Vegetarian/gluten free recipe ideas for 6 month old

[iwouldgoouttonight]

Hello,

I've just started weaning my DS and he's quite happily eating all the pureed vegetables and fruit I can give him as well as baby porridge, plus also eating (well sucking!) finger food - carrot sticks, broccoli, etc. He seems ready to be introduced to more flavours and textures so I've added some gluten-free pasta to his veg which he likes. Was going to try lentils, chick peas, rice, mushrooms, etc too - but are these ok to give to him at six months? Is it ok to give him cheese if its mixed with things or should he be older for that?

My mum and MIL are both coeliac so I'm trying to avoid giving him gluten until he's a year old, and me and my partner are veggie so we don't really want to cook meat for him, although we might tell the nursery that they can give him fish so he has a bit more variety and doesn't miss out on any nutrients.

Basically I'm just stuck for recipe ideas and confused about what he can have and at what age!

Better to leave fish out for a little longer too. I don't remember using cheese until quite later so I'm not sure if it's OK.

I think there is a significant number of veggie mums here, I'm sure someone will show around at some point

I wouldn't give pulses yet, they are pretty hard to digest. I know as a vegetarian you are probably getting the evils from your HV, but ignore her, the thing about iron is a load of nonsense - there is plenty of iron in your milk.

You know up until a year milk should be the primary source of nutrition so anything else you choose to give him now is just to get used to new tastes and doesn't have to provide much energy or nutrients. Have you seen Aitch's blog ? She has some great ideas for feeding children this age

Oh, I like your name btw

Thank you! So is it ok to just give him fruit and veg (and milk!) for now then? Its just that my HV said to give him as many different tastes and flavours as poss in the first few weeks so I thought he might need to try more new things? He's been eating for nearly a month, he's 28 weeks.

"Its just that my HV said to give him as many different tastes and flavours as poss in the first few weeks"

I agree it's good to try different tastes but not aim for a sort of oral assault course

Why don't you just give him a taste of what you are having, whenever it is something suitable? He would probably get quite a variety that way and you could learn about his likes and dislikes? Now he is over 6 months he will be able to cope with different textures and try chewing on things that you are having. It's less work than making up purees and recipes specially for him. Just stick to the basic safety rules and omit things with gluten in.

We're bringing DS (9mths) up as veggie (well not quite as his dad eats a little fish we've agreed he can have this occassionally and at nursery.) We've found well cooked red lentils go down ok - I make up mild veg and lentil curries/chillies/spag bol type things and these all seem to go down well. We've given DS green lentils as well but I held back a few months on these as these always seem tougher even when cooked well. DS also had had other pulses wizzed up in our food. Basically our DS likes anything with a tomato base (ie a tin of tomatoes lurks somewhere in it). I was orginally nervous about using spices , but as long as they arn't 'hot' and flavoursome/mild DS has been ok with them. Good luck with veggie weaning - I'll be looking out for anyone elses good ideas!!!!

Thanks, pelvicflawed - did you give your LO lentils and pulses from 6 months? I wanted to give him lentil chillies, veggie casseroles, etc but wasn't sure about tomatoes either - is it ok to give him these as long as they're mixed up with something?

We started weaning at around 17-18 weeks (yes I know bad mother alert - I'm a lot wiser now thanks to MN). Anyway kept off all protein/dairy etc until 6 mths and then gradually introduced it to him so he was probably 27/28 weeks when he first got lentils/pulses as I think I started with cheese and yoghurt- as long as you don't over do the fibre (I still give DS white pasta/rice even though I often eat brown) and they are cooked well he should be fine. DS loves tomatoes big time - I just used tinned and haven't had any problems - the only problem I have is to make sure he dosen't get too addicted to tomatoes. I think the worse that can happen with lentils is that have a quick transit through - I think(?) they also have a good iron content. Forgot to mention I'm trying to get DS to like apricots for the iron contenet - he'll eat soaked dried apricots wizzed up with a blender in nat. full fat yoghurt.

Hi IWGOT

There is a lovely mum that started a site for allergy feeding, she even made a recipe book as she came up against the same problems you have.

Check out
this

Hope that helps