Starting Solid Foods

With all due respect, I really disagree with what Joanna S. has said. You can and should start introducing solids along with breast milk or formula BEFORE age 1. Poor thing would starve otherwise!

5 1/2 months is VERY early to be starting solids. Be careful.

Also, you absolutely shouldn't be cutting out breastfeeding...I don't know what your pediatrician is smoking! At this age, his ENTIRE source of nutrition needs to be breastmilk. Solids should ONLY be for tasting and experimenting and should in NO way be viewed as a source of nutrition.

Continue to breastfeed OFTEN. Don't offer solids unless he's recently had a full nurse.

Breastmilk is what babies should get their nutrition from for the first year of life. After the first birthday you can start substituting solid foods.

Hi R. - Well just to clear a few things up, it is absolutely the truth that babies get the bulk of their nutrition the first year through breastmilk or formula. They do not 'need' solids and won't starve if they don't have enough. I would recommend a fabulous book to you - Child of Mine: Feeding with Love & Good Sense. In the first year, the intro to solids is more about learning than getting nutrition... learning how to swallow, chew, new textures, flavors, etc. Eating should be fun for them at this stage! I wouldn't worry if you're only feeding your son solids once a day... if you'd like to give them more often, try prepping something for him around dinner time so you can all eat together? Definitely get that book though - it's great! And honestly, continuing to nurse your baby is the greatest thing you an do for him !! Good luck!

This was always a challenge for me too. With both of my kids (I'm going through this with my 2nd now), I started with a lunchtime meal and then added something around dinnertime. For instance, I might feed her solids at 12, put her in for a nap around 1. Then feed solids at 5 and get her to bed around 6:30. Now she's up to 3 meals so I try to give her solids about an hour or hour and a half after waking since she usually takes a nap about 2 or 2 1/2 hours after waking. It was always a confusing thing for me as a bfing mom since I just fed "on demand"...which meant I never really paid a lot of attention to time between feedings. If you just start to conform to a "regular" person's eating schedule of 3 meals a day it will all start to fall into place.

Mostly, just remember that in that first year, solids are less for nutritional value and more for practice. His main source of nutrient is you. Enjoy it because it can be lots of fun.

Best of luck!

I would just stick with 1 solid feeding for now. At this age, it's really only for practice and breast milk is for nutrition. Many moms don't even start solids until 6m so i wouldn't worry about it. Ruth Yaron has a fantatic babyfeeding book called the super babyfood cookbook. Even if you don't plan on making your own, it has a lot of great info...i lived by it. And the making your own is really a lot less work than it seems. This was such a fun stage...good luck!!!

I wouldn't stress about it and I definitely would not worry about replacing a breastmilk feeding with solids. I didn't introduce solids until 10 mos when DD was ready for finger foods, so I took a different approach. But it is true that solid food is really more for practice and getting used to the tastes and textures than it is for nutrition during the first year as another poster said. Most babies will want to participate in eating long before 1 year I think. My DD was and is the picture of health.

Breast milk is much more nutrition than a baby will get from a few spoonfulls of food per day. It is calorie and nutrition dense and custom made for your baby. So I would just continue to breastfeed as usual, offer some food at your mealtimes so babe gets used to meals and eventually babe will be getting nutrition from food.

Also pedis are often not well versed in nutrition or breastfeeding. It seems pretty arbitrary to say if he is eating 2 solid meals, one bf session can be eliminated. For ex, if those 2 meals are rice cereal (devoid of nutrition), it is very different than if they are fresh fruits and veggies full of vitamins and minerals, yk?

Don't worry. Breastfeeding is so good for your little one. The solids will just fall into place if you continue to bf on demand, add food gradually and as he wants it and not worry about a schedule.

From everything I've read (and I read a LOT) breastmilk and/or formula is still highly important for at least the first year, and really shouldn't be cut out for solids. Solids are in addition and don't provide added nutrition until at least 9 months or so.

That said, I also started my 10 month old on solids at 5.5 months. We went very slowly, with a small amount at lunchtime. Next I added a meal later in the day, usually at supper so DH could help feed him. Each phase lasted at least a couple of months, building up the amount a little bit as he seemed hungrier. We added breakfast last, since I'm not a morning person and didn't want to think about it then. :) But I only added the extra meals when he started looking hungry even with the on-demand breastfeeding.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

I would try feeding him his vegetable at lunch time or late morning and then fruit with oatmeal at 4:30 or 5. My son is 8 months old and that really worked well for him. Now he eats 3 times a day without any problem. The fruits taste better so they are more likely to sit through it.Now he looks forward to eating it. Plus it seemed to help him sleep better at night. The oatmeal stays with him longer than other foods. He sleeps at good 9+ hours and doesn't wake up starving.
The other trick is to not to feed him solids if he is at all tired.
Good luck.

I second the Ellyn Sater book and breastfeeding is best. My children(4)all preferred Barley as their first cereal. Introduce vegetables before fruits. If the baby is not interested, wait a day or two and try again. as for eliminating BF, I let the bedtime one go first with a sippy cup instead because I had a lot of evening comittments I need to attend and couldn't nurse to sleep. They all have great sleeping habits now because they didn't rely on me to fall asleep. I let the morning feeding go last (at about 16mo)because they were early risers and it bought me more time to linger in bed! Best wishes to you and your baby!

Feeding him while you are eating your regular meals will probably work best - babies like to feel included in the meal and so often eat more that way. If you're having trouble getting him to eat so many solids, give it a week or two, it takes time for babies to adjust to the solids and he might have all he can take right now but will be able to eat more in three or four days.

Good luck!