starting food for my son?

Question

my son is 2.5months old now.
we intend to start solid food by around the 5th month.

what should i start with and how should it be scheduled?


i havent bottle fed him anything.experienced people have told me its better to feed him once in a while with a bottle so that it will help when we go out with the baby. what shud i give him to be bottle fed. will it be possible for him to eat if i spoon feed him rite from the start.

i am exclusively breast feeding him and plan to continue it as his main food till his one year.
ive read that its always better to start with solid food after 6months.i just wanted to.....like..... just giv food very lightly for the first few months as i want to keep breast feding as his main food till at least one year.
please help me.i know many will discourage giving soild food before 6months but please give me your suggestions.

Answer 1

when my was about 3 months I started feeding him cereal with a spoon some people put it in with the bottle i didn't do that. (I tried it, but it didn't seem to work well) feeding your child with a spoon at first is going to be hard cause of the natural sucking motion of your child's tongue, eventually he will get used to the spoon. soon after he gets used to the cereal start mixing vegetables in with it at dinner time (my son started sleeping threw the night at three months, I assume from not being hungry) try those ideas they should work for the most part. Good luck!

Answer 2

I asked my doctor the same question, and her answer made a lot of sense to me. Children can only be healthy on breast milk exclusively for about the first six months. Around that time, they should be started on single-grain cereal, followed by vegetables and fruits. However, some babies don't take to the spoon immediately, so it may be a good idea to start a month or two earlier, but just a little bit. Also, she said that some babies have massive growth spurts and reach a point before six months when an all-liquid diet just isn't enough to satisfy them.
My suggestion would be that around 4-5 months, try a couple of spoonfuls of cereal every so often. Only try one new food at a time, with a few days in between. That way you'll know if the baby is allergic to any of the foods he tries.

Answer 3

The American Academy of Pediatrics suggets 4-6 months for starting solid food. I started my baby girl at 5 months as well. I just fed that Gerber rice cereal in the morning for a month. I would make up 1/8 c of the stuff with my breastmilk. Make it very liquidy to begin, and as he gets the hang of it over days or weeks, increase the thickness by adding less milk. Some days, she refused it at the begining and I just said ok, we'll try it tomorrow. ALWAYS feed cereal with a spoon and never put it in a bottle. My daughter made a huge mess learning to take it from a spoon, but I look back with fond memories!

At 6 months I added a little jar of baby food at lunch or dinner. She didn't eat it all at first. Doctors recommend you to feed each new food for about 5 days to watch for signs of allergy.

Good job on the 1 year goal for breastfeeding! I only made in 8 months, but I had an infection, surgery and went back to work, so that was monumental to me.

Answer 4

I just want to commend you for being so dedicated to nursing!! I nursed my first son until he was 11 mo. old and my second until 15 mo. old. I nursed them until they weaned themselves, basically. I never gave eithier of mine a bottle....ever! I nursed in public with a blanket covering myself and my kids. When they got old enough for solids at around 5-6 mo, I would feed them mainly solids in public. Sometimes nurse a little. I started with the Gerber cereals first mixed with breastmilk. I used the rice cereal and oat cereal. Keep in mind the oat cereal can cause baby to be gassy. I also started my children on some water in a sippy cup around 5 and a half mo. The easiest way to teach them to use a sip cup at that age is to not put the stopper in. Put a tiny amount of liquid in it, and just tip it up and back down quickly. Give only a little bit or they will get choked. In a couple of days add the stopper back in. They will know something is supposed to come out of the cup and naturally start to suck. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

well, that's completely up to you. i started giving my first daughter solid foods when she was only 2 months old, because formula wasn't enough. then with my 2nd daughter, i started giving her watery cereal in the feeder bottles when she was only 2 weeks old once a day.
it all depends on your baby. and you're right, most people would say to only breast feed for the first 6 months. but you can't use the same rules for every baby.
if you're going to start spoon feeding your baby, wait until he can sit up and hold his head up.

Answer 6

the little gerber things - not the baby food - but like the dried fruits - cookies - ect.