Hi Sterla,

Your health nurse probably suggested Farex - baby rice cereal. This thread is Baby-Led Solids thread which goes down a different path of feeding to that recommended by most MCHN. BLS is about giving your baby the same food that you eat and letting them feed themselves right from the start. That's it in a nutshell anyway, there is a little more to it than that. It isn't the kind of feeding that is for everyone, but I know I can personally recommend it and everyone else in here probably does too. But it is something you really need to do your research on to feel comfortable with because it isn't the 'norm'. Have a read back through our threads for a starting point!

I can tell you how we started on BLS though. Jett was about 5.5 months, same deal as you, wanted more and more feeds that persisted over a week, was totally interested in grabbing the food off our plates and shovelling it in to his mouth and putting our spoons in to his mouth too. So I started before the recommended 6 months, but I have no doubt that I actually started at the right time for him, he has not looked back since. I started by cutting carrots in to fingers and steaming them so that they still held their form when he was holding them but they were soft enough for him to suck. I tried this with a few vegetables and he just loved these interesting tasting toys!! A couple of weeks later he hit 6 months and I just started giving him a little bit of everything we ate in a shape that was easy for him to hold. This also included meat, not just fruit and vegies which is the food path you will be recommended to follow by the MCHN. He has not looked back since, and as per my post above he started off on about the 5th percentile and is now around the 50th and is just loving his food!! The babies get a great sense of empowerment for being able to control their intake of food, by holding it and feeding themselves. It is a very messy experience, but it is nothing that can't be cleaned up and the kids seem to have a ball, even if they don't seem to eat much. And of course the mantra here is "Food is for fun until they are one" meaning that their milk is still the most important nutritional food they can have until they turn one. So the emphasis is not how much they eat, but trying the foods and learning about the tastes and textures themselves. It should be a positive experience for both Mum and Bub. Jett is currently learning about gravity with his food!! Anything he has had enough of gets held over the edge of the high chair and he drops it and watches to see what happens when it hits the floor!! We are lucky, we have a furry vaccuum cleaner that comes in and cleans the floor after he has finished!!

I know there is more to tell you about this, but I have to get back to work.... maybe someone else can tell you their story and fill in the gaps I have missed!