Help with starting solids

[BeachChica]

Hi I am a first time mom and our pediatrician said we can start solids with our 4 month old. We started with rice cereal. She's having a hard time with what to do with it and most of it goes back out of her mouth. She's fine with it in the bottle. Right now I have it pretty watery. Should I thicken up the rice cereal and keep up with that until she gets the hang of the spoon or start introducing a vegetable that she may like more? Just not sure how to proceed in the food department. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

[pLadyBug]

I never started solids with rice cereal. My kids just never liked the taste. I started off with veggies and went from there. It is expected for babies to make a mess of themselves when they begin. They're strengthening their muscles/reflexes that enable them to swallow solids instead of choking. Either way you choose to continue its not advised that you put food in a bottle. Outside from obesity other risk factors, it defeats the purpose of teaching your baby to eat solids and delays a baby's ability to strengthen their palates.

 

[MindUtopia]

You might also just assume she isn't ready and wait for a bit and try again next month. 4 months is considered "early" for weaning, and though there are plenty of people who do wean early and plenty of doctors who still recommend it, it's not necessary and isn't really recommended unless there is a medical reason (some babies with reflux do better with early weaning). If she's clearly not interested, I'd back off for a bit and try again later. You'll probably find that once she's a little older, she'll take a bit more interest and be a bit more able to manage the food in her mouth. Also, once she hits 6 months, she'll be able to eat the full range of foods that you can (with a few exceptions and adjustments), so the food you offer will be a lot more interesting. If you've tried baby rice, I'm sure you'll agree it doesn't taste very nice, so it probably doesn't to her either.

 

[BeachChica]

I never started solids with rice cereal. My kids just never liked the taste. I started off with veggies and went from there. It is expected for babies to make a mess of themselves when they begin. They're strengthening their muscles/reflexes that enable them to swallow solids instead of choking. Either way you choose to continue its not advised that you put food in a bottle. Outside from obesity other risk factors, it defeats the purpose of teaching your baby to eat solids and delays a baby's ability to strengthen their palates.

Thanks pladybug - I just mix the leftover rice cereal (from the spoon feeding) in her bottle not to waste it so that she gets the benefits of the iron. It's pretty watery and I don't mix much up at a time so it's not a lot. When you started your kids on the vegetables did you just feed them the vegetables or did you ever mix any rice cereal with it?

 

[BeachChica]

You might also just assume she isn't ready and wait for a bit and try again next month. 4 months is considered "early" for weaning, and though there are plenty of people who do wean early and plenty of doctors who still recommend it, it's not necessary and isn't really recommended unless there is a medical reason (some babies with reflux do better with early weaning). If she's clearly not interested, I'd back off for a bit and try again later. You'll probably find that once she's a little older, she'll take a bit more interest and be a bit more able to manage the food in her mouth. Also, once she hits 6 months, she'll be able to eat the full range of foods that you can (with a few exceptions and adjustments), so the food you offer will be a lot more interesting. If you've tried baby rice, I'm sure you'll agree it doesn't taste very nice, so it probably doesn't to her either.

Thanks mindutopia - at this point for us it's just to see how she does and get her used to the spoon. She definitely isn't getting much down so I wouldn't consider it any kind of a meal. She has started to wake up more at night, she was down to just 1 feeding for a very long time, and she seems hungrier when I feed her. Someone at work thought that she might need something more substantial to "fill her tummy", like the solids. I do try to make sure she goes to bed with a full belly but she's not a super big eater. Any suggestions?

 

[irish_cob]

It's still normal for your baby to be waking up at night. Mine's 9 months in a couple of days, eats loads of solids, has plenty of breastmilk and still wakes up twice a night, it's normal. In the uk the nhs doesn't advise weaning until 6 months so unless there's a medical reason for weaning I would wait til 6 months. She doesn't have to get used to a spoon. When her body is developed enough she'll be able to swallow what you give her. There's plenty of iron in formula so that's not a reason to wean at 4 months either and putting rice in a bottle however thin the resulting mixture is is definitely a no no I'm afraid. There's no rush and there's no correlation between food and waking up at night usually, babies wake up at night for a lot of reasons. At 4 months there's a huge development leap/sleep regression so it's normal for your baby to not sleep as well as she was before. Mine slept through at about 3 months, then went to waking once a night, then sleeping through again, then waking once a night, then waking twice a night which is where we have been for the past month. It's all normal and part of her being a baby and growing and developing.