Introducing solids

[Dream]

DD2 will be 6 months in 2 weeks. I was planning on waiting till she's 6 months to start her on solids. But recently she showing great interest in food, she stares at her sister eating and starts moving her mouth as if she's munching and swollowing. She has good head control, but doesn't sit yet. She doubled her birth weight. She was sleeping 5-6 hrs at a stretch in the night but now she wakes up every 3-4 hrs.

Fo the above reasons I'm thinking of introducing solids now rather than waiting. Her sister was allergic to Wheat, Peanuts and Egg whites but has outgrown her Wheat allergy. So far DD2 has not shown any signs of food allergy.

Should I start DD2 on rice cereal or whole grain cereal? Or should I skip boxed cereal altogether and start her on Banana or Avocado?

In the begining should I offer her solids just for breakfast? Or more than once a day?

I know I shouldn't introduce a new food for 3-4 days, but should I continue to offer her the same food everyday?

She's only taking expressed BM now. About 5oz every 4 hrs or so. I know for the first year her main meal should be BM or formula. So should I offer her solids first and then a bottle to top her off?

Also where can I get a long sleeve bib for ber?

[brittone2]

Personally, I won't offer until they are sitting.

Have you considered baby led weaning? (weaning=intro of solids in this case). There are some great threads in the feeding forum, and quite a few BBB members who use this approach.

eta: we skip cereals. I did a little bit of rice cereal with my oldest and he hated it, and it added to his constipation issues. I didn't use it at all w/ baby #2 and baby #3.

[mackmama]

Our pedi told us to do the following:

-Introduce whole grain rice cereal first - only a couple of tablespoons - in between regular feedings. Do this once a day for 4 days.

-Next add in a pureed fruit or veggie (sweet potato, peas, avocado, banana - your choice) *mixed with the rice cereal*. Feed a couple of tbsp of this mixture once a day for 4 days.

-Next add in another fruit or veggie. So you will then be feeding a couple of tbsp of a mixture of rice cereal, puree#1, plus puree #2. Do this for 4 days.

-Keep adding in a new fruit or veggie every 4 days to the repertoire. You don't have to mix in all previously fed purees every day - you can mix and match. Just only introduce a new puree every 4 days.

I found this website very helpful http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/solidfood4to6montholdbaby.htm
There are charts on what to feed by age and also menus.

Our DC didn't love the plain cereal but liked it better once mixed with puree. We also introduced oatmeal cereal later which DC likes better.

HTH!

[JBaxter]

mine started from about 3 months to 8 months depending on the child. I skipped the cereals they are constipating BIG time for mine. I started with pears ( organic peel and steam mushy) I mashed with a fork. I usually alternated fruit / veggie. Bananas gave all 4 of my boys belly pains so we waited for a bit on those.

Now all mine were sitting in the 4-4.5 month age range ( tri-pod style)

[sste]

Dream, this isn't what you are asking but if you are interested at all in delaying I am now a huge fan of waiting a few months and assessing readiness and number of teeth. With DD I delayed solids until 8.5 months, she had four teeth, and from the get-go she was able to eat primarily finger food/torn up bits of our food and even spoon some apple sauce into her own mouth. So there was no endless pureeing foods and spooning rice cereal. I found all of that to be a huge PITA with my son - -though some people enjoy the spooning foods and like that milestone. Another benefit was I really believe it helped maintain my BFing supply.

My DH was pretty opposed but he is now a complete convert and if we have more we will delay solids until 8 or 9 months or whenever they can self-feed!! We are pretty lazy. :)

[bcafe]

I hold off until 8-9 months. We go straight to table foods, so no purees, etc. I have found that once they are of the above age, BLW is the only way to go. My LO went right at it once she started, gagged a bit to get used to different textures, and now she is off and running with it. She will try anything and has no preference, as long as it is food! If you have never seen or tried BLW, the gagging takes a bit to get used to, but they are just figuring out what to do with this "stuff" in their mouth. It diminishes in no time.

