Starting solids is intimidating me! Please help.

[GuavaGirl]

I think my baby is ready to start eating food but for some reason I find the whole thing rather intimidating. I know, it sounds silly. I'm afraid of doing something wrong like feeding him the wrong foods, or too much of something, or too little of something else, and there's there's all of the conflicting info on what to feed and what not to feed....and why do baby puree recipes have you cook the fruit? Do you need to cook the fruit if its soft? When can you feed meat? Why the overemphasis on fruits instead of vegetables? Rice cereal or not? How often do I feed? How much? Does time of day matter? Do I mix it with breastmilk or not?

Do I sound crazy yet?

I'm hesitant to just do what ever the pediatrician says or what the WIC lady says, without looking into it, but the looking into it part has got me all confused.


Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks ladies!

[Tway]

I felt the same, but it's really pretty simple. Don't worry! My ped told me you just can't go wrong feeding them solids.

I know different mamas have different feeding philosophies, but here's how we did it: I started with a little rice cereal--liquidy at first, then thicker. Then I puréed sweet potatoes and green beans. DD HATED the beans, so it was sweet potatoes for awhile. Then I slowly introduced puréed apples, nectarines, peaches, squash, avocado (another one she hated), zuchini, beef, chicken... introducing a new food every few days.

Then, at about 8 months, I started giving her cut up cheese (pieces about the size of her thumbnail). Now at 9 months she munches on halved Cheerios, and loves Kiri cream cheese. I also give her soft fruit--like melon--in tiny pieces for her to chew.

At her 9-month checkup, the ped said she can eat anything now, but warned to keep any pieces small and very chewable. He said it's a 1-in-a-million shot that she'd choke, but you wouldn't want to be that 1. These days we give DD a little off our plates just for variety, but the purées and cereal are still staples.

Have fun and enjoy! It's a whole new world for our babes to explore, and it's fun to watch.

Edit: I started with breakfast only, then breakfast and supper, and I've still to introduce lunch due to sheer laziness (I breastfeed instead). I started with breastmilk in the cereal, then switched to water.

[wombatclay]

Not silly! I had the same feelings with my first, and then again with my second and third!

We follow a "baby led" philosophy where the foods offered are controlled a bit but most of the adventure is left in the babe's hands (literally ). Solid foods in the first year are more for exploration and sensory development (breastmilk or artificial baby milk should be the primary "nutritional" element until at least a year) and I found it helped a lot to remember that... I have fewer right/wrong feelings when I think of food as "exploration" and less as "nutrition".

I really leaned on the kellymom "introducing solids to a breastfed babe" page. It's here, and there are tons of links. You'll find that a lot depends on culture... some cultures start with meat or fish, some start with fruits, some with veggies. There are pros/cons to almost any food... you just need to see what works for your family. Each kiddo is different and foods that one babe loves might be disliked by another (my dd1 loved avocado, dd2 hated avocado but adored super garlicky guacomole!).

Hmmmm.... for specifics... we have always offered homemade apple "smush" as the very first food since DH's family are apple farmers. After that we avoid the big allergens, avoid honey till after a year, and use a lot of herbs and spices but little salt or sugar. Our family aims for whole foods in season and that works well for babes too... I do try to keep artificial ingredients to a minimum and that goes double for a small babe or young child!

Just remember to have fun! There's no reason to turn solid food into a battle or a science experiment with a right/wrong quiz at the end!

[crunchy_mommy]

We also did "baby-led solids" which I loved & found to be way way less intimidating. You can just offer baby some of whatever you're eating (assuming it's not a choking hazard i.e. whole nuts, whole grapes, etc.) and let baby choose what/whether/how much to eat. We don't have a history of severe allergies in our family (though I now have several food allergies, I believe they are directly related to my current illness) so we didn't introduce only one food at a time, and we didn't avoid spices (in fact, hot sauce is one of DS's favorite condiments!) In the beginning DS mostly just played with his food or chewed it & spit it out or gagged it up (he was a big gagger until a little after he turned 1, so I had to really read up on gagging vs. choking, and turns out gagging is a GOOD thing, shows they can prevent themselves from choking & know what they can handle etc.) He didn't eat substantial amounts until 12-14 mos & at 17 mos he still isn't a big eater, prefers to nurse, but he is diverse and enjoys many different foods.

