2 solids questions

Ella's 5 months old and on Doc's orders has been on solids for a week now (to put on some weight).  She's loving them!  Farex goes down alright mixed in with her foods, banana is the bomb, and courgette gets eaten if it's mixed with some banana (mmm... interesting combo I imagine!).  That's all I've tried her on so far - I've got to be really careful because of her allergy and she isn't allowed any milk products, soy, wheat, nuts or shellfish (well that counts out satay prawns doesn't it... ).  But seriously, there's a fair few foods off the list for her.  Even her BF's are dairy-free!  First question is - how varied does her diet need to be?  All I can think of to puree up for her is banana, pear, apple, carrots, courgettes, kumara, pumpkin and potato.  Plunket told me to avoid any high-fibre foods for a few months still (I was about to give her some spinach that day!  ).  I want her to have more veges than fruits to begin with, because I imagine it'd be hard to get the child to eat veg later on when she knows there's so many sweeter much yummier foods out there instead.  But are 5 veges enough in a diet?  Are there any other 5-mth-old-friendly veges? 

And my other question is - when does she need water to drink?  When I was worried about her hydration a while ago I had to syringe it into her because she refuses the bottle now and won't take to a cup of water.  But now that she has 2 meals a day of solids (after BF), does she need water to go with them?  They're usually foods mixed with breastmilk. 

Andie - I am now starting brenna on pumkin, carrot etc and she's not as keen as on fruit but I guess it's early days. I'm the same as you that I want her having veges from early on too. What time of the day do you give her the solids?? Brenna just has it once first thing in the morning after her b/f...

Andie, Ella won't need water as well as breastmilk unless it is stinking hot (fat chance of that happening again in Palmy this month) or when she nears 1 year/weaning.

I know Golden Circle have/had a range of foods that they say are for children that have allergies. They are the purple coloured jars. I haven't seen them at the supermarket (I haven't really been looking at the baby food) so not sure if they are still around but worth a try.

We just saw the dietitian on Monday and she has recommended just giving the gremlins two things until 6 months - pear and baby rice. She said at this age they don't need a huge variety and because of the allergies its even more important to keep it simple. Apparently pear is one of the 'safest' fruits and baby rice is pretty innocuous too (althjo I suspect my girls may have an intolerance to rice at this stage as they are having weird symptoms, but thats a story for another day ).

She also suggested offering them water from either a bottle or a sippy cup as they are not getting enough fluid and Sienna is constipated, but they are formula fed - it's different for breastfed babies.

If you ring 0800 Neocate and talk to Tara (one of the dietitians at Karicare) she can send you a whole information pack on starting solids for allergy kids and a food diary to record any possible reactions etc.

Hope this helps.

He he he... peas and apple sauce - now there's a strange meal!  Then again, I sometimes sit down to a big bowl of peas in mint sauce - mmmm!!!

Thanks for the advice, ladies.  I'll give Tara a ring too.  And we don't see the dietician 'till Ella's 9 months, Aimee!  Craziness eh.  But we had a 6-week wait for the Paed appointment at the hospital so I'll talk to her then (it's in a few wks).  Our GP is good, and turns out our Plunket nurse had a child with similar allergies so she has good knowledge about it (I feel very lucky on that one!). 

Anna - I've been giving Ella solids after her first BF for the day (about an hour afterwards, though) and in-between her 'dinner' BF anytime from 5 - 6pm and her last feed for the night (around 8pm give or take half an hour).  This morn she turned her nose up at her bananas, so I'll try again with them after her next feed and see what happens.  I think she's a bit naughty about finishing her BF's too early though, so I'm not yet keen to add a third meal of solids into her diet - I can imagine her coming straight off the breast if she knows there's always some delish foods sitting there for her! 

Nah - I'm expressing most mornings now but only to use that to mix in with Ella's solids.  She no longer takes the bottle (absolutely refuses it!) so no more expressed feeds for her.  I've whizzed up a batch of pear and BM for her today... certainly looked nicer than the courgette did. 

And Emma - in that Oh Baby book by Kathy Fray, she talks about a school of thought saying babies shouldn't have any starchy foods until they've got a mouth full of teeth (because an enzyme in our saliva that we need to digest starch isn't present until we've got lots of teeth).  So maybe the gremlins are subscribing themselves to that theory?  Be nice if they'd told you I suppose!  I still give Ella farex but just occasionally.  Each to their own I guess.  But it doesn't seem that way out to me for a baby to react to it.