When did you start your baby on solid food?

Question

I'm interested to know at what age people introduced solids to their baby. My son is now 21 wks and due to a slow weight gain my health vivitor said it may be an idea to start him on baby rice soon. Also, what made you start when you did?

@ Birth 9lbs 2ozs
@ 4wks 10lbs 15ozs
@ 8wks 12lbs 15ozs
@12wks 13lbs 4ozs
@ 17wks 14lbs 8ozs
@ 21wks 15lbs 2ozs

As you can see - initial weight gain was good, but it's really falling off. He is primarily breast fed via a bottle, with 1 x formula feed a day. Average intake 30-34 fluid ozs per day

Answer 1

Are you breastfeeding? Adding solids may well make him take in LESS milk and more solids. The breastmilk is healthier for him and contains more calories. Breastmilk contains about 22 calories per ounce and an average of 1.15 grams of fat per ounce. Baby rice cereal (2 TBS dry cereal prepared in one oz water) contains only 20 calories and 0.24 grams of fat.

Instead of adding solids, I'd work on getting him to nurse more. I'd suggest a visit with a Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and/or a La Leche League Leader to check his latch. I'd suggest doing breast compressions while nursing in order to help him get more hindmilk.

What has his weight gain been like? Can you post ages and weights and I will check it for you to see how he is gaining? If he is breastfed, is your doc comparing his growth to other breastfed babies, or to formula fed babies? Find out what growth chart he is using as it could be inaccurate.

I started all three of mine on solids right around 6 mos, per the AAP recommendation and because all three were showing signs of readiness for solids. I'd suggest starting with bananas or avocados instead of cereal. (Those are the first foods recommended by LLL.) If weight gain is a concern, avocado would be a very good first food due to the fat content. Raw avocado is easy to prepare for baby.....just scrape it out onto the spoon. It has (I think) 46 calories per ounce and 4.21 grams of fat!

EDITED TO ADD:
Looking at the weights you have posted:

From 12w to 17 w the weight gain looks great. 20 oz gained over 5 weeks = 4 oz a week which falls right in the average.

From 17w to 21w the gain has dropped some, only 10 oz gained over 4 weeks or 2.5 oz per week. This is a little low.

BUT.....another thing to look at here is, did he get longer and did his head circumference increase? Sometimes babies will grow one direction for a while, and then the other. In other words, get heavier for a while, then get longer for a while. That's something else you can look at to judge how he is growing.

Also, is he meeting milestones? Rolling over? Sitting up? If he became significantly more active after 17 weeks, that could explain the drop in weight gain...he's using more calories if he is becoming more active.

Is he fed on cue or on a schedule? I'd suggest following his feeding cues and nursing more frequently while doing breast compression. You can go in to have weight checks anytime you want, usually without an appointment. Just call ahead and let them know you want a nurse to weigh your child that day.

ALSO.....were all those weights taken on the same scale and in the same state of dress? That makes a big difference as well! Different scales are calibrated differently, so comparing weights taken on different scales isn't exactly accurate. Baby should also always be weighed in nothing but a clean diaper.

Adding a couple more links:
http://www.kellymom.com/newman/25slow_weight_gain.html

http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/growth/weight-gain_increase.html

Also.....
growth chart
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhanes/growthcharts/set1clinical/cj41l017.pdf

Answer 2

So he's 5mths old and weighs 15.2lbs... gotta convert that to kg for me... 6.9kg??? How in the world is that not enough? Is he asking for more, or is this strictly a scale at the Drs office that brings this whole ? up?? My daughter was less than that I am sure at your son's age, and she weighed 9.5lbs at birth. Ok, I had my pediatricians telling me she wasnt gaining enough too but I just had to look at my daughter to know she was very healthy. The problem I think is when your very big newborn turns out to be just an avg baby, then this nice growth chart that shows them doubling their weight by 5 or 6mths is all wrong for them. My pediatrician was wrong about my daughter, and this is only too evident today, but at the time I was in tears over her not weighing up to expectations. My girl is almost a yr old, a little less than 10kg (22lbs), but if she had followed the chart like the pediatrician thought she should have she would weigh 13kg (28.6lbs). For her size she would be fat!
Oh, right, your ?... I started solids at 6mths except for the occasional bite of who knows what her father gave to her for his own pleasure. She is a great eater, I have never deprived her nor let her cry, so if someone tells me she needs to gain weight I ignore them. Every child is different! My girl has been very active from the moment she was born, always kicking her feet, then rolling around on the floor once she was a few mths old. The children who arent as active perhaps can gain weight easier, I dont know.
Oh yes, I asked the pediatrician why it is deemed important to have a fat baby (as that is obviously the case here) and the response was for when your child is sick that builds an energy reserve for them to use as they likely wont eat. How much of a reserve do they need? The one time my girl was sick (last mth) she didnt eat very much for 3 days. She certainly couldnt have gotten skinny in just a few days! I just dont agree with the norm of having fat babies.
I say, start solids when your baby is ready, and that likely isnt until 6 mths.

