Starting Solids
The current recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics is to start solids between 4-6 months. I believe they're emphasizing 6 months nowadays? Well, here we are at 6 months, and I'm not feeling so ready to start solids. The current system is so easy - no mess, very portable, etc. I'm definitely not the type that can hardly wait to start and am always giving my sweetie tastes of food. It feels rather abrupt to change our regular routine. And Amara resisted baby food and didn't eat much solid food for a long time, so I feel a little clueless. But, I did some reading last night, and found that because Ethan's a bit older, I can opt for chunkier pieces if fruits, instead of pureed baby food. That sounds much better to me - to hand him small pieces of fruits and appropriate simple foods we're eating, then work up to table foods over time. I do think he may have gotten a taste of FAKE CHEESE, of all things, when I was holding him and making mac n cheese the other day! Otherwise, no solids yet (unless you count paper, which he's always trying to chew on!! Some has probably found its way along the path...)
5 Comments:
It took a long time for us to get Max in the swing of breast-feeding, because of the prematurity. I loved it so much that I was really reluctant to add solid foods to the mix, and I waited until he was close to seven months old. He finally started trying to grab things that we were eating, and opening and closing his mouth to imitate our chewing, so we knew it was time.
maybe you know, but we don't do baby food. My kids start on mashed potatoes and bits of soft bread, working up to cheerios and granola. At some point that year, they get yogurt and bits of fruit.
you probably know La Leche League's guidelines- 6 months, sitting up, high interest in eating... if you're not a clock watcher for nursing or sleeping, why start for this? :)
Amen on the clock watching. Owen never did really reach for food but we finally got started around seven months. I have a feeling Soren will be interested earlier, given his personality, but I'm definitely waiting until the six month mark. And we didn't do baby food from jars, either. I'll be interested to see how it goes with Ethan. It seems like so long ago...I forget. And the breastfeeding sure is easy, at this point. You don't even have to think about it or prepare anything or clean up messy hands, face and clothes...
Amara never really showed any interest in baby food, though my attempts were probably half-hearted. I only tried to give her rice cereal once. Anyways, we ended up just giving her bits of table food as she got old enough.
I think she was about 16 months when she'd actually eat things like applesauce willingly. Then, I occassionally gave her babyfood just to get her to eat a bigger variety of fruit. Even then, it was rare.
I was reading on kellymom.com the other night; that's where I got my info. http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/finger-foods.html suggests giving chunkier foods. It just seems so much more logical to give baby appropriate bits of our food, instead of making a separate meal all the time. Seems silly.
Thanks for the reassurance!
kellymom has good stuff :)
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