Generally, babies are ready to start trying solid foods around six months. If your daughter is showing interest in other foods (think grabbing for your chicken wings and staring at your cereal) and able to sit up in her high chair, it's probably a good time to start. Best to run it past your pediatrician before starting the taste tests, though. The standard first food is rice cereal mixed with breast milk or formula, though pediatricians also recommend regular oatmeal. From whole-grains, move on to strained, mashed and finely pureed fruits and veggies like bananas and sweet potatoes. Allow about a week between each new food introduction to monitor for allergic reactions. At eight months or so, try pureed or finely table foods like cottage cheese. Stay away from honey until baby is at least a year, and watch out for common allergens like peanut butter, fish, egg whites and citrus. Don't ever force foods -- if baby repeatedly refuses to try something new, she's simply not ready yet. And remember, baby still needs breast milk or formula until at least a year.

Give some form of a rice and lentil mixture. It is a starter and it starts out very simple soft and mushy and more things are added to it as the baby gets older. This is good solid food practice before they graduate to more complex things like toor dal cooked and pureed with maybe 1 small piece of carrot or green bean or similar vegetable. You may want to add a few drops of ajwain water or saunf water or jeera water to the dal as this helps prevent / relieve gas that these new solid foods can create in the beginning. Try Ragi/Finger Millet porridge as it is very nutritious and easily dgested. Powdered ragi is mixed with milk and and a pinch of sugar and cooked into a porridge. Introduce the foods in very small quantities, gradually increasing. You want to start with a 1/4 or 1/2 tsp and observe whether there are any allergic reactions or any other difficulties. Adjust accordingly. After 14 months or so when the baby eats very well and you can start on Oatmeal cereal although I did add a pinch of cinnamon to his oatmeal then later to his bananas and other fruits. Curd and any milk products are good. You can add some sugar if your baby likes sweet. I gave milk + rice + sugar mashed during night (even though the sugar will put the baby awake for long time, i feed at 8 and my baby will sleep around 9.30. so it was ok). All the best.

Cereals like rice, wheat, sago, suji and bajri have to be boiled and mashed before being fed to baby. These are often inadequate for baby's diet because they consist mainly of carbohydrates (starch) and do not provide the proteins and minerals salts baby needs for normal, healthy growth. Fruit juice and clear soups can be started from the age of 3-4 weeks. Clear vegetable or meat soups starting with 2 to 4 spoons and gradually increasing to 90-120 ml. should be given once or twice a day. At four months start the baby on a little boiled vegetable. Potatoes, carrots, peas, beans or almost any type of vegetable can be used. Boil the vegetable adequately, mash it and add salt to taste. Feed with a spoon. Increase the quantity gradually. Start with one teaspoonful of a quarter boiled egg. Remember to add salt for taste. By seven to eight months the baby should be able to take one whole egg daily.

FOOD VALUES Proteins Proteins are necessary for body building. Milk, meat, fish, eggs, beans, cheese, nuts and dals are rich in proteins. Carbohydrates Carbohydrates contribute energy for the body. Sugar, wheat, rice, syrup, jam, oatmeal, barley, macaroni, sago, tapicoa, sweets, toffee, banana and maize are rich in carbohydrates. Fats Fats are necessry for warmth and contain fat-soluble vitamins. Fats are plentiful in butter, ghee, cream, cheese, fish oil, vegetable oil, groundnut, coconut, etc. Minerals Calcium is necessary for hardening bones and teeth. Milk is a very good source of calcium. Cheese, egg yolk and fish are also rich in calcium. Iron is necessary for blood formation. Egg yolk, lentils, green leafy vegetables, oatmeal, dried beans, jaggery and fish contain iron. Vitamins Vitamins do not contribute energy to the body. They are essential chemical substances which are necessary for the proper growth and development and normal functioning of various tissues of the body. Vitamin A is necessary for prevention of night blindness and for proper maintenance of normal texture of conjunctive and cornea. Foods containing Vitamin A are : fish liver oils, meat, fish, eggs, cheese, liver, carrots, dates and green vegetables. Vitamin B Complex is necessary for appetite, for prevention of nervous symptoms and for the formation of blood. Milk, eggs, meat, flour, oatmeat, soya flour, lentil, peas, beans and most green vegetables are rich in Vitamin B Complex. Vitamin C is necessary for healthy gums and teeth and to prevent scurvy. It is found in most citrus fruits like oranges, limes and lemons, grapes, guavas, tomatoes and chillies and most fresh Fruits and vegetables. Vitamin D is necessary for the proper growth and development of the bony structure of the body and prevents rickets. It is plentiful in fish liver oil, egg yolk, cheese, liver, fish etc.

We started with the common rice and then oatmeal. The doc recommended cereals at 4 months, stage 1veggies at 5 months and stage 1 fruits at 6 months. I read some text in one of my books that also recommends "Peas" as the first veggie to offer for the same reasons as rice cereal (low risk for allergic reation). After we introduced everything individually, we started buying the mixed stage 2 entrees which have meat in them. I was also curious about when to start meats but the doc said the stage 2 would be fine. Something I didn't know to expect that happened quickly was the "bottle intake" went down to less bottles per day and the stools started getting firmer, so beware!!

Get Ragi powder in departmental stores. Now boil water and put 1 spoon of ragi powder, ghee and jaggery. Keep the gas in sim mode and with a long spoon if u keep on mix that u will get ragi alwa. Very gud for health. Baby stamina and weight will increase.

The best first food for babies is millet always because it is easy for the infant to digest plus it gives them proper nourishment for their growth. Well ragi, wheat germ , oats  come under millets. You can boil them with water and mix either breast milk or milk powder but don't add sugar to oats  or wheat germ , it is better to give as such. IF infant demands sugar u can go head and add. and for Ragi pls do add crystal palm sugar instead of white sugar which is bad for infant .

regards,

manjulasurendran