Starting solids: 4-6 months

Hi,
I was giving Raagi milk from 90 days for my daughter.
Need to soak cleaned and washed ragi in water for 30 minutes. Gring it in Mixie filter with a thin clothe to make sure it filters completely. As this is heat need to add 'panagkalkandu' ( tamil name, donno in english). Need to mix this in water and filter this seperately. Mix this two and heat it until it boils. Remove it from the flame. Once it's starts cooling it will become thick so you can add milk to dilute.
After this from her 9th month I used to grind all the pulses and dhals(all dhals was adding around 16 items ) and used to store it in powder form and use when it was necessary.

_Geetha

Dear Vidya,

You have made a good start with the Rice cereal. Continue with it for atleast 10 days at the same time of the day so he gets used to the taste. Next along with the rice cereal introduce a veggie: start with Beach nut brand sweet potato or butternut squash. I started this for both my kids and there is not one veggies that they do not eat. Start the veggie give about 2 tsp and gradually increase. Give the same veggie for one week and then start a new one. Onc he gets used to the taste of these two veggies, then give apple sauce. Usually if you start apple sauce first, the slight sour taste turns the baby off. Start bananas around 5 to 6 months. Hope this helps.

Let me know if you have anyother questions.

Vandhana

Hi Vidhya,

In our house, we use to prepare “rice kanchi” for the baby. From 4^th month we used to give this.

1 cup boiled rice
1 hand full ‘barley’
1 sp cumin seeds.

Dry fry boiled rice, barley and cumin seeds in a pan.
Just fry for few min. கை பொருக்கும் சூடு.
Then remove and grind it in a mixer grinder like 'rava'
Keep this in a dry glass bottle.
Whenever you need, heat water in a pan.
Put one spoon of this 'kanji podi' in that and make 'kanji'
Remove after it cooked.
Add milk and sugar.
Keep aside for some time. After some time take only the தெளிவு
Pour it in the bottle and give.
After one month or 1 1/2 months you can give the thick one by using spoon.

Hope this will help you.

Note: you can add fruit juices insted of milk.

thanks for all your responses!!since am a new mom,am not aware of these home made recipies,so right now i am just going with gerber brand rice cereal,vandhana i will try the vegs u seggested next.i will also try ragi&home made rice kanji once he gets used to the idea of solids.thanks a lot!!!more suggestions are welcome.

Dear Vidya,

Yes the home made kanji powders are really good. One word of caution though is please do not add the regular milk to the kanji and give. If you want dilute it with breast milk or Enfamil or something like that. In US the milk is really thick and hard to digest so not advisable to give to babies under 9 months( am sure you rpediatrician would have told you this also ). Also try to avoid sugar in the kanji .

Vandhana

Vandhana,

I have a question regarding feeding babies!

I know that there is a huge range of baby foods available here and most of them are excellent and give a good guidance as to when and how much to feed the baby. I followed that with my daughters and same now with the grandkids. But, when and how did you introduce your babies to 'Indian' foods like rasam etc. Can your boys now eat all things spicy? Do throw some light on this. Our Jay (31/2) will not eat anything spicey:( He loves plain dhal and plain rice. I add salt and pepper to it and butter. Sometimes, I also add boiled veggies such as zucchini, choyote, cauliflower or cabbage. But anything coloured, like peas, beans, spinach or tomatoes, he will not eat! He loves carrots though, thankfully. I want to introduce the baby to some spicy food before it is too late.

L, Kamla

Hi Kamla,

For both kids at around 6 months, i started them off on the following solid:
1tsp rice, 1tsp tuvar dal, 1/2 tomato deseeded, 1/2 carrot , pressure cook everything till soft, and then mash it up in the blender till soft. Add a pinch of jeera powder, salt and a drop of ghee.

After giving them this for about two weeks, i started adding one karandi of rasam to this mix and giving.

At 7 months, started off with regular cooked veggies along with the above, but stopped grinding inthe mixer. also started upma and idlis, pongal . ( with curds)
at 8 months started idli with molagapodi/sambhar ( a pinch of it with 1 tsp ghee)
also used to give them a taste of little vendiyakuzhmabu, sambhar etc... with their thayir sadam.
around 1 year, started giving regular rasam sadam, with varying veggies, and also a little bit of sambhar or any kuzhambu sadam ( more rice and ghee and little bit of the kuzhambu for flavor).
by 1 1/2 they were eating all the spicy food.

Kamla, my little one will not spinach too, but he likes it in lasagna and if I make palak rotis. keerai vadai etc...

Hope this helps.

Vandhana

Dearest Vandhana,

Thank you for the immediate and lovely answer to my post. I shall reserve this post for future reference. Yes, it is tricky to get them used to spices and I want to try my luck out with the littlest one:)

L, Kamla

dear vidhu,
Looks like you got quiet a lot of good ideas from our Ilites. I dont know much about it but me too started with rice cereal and now my baby is 9 months. I give homemade carrots,peas and potatoes everything else i buy(like fruits and other types of vegs,and cereals). I tried raagi but my local indian grocery store doesnot carry ragi seeds so I stopped it.

I have a doubt of my own ,sorry to barge in your thread. Can someone suggest an approximate portion size for a 9 month old? My baby takes about 13 to 15oz of formula in a 24hr period. And she takes 3tbsp of cereal,4oz of pureed veg,4ozs of pureed fruit.(gerber 2nd stage) This is her diet for a day right now.I
measure and record everything she eats and drinks because she has a declining weight chart and some eating problem.I would appreciate any inputs from all the experienced ilites.Thanks in advance.

Dear Sree,

Yes indeed loooking at the 24 hour eating period, your baby is not getting enough. 13 to 14 oz formula is okay, that comes to proabably 2 bottle feeds. but rest of the day you need to include more. Please see my reply to Kamla, and start your baby off on the paruppu sadam.

I would suggest the following to be followed:

Morning giver her the first feed of milk.
breakfast: start on 3 tbs rice cereal mixed with the 4 oz fruit. you can also start slowly giving her idli, pongal , bread toast soaked in milk.
lunch: give her the paruppu sadam with 1/2 cup plain thayir
afternoon: give her one more feed of veggie/ fruit. you can also start giving her "rusk" or any such biscuit that is hard and she has to chew on it.
evening: try giving parle g biscuits soaked in warm milk( about 4 biscuits in about 1/2 cup milk). it tastes really yummy .
night again give her her second milk feed.

You mention she has some eating problems is it that she does not want to eat any solids? Slowly add veggies to the lunch and dinner, but yes your baby is not getting enough solids. Hope this helps. let me know if you have any more questions.

Vandhana