Answer 3

i think of rice cereal grew to alter right into a widely used first food (here in the united kingdom too) by way of fact it is so bland.. yet for me that's an exceedingly rotten reason to apply it first! babies definitely have extra tastebuds than adults, so why initiate them out on some thing that tastes like wallpaper paste? Mine started first with banana, avocado and mashed potato (not all in the comparable bowl!). the only element to envision is that the ingredients you introduce are widely was once risk-free first ingredients - there is genuinely no ought to purchase pre-packed toddler rice or porridge - clean, arranged by using you, has have been given to be nicer.

Answer 4

"Breastmilk and/or Infant Artificial Milk is the best nutrition for your baby until at least the middle of the first year" - American Academy of Paediatrics.

Follow your baby for signs or readiness:

-ability to sit unassisted
-loss of tongue thrust reflex ( the natural refelx infants are born with the auotmaticall push food out of their mouths )
-shows interest in foods
etc. etc.

Now, these signs don't usually appear until after 6mo, and it is not suggested to begin any soilds before that. If you do, you are putting your baby at unneccesary risk of develpong allergies, irritating his virgin tummy, constipation, reflux and obesity later in life.
When you do start introducing soilds know this:
It is not necessary to follow a schedule or any type of food.
With all three of my kids, they were primarily breastfed until 1yr after which I gave them our table foods, cut or smashed, as they were ready. Why stress your self and waste money on rice cereal, all that is is starch! Yuck! If you wait a little more, you can give them real food in peices, much healthier and it develops a more rounded palate.
There are other ways to up weight gain in a baby that young...nurse him on demand for one. Also, take into consideration that your child just gains slowly, physicians are alway out to mess with what some chart says is abnormal.
Most charts are based on formula fed infants, so if your are breastfeeding, don't follow that chart. Here in Canada, they just initiated a new charting system for breastfed infants, much better than the old ones.

Answer 5

I started my daughter on Rice Cereal at 4 mos. She had a hard time with the texture...the food would come out of her mouth because she would try to move her mouth as if she were on a bottle. She has recently started eating baby food, but she has the same issue dealing with the baby food. I now mix a little bit of baby food with baby cereal. She really likes it!!
You can start at almost any time, as long as the baby can handle it. My mother-in-law started my neice on rice cereal at 2 wks!!
Good luck!!

OH!! also, it might be a good idea to have a bottle of milk/water to help your little one wash down the strange food. It also helped when my daughter was having a hard time keeping the food in her mouth because it forces them to swallow the food rather than just suck as if they were on a bottle.
Hope this helps.

Answer 6

You can introduce solids any time between 4 and 6 months if your baby is ready. Until then, breast milk or formula provides all the calories and nourishment your baby needs and can handle. His digestive system simply isn't ready for solids until he nears his half-birthday. Waiting until your baby is ready greatly reduces the risk of an allergic reaction and shortens the transition time between spoon- and self-feeding.

You can go on this site for further details.
http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/baby/babyfeeding/113.html


I hope it will help u

Answer 7

5 months is plenty old. Just go slow. I started with baby rice because it is easiest to diegest. You have to becareful of baby's tummy.

My son just never seemed sattisfied on breastmilk or formula, so I just slowly introduced the powdered rice to him until I saw he was satisfied.

You just have to add by the teaspoon, a little at a time. If you add too much too fast without plenty of liquids, baby will become constipated. Just add it to the formula because the baby has to learn new techinques to chew and swallow. At the age of 5 months it is just easier to add to formula in the bottle. I added a bit of juice to formula also, to make sure little one got what he needed when his tummy was satisfied.

Make sure you are giving baby extra liquids. Apple or prun juice is also very helpful for soft BMs for baby. Hope this helps. Enjoy that baby!

Answer 8

My son was a big eater. Well, I shouldnt say was, but is. He wasnt happy with just formula and if thats all I gave him, he would eat about eight to ten ounces. It was getting ridiculous.

So first, I tried the cereal in the bottle deal. Worked for a while. But he has quite an appetite, so then I started once a day with baby food, stage one. He loved it. That was when he was a little over two months old. He eats baby food now about once a day, but its good to do the baby food early when you introduce the cereal in the bottle so that they dont get used to be able to suck their food in the mouth (from the bottle) because then they will become lazy with eating (by spoon)

Answer 9

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Answer 10

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