when did you introduce solids?

[sammyloo]

I exclusively breastfed my son - introducing solid foods at 7.5months. He absolutely refused to eat one. single. bite. No kidding - nothing. We continued to EBF until he decided he was ready eat at about 18 months. He weaned when he was about 3 and I was 36 weeks pregnant. I am a stay at home mom and once I calmed down about him not eating even though he supposedly should be, I actually enjoyed having such an intense nursling (I kept my 18 month old happy and nourished on by breast alone!). It kept us so close. My daughter just turned 6 months and week ago and I am wondering when to start her on solid food. She shows more signs of readiness (interest when I am eating, moving her mouth, etc.) but I don't want to lose our nursing relationship - I know she won't switch over overnight, but what if she really likes to eat? We cosleep and nurse through the night and I know I can't keep her nursing and off foods just because I don't want her to grow up too fast, but I am strangely really nervous that eating will be a success this time around!! I am curious as to when other EBF moms introduced food. I don't want her to rapidly self wean or anything - how do I do this without losing nursing? Does my question make sense?

[HappyFox05]

DD1 made it very clear when she was about 6 & 1/2 months old that she wanted something in addition to BM. We weaned at about 26 months when pregnancy-induced breastfeeding agitation made it so difficult for me to nurse her that it was starting to mess with our relationship. So that's at least two years of nursing after the introduction of solids, and if I could've gone longer, we would've. Every person's different, but I don't think you need to worry too much about losing that relationship before you're emotionally ready just because you introduce solids. Hope that makes sense, I'm up late & am NAKing.

[Katie T]

I waited till they were stealing food off my plate and able to get it to there mouth on there own to eat. With DS it was around 7m and with dd2 it was around 10 m.

I would wait till she can feed herself because to me that shows they are ready to eat.

[blessedwithboys]

not in any specific order:

ability to sit up alone
one tooth
loss of tongue thrust reflex
obvious interest in solids
pincer grasp

my ds1 hated solid food and lost interest in nursing at 24 mos.

my ds2 couldnt get enough solids and kept nursing til his 5th bday.

[longmountainart]

When my son was born my plan was to exclusively breastfeed until he was at least a year...when i met him however, i soon realized that he was his own person! duh i shouldve known who his parents were! at a very young age; say 3 months he started showing interest in our food when we would eat. he would stare and watch you eat...it was pitiful really! then at around five months, yes five i know, he started grabbing for the food! i was really upset because it was against all the WHO reccomendations i read and other bf mamas alike BUT i really believe intuition is the way to go personally. so i thought it better to read my baby's ques and let him decide for himself when he wanted to eat solids. so i introduced cereal at 5 months and he literally grabbed the spoon from my hand and tried to feed himself. i only let him eat that once a day for a long time because i didnt want my milk to lessen and i really didnt want him having solids yet. i compromised because after all i had to honor who he was and by golly he wasnt going to back down that easily. i have to say it was definitley a struggle when the adults ate meals..he would get very upset when we didnt give him our food. and low and behold my little guy has a voracious appetite even now as one of the tallest and youngest 5 year olds in his class and btw my son weaned himself at 15 months so we didnt lose our nursing relationship at all. i would just start slow and see where it goes from there. good luck!

[MoonStarFalling]

My son was "late" starting solids as well but my second wasn't so! At 6 months she loved food. If she could pick it up, put it in and chew it I felt confident she was ready. I was also worried that, loving solids so much, she would want to wean suddenly but here we are and she's turning three. I intro's solids slowly (finally let her have three meals a day after her first birthday) and very rarely does she get another type of milk to drink.

[averlee]

My daughter was one who was difficult to keep from eating food. She was 4 months when I started letting her have solids, and she'd had tastes and stolen bits before that. I figured it was ok because she never had tummy aches, or weird poo, and she never did that thing pushing the food out with the tounge, and she never gagged or choked at all. I think, basically, my intuition is, I wouldn't try to force food on a baby, and I wouldn't deny a baby food, either. I think 4 months is the earliest I'd ever recommend, but 6 months is probably better. On the other end, I'd guess 12-15 months I'd start encouraging a baby's interest in food, and I'd wonder if they weren't eating a few bites most every day by about 18ish months.

[sunnygir1]

I don't think there's any hurry, and as pps have mentioned, your lo will probably let you know when it's time.

My dd LOVES food. But she loved breastfeeding too. She was 5 weeks early, and I introduced solids very slowly starting around 8 months. She weaned, with help from me ("pregnancy-induced breastfeeding agitation" is the perfect description of my experience) at 27 months when I was around 4 months pregnant with ds.

[LindsC]

My daughter started eating solids around 7 months, but at 9 months, she still doesn't eat all that much. We let her sit at the table with us during meal time and sometimes she eats very little and other times she eats a ton. I always make sure to nurse her before a meal so that the solids are just a supplement to the breastmilk she is getting.

[texmati]

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys

not in any specific order:

ability to sit up alone
one tooth
loss of tongue thrust reflex
obvious interest in solids
pincer grasp

I waited for this. I was shocked, absolutely shocked, that it all happened within a two week span. Nature is amazing!