Some infants will take to, and be ready for, solid foods much earlier than other infants. Some infants will be able to eat solid foods as early as around four months of age, while others will take longer. In addition, some infants will seem to enjoy solid foods earlier than other infants. When you are preparing to feed your infant solid foods, it is important to keep in mind that your infant really shouldn’t eat everything you eat. There are specific sorts of foods that you should avoid feeding to your infant.
There are specific sorts of vegetables, for example, that you should avoid feeding to your baby. In terms of fresh vegetables, there are several vegetables that you may be able to eat that you should avoid feeding to your infant. These would include fruits that tend to be high in nitrates, such as spinach, turnips, carrots, collard greens, and beets. The high levels of nitrates in these foods can cause a form of anemia in your infant, and should be avoided. Generally speaking, this doesn’t apply to baby food in jars, however, as these are generally formulated to make sure there are not high levels of nitrates.
In addition, you should avoid feeding your infant certain other foods, which may cause an allergic reaction, until they are at least a year old. Some experts recommend that you actually wait until the infant is able to communicate with you that her throat feels funny, for example. These sorts of foods that tend to be the most common ones to cause an allergic reaction would include things like egg whites, citrus fruits, tomatoes, seafood, and nuts. In addition, honey should be avoided, at least in its natural form. Honey is generally all right if it is part of a processed food, such as honey graham crackers or honey cereal.
Lastly, while an infant may be able to eat some of the foods you eat, you should be careful about the form that those foods take. Make sure that the foods are mashed, or even blended, as they may cause choking if the pieces are too big.