Introducing SOLIDS...

[parentingrocks]

Hi Ladies,

I just wanted to ask when is the 'norm' to introduce solids and how on earth do you go about it???? What are bubs supposed to eat, and how does it work - do you substitute when you would normally be feeding them milk with the solids instead? How many feeds per day should be solids instead of milk... and then by what age should they be off milk altogether and just eating normal food. Please tell me whatever you know I am totally clueless (as you can probably tell!) on this topic!!!!

Thanks in advance............. :)

[Cordelia]

I'm an expert - NOT!!!!! but this is my knowledge:

Slowly and as late as possible!!!

Their main source of food is milk til they're 12 months. Start off with baby rice AFTER a feed (usually lunch in case it has a bad reaction and they wont keep you up all night!)... its just a taste at this stage. so one meal a day for ages and then you can try pureed veges (fruit is after so they dont get addicted to sweetness). Don't stay on the baby rice for long as it can make them constipated.

At around 9-10 months you can start to do finger food and working at getting them on 3 meals a day. They keep having to have 600ml of dairy through toddler years. But at 12 months you can give them cows milk in a beaker and have them on other dairy too like yoghurt and cheese.

When? used to be 6 months. but nwo they say 4-6 months but definitely not before! Your baby may start waking, can sit up with support, will be trying to grab at your food and can make chewing motions. If they're breastfed they're ready when their tongue doesn't stick out when somethign's put in their mouth!!!!

Hope my wisdom (NOT!) helps :P

[zephani]

In the Feeding - weaning and solids section there is a sticky to a BubHub newsletter from August 2008 that discusses this. It can be found here (http://www.bubhub.com.au/community/forums/showthread.php?t=195947). I also bought Robin Barker's 'Baby and Toddler Meals' book. She is the author of Baby Love. Her book has some great recipes in it.

[Purplebird]

With DD the recommendations were no food until 6 months, but now I think it may have been revised to 4-6 months (although I would check up on that). As pp said, milk is still the most important food source until the age of 1. In fact, 'food for fun, until one' was my mantra. I used 'baby lead weaning' which meant waiting to see signs of food readiness and starting with finger foods from the word go. She always had her breastfeeds on demand still and then I added some tastes of food at 'mealtimes'. I have a very, very good eater now who has never been fussy - of course I might just have got lucky :)

If you're interested you can read more about baby led weaning in that section :)

[parentingrocks]

thanks heaps ladies.
xxx

[natski]

With DS, I was told 6 months, no less as their digestive system isn't developed enough to introduce other foods. But as the others have said, this may have been revised, so check with your clinic. They should have some brochures to give you a bit of information too.

I started with farex cereal in the morning and then introduced fruit and vegetables at first. DS's doctor (who is a kids doctor) suggested that you introduce one food at a time for 3-5 days so you can look for any allergic reactions. After cereal, stewed and pureed apples, pears, pumpkin and sweet potato are huge favourites. As someone suggested, there are books out there that give you some advice and I found Baby Love had some great advice on introducing solids. Just make sure you're giving the right foods at the right times - eg. honey is a no-no before 12 months as with cows milk and I think egg is later too - like 9 or 10 months (but don't quote me on that one).

You'll get there....it kinda just all falls into place (hopefully!!!)

[LivingINhope]

With DS1 I was told 6 months, some people with reflux babies are told to start earlier. You always start with rice cereal and build up from there.

I have a book by Annabel Karmel called the new complete baby and toddler meal planner, it tells you what food and when and has great recipes also.

[natski]

There's also a great Women's Weekly cookbook you can find in newsagents - it's got lots of recipes for babies to toddlers and even some birthday party stuff. It was really handy for me when we got to the stage after introducing the inital pureed foods, when we then introduced meat and other stuff - had a great variety of recipes.

It's pink and has two cute toddlers on the cover.

[sweetseven]

My sixth child had a huge appetite.

Ever since she was two months old, she watched me eating with such intensity that I felt guilty for not sharing with her. I held off to four months, which was the old reccomendation (I did not think she would've handled waiting until she was six months.)

I started with a little mashed potato off my plate, which she ate eagerly. I started making special food for her, by blending vegetables, and two days later she would eat two 90g jars full a day. By the end of the first week she would eat four 90g jars full in a sitting, and do this two or three times a day.

From six months, she ate whatever we had. I would just put hers in the blender first. And she would eat about 1-2 cupfuls at a time. I was amazed, I had never had a child eat so much. She got so excited every time she heard the blender.

Note: I did spoonfeed her, but nothing was forced onto her. And as soon as she lost interest the meal was over.

When we went to sizzlers, she would get a little pumpkin soup, but didn't seem overly fussed on it. And after that, a plate of diced watermellon honey dew, and rockmellon, but she only ate the watermellon.

As she got older, the blender was removed from the equation.

Now she is 2½yrs and still eats well, but not overly so anymore. And she was never fat either. The other thing that amazed me about this child was the size of her poos, but I guess all that food had to go somewhere.

---------

My current bub is watching us eat, but it seems more out of curiosity than that she thinks she is missing out on something. I intend to offer her food at four months, but it will depend on her enthusiam as to whether she starts solids regularly then, or later.

[Incy Wincy]

When I was weaning my first child a friend of mine lent me a book by Annabel Karmel called 'New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner'. It's contains everything you need to know including a 'First tastes meal planner' detailing which feeds should be milk only and when/what solids to introduce.

Annabel Karmel also has a website containing loads of useful info including recipes.

Weaning is certainly a very messy, fun time. It's great seeing the expressions on baby's face when they try something new.

Incy x

[kar]

We are giving it a crack starting next week on advice of MCHN with my 4 month old. He is showing all the signs of wanting something more than milk (staring intently when we eat, always hungry for milk, quite unsettled) and is very very active. He also has reflux which is another reason to start trying a bit early.

Starting with a taste of rice cereal (1tsp) once a day and seeing if he is interested. She said you keep trying for 10 days as this is how long it may take for them to get used to it. If they don't want it after than try again in a couple of weeks. She said if they are ready they will eat it, if not they wont.

The advice I had was that between 4 and 6 months always do full milk feed first then try a bit of solids about 15 - 30 minutes later. It is also a slow build up over a 2-3 weeks before they are getting enough to have any nutritional impact.

[ts0010]

I had to start my baby on Farex at 3 1/2 mths as he was being minded while I was at work and REFUSED the bottle. Thankfully he liked the Farex straight away and was a good way to get EBM into him still.

He's been on it 3 weeks now and quite happily takes 1 1/2-2tblsps of it once a day. We did move it up to twice a day but then he lost interest in the boob and wasnt feeding well so we changed it back.

How long do you normally wait after they are doing well on Farex before trying vege's?
I thought maybe I should wait another month seeing as he started solids early?

[Maybelline]

a good bit of advice i got was to put the food on babys bottom lip first to see if there is any reaction... as a allergic reaction outside of the tummy is best...my girl will be 5 months at end of month..we still havent done solids..will wait till she is 6 months or very close

[BubsNo1]

William is just over 5 months and we started him on solids last weekend. So far he is really enjoying his pear & banana flavoured farex and gulps about 1-2 tablespoons in one sitting. (he is still having 4 x 250ml bottles a day) at the moment we are giving him the farex at dinner time. I'm thinking I might start giving him some farex for breakfast and try him on some pureed pumpkin tomorrow night, see how that goes. :chef: :D