Starting Solids - Dallas, TX

You don't have to start with rice cereal, or even "baby" foods at all. A 6 month old is ready to start practicing that pincer grasp and getting his own food! Try very ripe bananas, avocado pieces, baked sweet potato. As long as it's mushable, they don't need any teeth to eat these. And it's best to breastfeed first, then solids. Solids for a 6-12 month old are a transition to "real" food and more for practice than major amounts of nutrition. Good luck!

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-how.html

Hi J.,

These are a few websites with guides for starting solids. I liked to have concrete things to look at and follow. Good luck!

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/infant/startingsolids.html

http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/baby/babyfeeding/1400680...

http://www.gerber.com/fpidea?ideaid=idea1

C.

We started our son on rice cereal like you send, but did oatmeal then mixed cereal. We just did dinner meals at first. I would mix up cereal, formula and water (I now your breastfeeding, so just used what you have pumped) until it was just a little thicker than his normal formula. You can thicken it by just adding more cereal when you think she is ready. We did 2 wks on rice, 2 wks on oatmeal and 1 wk on mixed.

We then started Stage 1 veggies; least sweet first:Green beans, Carrots, Squash, Peas, Sweet Potatoes. We started a new food on sundays and gave it to him for a week (most drs. say 3 days is enough) to make sure he didn't have any reactions.

After he tried all of the veggies we moved to Stage 1 fruit, by this time we were feeding him breakfast (cereal and formula) and dinner (cereal and formula). Do the same weekly schedule with the fruit until she has everyone of them then you can mix it up. We started lunch about 2 weeks after fruits were done. He quickly moved to stage 2 foods as my son didn't like the thin consistance of the stage 1 foods.

You asked about breastfeeding her first or after food, I try and get my son to drink as much formula as possible before he eats soilds.

We just started giving him soft finger foods a few weeks ago. You won't be ready for those for a while (after she has a few teeth).

Good Luck this is a super fun time.
J.

Start with veggies first, then fruits. Otherwise, they develop a sweet tooth and don't take their veggies. Our pediatrician also recommended that we put mix the solids with cereal because their little bodies need the iron that the solids don't provide. Also, start with two tablespoons of the veggie, then a little more of the same veggie each day for a week. That way you can isolate specific items that your baby may be allergic to.

Here is the guidline sheet that our ped gave us. It does a much better job explaining the steps that I ever could do. http://www.gerber.com/content/usa/bin/pdf/Starting_Solid_...