You really can't mess up with the 'baby-led' approach because they are self-feeding -- you can't over- or under-feed that way, and I've heard baby will instinctively avoid foods they're allergic to. It also really helps improve fine motor skills, pincher grasp, etc.

[AFWife]

Another baby led solids fan here! It was so much easier!

Don't let it stress you out. Solids are supposed to be fun.

[blessedwithboys]

wait until the baby is at least 6 mos and can sit up unassisted in a highchair and offer small soft chunks like avocado or banana. let the baby pick up the food and put in in their mouth. avoid purees and spoon feeding. rice cereal and the like is awful from a nutritional standpoint. let the baby do all the work. always nurse first before offering solids for at least 12 mos. thats pretty much all there is to it! have fun

[Tway]

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys

avoid purees and spoon feeding. rice cereal and the like is awful from a nutritional standpoint.

As I said, every mama has their own way of introducing solids. I don't think there's a "right" or a "wrong" way--just the way each mother is comfortable with. Purées and spoon feeding and cereal were what we were most comfortable with, and what the crunchy-ish mamas around us were feeding their babes. It's what worked for us. Everyone needs to find their own way!

[busymama77]

Originally Posted by AFWife

Another baby led solids fan here! It was so much easier!

Don't let it stress you out. Solids are supposed to be fun.

Exactly. I LOVED it when my ODS was finally ready for solids. Introducing new things to him, watching his little face react to this and that.
With DS#2, we just started on a little bit of cereal and he's not a huge fan and so we give it another few days and go back. Introducing things like this takes patience, of course, and they'll let you know when they're ready.

For veggie and fruits, it's best to always start out with a veggie and be consistent with that veggie for a period of 5-7 days to make sure the baby doesn't develop any allergies. Luckily, in our family, no one has any seasonal or food allergies, so that makes it a bit less intimadating and stressful, but you still want to keep a watchful eye.

BM and FF are the upmost important thing that they consume because that's where they get all of their nutrients.

Have fun with it!!

[busymama77]

Originally Posted by blessedwithboys

wait until the baby is at least 6 mos and can sit up unassisted in a highchair and offer small soft chunks like avocado or banana. let the baby pick up the food and put in in their mouth. avoid purees and spoon feeding. rice cereal and the like is awful from a nutritional standpoint. let the baby do all the work. always nurse first before offering solids for at least 12 mos. thats pretty much all there is to it! have fun

Really? I'm interested to know why. I wouldn't exactly say it's 'awful' - just not full of nutrients like BM or FF. It's a starting point just like purees are before soft chunks of anything is introduced.

[crunchy_mommy]

I agree that rice cereal is nutritionally not the best food to start out with -- it's just filler, at as young babies they need nutrient-packed foods not empty calories... Also the iron-fortified cereals can interfere with absorption of the iron in breastmilk & make the child more susceptible to anemia. From a baby-led solids standpoint, purees are also unnecessary & even could be harmful (i.e. can increase risk of choking when they get to 2nd/3rd stage solids because they don't know whether to suck or chew & because the purees are generally placed farther back in their mouths -- past the location of their gag reflex which prevents choking) -- sorry I'm in a rush but I can explain more later if anyone is interested.

[GuavaGirl]

OP here:

How do I know when my baby is ready?

I think he is because I was eating a plum and I put it up to his mouth and he tried to eat it. I had to fight it out of his mouth, which caught me a little off guard. Also, he's gone from sleeping through the night for the last month and a half to waking up to eat every 3 hours through the night. It's been going on almost a week...which I guess could be a growth spurt.

...and the "no purees" thing has got me all kinds of confused.


Anyone have any good book recommendations on the topic?

[laughingfox]

Originally Posted by busymama77

Really? I'm interested to know why. I wouldn't exactly say it's 'awful' - just not full of nutrients like BM or FF. It's a starting point just like purees are before soft chunks of anything is introduced.

Not all sources agree, but some say that not only is the iron in the cereal not absorbed, but it also reduces a baby's ability to absorb iron from breastmilk.
Also, chunks of soft foods can be their own starting point. Skipping the purees is becoming less uncommon these days.

I hear these two books being recommended a lot, but I haven't read them yet myself:
Baby-Led Weaning
Feeding the Whole Family

[1blueheron]

We're kind of in the same place. She seems like she's getting ready, but I'm for some reason hesitant to take the plunge. Lately we've let her have frozen breastmilk slushies on hot days, and sometimes gnaw on a baby sock with frozen breastmilk inside. Fun first steps for us.

