You would think that baby food would be pretty much the same wherever you go, or at least in countries with similar culinary traditions. So, I could understand baby food being different in China, but I was surprised to find so many differences between here and the US.
At the age of three months, the pediatrician told me that I could give Luigi some grated apple and that I could even put a drop or two of lemon juice on it. He made sure to point out though that it was not to be a substitute for nursing him. Now, I had read that babies should have only breast milk for six months, but I also read that it really depends on the baby. One of the deciding factors seems to be whether the baby has doubled his birth weight and at 3 months Luigi had surpassed that. Plus, he seemed interested, so I went ahead. He loved it of course.
Luigi’s first “meals” were rice cereal mixed with vegetable broth, a drop or two of olive oil and a sprinkle of grated parmigiano – once per day at 4 months old. While I know that may sound strange to some people since it’s cereal, which we always pair with milk, it really is just ground up rice and we wouldn’t hesitate to mix rice with broth. The doctor actually recommended a 3 cereal blend of rice, corn and tapioca.
The next step was twice a day cereal with meat added (5 months). You can imagine that I was a little surprised because I believe in the states meat isn’t given until the baby’s about a year old (correct me if I’m wrong). But, some of my research mentioned that meat is good for young babies for the iron and protein and also because it is easier for them to digest. At first, trying to do everything just right, I boiled and pureed the meat myself, but later on Luigi wanted more variety so I switched to jarred food.
At this point he was to have meat once a day (1/2 jar) and then have a second meal with some veggies. Then, once he reached six months he graduated to baby pasta and a whole jar of meat. Now he can even have egg yolks (twice a week) and ricotta cheese at the meals when he doesn’t have meat.
One of the strangest things is that there isn’t that much emphasis on vegetables here. They’re sort of added as a second thought. And don’t try to find them in jars at the supermarket. Only one brand that I’ve found actually has jarred vegetables by themselves (some have them mixed in with meat) and they only have three varieties – mixed vegetables; carrots, potatoes and zucchini; vegetables and legumes.
I often think of the baby food shelves at the supermarket back in the states. There’s such a variety that it’s hard to choose. On a quest for more variety, I went to several stores, but I was not able to find anything else. I asked O if maybe Italian babies don’t eat veggies. But, Luigi loves them, especially lentils (technically pulses) and broccoli, so I cook them for him myself. Otherwise he’d have no vegetable variety at all.
Actually, there isn’t much variety in baby food here except that there are a lot of different kinds of meat and fish. I was surprised to see lamb, salmon, sea bass, trout, rabbit and even ostrich on the shelf.
Here are some that I recently bought.
I could have done without the pictures of the little baby lamb and the horse. And yes, horse it is. It’s actually supposed to be very good for babies because it is high in iron. And, Luigi seems to like it. OK, so it may be in poor taste to ask him if he wants another bite of Trigger, but he’s never heard of Trigger….
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I love this post. I recently wrote a website about introducing baby food.
http://www.babyfood101.com
and when I get me blog up and going I will cite you. Your post shows that there are many healthy ways to get a baby started on solids.
Bravo,
Lisa
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Mary Reply:
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Thanks Lisa. Let me know when you get your blog up and going. Yes, there are lots of ways to start a baby on solids. It’s interesting seeing how it’s done differently in other countries too.
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Thank you for posting this, Mary. We just started Simon on solids so when we go to Italy this summer I will know what is out there
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Mary Reply:
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:06 am
Just remember, the veggie selection is limited. That’s my only complaint.
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Actually, Mary, meats are given earlier here. This is what we were told: 4-6 mos-cereals, fruits, veggies. 6-7 mos.-meats. 9 mos- Cheerios, chopped table food. 10-12 mos- dairy products (cheese). 18 mos-shellfish, strawberries.
Obviously the “meats” at 6mos are pureed. Some of the delayed foods such as shellfish and strawberries and due to the amount of kids that have allergies. They say no peanuts or PB till 2 years old!
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Mary Reply:
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:09 am
See, I didn’t know that. Most of the things I read online delayed meats for longer than that. And thanks for the breakdown, that gives me something to compare too. Strawberries are only delayed here until 8 months though, so Luigi has already eaten them and had no reaction, thank goodness.
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They horsemeat baby food is interesting. In California it is illegal for humans to eat hosemeat. My youngest daughter, now 20, ate horsemeat in France, last year when she was doing a semester in Paris. She bought it and cooked it herself. She really liked it.
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Mary Reply:
April 23rd, 2009 at 8:11 am
Wow, I didn’t know eating horsemeat was illegal in California. Here, obviously, the horses used for food are raised for that purpose. I’ve never eaten it myself, but when I read about all its benefits, I decided to feed it to my son.
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Cathy Kesseler Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Yes- a while back some wealthy people had the issue placed on a state wide ballot and the majority voted to ban the eating of horsemeat. ( I voted against the ban). In California horses are viewed as pets and the idea of ‘eatign Trigger’ horrified some people. Also P.E.T.A. has a lot of support in California and there are a lot of vegetarians and vegans.
I don’t like being told what to eat by others and I will definately try horsemeat if I get the chance.
By the way in 2012 California will ban foie gras.
Cathy
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Have you thought about making your own veggies? I think when we start with Veggies we will puree them and make them ourselves – which we will probably do in Italia. This site has a lot of good info http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
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Mary Reply:
April 24th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Oh yes, I always make my own vegies. Thanks for the link.
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I also blogged about Italian baby food back when my baby started on solids at 6 months. Unlike you I don’t trust my paediatrician at all (this is the same paed who told me that Astrid was “too fat” at 8 weeks so I should only breastfeed her 5 times a day. (eyeroll!) So far doing the opposite of what she tells me seems to be working fine!
BTW- when I told the paed that Astrid eats lentils and chickpeas (in the form of hummus) she nearly hit the roof as apparently “legumi” are really bad for babies (yeah, whatever). Also apparently giving her plain yoghurt is a big no no and I should only give her horrible bland cheeses like low fat Philadelphia cream cheese.
I ignore all this and Astrid has a nice varied diet at 9 months – eats most things with gusto – meat, pureed veggies, whole veggies steamed as finger foods, fruit, yoghurt, fish etc etc.
I think a lot of the food restrictions they put on babies here are so much hocus pocus.
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Mary Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Your paed seems really strange. When I told mine that Luigi was eating lentils and yogurt he was really pleased – especially about the lentils as he said lentils and pasta are a complete meal. I basically give Luigi whatever I think of as long as it doesn’t have a lot of salt in it. I did find that he had some trouble with tomatoes in the beginning and the paed did say to hold off on them a while, but that’s due to the acid content. Amazing how different the doctors can be, isn’t it?
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Hi! I am also living in Italy (Naples). My son is 8 months old and is just one month into eating baby food solids. He will only eat fruit at this point… so I am running into the same problem with finding veggies. Do you have any great recipes that you could share?? Thanks!! biehnl {at} yahoo {dot} com
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Mary Reply:
June 5th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Lauren, I sent you an email. Luigi loves steamed chopped carrots which is what I do with most vegetables that I give to him now. Before, whatever I had on hand I would steam and puree.
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