When do you start to feed your baby solids?

Sara - posted on 04/10/2010

from my experience to be honest i fed most of my kids really quite early from say around 3mths and up but i only started them on really small quantities of farex even smaller than what they recommend on the box just for now, and then obviously increase when age appropriate... i mean cos you can see it in their little eyes that they want more than just milk, but i wouldnt recommend giving them dairy just yet. Yoghurt i would prob give around 7mths or so. Also the main reason for starting my kids so early on baby cereals and things was just to cut out the hassle of a stubborn baby that may not take to eating solids when it was time to start routinely feeding but once again i say that this comes from my own personal experience and was blessed with children that thankfully do not have intolerances with any foods.

Adhrua - posted on 04/08/2010

well my childs doc advised solids only after he completes 6 months and that too banana for a week and then some rice based stuff etc. we had a whole schedule

Grace - posted on 04/08/2010

Babies aren't ready for anything other than breast milk or formula until around 5-6 mo. The signs a baby is ready are she will have the hand-eye coordination to pick things up and put them in her mouth and she will show interest in what you are eating. Dairy should not be added until after 1 year as it is a high allergen. Remember any solids you feed her take the place of her highly nutritious first food, and she will be unable to get the full nutritional value from them until older. At 3 month, solids are just filler, not added nutrition.

Courtney - posted on 04/08/2010

never feed a child solids until 6 months. at 6 months you start giving the child abay cereal.

Erin - posted on 04/08/2010

No dairy until at least a year old!!! It's best to start out slowly with rice cereal in the 5th month and then start introducing veggies at 6 months. Make sure that you start one food at a time and wait about a week to introduce another. If she has a reaction to something you want to be able to know what it is. If you are breastfeeding you can use pumped milk to mix the cereal and other foods. It's best to go through most of the vegetables before you start fruits. Sometimes when fruits are introduced before veggies they won't eat the veggies. We started with carrots and other orange or yellow veggies then moved onto the greens, which worked very well. Keep in mind that the sooner solids are introduced the higher the chance of developing allergies. Their little bodies can attack foods that they aren't ready for and cause allergies. I hope this helps :)

Andrea - posted on 04/07/2010

Yogurt and cheese are different from other dairy products. Yogurt can be introduced as early as 7 months and cheese at 8 months.

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/dairy.h...

Keeshea - posted on 04/07/2010

I started feeding my son solids when he was 5 months old - starting with rice cereal.

Glenda - posted on 04/07/2010

In most cases, you should wait until 6 mos. People will tell you all sorts of things, but 6m is the "standard" time now. Check with your pediatrician, since s/he knows your baby's circumstances.

Celeste - posted on 04/07/2010

Typically it is recommended to start solids at six months. I didn't give any dairy products until my daughter was a year old. You could always discuss this with your doctor since he/she knows your baby and can make an educated recommendation. I waited until my daughter was six months and started with rice cereal. Then I introduced foods gradually and slowly which worked out well for both of us. When I introduced a new food I waited about 3 days before introducing another. This way I would know exactly what caused a reaction if she developed one.

Carrie - posted on 04/07/2010

I agree that dairy foods is not the place to start. Rice cereals (mixed with breastmilk if possible is good to help avoid constipation that can often accompany starting on solids), banana, applesauce is where you'd want to start, but not for a couple more months. And even then, start them slowly and see how their body reacts. I have a 3-1/2 month old now, too, and she is starting to watch us eat with interest, but I still think it is best to wait until closer to 6 months unless there is a medical/health related reason to start sooner. I have let her just "lick" on some mild fruits like pears while I am eating them just to let her taste and appease her curiosity, but am not letting her actually eat any of it. That seems to satisfy her right now. Try to be patient :) Your baby will be eating soon enough. Also, they used to do all kinds of crazy things when my mom was having kids that we now know was just plain wrong, so always double-check advice from generations past is my advice. They mean well, but don't always know best. (My mom had her breasts taped up and baby put on Karo syrup with her first baby in the mid-50s! And with the next couple babies they thought formula was better than breast milk back then.) Do some research online. There is a ton of great info out there :)

September - posted on 04/07/2010

We started our son on solids (rice cereal) at 6 months. It's recommended that you introduce dairy’s around 8 months of age.

Amanda - posted on 04/07/2010

Six months is when you should start solids...keep in mind that the baby may not like them so keep trying..it's not that she needs the food, she needs to learn how to eat. Babies should be exclusively breastfed/formual fed until 6months of age. The reason, if you starts solids too soon, the baby's digestive tract is not ready to break down solids, so it puts them at higher risk for allergies and digestion problems.

Christa - posted on 04/07/2010

um.. i didn't do heavy foods like that, but i did mix a lil bit of juice with some baby cereal so it was really thin and spoon fed that to them when they were 3 months old, they loved it and filled them up more so they weren't as hungry for milk : )

Connie - posted on 04/07/2010

i dont know about dairy but i started giving mine little tastes of food early... hot cereal, applesauce, mashed potatoes, they let you know how much they want. just remember not to force, pay attention to body language. when they turn away they are usually done.

Heather - posted on 04/07/2010

I would say it would depend on your child. I have 3 grown children and when they were babies they were all diffferent. My first was actually always hungry. I started him on pablum at the age of 6 weeks. Yes that's right. My doctor said to introduce very slowly which I did and it was only once a day. This seemed to content him for most of the time until I started him on the baby jar food. But we never gave any dairy until at least 9 months old. My other two started later on the food because they did not need it. So I would say it would depend on your child. I find now a days people are too dependant on what the books say. This is only my opinion.

Kristin - posted on 04/06/2010

First, stay away from dairy for a while, like almost 1 year old. You do not want to deal with the issues associated with lactose intolerance or allergy at this age. If your baby is growing just fine on what she's getting now, carry on as you are. She doesn't need anything else at this point. If your doctor is recommending giving her more, I would imagine they mean formula not solids.



As for solids in general, 4 to 6 months is pretty standard. I waited until mine cut their first tooth and they were avidly watching, if not grabbing at, what I was eating. When you do start solids, start with a soupy infant cereal (rice, oatmeal, barley but not wheat just yet), then pureed veggies and fruits. Go slow and don't introduce too much too fast, you still need to watch for adverse reactions to what you are giving her.



Your pediatrician will go over all of this with you. Especially if you call to talk to them about it. They want your baby to be as healthy as you want her to be. Good luck and happy feeding.

Andrea - posted on 04/06/2010

It is recommended to start solids at 6 months old because their bodies are developed enough yet to digest solid food.

This website has lots of information on starting solids.

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/solids....

Louise - posted on 04/06/2010

All government guide lines say 6 moths but this is only to make sure babies kidneys are ready to deal with food and waste. Me personnally have had three very large babies all around 10lbs and milk was just not enough.My older children all had baby cereals about three months. My daughter never liked milk so the doctor gave up trying different brands of formula and she went onto baby food at 10 weeks old. This I do not reccomend if your child does not have any problems with milk. I started with a simple sugar free rusk and then onto baby cereals that were flavoured made up with formula milk before bedtime and over several weeks made the amounts bigger. I did not start giving dairy products until she was 6 months incase she had any allergies I did not know about. Your baby will tell you when she is ready for solids by decreasing the time between feeds and chewing her fists as she is hungry.