I might as well kick this thing off with some ideas on what to feed baby.
Did you know that Gerber baby cereals (rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, etc) contain soy? That would explain why the blood in our son's stool got worse when we tried him on rice cereal.... even before he was diagnosed with a soy allergy. I've discovered that Beechnut cereals are soy free (not sure about Earth's Best as I stopped looking when I found Beechnut)! Or, if you're supermom, you can make your own cereals by grinding oats or rice (brown rice for more nutrition) at home in your blender. I'm not that ambitious.... I just use Beechnut!
Gerber also makes a product called Puffs that come in several flavors. I have yet to see a soy free flavor but did find one flavor of the store brand version that didn't contain dairy or soy. Honestly, though... it's easier and cheaper to just buy Cheerios. I got our son the multi-grain Cheerios and he loves them... and they're totally safe for his little digestive system!
Another item that is off limits are biter biscuits. I've checked the ingredients labels on Gerber, Beechnut and Earth's Best (organic) and they all contain milk or soy. Same goes for Baby MumMums. I found a recipe for applesauce crackers and made those but they're not quite the same. They don't get soggy and crumble like biter biscuits do. It got soggy but it didn't fall apart enough for him to be able to swallow it. The ingredients consisted of flour, applesauce and oil so they'll be totally OK for him later, just not right now while he's learning to chew!
Most purees are OK. Actually, I found that all of the Gerber Stage 1 foods that my local grocery store were fine. When you get into Stage 2 foods you have to be careful. I noticed that some of them contain milk. There are the obvious ones like macaroni and cheese but some were not so obvious. Just get into a habit right now of reading all labels before buying anything... I actually read labels two or three times before a product goes into my shopping cart. And be sure to read the labels on foods that have been okay in the past. Manufacturers have been known to change their ingredients from time to time.
I just started getting in to making my own baby food... which is probably the absolute best thing to do because I KNOW exactly what is going in to it.
Applesauce is ridiculously easy. Just peel and cut the apples up (I cut mine into fourths), taking out the core, of course. Put them into a covered casserole dish and microwave on high for 2 minutes per apple (4 apples = 8 minutes). When done the apples will be mushy and all you have to do is stir them up, let them cool and feed them to baby. Add a drop or 2 of lemon juice to prevent browning, spoon them into ice cube trays and freeze for up to 2 months!
Other foods I've recently made for the little man include:
Carrots - steam or microwave (with a little water) until very soft, puree in blender or food processor, using the water used for cooking if they need to be thinned, and freeze in ice cube trays.
Sweet Potatoes - Bake in oven or microwave. Put in blender or food processor and thin with breastmilk, formula or water to desired consistency. Freeze in ice cube trays
Mango - Choose a ripe mango. Peel chop into pieces and puree. I didn't even have to add any water. Freeze in ice cube trays.
Avocado and Banana - These are super easy! Just peel the ripe banana and mash with a fork... thin with breastmilk, formula or water to desired consistency.... Cut the ripe avocado in half, remove the large seed and scoop out with a spoon. Mash with a fork and thin with breastmilk, formula or water to desired consistency.
That's all I can think of for now.... I'll of course post recipes and more products as I come across them. If anybody who is reading happens to find a biter biscuit that is dairy-free and soy-free please comment and let me know!