[BabyBearsMom]

We started solids at around the same time. DD wasn't able to get herself into a sitting position by herself when we started, but if you put her in one she could balance for 30 or so seconds. I think if they are interested in solids, 5.5 months isn't a bad thing.

We started with mushed food but DD was not interested in that. So after about a month of trying cereals, bananas, avocados etc, I researched baby led weaning and tried that. DD absolutely LOVED it.

As a reminder, always feed them their milk first, don't just top off afterwards with milk, because it is important that they get all of their milk (solids are in addition to milk, not instead of milk). We always fed her solid about an hour after her bottle. It was a really fun time. Enjoy it!

[BabyBearsMom]

Oh and Ikea has great inexpensive sleeved bibs. I love them!

[BabbyO]

FWIW, we did BLW (baby led weaning) and started at about 6.5 mo old. Our ped told us to wait until he was 6 mo to introduce solids. At that point he was REALLY interested in the food on our plates. I tried to introduce rice cereal, with NO luck. He HATED the texture and it was clear to me that he wanted our food. So I did some research and found the BLW method and read the book Baby Led Weaning by Gill Rapley.

For us it made lots of sense and answered many of your questions.

In the beginning, we offered DS milk (nursed or expressed BM) first. Then when DH and I ate dinner, we'd offer food to DS. I think we started with toast fingers that had avocado spread on them. Milk was his primary food since at the beginning the goal is to introduce textures and flavors and give DC a chance to explore and learn how to manipulate food and move it around in their mouth.

I don't think the meal that you start with is important. As I noted we started with dinner...but that was just because it was the time of day that worked best for DH and I. Then lunch was introduced at the sitters, I think breakfast was the last "meal" introduced to DS.

We gave DS the same food for 2-3 days at first, usually offered once/day. However, I will admit that I quickly gave up on that (after about 1 mo or so) because DS wanted to try other things and would reach/grab for various food on our plates.

I only mention the BLW method because the way you describe your DD reminds me SO much of DS when he was showing interest.

Sorry, not sure about the LS bib, but I will note that I found it handy to get a cheap ($2) shower curtain and cut it in half to put under DS' high chair. There was a lot of food dropping initially, and this saved a lot of work and is a much cheaper alternative to the special floor mats they sell for as much as $25.

[MamaInMarch]

There are so many ways to intro solids and I personally am a fan of baby led weaning. The above suggestions are great. You can also find info on beginning solids on the La Leche League site.

I really just wanted to chime in with a reminder that solids are all about play and exploration. The main part of LO's diet til at least a year should still be breast milk. Feed a normal meal of BM then offer solids to play/taste.

[BabbyO]

There are so many ways to intro solids and I personally am a fan of baby led weaning. The above suggestions are great. You can also find info on beginning solids on the La Leche League site.

I really just wanted to chime in with a reminder that solids are all about play and exploration. The main part of LO's diet til at least a year should still be breast milk. Feed a normal meal of BM then offer solids to play/taste.

Ditto to this....I think whatever way you introduce solids you just need to pay attention to what your LO's needs seem to be. Some kids BLW is the only way...other kids would NEVER do BLW, and that is fine.

What MamaInMarch said about this being a time to explore and play and learn about foods is REALLY true and BM or formula should be their primary diet at least 1 yo, ITA with this!

[Dream]

Thanks, I will definitely look into baby led weaning.

[BayGirl2]

In terms of physical readiness, I think the ability to sit is ideal and definitely that they have lost the tongue thrust reflex, I didn't see that mentioned above. We started earlier, at 4 months, but DS had met both those milestones and showed a strong interest so I considered him ready.

I believe we started with avocado instead of rice cereal, if we didn't I probably will next time. Oatmeal was more popular than rice cereal for us too. I also liked wholesomebabyfood.com for great information.