Well, her FIRST food wasn't pesto...but it was the first one she loved!

We started with the rice cereal (because our pediatrician suggested it and because of the iron - our daughter was slightly anemic).

When she wouldn't take it, we either let it go, assuming she wasn't quite ready to start solids, or we introduced a little bit of mashed banana in with the cereal.

She LOVED the mashed banana and continues to chow down on bananas two years later!

Some of the other foods we introduced very early on were: applesauce, acorn squash, butternut squash, and sweet potato (all cooked/steamed and mashed).

Good luck - it is tough at first, but so much fun to see them experience something for the first time!

With the green light from our pediatrician, we started feeding our son solids around 4 months as well. However, 4 months is on the early side, so I knew not to stress about it whether or not he would like or eat the food we introduced. I started very slowly by giving him very "soupy" rice cereal- that is, more breast milk than cereal, then gradually increased the amount of cereal to a thicker consistency over the weeks. Then we changed to oatmeal. The first food we mixed in with the cereal was mashed avocado. He loved the creamy texture. Every third day I would add a new food (I have a lot of allergies and my son had a milk allergy, so I wanted to be able to immediately pinpoint any food that might cause an allergy for him). Per the advice of our pediatrician, I tried to avoid introducing fruit first, a that's an easily likable item and it might cause them to turn away from other things. Other foods my son liked: well cooked egg yolks (not egg whites quite yet), roasted, pureed carrots (roasting brings out the sweetness better than
boiling), baked sweet potatoes, mashed acorn and butternut squash, pureed peas (SO much better when you do it yourself than the jarred
stuff). Also, I found that when I made the baby food, our son was much more likely to eat it. I had sworn I wasn't going to be one of those "crazy" moms that only feeds their kids homemade baby food, and then I discovered how easy it was, how cheap it was, and how much more my son ate when it was homemade. My mom got us a mini food processor which
made making baby food a snap. I would then pour the pureed mixture into ice cube trays and freeze them, then transfer them to freezer storage bags. It was so easy for on-the-go meals-- I'd toss a cube into a little tupperware container, toss it in the diaper bag, and it was
thawed by the time he was ready to eat it.

If your kiddo still has a strong tongue thrust (ie, pushes the food out of his mouth with his tongue), then there's no need to try solids quite yet- just try again every couple of weeks or so. The tongue thrust may mean that they are not quite developmentally ready for swallowing food.

I started solids much later with my first, she was almost 8 months old. We started with rice cereal, which she was not very fond of....I can't really blame her. We did the mashed banana thing too and that seemed to help. But one of her first REAL food that she really enjoyed (and does to this day) was pureed avacado. There are SO many good things about avacados, nutrients and omega 3's etc. So try to find a pretty ripe avacado, peel it and just throw it in your food processor...super easy! Let us know if any of these work or if you come up with some other solutions.

THANKS! These have been so helpful. He tried peas for the first time this week and definitely seemed to like them more than the cereal. The banana I will have to mash up more because he was gagging on it! I like the idea of cooking for him but was a little intimidated by the "work"... thanks for the encouragement!

I started both of my boys at 4 months as my doctor recommended since both had reflux. Instead of using plain white rice baby cereal I used organic Brown Rice. It has more nutritional value and HappyBaby has a fantastic brand (HappyBellies) with Probiotics, which is fantastic for your babies digestive system.

I also used this great book called "Super Baby Food Book" which gave me all the information I needed about making my own food, when to give certain foods to my baby and how much food should my baby eat at one sitting. The book can be a bit overwhelming so I suggest reading only the chapter you need for that month.

I too made all my own food for both of my boys and found it very easy and in the end I knew how much my boys were eating and that they were eating GOOD and HEALTHY foods. Healthy eating for kids has now become a passion of mine and I recently started my own business to help moms like you out. Please visit my website at www.oboyorganic.com
Good Luck!

My kids were both infants in Canada where they generally aren't too pushed about starting solids until the 5-6 month age so there is no need to worry if they are not that interested at 4 months.

I used to make roasted yams or butternut squash for the rest of the family for dinner but do a double amount and mash and freeze the rest in icecube trays. The other thing I did as the babies got a little more used to food was to make chicken stock by boiling the bones of a roasted chicken (really easy - put carcass in pot, just cover with water and boil and simmer for 30 mins). Then just strain the stock and freeze in ice-cube trays. This was really useful to add to vegetables like broccoli which can be a little dry when mashed. Rice cereal can be used to thicken it up a bit too.

I read at some point that you should only serve babies foods that can be mashed to a consistency that can be handled by them so I never even used a food processor. Yams, squash, ripe pears and apple sauce mash smooth early on and then as they get more used to textures getting more into carrots and peas and broccoli which tend to mash a little lumpier!

Home made baby food can be very easy, especially if you roll it into the dinner plans for the rest of the family!

I make almost all of my son's (8 month) baby food, except when we travel. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but once you get started it's very easy to keep up. I typically do a big cooking once a month for him (which lasts a month), and then just add fresher food in during the month (e.g. bananas, avocado, leftover veggies from my dinner).

I used the website www.wholesomebabyfood.com to learn the best way to prepare individual ingredients to preserve the most nutrients. I've never used the recipes on that site beyond the most basic food preparation instructions.

My favorite things about making his food are:
1) controlling the texture - except for the very beginning, he never really loved the soupy consistency of jarred food. Depending on the food and quantity, I either use an immersion blender or a fork to puree/mash it.
2) coming up with creative concoctions - I make everything plain and freeze in cubes, but thaw them differently... sometimes combining flavors, textures, and adding herbs/spices

Favorite combos are:
- sweet potato and banana
- green beans, peas, spinach
- carrots, apple
- apple, cinnamon, oatmeal

Good luck!

Love the chicken stock idea, mrsnoodle!

I echo BeansproutCrafts' immersion blender and combo comments. Making your own food is SIMPLE if you use an immersion blender. I have a Cuisinart, and the chopper attachment perfectly & evenly chopped meat for my then 8 mo. old. The immersion part is fabulous for any veggie or fruit. (Plus it has "staying power" as a "baby purchase" YAY!)

When my little man doesn't take to a food flavor or texture at the beginning, I sometimes try it as a combo (adding cottage cheese or oatmeal to almost anything works in our case) and slowly increase the amount/flavor intensity until he likes it on its own.