Breastfeeding
mrszundelli
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Do you HAVE to start solids? EBF for a yr...
mrszundelli
member
I plan to EBF for at least a yr and i'm wondering if I can continue to BF ONLY or until LO really starts to show interest in food? I'd hate for him to wean himself early
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Re: Do you HAVE to start solids? EBF for a yr...
Look into baby-led weaning. There's no reason to avoid solids altogether in a country where food is safe (it's more beneficial in the developing world where water bourne illness kills children).
My DS feeds himself. He eats as much as he wants to, and then he's done. He hasn't decreased his milk feeding at all.
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I second this. My DD did amazingly well with BLW!
I would introduce solids after 6 months, at the interest of your child but continue to BF as the primary source of nutrition. We did BLW as well and I never ever worried that he wasn't eating enough or threw half the food on the floor since I knew the BM was meeting all his needs.
I don't think I would wait a whole year to at least offer some solids (we went right to table food, no purees) as I know many children who have issues with consistency, textures and are generally poor eaters and I think waiting too long for solids can contribute to this (as can keeping them on purees for too long). I think BLW is an awesome solution, it worked really well for us and DS is an awesome little eater!
Of course not! Studies show babies can gain adequate nutrition through BM alone for a year. In fact, it should be their primary source of nutrition.
Follow your baby's cues and you'll be fine! BLW is an awesome method.
(And this is from someone who started purees at 4 1/2 months)
First, I'd recommend asking your pediatrician. Second, I agree with the bolded part above. From my understanding, there's sort of a "window" in which you need to introduce at least some solids (even if only for practice). Babies can have issues if solids are introduced too late. BLW is a great choice if you want to mostly breastfeed for a year, though.
My little brother was EBF for almost a year and a half. His pedi told my mom that as long as he is growing fine, then he can be EBF'd. There is nothing wrong with him, he eats food fine, and did when he was a baby too.
My LO is still EBF. He has tried purees and has no problem with anything. You can certainly EBF for a year!
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My child eats "big people food" like it's going out of style and still nurses all day long! I think most babies aren't going to self wean any earlier than a year (at the youngest), even when food is introduced. You want them to learn how to eat regular food too. At a certain point, they see you eating food and start begging anyhow.
I moved very slowly when we introduced solids, only once per day at 6 months, two meals per day at 8 months, and finally 3 meals per day at ten months. From a speech therapist's standpoint, several of my coworkers had given me some advice, you may take it or leave it. They mentioned that significantly delaying solids (not doing any until past a certain point) can affect how their speech develops. One of my coworkers who is really well versed in pediatric development and feeding disorders warned that they need to learn how to manipulate solids in the mouth, to lateralize and utilize the tongue to move the food, in order to learn some of the tongue movements for speech. She said that delaying solids so significantly can not only cause some problems with taste and texture aversions, but it can delay speech development. Obviously it is 100% your choice when to start solids, but just know that there are some opinions for starting solids that believe it affects other areas of development as well.