How old should a baby be?

Question

How old should a baby be before they start to eat real food?

Answer 1

The best answer will come from your doctor. Babies who can sit up (3-4 months) can start experimenting with cereal mixed with breastmilk (or formula). It is just for fun and experience, not nurtrition and they will usually only get a little taste and play with it in their mouths. After they get good at the cereal, they can try the really soupy First Foods. Most parents swear by starting with veggies rather than fruit so the babies don't get a sweet tooth. Babies are born with a sweet tooth so it really doesn't matter. Babies should be trying cereal at or before 6 months so they don't develop a tongue-thrust or food aversion. Babies don't need meat or the complete meals etc until they are over 7 months or so. Any food that has a choking potential (chunky foods, sticky foods etc) and any allergy potential (peanuts, honey, eggs, shellfish etc) should wait (eggs are usually okay around 9 months, the rest after 2 yrs). At six months, babies need some iron in their diets as their stores from birth are depleted and there is not so much in breastmilk and it isn't well absorbed from formula. As for table foods, your baby will gradually be able to handle more and more texture. Table foods can be high in salt and other stuff that babies don't really need so try to make sure that your family is eating right, all of them. Mushed up mac and cheese is obviously going to be something the baby can eat earlier than uncooked baby carrots (for which the baby will need teeth). Some kids are chokers and don't handle texture well, my kids are just the opposite and quickly rejected baby food, wanting table food instead. Most pediatricians recommend that kids be getting at least some table food as they approach and turn a year old. Check with your pediatrician before you do anything though. Best wishes.

Answer 2

Your pediatrician can give you a better estimate since he/she knows you and your baby best. My pediatrician said that I could start my son on baby food @ around 3-4 months and then real food at around 6 months. I kept him mainly on formula and baby food until he was about a year, but I'd give him small bites of what I was eating as well. By the time he was 1 he was eating primarily real food cut up into smaller pieces or mashed up so he couldn't choke.

Answer 3

as long as there are no allergy hazzards (eggs, peanuts, etc) or choking hazzards then they can eat whatever you eat by the time they are 8 or 9 months. Just be sure to not give them anything with honey in it until after 1 yr (honey has bacteria in it that will make your baby very sick)... anyway, if you want any more info about this ask your baby's doctor... he knows best when your baby will be ready. or if your on WIC ask the wic nutritionist.

Answer 4

real food as in table food like the family eats? one year or pretty close! even then there are many things the baby cannot have.
real food as in basically making baby dices w/no salt or butter? 8 or 9 months.

Answer 5

You should ask your pediatrician. Your baby should at least be able to sit upright, turn his/her head away from a bottle when he/she doesn't want any more, and have lost the reflex to spit out anything that isn't liquid. These are the three most common signs that are used to know whether a baby is ready to start solids. Most babies have accomplished these three things by 6 months.

Answer 6

It's based more on development than age. My daughter is 4 months and her pediatrician has given the okay to start cereal and then 1st foods. Check with your pediatrician. He/she can tell you if your child is ready.

Answer 7

nicely i can not stand her and the potential for her being there for 3 weeks is nil i think of! If she have been to bypass into well being center for regardless of reason she could have had to bypass away the toddler so i do no longer in all possibility see something incorrect with it as long via fact the toddler is appeared after by somebody else close to to it. i'm no longer protecting her yet basically giving my opinion!!

Answer 8

5 months

Answer 9

At 6 months old you try a new soft food every week.

Answer 10

11 or 12 months at least.
They can choke, they do not need anything added to their food, no butter or salt or spices, their little tummy is not ready for that any younger and there is no need for it. babies can develop allergies for foods if given too early.