When Start Solids?

[jstarh]

When did you start?

Ellie turned 6mos on aug 24th, she has been crawling for a month and for two weeks now pulling up and cruising. She wears 8-9mos clothing but is not fat just baby chubby and TALL. She has been nursing more and more. As she was interested in food very interested I started letting her taste. Today is the first day she had more than a tsp. I worry I have strted to soon. Has anyone bf an advanced child excluisively for a year before starting? I bf on cue and cosleep. Thanks! Also, does anyone folow Weston A Price recommendations for solids
http://www.westonaprice.org/children/nourish-baby.html
http://www.westonaprice.org/children/feeding.html


, or more like this http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/solids2.htm

[Sheryl1678]

I read all the advice before dd2 was born and swore up and down I would wait to start solids but you know what? My daughter was ready early, had teeth at 3 months, sat up and grabbed for my food. I started letting her at 4-5 months because I trusted my instincts and let my daughter lead the way rather than books, statistics or other guidelines.

I still don't know if that was the right thing to do but I feel much better about it than if I had forced rice cereal or some other processed baby food on an infant that was clearly not ready. (and that is what I think the guidelines are for, not a baby that is clearly ready for solids early). Just my little opinion though.

[BlueStateMama]

I viewed "solids" as something for fun and practice before a year - when both kids started, I let them play around with some food after nursing instead of making it a meal. My personal view, beyond the standard readiness signs, is that mother nature is smart. WHen humans can pick up small pieces of soft food and gum away at them, they're good to start their "practice." I never spoon feed anything - just started with small pieces of things like banana, steamed sweet potato, avacado and then like.

Except for the mesh feeder. That thing was AWESOME in restuarants. I put things like cantelope, chunks of pear of apple in it and both babies would sit entranced and gnaw away on it while we ate a meal in peace with a happy baby!!:

[jstarh]

typing 1 handed so no caps....

bluestatemama: i have this fear of her choking. but i dont let her know it. she has no teeth yet. what size chunks? i have never seen anyone do this so have no idea. but sound good to me


thanks sheryl, what you said makes good sense

[Yulia_R]

My son was forced to start solids around 8 months of age . I got pregnant and my milk supply decreased dramatically.
My daughter had no interest in solids until after a year of age.

I’d say 10-12 months should be the earliest to start solids.

[BlueStateMama]

Like maybe the size of your thumbnail? They're pretty good about gumming at things, my babies seemed so fascinated by the new texture (plus they were full from nursing) so they never tried to wolf anything down.

There's some disparity of opinion on MDC - some start at readiness, others wait until a year. My personal reasoning was that babies need at least two years of full-fat milk (ideally human) and that should be their primary diet until at least one year. But I do put some credence in the theory that there is a sensory window where it's a developmentally "right" time to start experiencing different textures (ie not just liquid) and learning to swallow - somewhere between 7 and 9 months, depending on the baby and their own development.

That made sense to me personally, just like shoveling mouthfuls of grain as a first food into them didn't. I took in what I read, researched, what other mamas had experienced and formed my own opinion on it - taking into account the temperment and readiness of my own children.

[KristyDi]

I started offering soft fry shaped things after dd was 6 months. The fry shape allowed dd to hold on to the end of the food and gum it to mush. I did things like sweet potato oven fries and steamed apples. I also started giving dd some shreds of chicken around 8 mos or so.

That said dd actually ingested very little until around a year. I viewed it as fun exploring and not really nutrition since we continued to nurse on demand. At 17mos she still nurses on demand but the balance is starting to shift to more solids and less nursing.

[mamatoablessing]

I'd say she's ready to start trying some food when she can pick it up and eat herself! Even if she's a total mess and only gets 5% of it into her mouth. Both of my kids self fed and it was really easy and so much less stressful than shovng spoonfuls of mush into their mouths. I just diced whatever I was eating and gave them some. My second didn't cut a tooth until after a year but was gnawing away on steak, chicken, apples, pastas, etc. when she was 8 months old. You might want to start with some soft foods until she gets the hang of it though. Like bananas, pasta, avocado, breads, etc.

Good luck!