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Starting solids for baby...


staceyobu
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Honestly, it depended on the baby. Some of mine were totally good w/nursing and no solids til about 8 mths. Diva would go on a jag where she'd refuse solids and only nurse, then want them again a few days later.

 

I started them on solids when it became very apparent that nursing/formual simply wasn't holding them anymore. They needed something more in their tummies.

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I'm no help. Both my kids announced their desire to eat real food by stealing it from me. I also never did baby food because if a kid can take a french fry from me and eat it with no issues before I could stop him, he could eat what everyone else was having.

 

Now that I know about it I like the baby led weaning idea as well.

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I never "fed" mine. I never did baby cereal or baby food.

 

I gave my babies small chunks of real food and and allowed them to feed themselves.

 

I don't believe in or do the whole baby food thing.

 

Yes to this. I do keep certain foods away from them for a while, though, so when they're first learning to eat, they're eating fruits, veggies, some meats, and some dairy products (cheese, butter), and eggs.

 

I've never given my babies solid food before almost 8 months, and the last two have been a full year. Despite waiting so long, they are both excellent eaters.

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I'm no help. Both my kids announced their desire to eat real food by stealing it from me. I also never did baby food because if a kid can take a french fry from me and eat it with no issues before I could stop him, he could eat what everyone else was having.

 

Now that I know about it I like the baby led weaning idea as well.

I never "fed" mine. I never did baby cereal or baby food.

 

I gave my babies small chunks of real food and and allowed them to feed themselves.

 

I don't believe in or do the whole baby food thing.

 

Do you know about how old your babies were when you let them start grabbing things? I can't really hold him anymore while I'm eating because he grabs for everything! (But, he is grabbing for everything in general.) If I would let him eat things he could grab, he could definitely get stuff in his mouth.

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My first baby I fed earlier than I wanted to. She was about 4.5 months old. She was already about 15lbs, and I couldn't keep up with her demand to nurse every hour. I had to work full time and pump. We tried baby cereal. Allergic to the soy in it. Bananas... allergic. Ended up with sweet potatoes, soft smashed veggies.

My youngest started eating baby food at about 5mths, but she ate real food by 6mths. I still fed her baby food as well as whatever was on my plate smashed up.

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Mine started grabbing food. Dd#1 grabbed my banana and started sucking on it. I mashed some up and let her have her own. The twins...Honestly, I just don't remember much from their babyhood. The boy, fil started feeding him potato mashed up when he was about 2 mths. Just a tiny bit. Of course, fil also was giving him beer from a spoon when he was even smaller. (As in a taste. Dip spook in beer and let baby suck spoon.) Good thing I had relaxed because he was the 4th. I'd have throttled him if it had been one of the girls! I started giving him little bits of real food from my plate when he was about 4 mths. I don't think he ever had "baby food".

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I think ideal is whenever you feel the baby is ready. By six months, I was having trouble keeping weight on because the kids were eating so much.With my first, I very briefly did baby food, but found it to be expensive and frankly, pretty disgusting. I can't remember the exact first food, but I fed a variety of mashed-up fruits and vegetables, like banana, sweet potatoes, green peas, cooked apples, etc. I would also use ice cube trays to make a batch of food to store in the freezer.

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Do you know about how old your babies were when you let them start grabbing things? I can't really hold him anymore while I'm eating because he grabs for everything! (But, he is grabbing for everything in general.) If I would let him eat things he could grab, he could definitely get stuff in his mouth.

 

 

It was around the 6 month mark for both. Older was a bit earlier and the younger a bit later. Maybe 5 and 7? It could have been 6 and 8 though.

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I read up a bit on the "European practice" of early food, and with no food allergies on either side of the family, I started giving kiddo food at age 3 months. He had good swallow coordination, was grabbing for my food, was a hungry boy in general, had early teeth, and we had no problems with it at all. I started with rice cereal thinned with breast milk, and he loved it. By the time I was comfortable thickening it up a bit, he was grabbing the spoon and SHOVING it in his mouth. He'd go wild with kicking and grunting when he saw the food.

Next I branched into barley and then bananas, wheat, other fruits etc. He didn't like veggies so much, but did eat avocado with delight.

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I never "fed" mine. I never did baby cereal or baby food.

 

I gave my babies small chunks of real food and and allowed them to feed themselves.

 

I don't believe in or do the whole baby food thing.

 

 

I agree. We did use some baby cereal on occasion but because we got a free sample or it was quick on a busy day. But our kids started eating when they looked interested, could push food back out with their tongue and could sit up. Generally that was around 5-6 months. They didn't eat much at that point but it slowly increased over time.

 

I have no idea of the timetable though. We just sort of followed the baby and life in general. My 13 mos. old now eats regular meals and nurses a few times a day.

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I started all of mine at 4-5 months with mashed sweet potato, pumpkin & various veggies etc... then yoghurt, banana, & meats in stews & soups by 9 months. I never did the cereals (I tried rice cereal with one & he looked at me like I was trying to poison him). I did most things opposite to what the child health nurses were telling us at the time, but I have French/Russian family and it turns out mother (and the various aunts) knew best :tongue_smilie: . None of the 3 kids has allergies (we don't have any in the family) and they are very good eaters. I agree with the theory that if you give them lots of different foods early on their palate will develop to enjoy a wide variety of foods later on. All 3 kids really love vegetables (both raw & cooked) and I'm sure that has something to do with the fact that they were eating them very early.

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With DS1, I made baby food and he started eating around seven months. I made food for him for years but that's because he had allergies and a limited diet and I needed to get him his nutrition with foods that we weren't eating. With DS2, we started with mashed banana and sweet potato around seven months. We never did baby food with him and he ate what we ate pretty soon after starting food.

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Mine started at about 7-8 months .. except the newest one who started at 5 months (bigger baby from birth, nursing every hour still at that point). We started all on veggies. We did do baby food - but only homemade baby food. Firsts were green beans, peas, spinach, broccoli, avocado, squash, carrots and sweet potatoes. After that we went to fruits. We did not do any meats until teeth were in (my kids get teeth very late) and nothing dairy until 12 months. My two older kids are excellent eaters - always eat all their veggies and usually ask for more. They drink only milk and water throughout the day with juice only allowed with lunch. They love cheese and yogurt as well. They always much on baby carrots, bell peppers and cucumbers for snacks. Don't know if it's due to the way we introduced their solids, but we will continue to do it this way.

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We did baby led weaning method which is proper food in grabable chunks. There is a website about it here that might help you.

Same here! My eldest did not like being spoon-fed, and it was stressful because I felt pressured by the ped, etc. He did better once I moved him to finger foods at 9-10 months. I basically used BLW without knowing what it was. With my subsequent children, I never bothered even trying to feed them baby food; we went right to a BLW approach, which was becoming more popular as an actual approach by that time.

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I read up a bit on the "European practice" of early food, and with no food allergies on either side of the family, I started giving kiddo food at age 3 months. He had good swallow coordination, was grabbing for my food, was a hungry boy in general, had early teeth, and we had no problems with it at all. I started with rice cereal thinned with breast milk, and he loved it. By the time I was comfortable thickening it up a bit, he was grabbing the spoon and SHOVING it in his mouth. He'd go wild with kicking and grunting when he saw the food.

Next I branched into barley and then bananas, wheat, other fruits etc. He didn't like veggies so much, but did eat avocado with delight.

This was pretty much my/dd's experience too. She just wasn't totally satisfied with nursing. She had a real food, organic baby food, cereal and nursed from about 3 months on just depending on her mood.

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