Beginner Questions

[@llli*milkmaid28]

My daughter will soon turn 6 months old and when she does, we will introduce solids. Up until now she has been exclusively breastfed. I have a few questions about how to go about introducing solids. I know solids are not supposed to replace breastfeeding sessions. Does that mean I offer her solids immediately after breastfeeding? Or do I wait an hour or so and then offer? I'm just not sure how this works. I'm guessing she won't be very hungry immediately after breastfeeding.

Also, I noticed there are a lot of different varieties of rice cereal and oatmeal cereal. Is one recommended over the other (oatmeal vs. rice)? Is there any problem with offering whole grain cereals at that age or should I stick with single grain/more processed cereals for now? I know I want to buy organic but beyond that, I have no idea which type to start with.

Thanks for the help!

Rachel

[@llli*chatton]

Good questions. Are you looking to do traditional baby food, or baby led solids? We hadn't heard of BLS (also known as BLWeaning) before a friend mentioned it to me. Basically, the concept is that you provide baby with "french fry" sized pieces of food, and they explore the taste, texture, etc of each food. It's more of a sensory experience at first, and then as baby becomes more confident, they will actually start to eat the foods. IMHO, I think it's awesome that baby continues to self-regulate hunger... and there is no spoon-feeding!

So far, my LO (7mos) has explored apples, bananas, green pepper, broccoli, melon, celery, carrots. The food doesn't replace any nursing sessions yet, and I will nurse him right before we eat, since the solids are more exploratory in purpose.

I don't have much experience with babyfood, which would be the other option. But my mother actually just used a hand grinder to "make" her own baby food at the table (from the food that had been cooked for the whole family).

[@llli*sassypants]

Baby doesn't need to be hungry before eating solids at this age. She doesn't know that food fills her up like milk does. Nurse her before and make sure she is rested so she isn't irritable at meal times.

Can't speak to the cereal question because we started with finger foods. According to me pediatrician rice cereal is recommended only because it is least likely to cause an allergy reaction and the only purpose of it is to teach baby to eat off a spoon. There is no real nutrition provided with the rice cereal. Not sure about the oatmeal, though. I would start with fruits and veggies, but that is purely opinion.

[@llli*mommal]

Good advice from the PPs. My pediatrician would tell you to nurse first, then give solids soon thereafter, within an hour or so, so that the baby doesn't replace nursing sessions with solids. And keep in mind that until 1, solids are just for fun. They are not really necessary for nutrition. So if baby eats some solids, great! If she tastes some and then spits them out, still great! And if she refuses to eat the solids and just squashes them with her hands or plays with the spoon, still great!

You can skip cereals altogether if you wish. Commercial baby cereals have the advantage of being fortified with vitamins and minerals, but aside from that they are just pure starch, and pretty much nutritionally void. You can offer veggies, meats, or fruits first, if you choose. And definitely check out baby-led solids! So much easier than spoon-feeding!

[@llli*hamilamadingdong]

I guess we did baby- led- solids... My daughter just wasn't interested in any "food" other than nursing till she was just over 14 months. we tried offering her many different things and she would have nothing to do with it. She is almost 3 now and we still encourage her to eat when she is hungry. When she did finally start eating solids we only let her have oatmeal mixed with fruit, never the rice ( we felt the rice had no nutritional value). We made most of her baby food so i was able to control the "chunkiness" of it. It took her till she was 16 months before she started eating more. She still nurses now, though it is only at night. Hope this helps, but remember every baby is different