raw baby

[soprofound]

hello all,
my baby is at the stage now that he is eating baby food. well he has been for a couple months now. he is 7ths old and i wonder if it is ok for me to give him raw food? my old school auntie who is a SAD diet advocate says it's too early and raw veggies will be too much for his system to handle. is this true? can i start making my baby food raw? tonight i found that i didn't have anymore gerber left in the house so i made him some rice cereal and mushed up some fresh strawberries, and mixed it in with the cereal and some agave. he loved it! can i continue to give him raw foods and juices?

[eachpeachpearplum]

I started mine out at 7mo with thin green smoothies and worked his way up from there. He now (2yrs & breastfed) goes through 2-4 sippy cups a day of thick green smoothie.

There is soooooooo much info on this query. I can not urge you enough to go back to the #1 page in this section and read through the old posts - they were a life saver for me. HUGE amounts of "what to feed a baby/toddler" too.

My son is 99% raw. I say 99 because he manages to grab cooked things here and there as they do but really is not a fan of cooked foods. He grabed a roll from the market inhaled a mouthful and the next thing I knew he was spitting it all back out-LOL!

Please do read the past posts. It is really reassuring to us parents with all those naysayers out there!

PS: pureed avocodo, baby coconut, fruit purees, almond milk blended w/banana. . . .

[juliebove]

I suppose it would depend on how many teeth he has and how likely he is to choke. At that age my daughter was pretty much grabbing whatever she wanted off my plate and eating it. She'd eat raw carrots with no problems and grapes cut in half. You want to be careful with any round foods because they can cause a choking problem. Anything cut in tiny pieces is fine though provided he has enough teeth to chew it (mine did) and it isn't a common allergen. I'd beware of strawberries because they are one of the more allergenic foods. Usually they say to wait until the baby is a year old before starting those foods. However, my daughter is allergic to bananas and they're commonly given to babies. You just never know.

[eachpeachpearplum]

. . . .also books on feeding for raw babies:

Baby Greens by Michaela Lynn & Michael Chrisemer w/Gabriel Cousens

Raw Kids by Cheryl Stoycoff

Introducing Living Foods to your Child by Beth Montgomery

Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine by G. Cousens

[dreamrawalwz]

Are you doing baby food from jars or home made baby food?

[SijaeintheRaw]

Everyone gave great advice, I just have to say that if I end up having another baby, I'm looking forward to doing 100% raw from the time he/she starts eating something besides human milk. What a blessing to give a child!

Laura

[soprofound]

Are you doing baby food from jars or home made baby food?


he's getting food from jars. i use the kind from the whole foods market.

[Sharon in Colorado]

Some great foods - any fruit mashed, avocadoes, peas mashed, carrots minced. A great thing to use is a magic bullet or personal sized blender.

I would definately stop using that jarred stuff, it's cooked and dead. If necessary, keep some jars around for an emergency, but definately feed the precious one the freshest food, which is best.

[Lay-Lay]

. . . .also books on feeding for raw babies:

Baby Greens by Michaela Lynn & Michael Chrisemer w/Gabriel Cousens

Raw Kids by Cheryl Stoycoff

Introducing Living Foods to your Child by Beth Montgomery

Rainbow Green Live Food Cuisine by G. Cousens

thank you so much for providing these book references. Have you read them all? Which one if you could only pick one would you get?

[spicyfull]

Congratulations on having a healthy baby..........

[Ariella]

i feed my babe (now 1 year old) all raw. she is a GREAT eater! i have gotten many comments on how they have never seen such a little one eat so much fruit.

you can go to my blog and see what she eats daily. i track it there. it is at the bottom of each day if you want to bypass the rest

otherwise here are some suggestions

green smoothies, peas, raw corn chips or flax crackers, fruit pureed, or just plain fruit, tomatoes, baby carrots (to gnaw on mostly), mashed avocado, carob pudding (banana, avocado, carob and honey), mashed bananas, olives, nut butters, almond mylk, there are SO many choices! at this point i am not too worried about being balanced since she is still nursing. she eats GREAT though! anyhoo

HTH!

Ariella

JUICE PLUS+
www.juiceplus.com/+dj73561

my blog: www.ethicalcentral.com/blog

[dreamrawalwz]

he's getting food from jars. i use the kind from the whole foods market.

Ok, then first I would ditch those and make your own raw baby food at home with a blender. That plus smoothies, mashed banana, mashed avocado, those type of things will work and then add in harder foods.

[tlurman]

Hi,

I've got a 10mth old and I've found some great things to feed him are chickpeas, raisins, dates, figs etc. Finely grated carrots, zucchinis etc, most soft fruits. There are loads of raw things you can feed them, even when they have no teeth. (My little one didn't get teeth until 9.5 months). I would definately ditch the brought jars and make my own, much fresher, nicer, healthier and cheaper.
Cheers, Teresa.

[firefaery]

I personally do not advocate giving children mush. Babies should get the vast majority of their nourishment at the breast until they are a year old...that isn't to say they won't want to try foods, just that they aren't really nourishing themselves that early from anything other than breastmilk.
When they do show an interest in foods you should be looking for several things: loss of the gag reflex, the ability to sit up unassisted, use of a pincer grasp etc. My kids started eating foods at different ages, but they fed themselves. THey like and need the control. I was not interested in spoon feeding them. We started with fruits, moved on to veggies and then introduced nuts and seeds. I say watch the child for sure, but don't feel that you need to do the mainstream baby food thing. Kids love to feed themselves. I would also avoid grains at all costs. Kiddos don't produce amylase (the enzyme needed to break them down) until they are about two years old. They are unecessary and only recommended for the iron content which you can get from plenty of other sources. Cherries are my personal favorite!

[Helen Of Tennessee]

Hi Soprofound,

My grandson didn't start to eat until he was 11 months old. He started out with bananas, and right now I can't remember what else he started with. He was breastfed for 27 months and when he started to eat (which he was offered food start at 5 months as he had 4 teeth then) he wasn't interested until 11 months and we just started with whole fruits. It was gradual. Bananas at first, then we probably added strawberries and other soft fruits.

This article is good and if you click on the 2nd link at the bottom of the page, it is good with the exception that they talk about feeding cooked foods and meat, but the concept of feeding is great:

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-how.html

Here is another link. I don't personally agree with what's written here as I'm not one for "scheduled" feedings, but you might find some info in here that may be of help. (I do believe in the Natural Hygiene way of eating, though).

http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020110shelton/020110shelton01.html

Here is a board where you can talk to other mothers who are feeding their babies raw foods:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawfoodbabies/

Hope these help.