What’s The First Food To Feed A Baby?

My little man is growing up and I've found myself immersed in the joys of fatherhood!  As the months passed, my wife and I watched him grow, and had to learn as we went.  We followed our pediatricians advice and started him on rice cereal, then the time came to start him on actual food.  Talk about being lost!  What's the first food to feed a baby?  When you search Google, you get endless answers, all different!  The joys of being a parent, having to make decisions that don't affect your life, but affect someone you care for so much, you would do anything for them!  It's not easy, but you can't avoid it.  Now at 5 months, I've learned quite a bit.  I'm no expert, I'll always be learning, and I love advice!  So I ask for your help, while giving you what I've learned at the same time.

As we began doing our research, the first question popped up.  What do we start with, fruits or vegetables?

There were many different opinions on this, and I'm interested to know yours!

What I found was, there really is no correct answer.  My research revealed that babies will take to fruits easier, because they are sweet like breast milk, so it's easier to get your baby to switch over to solid foods by starting with fruits.  However, I also found that if you start with fruits, it will be harder to get them to eat vegetables!  That made a lot of sense to me when I thought about it!  If they're used to eating sweet foods, they'll be reluctant to eat something that isn't sweet.

Having learned this, my wife and I chose to start Brydon off with vegetables.  The great thing is, there are sweet tasting vegetables.  This made for an easy transition for us!

As far as the amount of food to give your baby, the answers we saw were pretty consistent.  About 1 ounce, 1-2 table-spoons...

We had enough information to get started, so the time came to see what happened, seeing our child eat food for the first time.  This is an experience no parent should miss!

Brydon's first food was avocado, and he LOVED it!  No lie, after his first taste, he got this huge smile on his face!  It was adorable, messy, but adorable!

We also found out that you should give your baby one food at a time, and give them the same food for an entire week.  The reason being, if they're allergic, you know what they're allergic to. If you're giving them 2 or more different foods at the same time, it would be hard to narrow down which food they're allergic to.  A big help when deciding what food to start your baby off on, go with a food that has a low allergy rate!

After a week of avocado, no problems, it was time to try a different food.  We chose sweet potatoes, because they have a sweet taste to them, and came highly recommended on many websites.

A week of sweet potatoes, a week of no problems, and a week of a very happy baby eating all his food =)

We are 2 days into Brydon's 3rd week, and the food we chose was spinach, another highly recommended food.

2 days, and no problems!  He's transitioning into solid foods like a champ!  I couldn't be a more proud daddy =)

Now that I've shared our experience with you, I'd like to know yours!  What foods did you start your baby off with?  How did they react?  I'd especially like to see pics of your baby's messy face!