Haydies, it's mostly a play thing, and taking an interest in everything.
WRT to the iron stores, they run out at sometime between 6 and 12 months. Mostly bf babies need iron much later than ff bubs, as the iron in bm is more readily absorbed than the iron from any other source. BM alone will give babies all the iron they need for 12 months in most cases. The baby cereal products that you buy all have added iron, but the iron in that form is not easily absorbed, so in actual fact babies get less iron from those foods than from bm. Often when you introduce solids too early, the food replaces some milk, so the baby gets less iron than when they were just bfing. HTH.
Oh that info for the iron has put my mind completely to rest!! I read (or think I read) that it was gone by 6 months, not started to drop from then. And I also didn't know BM had iron in it... whew!
Wow lol, when they say as a mum you worry about everything, they weren't kidding!
BM actually only has a low percentage of iron in it, a fact played up by formula and baby food manufacturers. But the truth is that the baby absorbs nearly 100 of it as it is in the best form. They neglect to tell you that one when trying to sell more of their products!! Far less of the iron in food is abosrbed.
But the good news is you have absolutely nothing to worry about!!
I second the diced steamed veg! That is one thing I can can get Iz to eat, especially brocholli florets becasue they are easy to hold and she just loves them!
Good luck and enjoy the fun!
I completely gave up offering solids to my DS between 7 and 8 months. He was so completely uninterested and it (offering solids) was such a PITA, we were travelling and it was just so easy to BF. I started again at 8 or so months but it wasn't until the 9-10 month mark that he actually stated eating and BFing less.
She'll let you know when she's ready (and it sounds like you're doing a great job to me).
Thank you everyone for the replies here. Today was a busy day and it was nice to not have to try and get in a solids attempt, especially as I was trying to do it the same time every day (as I read somewhere). I did give Savannah a bit of a plain bread roll to play with, which she happily chewed on.
I'm definately going to look into steaming and cubing up some food for her to see if she wants that. She seems much more likely to put food in her mouth if it's something she can pick up and hold. I assume the food list stays the same - ie pumpkin etc to start? Or now that she's over 7 months does the list open right up? I've never known if it's a "starting solids" thing or a "6 months old" thing that dictated starting with simple foods. Brocholli is ok now? Would Carrot be ok? Or, instead of listing all the ok foods, is there anything I should still stay away from?
Also, I assume the steaming is to make it soft, with things like Kiwi Fruit, Cantalope etc... can I just cube them as is? Since their soft enough...?
Haydies, there is not much to stay away from. I would leave dairy just for now, but yoghurt and cheese will be all right when she's eating other things. No nuts until at least 2, no honey until 18 months, no strawberries until 12 months, no egg yolk until 9 months, no egg whites until 12 months - what am I missing? I think that pretty much covers it actually. It's probably best to start with fruit and veg first, and cereal if you wish, then you can add meat, bread, then fish, then egg, then just go with the flow.
Oh yeah, be wary of things like whole grapes and sausage with skin on, these can be choking risks, and of course bones in fish etc. Other wise go with the flow and see how she goes. If she is eating the same meals as the adults early on, this makes life so much easier.
ETA - oh and also stay clear of juice, it is high in sugar (even when it says no added sugar) and if introduced too early usually stops them drinking milk and water which is better for them and all they need to drink. Neither of my boys have had juice yet and DS1 is 3.
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