General Info about starting solids...

Hi everyone, I have a 6 month old boy who i've just started on rice cereal about a week ago who has taken to it quite well... I'm going to start the pumpkin and potato prob this week. I know to try a new food every 3 days in case of allergies, when should I increased to 2 feeds a day and subsequently 3 feeds?? and should rice cereal be an every day meal because of the iron needed by bub??? or once i've started the veggies, i can miss a day here or two? Any advice would be appreciated!! Its a very exciting time starting solids but at the same time, I really want to know i'm doing the right thing and feeding bub the best I can! Thanks

Emma

you will know when u need to increase a solids meal or add another. Bubs dont lose their iron smack bang on 6 months. It does get a little lower around 9 months tho. I have not bothered with rice cereal. Tho we have done more BLS so even if i tried, i dont think she would eat that now. There are other foods that are high in iron, so mayb look at these on google? U may find that the rice cereal will make him constipated, it tends to have this affect. My DD is on 1 solid meal a day atm. But has fingers on fruit and bits and peices through out the day.

HTH

Emma, it sounds like you are doing a great job. There is really no rule book on solids - it's as much a matter of trial and error as anything else. Every baby is different - some eat more and some less.

It also depends on whether he is breastfed or formula fed (or a mix). Breastfed babies get plenty of iron from breastmilk, so their iron stores are usually fine until around 12 months. With any baby, it is important that the solids don't replace milk, as milk is the main source of nutrition until 12 months. This is especially important with breastfed babies as replacing breastmilk with solids usually will lower the baby's iron levels.

Rice cereal is really only useful to get the baby used to the texture of food and the idea of eating. It doesn't contain any real nutrition. You can go down the path of introducing pureed vegies and fruit now if you wish - the way you are thinking of doing it sounds good. Another method of introducing solids is called Baby Led Solids and this means that you give the baby finger food and let them decide what and how much they want to eat. One advantage of this method (as well as saving time with pureeing), is that children are exposed to different textures and tastes earlier and generally become more adventurous eaters and able to eat family food sooner (which makes life much easier!). If you are interested in this approach, there is a thread on Baby Led Solids you can have a read of.

GL hun. Don't worry too much about when to increase the amount. Just look for signs and see how you go. The main things is to make sure the milk intake doesn't reduce.

Thanks for the advice girls!

DS is loving the pumpkin at the moment - no suprises there..

Thanks again.

wow, reading this post just made me realise that i dont remember much about solids at all!!

i do remember just having a 'feeling' with regards to how much she was eating etc.. mothers instinct i guess!

I start offering solids at lunchtime and then after a few days introduce a dinner as well. At dinner time I give the foods that are tried and tested and use lunch to introduce new foods...so should worst come to worst and there be some kind of reaction, it's much easier to deal with during the day than in the evening.

Initially we are talking maybe a tablespoon of rice cereal...then I mix with a tablespoon of fruit or vegetable puree/mash.

I then increase the quantities as bub gets better at eating off the spoon and more interested in food, and gradually cut back the lunchtime milk feed to increase the interest in food. When bub starts whinging for lunch earlier than normal, I then introduce breakfast.

I introduce a new food every couple of days and then it gets cycled through the repertoire. I mix green veggies in with the sweeter tasting orange veggies and try and offer different variations on the veggie mix every day. Same with fruit. Once they are used to eating and digesting a reasonable amount of food I would introduce protein, a little at a time so as not to cause digestion problems.

I also offer sips of water from a cup during each meal. It takes a few weeks for them to learn to drink from a cup so this is more for teaching purposes than actual drinking initially.

Once they are getting into their food I start offering finger food as well. Gets thrown around a bit to start with but they eventually get the idea!

I used a book to start off with until I got my confidence up!