No solids til 8 months??

LovetheMarriedLife

I had always heard you can start between 4 and 6 months, so I assumed 6 was kind of the max unless you had special circumstances (allergies, etc), but I was just reading on kellymom that most babies aren't ready until 6 to 9 months.

I was planning on waiting until around 6 months - anybody planning to wait longer??

brooke929

Nope. We started cereal a few weeks ago. And Will was EBF until that point.

MrsJuneHawk

You really need to watch your baby for readiness signs.  I think Kellymom tends to take things to the extremes sometimes.

From what I have read, it's not actually recommended that you wait so long.  If your baby is ready then 6 months is fine.

IselaCid

I always trusted the 6-8 month philosophy...I wouldn't want the risk of digestive problems later in life.

punkfiction

dd1 was eating normal food at 8 months lol i can't imagine starting food at that time. to each their own...

 

but again - the newest findings in the most recent Pediatrics journal states that there is NO correlation between starting solids early and allergies.

adhenash

we are waiting until at least 6 months. it can cause your lo to develop food allergies if started too soon.

punkfiction

adhenash:

we are waiting until at least 6 months. it can cause your lo to develop food allergies if started too soon.

 

sigh. that is not true says recent findings.  

adhenash

do you have a link?

punkfiction

Im finding it right now. You can look at the pediatrics journal website to search, but I can't find the magazine where it gave the issue number - so the search is taking longer lol give me a few.

LovetheMarriedLife

I plan on just taking cues from her, but I guess my biggest question would be is while there is no risk to starting earlier, is there benefit?

If not, starting at 6 or 8 mo, you could essentially skip cereal all together, no?

violetvirgo

LovetheMarriedLife:

I plan on just taking cues from her, but I guess my biggest question would be is while there is no risk to starting earlier, is there benefit?

If not, starting at 6 or 8 mo, you could essentially skip cereal all together, no?

i think the risk of starting to early is really the immaturity of their digestive system.  i plan on starting at 6 months (depending on cues), but we will NOT start with cereal - it's binding and often causes constipation.  we will start with avacado per my pedi's suggestion.  

n&bcarlson

We ended up starting a few days ago.  I looked for readiness signs as opposed to calendar dates, and when DD hit every item on the readiness checklist, I knew we couldn't wait another 5 weeks for when she would turn 6 months.  One concern, though, is that babies will fill up on solids instead of breast milk or formula.  Since milk is nutrient dense, it's really important that it remain their primary source of nutrition, so if you are starting a baby at 4 or 5 months (or even later) you don't ever want to replace any milk with solids.  I'm interested to see the link to the allergy study, though.

kelbrian

DD isn't really too interested in solids right now - she likes the spoon better. We're just taking it slow. I don't really care how much she eats of it at this point. Breast milk  still is and should be her main source of nutrition.

Megan Briggs

I've read some research that starting too late can also contibute to food sensitivities.  6 months seems likea sweet spot and that is our plan.

punkfiction

ok grrr searching on the pediatric journal site is impossible bc its in all dr. talk lmao here is the direct quote from american baby mag though -

 

"a recent review published in the journal Pediatrics found that either breastfeeding for at least the first 4 months or using a hydrolyzed formula (the cow's milk protein it contains is specially treated to contain fewer allergens) can reduce a child's risk of developing food allergies as well as asthma. The review also found no tie between starting solids early and developing food allergies, a link many doctors used to think existed".

 

still scanning the pediatrics site for the review though. once i can finally decipher it lol 

Loki3408

Hi,

I mostly lurk but thought I'd weigh in on this since I am a masters student in Nutrition/Dietetics. 

 EBF is perfect for baby until six months. After that point, no matter what you eat or what vitamins you take, breast milk is no longer enough to solely meet your babies needs. Baby should still be mostly breast fed, but they need to start solids, for nutritional reasons as well as developmental.