Introducing Solids - Portland,OR

When I began to introduce solids to my son at 6 months I did completely skip cereal. I began primarily with banana, squash, and avacado. Sometimes I would make my own cereal by putting oatmeal in a food processor or blender, then cooking on the stove with water until warm. I would usually put some banana in this oatmeal cereal so that it had some flavor, but I never used store cereal. If you are interested in more information I would recomend the book by la leche league called "whole foods for infants and toddlers", I found it very interesting and it has some good simple recipes in it.
Good luck!

It's actually much better to start with fruits and veggies because they are less likely to be allergenic than grains like rice are. Rice is the least allergenic grain, but generally fruits and veggies are even less.
I also recommend waiting til 6 full months though. My son started solids at just under 5 months and ended up with multiple food allergies. My new daughter will not be starting solids until between 6-8 months and we will be starting probably with sweet potatoes.

hello M.,

I have a daughter just about the same age. I actully started her on cerial in her bottle around 2 months old..check with you doc, mine said it was fine as long as she kept eating the same amout of formula. Then when she was around 3 months I stared to give her rice cerial mixed with formula by spoon and took it out of the bottle. She has now gone through all the first foods. I started to feed her by spoon at that age because she kept trying to get to my plate or my drinks. She drinks out of a sippy. It is one of those "transition" cups by playtex one with handles. In side there is a plastic thing that makes it so that it can not leak so i stuck a straw in it and she is in heaven with it because she does not have to lean back to get some out. I just took my girl to the doc today and they gave me a chart. It said:
start cereals at 4 months about 1-4 tablespoon per day
5 months start veggies 1-3 tablespoons a day
6 months start fruits 1-4 tablespoons a day 4 oz juice
a day
do not start meats 7-9 months
no nuts of any kind including peanut butter untill 2 years
6 months start finger foods.

My daughter eats all the fruits and veggies in the first foods and she eats the cookies by gerber. she eats a mixture of 1 tablespoon of fruit or veggie, 1 tablespoon water, 2 tablespoons cereal which adds up to 4oz or one jar of food 3 times a day. She is very tall in the 90% for her age and 70% weight which if she was not tall would make her cubby.
Hope what the chart says helps. OH make sure that you start only one food for atleast 3 days before you start a new one so that you can look for reactions(vomiting,diarrhea, or rash), then you can try another single food. My doc also told me that 90% of babies will give you there own clues on when they are ready. Yours seems to be doing the same thing mine did before i started her on solids.

Hi M., I say go for it we started both of our daughters at 4 months. we startedwith fruits and veggies they have so much nutrients.and we even gave our daughters sippy cups with water and helped them use it.until they were capable of holding it them selves because its so much easier from going from breast right to a cup and skip that whole bottle thing.then when they woke up at night they just reached for their sippy cup with water. and ceral effects each child differently. so its just trial and error good luck but i would start the feedings.

Hello both of my children started baby food at 4 months. My daughter had rice cereal at 2 months and did fine. My son however wouldn't touch the stuff. We started him at 4 months. I asked my dr if we had to give it to him and he said no. So he is eating baby food now at 5 months and doing fine. My doctor also said it was fine to give him water. I just started giving him a sippy cup and he dosen't really get it yet but practice makes perfect right? Also my doctor recommeneded giving foods by color group starting light to dark. I hope this helps.

I would recommend skipping rice cereal. Starting with fruits and veggies works really well. Babies aren't really able to digest rice until about 9 months so rice cereal isn't the best starting choice. Follow your instincts as they will serve you well. I started all three of my kids with bananas, pears (really ripe), avocado and baked sweet potatoes.
W. Jones
Breastfeeding Educator
http://www.mosaicbaby.com

One of the benefits to rice cereal is that it is easy on the tummy and can be mixed with breast milk. Which would alleviate concerns of not getting enough nutrition from breast milk when introducing solids. Also, you might want to use breast milk in the sippy cup instead of water. That way you aren't filling up her tummy with something that doesn't contain the nutrition she needs. If she's showing interest, go for it!

Hold out until 6 months, for HER sake. When children are given solids before 6 months, they develope higher possibilities for diabetes and thyroid problems, amoung a few others. And even before that, you need to ask your doctor for what is right for YOUR child, they do know best.

Her showing interest is simply her showing her intellegence and interest to you and her surroundings, she has no idea what the foods look like, smell like or what they taste like, so the interest is purely confusion. You should count yourself lucky!! You will have a VERY smart child...save up for college!! LOL

every child is different. If she is showing interest, why not try it?

My little one is WAY ahead of the game. He's had some health issues, and has Reflux, so we stared with rice cereal blended into his bottles at about 7 weeks. After a week and half, he got too constipated, and the doctor suggested we switch to Oatmeal. He has no problems with that. Now, as we are introducing a medication to treat his reflux, the doctor has recommending mixing the meds into a tablespoon of applesauce and adding some breastmilk to it..and serving it with a starter infant spoon.

we tried this for the first time tonight (at 10 weeks) and he was SOO happy. He loved it! He got mad when the spoon was NOT in his mouth, he wanted to suck on it like a nipple. I don't plan to introduce any other foods besides his cereal and the applesauce for meds until about 4 months.

