We started at 5.5 months, she was ready then. We did get some comments about starting around 4 months, but mostly over the phone so easier to just listen and then keep doing what we were doing.
We started at 5.5 months, she was ready then. We did get some comments about starting around 4 months, but mostly over the phone so easier to just listen and then keep doing what we were doing.
DD January 2008
DS September 2011
I started with DS1 at 4 months and he did great right away. DS2 is 4 months 2 weeks now and we will try this weekend.
DS1 2006
DS2 2009
We started at 6 months with DD1 and at 6 months and a week or two with DD2, but she really wasn't into it. We'd try again every few days, but we didn't consistently start offering her daily meals until about 8 months.
DD1 2003
DD2 2008
6 months for us too.
DD1 & DD2 9/2008
DD started at 6.5 months, but didn't really eat much til 11 months. We didn't start DS til 7.5 months, and he has eaten a lot ever since. We like to go straight to table foods (starting with soft bits of banana, avocado, homemade chunky applesauce), skipping purees, so older is better for us. People did ask when DD was going to start solids a lot, but by the time DS got to that age, I think everyone was used to us doing things differently than most other parents we are friends with, so they didn't ask too much. When they did, I responded that breastmilk is all they need for the first year, and solids are just for practice.
Allison
DD1 11/05
DS 04/08
DD2 11/11
DS started at 24 weeks. He was ready probably a little earlier. We got asked a lot about when he'd start solids. It was getting to me a bit but I guess they were just trying to be helpful and they were concerned that DS was not getting enough nourishment.
We started DD at around 4 months - at that time she was nursing so much in the evenings that I couldn't put her down so I could eat dinner, so the "early start" was to save my sanity. (she would not take a bottle at all) We took it easy and didn't give her much except a small meal of dilute rice cereal until she was 5 months or so.
DS we started last week just shy of 6 months. He probably had doubled his birth weight by 4 months and has been sitting sturdily in the high chair for a few weeks now. It didn't seem right to wait much longer, but I'm sad for the stinkier diapers. And as he is likely my last baby, I'm selfishly sad to have him growing up too fast.
ncat
mama to DD 12/04, DS1 11/08, and DS2 7/13
We started at 6 months - we got LOTS of questioning from both family and mommy friends. I just smiled and said that's great when people would tell me how early their DC started solids.
We started at almost 9 months with the last baby and will do the same with this one. It was so easy when we waited that long. She went almost straight to table foods and we didn't have to do that thing where you scrape the puree off their chin and put it back in their mouth again.
foods before 12 months are just for practice, they shouldn't be getting enough to replace any calories of breastmilk or formula. And the longer you wait, the less they need to practice.
...Karen
ds 1991
dd 2003
dd 2008 now home from Taiwan!
The recs here in Quebec seem to be 6 months at least across the board from public health nurses, the govt, available literature, and peds. So, we waited until the tongue thrust thing was OK and started. Actually, I wish we'd waited a bit - until the middle of the 7th month at least, as DS really wasn't all that interested and it was very hard for all involved.
We didn't really have to deal with too many comments about not starting earlier than 6 mos. (a few from the older generation, not pushy, they just didn't know the new recs). But it does seem that there are more people who start at 4 mos. outside of this province, and the bulking up of bottles with rice cereal still seems to be common practice outside of QC too. I'm basing this on friends from ON, the Atlantic provinces, and the US. So, maybe the recs are different? I don't know. That may account for the "peer pressure" you're experiencing.
Based on our difficulties, if we have another DC I would wait until the child was really showing interest in others' food before starting. Whether that's 5, 6, or 9 months. You've got to do what's right for you, and what's right for your child. But it's certainly not a race
DS, Summer '07
"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world." ~Jack Layton