Major solids phobia...stressing...please help set me straight!

[Judegirl]

We want to wait until dd is at least 6 months before starting solids; we thought there was a suspected link between early solids and diabetes and gastrointestinal problems later.

There are no known food allergies in either of our families, but there are stomach problems and dh is diabetic, though he's the only one in the family (and is young, fit, and eats well.)

Dd is 18 lbs (almost double her birth weight), supports herself well when sitting up, is eating a lot of EBM a day lately, and gets very excited when we eat. Our pediatrician, who is very progressive, said it was fine to start trying her on solids after the 4-month mark, but she also said it was fine to wait when I balked.

I hate the idea of starting her on solids - everything scares me, since no food these days is particularly "safe." But I don't want to delay it if she needs it, is ready for it, just because I have issues. :)

I've read the Kellymom stuff, and I have Super Baby Foods, but of course, nothing convinces me which way to go. She's on EBM and not nursing, so starting her on solids won't affect my supply. And if I'm not particularly worried about allergies, does it even matter? (It seems to me that, evolutionarily, babies should start eating when they have teeth...LOL.)

I'm looking for very opinionated responses, so please don't hold back!

Thanks once again...

Jude

[JElaineB]

Well, I started solids the day Jacob lunged at a pear I was eating and tried to chomp it. :) He had no teeth but it didn't seem to matter to him! I did let him have a couple of licks. I had planned to wait until six months but he was 5 months and 1 week old and was definitely ready: he was very attentive when we ate and clearly wanted food, could sit up pretty well on his own (not completely) and had pretty much lost the tongue thrust reflex. Since he was so interested I started him on pureed pears and he liked it from the start. A week or so later I tried rice cereal and just gave him those two foods for about a month. I say as long as you wait until your daughter "decides" she wants to eat you really can't go too wrong. Just wait 3-4 days between new foods and find out what foods to avoid until later. It is a little nervewracking at first, but once you get the hang of it it is kind of fun. I have always let DS guide me on how much he wants to eat and now he is a good eater, but only eats when he is hungry which was a big goal of mine.

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[californiagirl]

She doesn't need solids; the most pro-solids people don't think she *needs* solids until at least 6 months, regardless of her size. So you shouldn't worry about that.

Developmentally, she might be interested in trying out some new stuff with her mouth. Ours got a lot of joy out of learning to use a sippy cup with water in it, starting to learn about open cups with ice water, chewing on spoons, and sucking on ice cubes (in a baby safe feeder or when we were desperate for distractions and didn't have one, held in our fingers). These are all things that let her learn the mouth-skills she may be interested in picking up without involving solids.

I was completely stressed out about this for a while, and after a week or so I just accepted that she was interested in our food for the same reason she's interested in my keyboard now; she's interested in whatever we pay attention to. After my fit of worrying about it, we went on to introduce solids at 6 months, allowing me a month and a half to worry about other things before settling into the even more stressful phase of actually feeding her the solids.

[deenass]

Well, i didn't start solids until 7 months because there are a lot of allergy/gi issues in my family and once I did start, they were a pain in the neck. DS wanted the spoon and the apples or bananas everywhere but his mouth and gagged up anything remotely solid until he was 10 mos old. For months I went thre out half "eaten" 2 oz jars of food b/c he just wasn't interested. Finally at 10 mos I handed him a rice cake and he never looked back.

He just wasn't interested in food until then, WAY easier for me (BF is relatively mess free unlike solids!)

So, if you wnat to wait, your babe will be fine.

[Katia]

Trust your instincts...if they tell you to wait, wait!

I was also reluctant to start, and we've taken a very slow approach. Everything has been fine. EBM will give your DD everything she needs for quite a while, and the solids are mostly for educational and recreational purposes at this point. (I will admit, it is kind of fun to see your baby eat!)

[stillplayswithbarbies]

I didn't start until around 8.5 or 9 months. Most of what I read seemed to indicate that later is better. I wanted to be sure that food did not interfere with the iron absorption from breastmilk, so I waited until we went to her 9 month appointment (when they do the iron testing) before giving her even one taste of solids.

People say that their baby reaches for their food and tries to eat it . . . well babies that age put everything in their mouth and want to grab whatever we have. Just because baby reaches for my pen when she is on my lap does not mean she is ready to start writing. :)

What I did when she wanted to grab for everything is to give her a spoon to play with, a baby spoon with the soft covering, and sit her at the table with us at mealtime so she could start to get used to the concept of mealtime and start to get used to having a spoon in her mouth. She played with the spoon and chewed on it (both ends!) for a long time and was content to just be with us at mealtime.

My ped was supportive of starting later. (in fact he even wrote me a note for daycare that said not to feed her any solids) He says that babies need just breastmilk for the first year and any solids are just for practice. (which I agree with) By waiting until she was older, we avoided a lot of the issues and struggles that some people face in trying to get their babies to swallow foods when their mouth and jaw and tongue are not mature enough for it yet.

I did start giving her sips of water out of a straw when she was about 6 or 7 months old. At that age the sucking instinct is still strong so they can learn to drink from a straw easily. That makes it much easier later because you don't have to deal with leaky sippy cups. (the straw cups don't leak)

My instinct said that she didn't need anything but breastmilk, and my reading and research backed that up. So I didn't start until I felt that I absolutely had to. I wanted to be sure she had plenty of practice by the time she was 12 months old, so I figured by starting at 9 months and giving her a few bites a day she would learn to eat by 12 months. That worked out perfectly for us.

...Karen
DS Jake Feb 91, DD Logan Mar 03
http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/superpower.gif http://members.aol.com/khowe14494/bo...breastfed2.gif

[aliceinwonderland]

I second the idea to trust your insticts. I am trusting mine, and though I had wanted to wait till 6 months, Erik will start on solids this weekend (5 months) This is because he is VERY hungry boy recently, and I do not thyink I can fulfill his needs. I go to school, and I cannot even pump HALF of what he is eating these days. I can't even pump in hte morning, becuase he is so hungry, he has been nursing every two hours!

So yea, go with your instics. Honestly in MY OPINION this waiting till after 6 month mark seems like another "trend" to me: you know your babe better than anyone! My mom started us on solids (homemade foods) at 3 months, whi8le also nursing us until 9 months, and I have NO allergies whatsoever and am a very healthy person :)