breastfeeding and solids poll

[dannii]

Hi girls, im curious to find at what age you breastfeeding mums introduced solids. Indy is going on 4 months and i had planned to start introducing solids at 6 months but i would almost say she will be ready earlier.

Im just starting a poll so i can sort of see where the majority is.
thanks for your help!!

[sopolicha]

Had fully intended to wait until the magical six month mark, but I have one hungry baby. I started to feed her solids around the four month mark and she has never looked back.

[Rockett]

I started DD on solids at just over 5 months,she was a really slow weight gainer and I didn't want to put her on formula,so solids it was.:)

[fee's]

Had fully intended to wait until the magical six month mark, but I have one hungry baby. I started to feed her solids around the four month mark and she has never looked back.

ditto - still can't get enough in him he would just keep eating as long as I keep shovelling it in - my little piggie.:p

[draught]

I was lucky - two big babies who were happy with just breast milk - one was way off the chart just on milk and the other towards the top, and they were both not too fussed about food one way or another. Made it very easy to wait.

[veve]

I voted hypothetically :D

Jack is still on milk... but he is 4 months old now... and i think I will probably start him on solids at around the 5 month mark...

theoretically,.... that is the possible plan :rolleyes:

xxx

[misskittyfantastico]

I'm waiting until six months (about a week away now!). DD is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight and really hasn't been looking for anything more...so I'm happy to wait (she does feed every 2.5 to 3 hrs during the day) In fact I'm a bit impatient LOL - we've got the highchair and the rice cereal at the ready!:laughing:

[xkwzit]

Fortunately I don't need to vote twice. We started DD1 on solids at 4 months because at the time, that was the recommended age. She also had barely acceptable weight gains, which made us keen to start giving her something else.

We started DD2 at 5 months, she seemed ready, keen to try our food, watching us eat, getting stoppy while we ate when we wouldn't share, could hold her head and sit in a high chair. The recommendation had changed ITMT, but having started solids at 4 months with DD1, I couldn't believe that I would be harming DD2 by starting earlier if she would take it (you see that would mean that I had harmed DD1 - that's the way it computes in my headspace anyway :rolleyes: ).

Cheers

[the_queen]

When Vallerie was a bubs, the most up-to-date expert advice said "4-6 months" for solids. We had to switch to formula full-time at around 16 weeks :crying: and I think I started her on farex and pureed veges about 2 weeks later. :D
This one I'm planning on delaying solids until at least 6 months (at the very earliest) but having said that, of course I can't predict the future with much certainty!! I'll see how it goes. But I'm definately going to wait until 6 months. I am looking forward to having just those sweet-smelling and few-and-far-between breastfed poo's for as long as possible!! :p

[Jenko]

I had intended on waiting till 6 months. My GP reccomended i start DD at 4 months as she was a slow weight gainer. I kept it very simple (rice cereal, apple, pear and pumpkin) till she was 6 months.

I think all bubs are different and it's up to each of us to decide at the time what is best. :)

[dannii]

thanks heaps to everyone who replied, and keep them coming as i really like to find out what everyone chose to do.

I do have a question though.. my kids started at 4 months.. coz thats what i *thought* i was spoed to do (except ds1 who was earlier coz thats what the doc said) anyways..

Indy is quite a big bub , i thought she may be interested in solids to keep her more content and thought i might start her at 4 months, she does show interests in food, but yet, at this stage she puts anything she gets a hold of into her mouth! :rolleyes:

BUT on the other hand. .
i also considered the other side of it, as, she IS a big bub, so obviously shes thriving on just breast milk :confused: and thats all she needs, and size plays no real part ???

i dont really know what to do, as i really had planned to wait till the 6 month mark, but would prefer to do whats best for her and not by the books IYKWIM.
in saying that i know im asking what everyone else done, but just hoping to see the difference in everyone.

I hope i have explained this well enough, anyways what do you think?

[Goosie22]

Hi,

Its hard to make a decision when you aren't given all he information just told to start doing it around this age. Here are some links to other pages about delaying solids and why it is recommended by WHO ammong others.

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html

http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna/bf/article14.html

[Jem]

i started my boys on solids just before 4 months :D

[Milly]

I started my daughter at 6 months but went relatively conservatively. She was rice cereal and vegies from 6-9 months and then light servings of meat at 9 months and dairy products at 12 months. The servings were not overly big too as breastmilk was still her main source of nutrition. Solids are complementary to (Breast)milk feeds and not a replacement for them. We were still on 4-5 plus breastfeeds a day. My daughter now at 23 months is an excellent eater, so I find that there was no harm in relatively conservtive introduction. In fact I think it was quite a way to go with her. Her fussiness is relatively minimal.

With my son, I intend to introduce solids perhaps even later around the 7-8 month mark as he is a very sensitive boy (skin etc), so, I don't want to challenge his senistivities too soon. So, we'll see how we go there anyway. But won't be in a hurry for that.

