When are you starting your babe on solids?

megswen · March 2014

We just got back from the pediatrician's office and the doctor said we could start solids anytime between now and 6 months.

When do you guys plan on starting your babes on solid foods? I kind of want to start ASAP, just because hello! Little babies with food all over their faces are the cutest things ever!

fitmama418 · March 2014

Sophia has her 4 month appointment next week and the doctor said we'll start talking about it then. I don't think she's ready just yet. As soon as she starts showing more signs of readiness I think we'll start with oatmeal and maybe sweet potato. I plan to avoid rice cereal if I can.

megswen · March 2014

nciesla said:
Sophia has her 4 month appointment next week and the doctor said we'll start talking about it then. I don't think she's ready just yet. As soon as she starts showing more signs of readiness I think we'll start with oatmeal and maybe sweet potato. I plan to avoid rice cereal if I can.

I don't like the idea of white rice cereal. I'm planning on making my own brown rice cereal, along with oatmeal. Are you doing store-bought or homemade?

CJS2011 · March 2014

There are a couple studies that have come out recently saying that starting foods before 6 months can contribute to food allergies, so we will be starting them closer to the 6 month mark. I would attach links, but I'm mobile and lazy.

mskatiep · March 2014

We are going to start around 6 months and attempt BLW.

barista411 · March 2014

I am thinking of starting Happy Baby's cereal around 5.5 months and then switch to BLW at 6 months.

With DD we started solids at 4 months and she was not ready. I kept going with it but looking back it wish I have waited a little longer.

megswen · March 2014

CJS2011 said:
There are a couple studies that have come out recently saying that starting foods before 6 months can contribute to food allergies, so we will be starting them closer to the 6 month mark. I would attach links, but I'm mobile and lazy.

I found this study that says that starting before 6 months doesn't contribute to allergies.

https://m.pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/116/Supplement_2/539.2.full

Franz's doctor said that I can start anytime to see if he's ready. If he doesn't do well and spots the food out, we'll try again in a few weeks.

(That last paragraph kind of sounded like I was offended and trying to defend myself. That's not the case. Just stating what his doctor said!)

megswen · March 2014

Bsmithmi said:
Based off a workshop I went to a few weeks ago I will be waiting until Nolan is 6 months to start most solids. I plan on sitting him in his highchair for meals at the table with us and giving him small bits of food between now and then. (if he plays with it or eats it is up to him)
His first food will be ground beef,chicken or pork. From what I learned it's the best first food.

Really? That's interesting! Is there a website/etc. about the benefits of starting meats first? I'm intrigued!

barista411 · March 2014

Bsmithmi said:
Based off a workshop I went to a few weeks ago I will be waiting until Nolan is 6 months to start most solids. I plan on sitting him in his highchair for meals at the table with us and giving him small bits of food between now and then. (if he plays with it or eats it is up to him)
His first food will be ground beef,chicken or pork. From what I learned it's the best first food.

Interesting? I had always heard to introduce meats last because it is really hard for their systems to digest. They also get all the protein they need in liquid form (i.e. breastmilk / formula).

cagoldi · March 2014

Bsmithmi said:
Based off a workshop I went to a few weeks ago I will be waiting until Nolan is 6 months to start most solids. I plan on sitting him in his highchair for meals at the table with us and giving him small bits of food between now and then. (if he plays with it or eats it is up to him)
His first food will be ground beef,chicken or pork. From what I learned it's the best first food.

I am curios as to the rationale for this, also. My doctor wants us to start with oatmeal cereal, then veggies, then fruits, and finally meats.

Kim22 · March 2014

Our doctor said 4-6 months but that breastfed babies are usually closer to 6 months. LO seems happy with breast milk for now so I'm leaving it alone. I think my others started at 4 months but they were no longer BF at that point.

Karadee1 · March 2014

I mentioned this in another thread, but we started rice cereal last week at exactly 4 months. Long story short he had an awful stomach bug and the rice cereal has helped calm down his bowels a bit.

He gets a teaspoon watered down with formula, then I feed to him from a bowl using my finger. He hasn't quite gotten the hang of the spoon. After a few days he got the gist of what we were doing and now tries to face plant into the plastic bowl lol

ximenita003 · March 2014

I've been told rice cereal has traces of arsenic. Same with some apple products. You guys are probably more uptodate than me about all that

DebateThis · March 2014

Henry's been eating pretty much everything since the day he turned 4 mos. He utterly hated oatmeal so we skipped it and went for veggies, fruits, and some lean protein (chicken). The chicken was by accident since he grabbed it off my plate, but he devoured it. BLW is awesome.

I tend to roll my eyes at feeding guidelines since they vary so drastically by country. It's not like a baby born in India is so physiologically different from a baby born in the UK that their first foods need to be polar opposites.

megswen · March 2014

It seems like a lot of people are totally for baby led weaning. I was looking into it a few days ago and read some guidelines saying something along the lines of, "If your baby starts gagging or choking on the food, let them be. This is how they learn." I was completely put off by it, and stopped considering baby led weaning as an option.

For those of you who are doing baby led weaning, what do you think of this? Would you let your baby be if he or she started choking?

