When to move to stage 2??

Excitedbridetobe215

Hey everyone I'm new to this board, my baby boy will be 6 months on Thursday and I have been giving him solids since 4 months old, I was wondering when do you move them to stage 2 in foods?? Is it based on preference or when is it best to move them? I'm not even exactly sure what the difference is between stage 1 and 2 other than the portions being bigger, i thought the consistency would be thicker but not true in all baby food, my baby boy does love to eat so I'm just curious as to when we move on, thanks!

corbinsmom

If I remember correctly, the stage 2 food is recommended for "sitters" where stage 1 food was recommended for "supported sitters."

We started solids at 4 months as well and at 6 months introduced stage 2 foods. There are some that are "thicker" than the stage 1 foods, but not many. In fact, I still add cereal or oatmeal to thicken the foods. The new thing that IS introduced in the stage 2 foods is a lot more protein. There is "Chicken and Apples," "Turkey and Rice," "Mac and Cheese" and a lot more! And surprisingling, these are some of the ones that are the foods that I have to add cereal to in order to thicken them because they are so runny! My son is a BIG boy and he LOVES to eat and he LOVED the stage 2 food transition! Good luck and have fun

jeffsjayme

At 6 months, my doc said I could start on any stage 1, 2 or 3 foods.  Before that, we weren't doing any solids at all.  I think I'd try to move on when you think he's ready.  Worse case scenario is that you waste a thing of baby food.

angelfire02

We were also told to switch at 6 months, a lot of the stage 2's are also mixes so until you have tried the mixed foods separately, we were told to wait until 6 months. 

telyn

PP's are right that they are more proteins and mixes. PP is right that they recommend those that sit independently (not meaning they pull up to sit, just that they mostly ditch the pillow to sit). However, my doc is of the opinion that after six months, foods of any type are pretty fair game. This weekend LO was with us visiting her grandparents and great grandparents and stole off of their plates: pizza (toppings off because of the salt), a rib, pasta sauce, sweet potato, a cookie, a (infant) handful of ice cream, home fries, baked chicken and lettuce.

Did she actually EAT all of that? No- she wore most of it, tasted some, sucked on some and actually ate very little. I Did she practice reaching, putting in her mouth and chewing (without teeth, it's adorable. She even practices without food.)? Yes. And since that is mostly what this stage is about, I just let it go. Thinking about not buying anymore baby food and just let her continue having at.

starswinger

We did at 6 months. The consistency is exactly the same as stage one, but bigger and the foods are mixed.

tjkdlhb

I'm doing baby Led Weaning...so no personal experience with purees and the stages... but when I asked the dietician about pros and cons of BLW she said that one of the problems they are seeing with kids who have been weaned on purees is that parents can wait too long between the stages, so the children reject textures later on. Nothing wrong with puree at all, just that parents need to make sure not to stay too long on a particular stage before introducing some texture.

tjkdlhb

telyn:

PP's are right that they are more proteins and mixes. PP is right that they recommend those that sit independently (not meaning they pull up to sit, just that they mostly ditch the pillow to sit). However, my doc is of the opinion that after six months, foods of any type are pretty fair game. This weekend LO was with us visiting her grandparents and great grandparents and stole off of their plates: pizza (toppings off because of the salt), a rib, pasta sauce, sweet potato, a cookie, a (infant) handful of ice cream, home fries, baked chicken and lettuce.

Did she actually EAT all of that? No- she wore most of it, tasted some, sucked on some and actually ate very little. I Did she practice reaching, putting in her mouth and chewing (without teeth, it's adorable. She even practices without food.)? Yes. And since that is mostly what this stage is about, I just let it go. Thinking about not buying anymore baby food and just let her continue having at.

Have you read anything about BLW?  It sounds pretty much like what you are doing.  DD eats most of what we eat now, we avoid choking hazards (like apples, windpipe sized chunks of anything, uncut grapes, nuts) and anything with high salt content.  The biggest problem we've had so far is that she gets jealous if we're having something that she can't have...like coffee LOL.  She wants to try everything!  I read the book Baby Led Weaning by Gail Rapley that talks about the foods that they shouldn't have and appropriate sizes (french fry shape) 

 I also took a first aid course (but that's good for any parent to do, because regardless of how you choose to teach them to eat, they will eventually have to eat full on table foods)  There are some schools of thought that say that if you follow BLW baby learns to chew first, then swallow instead of sucking everything back which reduces risk of choking, but regardless, it's always a possibility.