So confused over solids!!

AnnaRedhead · March 2012

LO is almost 7 months and I'm still working on introducing solids one at a time...introducing a new one each week. We started solids at 5 months. So far he's had oatmeal, bananas, peaches, peas, carrots, green beans, apples and sweet potatoes. Their all pureed and I buy store bought. I just read in my what to expect book that by 7 months a baby should be able to feed himself a cracker?!? We are no where near that! I'm still introducing everything! What do I do after I introduce all of my pureed foods? What's the next step? Do I move on to "stage 3" foods which are chunkier? Every source seems to tell me something different and I'm getting really confused...

noelikae23 · March 2012

I think it all depends on your LO. I started feeding DS solids at 4 months and now he's eating everything. I mostly make my own food, but when I'm out I do give him store bought food stage 3 and he does fine with it. I would do stage 2 foods first like chicken and sweet potatoes before trying stage 3 foods. I also was not waiting a week between new foods but that's just up to you and your comfort level..

ams8099 · March 2012

A great finger food to start with is puffs. You can also break them up into little pieces. Little bits of bread works too. After you feel he had the hang of those, you can try doing little bits of bananas, carrots, pasta, etc. Just chop everything up very small.

Jelliebean1982 · March 2012

Don't overthink it. Do you have a history of food allergies in your family? If not, don't feel like you need to be so careful and space out foods so much.

I have my MIL give DS purees during the day. She can also feed him puffs or those Mum Mums rice wafers. When I get home and cook dinner I just give him bites of whatever we have. Shredded chicken, mashed carrots, guacamole, whatever I think he can handle even if it's seasoned a bit. I still do make sure that he's eating bites smaller than what he can choke on.

I always ask myself if it's healthy, if it's soft enough for him, and if it can be broken up into a small enough portion he can eat it.

futuremrsmcnichols · March 2012

Definately all depends on your LO. My DD is 7 months old and we tried giving her a cracker, a torn off piece of one just last week and she gagged on it. She really dislikes anything with texture or sour things. She hates most fruits, so we still mainly do veggies and/or the 2 fruits that she will tolerate. With DD#1, I really can't remember when we introduced the chunkier solids, but we put them in one of those mesh teether things. I think we introduced the Gerber puffs and mummums around 7-8 months, but my DD#1 was almost walking at that time. DD#2 just started rolling and sitting for small amounts of time unassisted. I think that their development/milestones play a big role. Do whatever you feel comfortable doing and remember that not all babies are 'by the book'.

JaysonandKristin · March 2012

Jelliebean1982:
Don't overthink it. Do you have a history of food allergies in your family? If not, don't feel like you need to be so careful and space out foods so much.
I have my MIL give DS purees during the day. She can also feed him puffs or those Mum Mums rice wafers. When I get home and cook dinner I just give him bites of whatever we have. Shredded chicken, mashed carrots, guacamole, whatever I think he can handle even if it's seasoned a bit. I still do make sure that he's eating bites smaller than what he can choke on.
I always ask myself if it's healthy, if it's soft enough for him, and if it can be broken up into a small enough portion he can eat it.

All of this. The research you've done doesn't need to be followed so literally. Like, when it said your baby should be able to feed himself a cracker, it's not meant to be literal. It means that your baby should be practicing their pincher grasp skills which doesn't have to be practiced with a cracker. Can he pick up a "cracker-sized" toy and bring it to his mouth? Does he ever get puffs or cheerios? Let him play with those while sitting in his high chair, It should only take a few days if you offer several times per day.

mandyhall2882 · March 2012

Don't stress it! Every child develops at a different pace.

My DD could put a cracker to her mouth and gnaw on it, but I don't think she's ready to eat it. I gave her a cheerio a couple weeks ago and she about choked on it. I had to hurry and get it out of her mouth- I felt so bad. DD is content with her pureed baby foods for now. I'll be starting on stage 2 foods when the rest of her stage 1 foods are all gone.

