Can you introduce solids to a BFing baby too LATE?

[Gabesgrrrl]

Hi All!

My little girl is almost 8 months old. She's crawling, and pulling herself to standing...and exclusively breastfed. She is starting to make eating noises and imitate us when we eat. I nursed my last 2 babies until a year exclusively, but they were also not showing any interest in food. 

I feel a little sad about introducing solids this early, and wonder if there's a "window" of opportunity to introduce them? If she is showing interest and I don't respond, will she lose the interest? 

I'm confident that Breastmilk provides plenty of nutrition through the whole first year, but I want to follow her lead...just don't want to rush!

Any opinions!?

Thanks!
Marcie

[MrsGregory]

I have heard that you can start solids "too late", but I've no idea... and no idea what the ideal window is really considered to be.

But, I wanted to encourage you - my little one is super, super, super interested in eating, and has been since she started at about 6 1/2 months, and in no way have her three solid meals diminished her desire to nurse.  Quite the opposite it seems!  So your little one may take to solids like a fish to water and still continue to nurse to your heart's content for quite some time. 
 

[voca]

I had a baby who at 5 months would reach out and grab what you were eating and try to take a bite of it. The first solid food she ate was a bite of pizza she took while sitting on Dad's knee. We tried giving her spoons, a plate, toys -- no dice, she wanted food. But you know, she is still nursing at least 5 times a day at about to turn 3 years, and her early introduction to solids seems to have done her no harm. Sometimes you just have to accept that they are on their own schedule.

[MrsKoehn]

From what I've seen, when they act like they want it, they're ready to branch out some. My nephew has been eating solids since he was about 5 or 6 months, and he still BFs a lot at 13 months.

[Hymanroth]

you should look into baby led weaning

[E m i c h i e e]

I would say no, considering that there is many tribes and other cultures who don't set a time frame for solids. If anything the children are almost all bm for a very long time.
I have once read that 2 years is the limit, but I don't think it is necessarily true, and that nature planned for children getting adequate nutrition from it, since toddlers are often bad eaters by instinct.
I also read something written by Naomi Aldort, where she claimed one of her children was mostly bf for 5 yrs., or that up to 5 yrs. is possible, I can try to find it.
Some claim since babies don't have (enough) teeth and could not actively feed themselves, take actual bites, they should not eat yet, they should only get to know foods.

Whatever the suggestions are, I think it is safe to say far past a year is definetly fine. My son has been showing interest since 4 mos, same as you described, he acts like he is chewing. He still does this at 9 mos, but does not want to eat. The few times he swallowed something (a little bit of melon for example) he gagged and threw up. Often only the taste will make him shake his head, gag or refuse. We let him play with utensils when we eat and he is happy pretending

[Rrrrrachel]

I have read that eating helps develop muscles in the mouth that are necessary for speech development. I don't have the credentials to know if thats true or not, so take it fwiw.

[wendizbaby]

My ds is 6.5 mo and seems very interested.  He makes chewing motions and loves to eat when I do feed him.  However, I am finding that his tummy isn't ready for most of the food I am trying.  Pears and apples are fine, but bananas and sweet potatoes make him the fussiest baby ever.  So...I think even when they are wanting to eat, that doesn't necessarily mean their digestive system is ready.  

[rainface]

We do baby led weaning...except we started it at 4 months instead of 6. She's 7 months old now, and she's maybe ingested a couple of tablespoons worth of "table food" total in the past 3 months. She plays, she experiments with textures and putting stuff in her mouth. I feel like I'm setting the stage for eating to be fun, relaxed, and social since we sit and eat together. Her nursing has not diminished in the slightest and I don't have the expectation that it will any time soon.