Starting Solids

[Julia]

I'm rather embarassed to be asking this question considering I have a 2 year old but here goes...

Does anybody know what the go is with starting solids? I remember they start them at 6 months, but the rest is sketchy. Don't you breastfeed first & then offer the solids? Then when they get to 9 months you give the solids first & then breastfeed?

Also, how many meals a day do they have when they start solids?

I think I'll probably start Matthew on fruit right away. We put Holly on the rice formula, but it made her constipated. We then took her to sleep school about 2 days later & they said as she was 6 months she could go straight onto the fruit.

[Naomi]

Like I'm a big expert on this ;) anyway, this is how we did it.

Started with mushed up fruit (avocado, apple puree etc) and just did one small meal a day in the early afternoon (after a breast feed) to get him used to the idea of it (FWIW was told by dodgy ECHN not to do it in the evening in case he had a reaction). After a bit of a bumpy start (he got some kind of yucky virus/rash thing so we stopped for a while to work out if it was a reaction to the food) ... he took to it like a pro so we moved to two meals a day fairly quickly (one of cereal, one of fruit or veg puree) and after a couple of weeks we moved to three meals a day - he was just under 7 months by then.

Re: milk or solids first ... the nurses at tresillian (and the dodgy ECHN) said offer the solids first then the milk. That said, if Hugo is particularly unsettled, I offer milk first to calm him down. All being 'normal' I give him the solids and then wait about 10-15 minutes to give him a breast feed (that said, he will generally reject one feed during the day, but he has never been passionate about breast feeding). Hugo is nearly eight month old but was given this advice at 7 months.

The unbiased Golden Circle leaflet says start with 2 tablespoons - half a cup for one meal following a milk feed, adding a second then a third meal following milk feeds, then by around 8 months start offering solids before milk feeds.

Hope that makes some sense!

(I can't believe Matthew is close to starting solids! Where did the time go??)

[MissieK]

With Nat, I tried the one teaspoon of rice cereal, then gradually increase it, but he wouldn't have a bar of it (the little piggy!).

With both boys, I stuck to the thing of following their hunger & only introducing one new food at a time. We went slowly cos of DHs alergies.

I was told that before 12 months, it's milk first, then solids. After 12 months you swap. The health nurse, etc, said that before 12 months their nutritional needs are being met by the milk & the solids are more an educational diet - introducing them to new tastes & textures.

We were also told to do veggies first.

Zaccy went through a long period of not eating!! He shut his mouth & refused anything from about 9 months to about 13 months - unless he could feed himself!!

IMO, Motherly Cubes (frozen baby food) are the best pre made food. The cubes are the perfect size for a starter meal :)

Melissa

[Naomi]

We used Motherly Cubes to introduce meat (I was a bit worried about doing it myself). Now we just make our own pureed food and use the Motherly Cube trays to freeze them. I agree, they are a good pre-prepared option (quite expensive once they start eating a lot though).

Oh, and I had to laugh at Zaccy wanting to feed himself, at least he's independent! Hugo won't eat finger food unless I hold it for him :roll:

[Michelle]

Sorry guys, i know i'm very slow at catching up here and you may not even read mine but i'll post it anyway!!

We started Izzy on some cereal at 4months and she loved it straightaway so i kept giving her cereal everyday and then the rest of her bottle afterwards and she went really well with it so about a month later i started giving her pureed apple and banana for dinner and then a few weeks later i moved onto making her some vegies so she started having 3 meals a day at 6 1/2months old! She'd always have a bottle after each meal aswell with one in the afternoon at about 3pm and she has a sleep after each meal for about an hour and then sleeps through the night from 8pm til 7-8am!!

[Chrystal]

I've just started Darcy on solids over the last couple of weeks, he's 5 months now. But basically he was starving in the afternoons, and me being very routine driven didn't want to give him milk because it put him off his feed before bed, which then meant he was up through the night. So he gets a big feed of rice ceral with veges (started with carrots, go to sweet spud tomorrow) at 4:30 pm, then he has his milk at 6pm and then off to bed until 6:30 - 7am. I've also started giving him a little pureed fruit after his lunch time milk, as a safer time for introducing new foods, and to start introducing him to a second meal.

It took us about a week of trying to work out what time to feed him, and what suited him and kept him happy, and what didn't compromise his milk intake.

I was reading my 'bible' (The conteneted little baby book by Gina Ford) just yesterday and I'm sure it said that by about 9 months bub should be doing 3 meals a day, and those meals before milk. Milk is still the number one source for nutrition, but you didn't need as large a quantity as they have now. (I think thats what I read, i could be wrong tho.... )