Introducing Solids to Baby

Many parents are eager to start feeding their children solid foods at an early age. When your baby is small, you get so much different advice on when to start. Your mom or your grandma or someone else you know, will probably tell you that you, or her kids, were started on solids at three weeks old or before, so you should start your baby early, too. You will probably have someone else tell you that you should breastfeed exclusively for six to eight months or even longer before introducing solids. There's obviously a large range of ideas and opinions on when when baby is ready for this important milestone. Most experts believe the best time to start solids is somewhere between these two extremes.

Most pediatricians recommend introducing solids to babies when they are between four and six months old. Babies need to be at least four months old so that their digestive system is ready for the new food. Introducing food before that time often leads to allergies. But waiting longer than six months is generally not recommended because babies begin to need more calories and nutrients from solid food during the second half of their first year. Also, younger babies are more willing to try new things. If you give baby a variety of foods at an early age, she will be more likely to eat a healthy variety as she grows older.

There are certain signs you should watch for once your baby gets close to four months old. A baby needs to have strong neck muscles before introducing any solid foods. She should be able to support her own head without much help most of the time. She should be able to sit up when she is supported. She should be able to turn her head away from the bottle or breast when she gets full.

Once she's four months old and can do all the things listed above, you can introduce her to solids, unless your pediatrician wants you to hold off for some reason. Most experts agree that baby cereal is the best food to start a baby on. Rice cereal in particular is commonly a first food because it has a low incidence of allergies and doesn't have a strong flavor. To feed it to baby, you just mix a small amount of the cereal with breast milk or formula. You don't need to make it very thick for baby's first several times of eating it. It should be slightly thicker than the formula or breast milk, but not much. Offer it to baby by using a spoon. Don't be surprised if baby seems to spit all, or most, of the food back out. Babies aren't used to having to push food back in their mouths to swallow it. It takes several tries before a baby is able to swallow most of the food.

Once baby is used to eating a few different kinds of cereal, you can begin to introduce vegetables and fruits. If you are buying prepackaged, start with stage one. If you are making them at home, add some water and puree until it's thin. You won't want the vegetables and fruit quite as thin as you started the cereal, but baby still won't be needing chunks of food yet.

Many people recommend starting with yellow and orange vegetables as the first food after cereal. They are generally better for babies to begin with than the green vegetables because their flavor isn't as strong. The reason they are recommended before fruit is because some people think that the sweetness of fruit will ruin a baby's taste for less sweet things, like vegetables and meat. Fruits, vegetables, and cereal are usually recommended as baby's only solid food until she is at least eight or nine months old. Then is the time pureed meat can be introduced.

It's important not to introduce too many new foods to baby all at once. There should always be at least three days in between the introduction of any new foods. You should wait even longer if there is a history of allergies. The reason it's important to wait is so that if a food allergy does develop, it's easier to figure out which food caused it so it can be eliminated from the diet.

Everything I've outlined here is just a set of general guidelines. It is what most pediatricians recommend, but it's always a good idea to check with your own pediatrician, too. He will be able to tell you if your baby has any special dietary needs.