Do not give any foods containing gluten (i.e. wheat, oats, barley or rye), until the baby is at least six months old, and possibly for a time after that if you have allergies in your family. Lentils and beans can be introduced at about seven months of age. Tofu, mashed with some vegetable, is excellent food.
You can cook the baby's food ahead and freeze it in ice-cube trays. I had about three different ones on the go each time so I wasn't always giving the same meals. My recollection is that I only had to cook ahead about three times - my son decided very early that if it didn't come off Mammy or Daddy's plate he wasn't eating it! And so he was on 'family food', mind you, we were eating fairly bland foods for a while. The taste of breast-milk varies depending on what the mother has eaten, so breast-fed babies are already used to a variety of tastes. Babies shouldn't be given any food containing either salt or sugar - although this can be quite hard to achieve given outside influences and baby's own desires. I found that it was a standard to aim for rather than an absolute!
Jars of food are very good if you are travelling. These jars, which carry a small vegetarian range (and some brands use organic ingredients), are simply real food, cooked and puréed, and so are preferable to the powdered packet stuff. I have heard an opinion expressed that the powdered foods are better because they have all the vitamins and minerals added. However I would point out that the manufacturers are only using their best knowledge, which is still far behind the wisdom of Mother Nature. Also, an excess of some vitamins and minerals can be toxic, so I'd much rather give a good range of unprocessed food. My own son has thrived on this, as have many other children.
It has been well documented that children have a natural sense of what their body needs, both in terms of food choices and amounts. One rarely-realised advantage of breast-feeding is that you don't get hung up on how much they've had. There's no coaxing them to take the last ounce. My husband and I determined to carry this into our son's weaning. Obviously, if you cook your own meals there are no quantities for you to judge by. When my baby was an infant, rather than insist he finish everything, I was only happy if he didn't! My logic was that since he couldn't ask for more, if he finished his meal I didn't know if he'd had all he wanted, whereas if he left some, I knew he had eaten his fill.
I know of no studies that have looked into this, but I am convinced that one very effective way of helping to avoid anorexia nervosa in later years is to refuse to make food a power issue. So we have never ever tried to make our son eat one bite more than he wanted. It has been tough sometimes as he might go two or three days without eating much, but we hung in there, and every time he more than made up for it after that. This also saves time and your nerves, as there's no sitting for ages at the table enticing just one more bite into your offspring. We also have never made an issue of eating vegetables, and whether we're lucky or not, he loves fruit and vegetables.
Another very important thing to remember when feeding babies and children is that their stomachs are tiny, so they need to eat little and often. Snacks are the order of the day: brown bread and nut butter (peanut butter is of course the classic, but almond and cashew butters are also lovely, and are available from health food shops. Or make your own by very finely grinding nuts with some vegetable oil. Don't worry about the fat content - as explained below, your vegetarian child needs a high-fat diet). Other snacks include apple or pear cubes, banana, pieces of cooked broccoli or peas, soya or dairy yoghurt. Be wary of raw carrot for a young child, as it can flake and cause choking, but lightly cooked carrot sticks are great. When your child is old enough, then you can provide some raw carrot sticks, cashews or dried fruit, but take care that the dried fruit is not too laxative.
(published with permission in writing from:http://www.vegetarian.ie)