[wombatclay]

Anyone have any good book recommendations on the topic?

Check out the kellymom link... she provides links to a variety of sources (many are on line, some are books that are fairly easy to find). The site has studies from scholarly (peer-reviewed) publications as well in case you prefer that level of research.

Oh, and the "benefits"/"disadvantages" of different first foods and food textures are discussed in great detail there as well. If anyone is curious I'd highly recommend reading through the studies collected there then jumping into PubMed for more depth!

[SubliminalDarkness]

We followed baby led weaning/solids as well. My personal belief is that food was meant to be consumed in a mushed up form on a spoon, that would be naturally available. But it's not. That's a process that we have created.

When DS turned 6 months, we stuck him in a high chair and put half a banana in front of him. He figured it out, and we went from there.

I feel it also is unnatural and potentially harmful to spoon feed. If a baby isn't able to bring food to their own mouth yet, they're not ready to eat. They also can't set the pace or decide what amount to consume, that's being controlled for them.

[SilverFish]

we are just on the cusp of food readiness, i think. we are approaching it from a firmly "food before one is just for fun" standpoint. i think that helps take off some of the pressure. right now everything is just to learn about tastes and textures.

my baby is just coming up to 5 months and so far she's had tastes (like off my finger) of mashed sweet potato and avacado and apple sauce. then, just this week, since sitting up and grabbing at things is her latest skill, i cut up a chunk of avacado for her to try holding and sucking on. we had some watermelon in the fridge, so i let her have a chunk of that too. mostly, she holds the food for a while, looks at it, then shoves it in her mouth. then she kind of considers the texture for a while. then so far she just spits it all out. i don't think anything has actually made it in her stomach, and we're ok with that. as she gets better and better at sitting up independently, i'll probably keep giving her large chunks of food to experiment with, and eventually she'll figure it out.

[crunchy_mommy]

Originally Posted by GuavaGirl

OP here:

How do I know when my baby is ready?

I think he is because I was eating a plum and I put it up to his mouth and he tried to eat it. I had to fight it out of his mouth, which caught me a little off guard. Also, he's gone from sleeping through the night for the last month and a half to waking up to eat every 3 hours through the night. It's been going on almost a week...which I guess could be a growth spurt.

...and the "no purees" thing has got me all kinds of confused.


Anyone have any good book recommendations on the topic?

Does he have good head control? Can he sit up unassisted? Does he use the pincher grasp? There are more 'readiness' guidelines on kellymom.com...

I guess what a lot of us are trying to say is that if you go with the 'baby-led' approach then you don't have to be so concerned with readiness signs. When he's 6-9mos old & starting to 'seem' ready, put some food in front of him. He'll play with it etc. maybe put it in his mouth & spit it out... He will control when he actually starts swallowing the foods & he'll control what/how much -- they naturally know what they need.

DS started grabbing roasted veggies off my plate & shoving them in his mouth at 5 mos old. Everyone thought that meant he was 'ready' but he wasn't, he just wanted to begin exploring tastes/textures & participating in meal time. He didn't actually start eating small amounts until 7-8 months and around 12-14 months he increased that to more substantial amounts, although he's still 70-80% breastfed at 17mos. Now if you're not interested in long-term nursing then you may decide to incorporate spoon-feeding and/or purees in eventually, especially if he's a heavy nurser like my DS, but we hope to long-term BF so baby-led solids worked great for us...

[busymama77]

[QUOTE=SubliminalDarkness;15645703]We followed baby led weaning/solids as well. My personal belief is that food was meant to be consumed in a mushed up form on a spoon, that would be naturally available. But it's not. That's a process that we have created.

When DS turned 6 months, we stuck him in a high chair and put half a banana in front of him. He figured it out, and we went from there.

I feel it also is unnatural and potentially harmful to spoon feed. If a baby isn't able to bring food to their own mouth yet, they're not ready to eat. They also can't set the pace or decide what amount to consume, that's being controlled for them.[/QUOTE]

While this is partly true, my ODS gave me clues as to when he was finished when I fed him by spoon. If he started spitting out, turned his head away from the spoon or became of age to where he could push my hand or arm away, that sent up a red flag that he was finished. I would never offer more.