which was fun. The odd thing possibly made her a bit sore, but you're questioning yourself all the time.

Night pooing didn't last long, think it was a couple of weeks but might have been a month

HollyB - can we arrange to have that post in a billboard on every street corner?

I know weaning looks hard, but honestly, at 24 weeks most babies can have actual, real food.

Introduce one new thing at a time, and best to do new foods at lunchtime in case of a reaction.

Thanks everyone. I am thinking of starting possibly tomorrow, what does everyone think? Tomorrow DS will be 24 weeks and 4 days old. Do you think it's ok to start?