However, I never suggest replacing breastmilk with solids that early. It's still very important that they get plenty of breastmilk. So if you had one serving of cereal per day, I'd suggest feeding her shortly before you expect her to be hungry to breastfeed, then you can easily follow the cereal with a nursing.

I worked in the infant room of an early education center, and I learned that every child moves into solids at their own pace. Some loved cereal and breastmilk on a spoon at 3 months, others went straight to thicker cereal with foods in it at 6 months. I would suggest waiting on finger foods until they can sit up in a chair. Veggie Puffs are a great starter. They melt easily in the mouth. :)

Good Luck!

My son hated the rice cereal. We had problems with Reflux with our son and the GI Dr told us if he is interested and can pull toes to mouth it is time to introduce, he said you can do both vegis and fruit, no biggie, slowly though to make sure no reactions. He loved his bananas big time. Don't be afraid to start, ours was almost 4 months when he got food.

I also have a friend who's daughter is 5 months old and is getting peas and rice cereal daily. She just started the peas, did rice cereal and the other cereals for about a month now. She is going to start a new food today infact!

GOOD LUCK!

M.~

I completely understand the urge to want to start solids early. However, the recommendation to wait until 4 months is for a very good reason. We started my daughter early (about the age of your daughter) and are now fighting with numerous food allergies (including nut). I don't know if starting her on solids early caused it, but it is the reason they say to wait. Hope this helps you, good luck!

My son's pediatrician, while recommending a diet of mostly breastmilk until six months, told me that studies show that giving a baby rice between 4-6 months may actually decrease their chance of getting celiac disease later in life. She told me this two days ago so the information is very current.

The argument for starting cereals first and fruits last is simply that your child may only want the sweet stuff (bananas, apples, sweet potatoes, etc.) and may refuse veggies.

Do what feels right!

Hi M.,

The longer you wait before starting your daughter on solids, the better it will be for her GI health. My son is six and a half months, and he has had avocado once and a few tastes of squash last night (from my plate). About two months ago we started giving him drinks of water during our meal time so he felt included in meals with us. He loved it, though not much actually went down his throat! I now just started putting water in a sippy cup for him and he's having a great time learning how to get the water out of it to drink :) I know lots of babies who have never had any rice cereal or other baby cereal, and they do great eating all sorts of food. I think it's really up to you as far as what to start first, as long as you avoid the potential allergens and space out your foods accordingly (4-6 days apart). A great website that talks about the allergens and why to delay solids is http://kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/index.html . I reference this site a lot! Also, as someone else mentioned, the book "Whole Foods for Babies and Toddlers" by Margaret Kenda is a wonderful resource as well.

Regards,
A.

My daughter was about six monthes when she really started to eat solid foods. She loved fruit. But are just talking about things not milk. Io, my daughter, never really ate cereal. She hated it no matter what I put in it. She would eat oatmeal, and applesauce. So I made her that. I made the apple sauce at home so I would know there was not extra sugar. But, I did add spices. She loved it and then we just slowly added other things. I am sure that she seems ready for the sippy cup let her try. But, as I am sure you know, interest in not an indication of aptitude. She might want to try, but she might not be phyically ready to make the change. So let he use it like a toy. Just for now ayway. That way later she is used to the objects and she won't be more interested in the neatly colored sppon than the food on it.

My son seemed interested at that time also, and we let him play with spoons and gave him a sippy cup with my milk or water and he did fine (completely skipped bottles!). But just because they can sit up on their own and seem interested, doesn't always mean they are ready to eat. I tried to offer food (rice cereal with BMilk) around 6.5 mos and he mostly rejected it by pushing the spoon with his tongue. I didn't push as he just didn't seem ready and it was frustrating. Eventually he did start eating a bit by 8 mos. He really liked avocado and sweet potatos (had a bad reaction to bananas so beware of those, watch the diaper!) so we didn't do much cereal.

I would recommend waiting a little longer, for the allergy and GI tract reasons stated earlier. It really is totally up to you (not your doctor!), but I know being a first time mom you have no clue what is best! Actually a friend started her son on oatmeal at 6 mos and by 8 mos he was eating a bowl as big as hers each morning!

My son also never had jarred baby food from a store. I made all of his food with a food processor, it's totally fresh and you can easily make a batch and freeze in ice cube trays. Then put the food cubes in a ziplock bag and thaw 1 at a time in the microwave for a feeding, then 2 once they are eating. :) He also moved right into finger foods around the same time he started eating (8 mos) and we gave him cheerios, veggie puffs and cut apples! He loved to feed himself but had no teeth!

Good luck! And keep up the breast feeding! My son would eat as much as he wanted then ask for the boob, even early on. When he got frustrated or tired of eating, he would sign MILK. :) Now (at 2) he just asks for Boobie Time!

At 22 weeks (about 5 months?) your baby is absolutely ready to start eating solids, but it's important to start out with rice cereal because it is mild and easier to adjust to. Work your baby through the cereals, then move to the veggies, and offer the fruit last!

Our MD stated to start between 4 to 6 months and we started at about 4 1/2 months and he has done well. He had a problem where he would only poop every 10-14 days so we skipped the rice cereal on the advice of our MD and he loves fruits and veggies, blended with a mini food processor of course.