Talk to me about solids

MrsV092207

At Nora's 5-month well visit the pedi said "Have you started her on solids yet?"  I said no, and he said "Good.  You can start cereal if you have a burning desire to, but it's not necessary yet as she is growing nicely." and left it at that. (Although she's not big by any means, at 13lb 4oz).

I do plan on holding out for at least another 2 weeks (she seems so ready) but I'd just like a little more info on it.  I know I can just as easily call the pedi, just wondering what other moms do. 

What cereal/veggie/fruit did you start with?  How much at one time?  How many times a day?  What time(s) of day?  If you BF, did you notice your LO sleeping longer stretches at night once on solids?  Any general 'rules' I need to follow?  (No need to answer all the questions, just whatever info you can share would be great!)

erino&chrish

We did the big "no-no" of putting rice cereal in his bottle starting at 4 months.  He was something like 18 lbs then and STTN at 6 weeks but then towards 4 months was going shorter and shorter stretches.  We did just rice cereal with the bedtime bottle (1 tbsp) from months 4-5 then at 5 months we added bananas, peas and pears.  One at a time, only at "dinner" for the first month, and one Gerber tub in serving size.  The pears ended up being too acidic and gave him diaper rash (we think) so we pulled those out and added 2nd stage foods at 6 months.  At 6 months we started giving him lunch and dinner (1 tub of a veggie or fruit for each of those meals).  Sometimes he'll even want a tub and a half of food.  On occasion we also give him breakfast if he's going through a growth spurt (bananas after his morning bottle).

MattysGirl81

We started DS on rice cereal about a week before 6 months.  He didn't particularly like it, and our pedi told us that he skipped it with his own children.

We were told to start with green veggies, then orange veggies, then fruit. Everyone seems to get different information about what order to do them in. We started with zucchini.  When I introduce something new I do it in the morning to watch for any bad reactions.  Lately we do solids twice a day, in the morning/early afternoon and early evening.  He eats about an ounce or less each time.  Sometimes I mix in some oatmeal (DS prefers it to rice cereal), especially with something like zucchini that is on the runny side.

I EBF and haven't really noticed an improvement in sleep, unfortunately. 

robynlesley

IMO, the only "rule" is to only introduce a new food every 5 days to rule out allergies.  If you start with oatmeal (which I did) only give oatmeal for 5 days. On day 6 you can introduce food #2?along with the oatmeal. And so on. 

My pedi's office said to start with the cereals. Then fruits. Then veggies. No meats before 6 months.  I pretty much followed the suggestion but after 3 fruits I went to a veggie (yesterday).

And my DS's sleep habits really didn't change. But he'd formula fed. However he seems more satisfied after meals and can go 3-4 hours between them instead of 2-3.

 

jen5-03

I started my DD right at 6mo. I'll wait at least that long with DS.

Honestly it did nothing for her sleep, it created more work for me, and made the diapers nastier. Can't really say I want to rush into that.

Ditto the start new foods in the morning and give only one new food for 5 days.

Avoid rice cereal. The nutritional benefit is even less than other cereals and causes constipation in most babies. Baby oatmeal is fine to start with, as are avocados or bananas.

Blackvelvet

We started with rice cereal just before 4 months.  We did apples, pears, bananas, first then green beans, peas, squash, peaches, sweatpotaotes, prunes and we did brocolli this week (gave him bad smelling gas but he really likes it).  We are waiting until 6 months for meats. We only waited 3 days between the only food that was a problem was peaches he got a rash and didn't like them.  He does not sleep better but he does nurse less and the 12 times a day was wearing me out and he is thin 25% for weight but bounching between 50 and 75% for height