All the best in what you decide. If your baby is thriving well on breastmilk alone, then you really don't need to hurry if you don't want to. See how you go I suppose. :)

[JE's Mum]

I started Jack on solids around 5 months, again because his weight gain slowed from around 3 months. But to be honest it was a complete waste of time because he didn't really show much interest in eating until at least 6 months and never really ate much at all until 10 months. Starting early was just a whole lot of extra work for no reason.

In general, breastfed babies slow down in their weight gain from 3 months. THere are some breastfed baby growth charts at kellymom.com which are worth having a look at. I wish I had seen them earlier. I wouldn't have worried so much about my boys weight. He was well within the healthy weight range for breastfed babies!

[Miaow]

In general, breastfed babies slow down in their weight gain from 3 months

Thanks JE's Mum those charts are interesting. Ive been thinking actually the last day or so of trying some rice cereal on EJ as her weight has slowed quite a bit the last few weeks and she seems hungry all the time (4 mnonths)

[Oscar's mum]

Well I waited until the magic 6 month mark and then he didn't really go to well with the solids so we put it off for a few weeks so he really didn't get into the solids until he was 7 months or so!:)

[sopolicha]

Dannii,

My girl was solely bf for 4 months. A lovlier fatter babier you have never seen.
She was ready for food without a doubt.

I had fully intended for nothing else to pass her lips than bm for 6 months.

She had lost the tounge reflex, the gob was always open if a piece of cutlery came within a metre of it and, like X's girl she would get very stroppy if people were eating infront of her and not sharing. I felt it was the best thing I could do.

I asked a GP about it and she said some time between 4 and 6 months.

We have never looked back. With DD 1 she was born at 34 weeks and she was eating solids at four months, without the age adjustment. So who really knows, give it a try and if it works good, if it doesn't try again later.

[Funkychicken]

With my first two the recommended age to start introducing was 4 months so that's what we did. I so clearly remember how time consuming mixing, blending, freezing, spoon feeding etc... was so I am happy to wait until six months. This is purely my own selfish reasons though and I may have to re-evaluate in time (Hamish is not quite 3 months). I'll wait and see and I might go back a few posts and read the links posted by Goosie22.

[JodieC]

My girl was solely bf for 4 months. A lovlier fatter babier you have never seen.
She was ready for food without a doubt.

I had fully intended for nothing else to pass her lips than bm for 6 months.

She had lost the tounge reflex, the gob was always open if a piece of cutlery came within a metre of it and, like X's girl she would get very stroppy if people were eating infront of her and not sharing. I felt it was the best thing I could do.





I was the same,and i had no intention of starting him on solids til he was 6 months, my boy is BF and has consistantly been on the 90th percentile but after his feeds it was like he was looking for more, i know there is nothing wrong with my supply as i can quite easily express over 200ml in less than 10 minutes, so one morning i thought i would try him on a lil rice cereal, he loved it.

I have absolutely no doubt that i made the right decision.

Women hundreds of years ago didnt have anyone when the right time to do anything was, they just followed their instincts, and as humans we have thrived. So all i have done is to follow my instincts. Nobody knows your baby like you do, so starting solids should be done when you feel its right not when someone else tells you

[Me]

I intend on introducing solids around the 4 mth mark as I don't have enough milk to keep my little one satisfied. I am comp feeding formula atm but am keeping it to a minimum as i want to continue to bf for as long as possible. by introducing solids rather than more formula my dd will have 2 very different food sources - suck from breast and eat from spoon - this difference should help with continuing to bf for longer - well that's what i'm hoping...

[becca74]

In the UK they advise 4 months as being the time to start solids, and a bit earlier with bigger hungrier babies - at the advice of a gp, so this is what I did, very successfully with my first 2 sons. Upon moving to Australia, and having my 3rd son here, I was told by everyone and anyone (gp, family, well-meaning strangers) not to dare start solids till 6 months.....I wish I'd ignored the lot of them!

My son started sleeping for longer periods when he hit 3months old (11pm -7am) and I was thinking YIPPEE, this never happened with my other kids.....and at 4 months he started to show the tell-tale signs of hunger, and my instincts and past experience told me to start him on solids.....but through social pressure I figured I would wait, and from 4 months he started waking through the night looking for more boob, and there went my nights sleep - until December last year, when I totally stopped bf and he immediately slept through the night from then on for 12 hour stretches...... I just wonder if I had followed my instincts maybe things would have been a bit different??

And even when I started Oskar on solids, he didnt like pureed foods, and utterly refused them (I used to have a ball making up pureed veg combinations for my first 2 sons, joyfully watching them devour every morsel). All he wanted was hard food to knaw his teething jaws on, and very soon was having just a more chopped up version of whatever his big brothers were having. It felt like I'd totally bypassed a solid-food-weaning phase - it was weird.

This time round I will watch my baby for signs - the more kids I have had the more I have come to realise that mother truly does know best!!