Starting solids...?

[croleRN]

For those of you who waited until 1 year to start solids (intentional or not) - what were your reasons & do you have any evidence to why you did so.

DS is not into it at all. He is only going to be 7m on the12th. i really don't care if he doesn't for a while. But I was looking for "backup" for my ped & some family members.

Thanks!!!l

[ewe+lamb]

Our two were completely different, ds was so totally ready and loved to eat, dd on the other hand wasn't interested and didn't really eat or even try solids till around 13/14 months, she just wasn't ready and turned her head if we offered anything, she was fine on just breastmilk, wasn't under weight or anything so we just decided to follow her lead - thank heavens for LLL otherwise i'm not sure I would have been that calm - lol, anyway she is still a very picky plain eater, which at 8 sort of annoys me a little that she refuses to try new foods and it's a real challenge to just get her to try anything at all, that said she's fine weight wise and is fit and healthy, so I guess just do what your little one wants and see how you get on, it maybe that he tries something before a year - or maybe not! Just be careful how you relate this to your health care provider though - sometimes they are not too understanding!

[smeep]

The idea of getting babies to eat so many solids pretty much came with the invention of formula. The idea is to get them to eat enough solids that they can live off of solid foods and cow milk at a year, and it just got applied to breastfed babies. Babies aren't stupid, if they're allowed to nurse on demand they will tell you when they're ready for solids. And obviously they're not meant to eat pureed foods - we don't give birth to blenders at 6 months down the road so we can puree their food. Honestly, as long as baby's iron levels are fine and baby is growing well I wouldn't worry. And I would be cautious about the whole iron thing. If it's borderline low I would keep an eye on it but I wouldn't freak out. I've been doing some research on it and it looks like what they based those recommendations off of is a total joke. Also, "milking" the finger will can cause false low results and in my experience I don't think they ever tested DS's iron without milking his finger.

FWIW, DS didn't start eating solids 5-10 times a week until he was about 15 months. Even then he would go days without eating solids with no problem. I let him guide himself and we had no concerns (except mildly low iron count at 12 mo which I now question for the reasons above).

[annettemarie]

Moving to Life with a Babe.