I guess I really like the idea of baby led weaning, but I'm not going to let my baby choke so he can learn to eat, ya know?

amberrrjade · March 2014

I just bought a Healthy Eating for Babies book. It has meal plans set out starting at age 4m and recipes. I'll be taking that to our 4m appointment and go from there. But it says to do meat last. I'm starting with an apple mash w/ hemp oil.

mmm50 · March 2014

For anyone interested in making their own baby food someone (can't remember if it was my MW or pediatrician) recommended this website to us: https://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/

We plan on waiting until 6 months and doing a combo of making our own food and BLW. We're starting with oatmeal, sweet potatoes, avocado and bananas.

kimmycup · March 2014

We started Neva last week on Oatmeal cereal and she loved it. We recently started sweet potatoes, and again she loves it. Next I think we'll try green beans. We totally skipped over the rice cereal.

artistlife · March 2014

I am going to wait a few more weeks. My pediatrician said to wait until six minths, but if she was showing interest, sitting unassisted, and her tongue thrust was gone, there was no reason to to be strict on the six months date. I will start with veggies. No rice. I did this with DS and he loves veggies. Someone gave me the advice that if you start with fruits, babies have a harder time with veggies because they are not sweet. So I will start with green beans and add a new veggie every week to make sure if there are allergies, I know which one caused it. Once I run through the veggies, I will move to fruits, then meats and meals. To this day, DS favorite foods are green beans, corn, and strawberries. I think it worked well.

megswen · March 2014

gardennymph said:
I am going to wait a few more weeks. My pediatrician said to wait until six minths, but if she was showing interest, sitting unassisted, and her tongue thrust was gone, there was no reason to to be strict on the six months date.
I will start with veggies. No rice. I did this with DS and he loves veggies. Someone gave me the advice that if you start with fruits, babies have a harder time with veggies because they are not sweet. So I will start with green beans and add a new veggie every week to make sure if there are allergies, I know which one caused it. Once I run through the veggies, I will move to fruits, then meats and meals.
To this day, DS favorite foods are green beans, corn, and strawberries. I think it worked well.

Franz's pediatrician suggested we start vegetables before fruits for the sane reason! I had never thought of that before, but I think it's such a good idea!

CarrieB. · March 2014

I know a lot of moms on the Bump get all excited about Baby Led Weaning, but I side eye any baby "program" with so many rules that you are supposed to follow. I've seen a lot of moms on here get upset when BLW doesn't work right for their baby.

For DD1, I started her on rice cereal briefly at 4 months, then switched to oatmeal. Around 5-6 months, I started purees that I made- sweet potato, banana, carrot. I also offered toast strips or thawed frozen begals to hold and gum.

I continued making with my own purees, but I thought that meat purees were disgusting and smelled too much like cat food. So the proteins we did starting out were mostly beans, yogurt and tofu. We waited on meat and fish for when she could eat more shredded things. Between 9-12 months, we were basically feeding her the same thing we were eating for meals just blended up a little or cut in smaller pieces.

My advice is buy a decent blender and relax. You are just feeding your baby.

justmepreggo2020 · March 2014

shanbp said:

CarrieB. said:
I know a lot of moms on the Bump get all excited about Baby Led Weaning, but I side eye any baby "program" with so many rules that you are supposed to follow. I've seen a lot of moms on here get upset when BLW doesn't work right for their baby.

For DD1, I started her on rice cereal briefly at 4 months, then switched to oatmeal. Around 5-6 months, I started purees that I made- sweet potato, banana, carrot. I also offered toast strips or thawed frozen begals to hold and gum.

I continued making with my own purees, but I thought that meat purees were disgusting and smelled too much like cat food. So the proteins we did starting out were mostly beans, yogurt and tofu. We waited on meat and fish for when she could eat more shredded things. Between 9-12 months, we were basically feeding her the same thing we were eating for meals just blended up a little or cut in smaller pieces.

My advice is buy a decent blender and relax. You are just feeding your baby.
I thought the only "rules" with BLW were (1) make sure your child is ready and (2) don't use too much salt/sugar

Am I missing something?

I was under the same impression..so confused

Mum2Be28 · March 2014

I too have heard that you shouldn't start with fruits because they are sweet and then baby will not want veggies. This confuses me because my breastmilk is really sweet.

I gave Wynn a little oatmeal a few times last week. Just starting really slow. He did great and had no trouble with the spoon or swallowing. He is 19.5 weeks.

I had posted on here earlier that I planned to wait until 6 months but at my 4 month appointment the pedi recommended that I go ahead and start once a day just as an "appetizer" to a milk feeding. Wynn seemed ready so we are going slow.

Kaymee · March 2014

LO is 4 months tomorrow. His pedi visit is next week. I know they're going to give me the green light to start solids. He's definitely interested. I think I'm going to start with avocado. BLW scares me. I think it's great, but not something I personally can do.

DebateThis · March 2014

megswen said:

It seems like a lot of people are totally for baby led weaning. I was looking into it a few days ago and read some guidelines saying something along the lines of, "If your baby starts gagging or choking on the food, let them be. This is how they learn." I was completely put off by it, and stopped considering baby led weaning as an option. For those of you who are doing baby led weaning, what do you think of this? Would you let your baby be if he or she started choking? I guess I really like the idea of baby led weaning, but I'm not going to let my baby choke so he can learn to eat, ya know?

There is a huge difference between gagging and choking for babies. Spoon feeding can actually be more dangerous than allowing a baby to self-feed (not always, but you need to be mindful). A baby's gag reflex is way at the front of their mouth so they don't choke. If you bypass that gag reflex to stick a spoon (or anything else, for that matter) in their mouth, it can cause them to choke. Babies typically won't stick food or anything else in their mouths so far that they cause themselves to choke - they gag well before that point and will stop whatever they're doing, which is exactly what the reflex is supposed to do. That's the basis for BLW, although it can be taken to extremes as with anything.

And yet again, feeding babies only pureed stuff of a spoon is a pretty western idea without any real good support to back it up. Most other countries don't do that, and it wasn't even widely supported in the US until the mid-50's. The WHO and Unicef support offering babies a wide variety of foods in various textures (including some purees, some chunky/mashed stuff, and some semi-soft/semi-solids), by feeding it to them as well as letting them self feed.

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