[UmmZahra]

How long can we exclusively breastfeed safely? How would we be able to determine?

I am just thinking 6 months is too soon to start "solids". I think it is more realistic to start around 8 months. At 6 months babies are still pushing things out their mouth, but around 8 that seems to die down right?

Please let me know what yall think and why. If yall have any articles about that please share. I need to read up on it. AND if yall know what Dr. Jack Newman says about that pls share that too. I usually trust his recommendations.

 

[~Megan~]

You can nurse as long as you want exclusively. At some point your baby will let you know when he's ready for solids, that usually occurs sometime in the second half of the first year.
Also many babies will not eat a ton of solids. ds is almost a year and he just has tiny bits throughout the day unlike some of his mainstream counterparts who are eating many jars of babyfood each day.

 

[dnr3301]

Neither of my kids wanted solids at 6 months. Even my "mouther" didn't want food, he just wanted to put things in his mouth. I'd say with dd, she was exclusively bf until about 11 months, ds, about 10 months. I'd let them sit on my lap at meals and grab at food after 7 months or so, but even if something got in, they would usually spit it out. Dd was still barely eating solids at 13 months, I'd say it was nearly 15 months before I was thinking she was getting any actual substantial nutrition from the foods she ate. And she'll eat almost anything now (at 5), so the idea that you have to or they won't learn to eat isn't always true.

 

[josybear]

ds is 9 months right now. around 7 months he started staring at us while we ate, tracking our forks with his eyes and otherwise acting just like a dog begging. so i tried him on solids and he went nuts, he was so happy. i guess 7 months of eating just one thing was enough for him. now he has solids about once a day. sometimes he has them a few times, sometimes not at all. it depends on how busy i am, how he's feeling, etc. but he still gets all his nutritional needs met by my boobs, and he will for as long as possible.
your dc will let you know when it's time, don't worry about it.

 

[~member~]

My dd is 17 months and still not very interested in food/meals.

 

[Ruthla]

I think the baby is ready for solids when she grabs a handful of food off your plate and shoves it into her mouth, and then doesn't spit ALL of it out onto your lap.

Seriously- follow the baby for cues of readiness, not the calendar. Some babies will be ready at 5.5mo, others not till 11m. First solids are for fun, not nutrition, so they're not losing out on anything if they wait a little longer than "average."

 

[Roxswood]

One way to be sure they are ready is just to offer them finger foods such as cooked carrot sticks and if they pick them up and eat them they are ready and if they don't they're not.
In England we call this Baby Led Weaning, but I know that means something else over here. I figure that if you're leaving your baby to feed herself though that there is no danger of overfeeding or of feeding them before they are ready.

 

[Nora'sMama]

We intro'd solids at 6 months and DD basically had NO interest for months and months and months. Now she is much, much more interested in food (at almost 15 months) although she still doesn't eat huge quantities at each meal. But she runs into the kitchen when she's hungry doing the sign for "eat" over and over.

I worried a lot that she didn't seem to be interested in solid foods when "most" babies are (in quotes 'cause I think more babies than I realized wait longer than 6 months to be ready) but now I realize that was just her normal development. She only has 4 teeth, and didn't get any teeth until 11.5 months, so maybe that had something to do with it. My local LLL leader thinks so.

I'd say just follow your baby's cues. Let them have the opportunity to self-feed healthy foods (like cubes of avacado, pieces of banana etc.) and it should be obvious if they are interested or if they just want to play with the food! (Which is fine too!)

 

[phoebekate]

DD#1 was exclusively breastfed until somewhere between 14 and 16 months (how bad is it that I can't actually remember anymore?). She fell off her percentile a bit between 6 months and starting to eat, but given that she was huge and clearly healthy it wasn't a problem. What was a problem was convincing her to eat at all, ever. She basically didn't get any significant nutrition from solids until I all but weaned her at 2yrs old (cut back to 3*3min feeds a day and as expected lost my supply when I started ovulating as a result). I had planned to give her solids when she showed an interest, probably around 9 months, she never showed an interest. When I had a significant supply problem at 12-13mths and she refused to eat or drink to make up the difference I realised I had to get her eating in case I couldn't get my supply back. I did get my supply back, which turned out to be a heck of a lot easier than getting her to eat, to this day she would 2 litres of milk a day instead of eating if we let her.

This time around I plan to start offering at 9 months regardless of interest, is DD#2 isn't interested I won't push it, but I will offer every day from 9 months as I think it gets harder as they get older to get them interested if it doesn't come naturally.

 

[mhr1406]

ds2 is now 7 months and we offered him sweet potatos 3 days ago for the first time. I have always nursed him right before I eat dinner or while I am eating. But, recently he has become too busy trying to grab my plate to nurse while I eat. THen after a few days of that he began to cry when he saw me put food into my mouth. So I guess it was his way of saying he was ready. He has done well so far. But he is really only taking in about 3 -4 bites.
But honestly we are just getting started and following his lead.

 

[Mama Poot]

Not scientific, but a friend of the family exclusively bf all 6 of her children until they were 1 year. No exceptions- thats how she did things and felt that was best for them. they are all very healthy people and never looked malnourished or anything like that. Im guessing as long as milk is all you offer, your body adjusts to meet the baby's demand. I started solids at 6 months and felt it was too soon.

I hope we can delay them longer with DS2