Need tips on starting solids

[Marisa6826]

Alright - Sophie's starting to watch me eat all the time. I guess I'm going to have to start the solids thing now...

From what I can remember of the conversation I had with the Ped two months ago was:

Start with a teaspoon of rice mixed with formula once a day just to get her used to eating off a spoon.


Now my questions:

When is the best time to do this? Before a bottle, after a bottle, morning, lunch, dinner?
How long do we do the one teaspoon amount?
How long before we move on to more than once a day?
How long before I start with other stuff?
What exactly IS the other stuff you move up to? Barley?
How long before you start jarred food?
What about having her lick it off my fingers? Is that better than the spoon?

I am SO loathing this...Please feel free to volunteer any and all advice!

Thanks

-m

[Marisa6826]

just bumping this up

[KathyO]

There are lots of folks who can do a much better job of describing the sequence of foods to introduce than I can... most baby books will give a suggested sequence that usually runs through the grains first, then vegetables, then fruit, and finally meat, with notes on which potential allergens to avoid in the first year.

Initially, we offered the solids between feedings, so that she was alert and interested, but not stuffed or starving.

Do the one teaspoon amount until she is demolishing it reliably, then start making and offering more. She won't take more than she wants.

Wait at least a few days between introducing a new food, and then introducing the next new food. That way you'll be able to tell what caused any allergic/intolerant reaction (hives, redness, vomiting, diarrhea, etc.)

Having her lick it off your fingers would require more tongue control than she probably has at this point. As it is, she'll probably, in the course of learning how to use her tongue to move it around in her mouth, end up pushing quite a bit of it out. This looks like rejection, but isn't, necessarily.

And the one thing that nobody prepared me for is the occasional bit of choking/gagging. She's learning how to maneuver food in her mouth that is not milk (which gets delivered to exactly the same place in her mouth every time by the bottle nipple.) It's inevitable that she will get some a little far back and cough on it, from time to time. This is not harmful, or even traumatic. The thing you want to avoid is a solid lump of food plugging the airway, and you're a LONG way from that yet. So don't let the occasional gagging bother you.

And have a camera handy! It all seems very intimidating now, but the faces she'll make as she works her way through the various menu items are HILARIOUS.

Cheers,

KathyO

[brubeck]

I just started Andrew on solids last Tuesday. Since then we have had one feeding a day of rice cereal. I will admit that I cheated this time around and started on rice cereal WITH APPLES! I know. I can hear you all gasp. 'But what if he's allergic?' you all think. Well he seems like he's not, but if he were I would have suspected apples since rice is a LOT less likely. I think he's enjoying it more because it tastes better. I started Amy on plain rice and she totally rejected it. I tasted it and could see why... bleargh!

Anyhow, Andrew seems to be scarfing down the food (he ate a whole tablespoon today), but he's definitely still figuring out the physical thing. He obviously likes and wants the food, but still has some tongue thrust and sometimes spits out the food without meaning to. We started with 1 teaspoon on Tuesday and since he finished that I went up one teaspoon each day. As long as he keeps finishing it I'll increase it. I'm not planning to do major jarred foods until he's 6 months, this is more just as starter material.

I have been giving him the cereal at lunchtime or dinnertime to make sure he is hungry. I don't want him to reject it because he's full! After the cereal I BF until he's finshed eating.

I suppose I probably won't move on to multiple meals a day until we're on the jarred solids. Rice cereal 3 times a day is probably too much. With Amy I started her on jarred solids at 6 months, spent 2 weeks getting her to take them, and then another 2 weeks introducing 2 more meals, and at 7 months she was on 3 meals a day.

Sophie is slightly older than Andrew so I think she's probably ready for the cereal. Once she's gotten used to that you could try the other cereals (such as the kinds mixed with fruit) and then go onto the jarred stuff.

This is NOT something to dread, it's actually a LOT of fun as long as you have a good sense of humor and are not a neat freak.

[Rachels]

I would do this differently with my next baby. For one, I've learned that babies actually often have trouble with grains. Rice is particularly constipating and adds very little in terms of nutrition. Other grains can be hard to digest, and many babies aren't ready for grains (intestinally speaking) until about 12 months. So I would skip the grains, personally. Other good first foods are avocado, banana, applesauce, etc. For the first year, all the nutrition they need comes from breastmilk or formula, so the solids are more for texture and experimentation. Don't worry if your baby only takes a little or spits most of it out. It takes a while for them to get the hang of eating. Only offer one new food at a time, and wait 4-5 days in between foods to be sure there's not a reaction developing. At first, you only need to offer solids once a day. I found it preferable to do this after nursing but when Abigail was still awake and interested. That way I was sure she had consumed what she needed to in terms of nutrients, so I didn't need to count on her getting the solids down.

Like everything else with babies, it gets easier as you get the hang of it!

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[egoldber]

There are as many different opinions on starting solids as there are moms and babies. :)

On the whole, I was very pleased with how things worked for us. I started with rice cereal, one meal a day, at a time of day that was most convenient for us. I started with 2 tablepoons dry cereal mixed with just enough formula to make it thin, but not soupy. We did rice cereal for a week, then oatmeal for a week, then barley cereal. Altogether, I spent about a month on just cereal. I gradually added more cereal at each meal, then added a second meal and finally worked on making it thicker. By the end of the month, she was eating 1/4 cup dry cereal at a meal, and it was a REALLY thick consistency, like thick mashed potato consistency thick.

I then went onto fruits and veggies. Since she was already used to really thick cereal, I gave her fruits and veggies really thick. Things like adult applesauce (unsweetened), mashed avocado thinned with formula, homemade sweet potato mashed and thinned with formula.

By the time we had worked our way through all the major fruits and veggies (it takes awhile when you wait 3-5 days in between each one), we were ready for proteins, yogurts and cheeses. After that she was ready for finger foods (Cheerios, small pieces of toast, small pieces of fruits, chunks of sweet potatoes). Since about 10 months, she was eating only table food (and her formula of course).

It is important to remember that during the first year, formula or breastmilk should be the main staple of their diet. The first foods are for introducing tastes and textures. For us, it was a gradual process. At 6 months she was getting 99% of her nutrition from breastmilk and formula. By one year, she was getting almost all her nutrition from solids. But the process was very gradual. Not every baby is ready for the same things at the same time.

I found the book "Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense" by Ellyn Satter to be invaluable as we made the foray into solids.

HTH,

[Marisa6826]

Beth-

Thanks for the input. I've been looking for the Satter book, but haven't found it. I'm planning on ordering from Amazon.

We tried a little rice cereal last night. She took about 1/2 tsp. very thin - like very watery yogurt thin. She didn't seem to impressed, but we got some good video of it!

Thanks again

-m