Amitchell0626 · March 2012

It is really not necessary to wait that long between foods. We haven't waited between anything, some days she gets a couple new foods at once. We're also doing Baby Led Weaning so she's never had purees. Somewhere around 8 months there's a small window of opportunity when it's easy to get baby to eat chuncky foods, after that they'll be harder to get off the purees. You might want to do some more research on this. I don't know much about it since DD has always had finger foods and eats what we eat.

ASmallWonder · March 2012

It seems so overwhelming but really, there's no right or wrong. A week in between new foods is a little long but think about the reason you wait and see what you feel comfortable with. I usuallly tried two new things in a week, more as he got older. The waiting suggestion is so you could pinpoint what caused an allergic reaction. In my mind, if I gave two new things back to back and he reacted, I'd be ok backing off BOTH things and trying them again later. It's not like I was introducing a buffet of things, kwim?

As to when to move on/what to move on to, that depends on the baby. My son never tolerated stage 3 food but he was fine with finger foods. I imagine getting stuff on a spoon, he was assuming he could just swallow it as usual but the texture didn't allow that and he didn't know what to do. With finger foods, he seemed to understand that those required a little more work. Do what feels right to you.

AnnaRedhead · March 2012

Wow!! Thank you all SO much for all the great advice! I never thought about the whole eating a cracker thing not being meant to take so literal... Thanks everyone for taking the time to help me:)

TeacherVicky · March 2012

I have never found food to be so intimidating before in my life.

bluejetta · March 2012

We have our 6 month well visit next week but after we get the OK we plan to start straight away with real food and skip cereals/purees. I like the idea of DD being able to explore all kinds of food (under supervision of cours) and be eating early what we eat. She is already using a real cup to hold and I am glad to start letting her have a bit of water in it or very diluted juice (for her poop issues). She hasn't shown a ton of interest in food but I suspect if we gave her some she'd at least play with it which is a start to learning.

lwmooney87 · March 2012

My DD is 10 1/2 months (almost 8 months adjusted) and I started introducing solids around Thanksgiving. We only waited a day or two in between foods. She didn't like them at first and not until recently did she really pick up on eating them. She got 2 bottom teeth at 9 months. I started with mum mums at around 8 months and she did well with those. She just started liking puffs a lot in the past few weeks. She started with the pincer grasp about 3 weeks ago as well. Now, she eats a lot of finger foods... She prefers those actually. I give her small pieces of bread, potato, carrots, banana, even small pieces of grilled cheese, pasta, etc and she does really well with it. When I first started introducing the finger foods, she gagged a bit but now she doesn't. I think once they are ready to put the things in their mouths themselves, they are less likely to gag on it. Or at least that's how it's been with her.

You just have to do what you're comfortable with and what your baby is ready for... it's a trial and error thing. If they don't seem ready, try again later. The key is to keep trying and be ready to spend lots of time at the dinner table working with them on eating. Good luck!

catie333 · March 2012

It depends on your LO. Test things out and see how he reacts. For the most part, LO eats his fruit purees on toast like jam. He eats whole banana, crackers, teethign biscuits, "puffs" (baby aisle), slightly mashed peas, blueberries, beans, tofu, and other stuff. He is not a huge fan of purrees now that he has the real stuff.

You can do two foods a week if you want. Just don't do two allergy risk foods at once. Like strawberries and cinnamon in one week.

Do one fruit and one vegetable a week and just watch for the allergy signs. Also, let LO just "play" with more solid food whiel you feed him purees. Give him soft chunks of banana or sweet potato to try and start to learn to use his hands for eating and develop the pincer grasp. Of course, stay close and watch him closely to see that he doesn't choke. It will take him a bit to learn to mill the food around and "chew" before swallowing.

Some of the higher stage stuff are a waste of money because if you are a healthy eater and make low salt, low sugar, good ingredient meals for yourself, than you might as well feed him that. Like buying baby ravioli? Just cook a bit of fun shaped pasta and cut it up on his high chair. Mix it with some grated cheddar and VOILA! LO loooooves grated cheeses by the way. So when he is ready, you can move onto "real" food instead of high stage Gerber stuff.

For now, let him discover chunkier versions of the foods you are already giving him.

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