How do you prepare to feed solids?

[tattlebaby]

I'm EBF LO right now. She's 3 1/2 months old. I plan to introduce solids at 6 months..should I start at 4 months like my MIL suggests? Where do I even begin??? I'm a FTM so even BF took me a looooong time to completely understand and get the hang of. Since I'll be going back to work soon I know I won't have the time to learn all about feeding solids to her like I do now and I just want to educate myself as to how to go about it in advance. I went out yesterday and purchased a Baby Bullet as I know this is will help me make purees and such. I also plan to BF for 6 months - 1 yr. so how much milk will I need to pump then to keep all of this going?? I'm sure at some point I won't need to pump that much for her feedings once she's like 9 months old or so, correct?. So my question is also this...how do you prepare your body (breasts) for the cutback..to avoid engorgement and other complications?? I just wanna say, thank god I found this Forum! Who else would help me with all of this?! lol

 

[purplesparkle]

Stalking as we are about to start ds on solids have been end too

 

[MummyMana]

If you're planning to wait until 6 months you won't need purees, you can go straight to finger foods we weaned early at 4 month under advice from the health visitor due to our baby's individual needs, but switched to baby led as soon as we could, its a lot of fun and means we actually get to eat our dinner while its still hot!

I'm not sure about your bf questions though I'm afraid, unfortunately my little girl would not latch for love nor money, but I'm sure lots of the ladies on here will know

 

[Rel]

I started my son on solids at 4 months because he was not getting enough with just milk. We actually made him wait till then but we felt he could have been ready earlier. I gave him a little bit of pureed vegetable, it could have been courgette and he was quite happy to take it from the start. Just after he was started on solids he ditched his dummy.
For my daughter we waited longer as she was happy with just the milk. We probably started giving her stuff when she was 5 or 6 months old.
What you can do is wait until you get the feeling that she isn't entirely satisfied with just the milk and then try her with some veg. If she refuses it wait a bit longer and if she is happy with it keep giving her the same veg for a few days to make sure she doesn't have any allergic reaction and then you can try another veg or fruit, making sure that you introduce them one at the time.
I hope this helps.

 

[wish4baby]

My little one is 4 months and we're not ready to start on solids! My opinion is wait until 6 months for solids, unless advised by pedi. Mine have all been ebf & 6 months old when I introduced real food, with no issues. It'll be a gradual change so your body should adjust naturally. If you start to feel overly engorged, just pump enough to take the edge off, don't empty completely.
We did BLW which worked well for us.
As mine got older (closer to a year old) they were pretty much only nursing at night and first thing in the am, then having real food throughout the day but mine have all been terrible nappers and I usually had to nurse them to sleep during the day.
I had built up a huge stash of breast milk so I gave some in a sippy cup during the day, and used it to make their oatmeal and stuff.

 

[tattlebaby]

My little one is 4 months and we're not ready to start on solids! My opinion is wait until 6 months for solids, unless advised by pedi. Mine have all been ebf & 6 months old when I introduced real food, with no issues. It'll be a gradual change so your body should adjust naturally. If you start to feel overly engorged, just pump enough to take the edge off, don't empty completely.
We did BLW which worked well for us.
As mine got older (closer to a year old) they were pretty much only nursing at night and first thing in the am, then having real food throughout the day but mine have all been terrible nappers and I usually had to nurse them to sleep during the day.
I had built up a huge stash of breast milk so I gave some in a sippy cup during the day, and used it to make their oatmeal and stuff.

BLW??

 

[wish4baby]

Baby led weaning! Sorry

 

[irish_cob]

There's a weaning board on this forum too which has other threads and stickies on which may help you. Dd2 has never had a purée or a jar of baby food or a pouch, she eats what we eat 90% of the time

 

[irish_cob]

That doesn't make sense, sorry it's late and I'm tired. She eats what we eat most if the time unless it's something too salty or too spicy or too much like junk food in which case I make her something else, she still wouldn't have a purée or a pouch. I waited til nearly 6 months when she was trying to grab food out of my hand and putting it in her mouth. I started with finger sized pieces of pear then soon introduced toast fingers and sweet potato wedges.

 

[staralfur]

Unless she suffers from severe reflux or some other medical condition in which your doctor advises early weaning, there's no reason to give solids before ~6 months.

We did BLW (baby-led weaning) and I wouldn't ever do it another way! It was so, so easy. No faffing about with making purées, no extra food costs (at least not at first), and you know for sure that your baby is actually ready because they're feeding themselves.

As for the breastfeeding, I'd just wait to see how your LO takes to solids. Mine didn't even eat anything until about 8 months and even then it was really really small amounts. Solids didn't replace any milk feeds for several months, it was just sort of a supplement.

 

[luna_19]

We did blw also, just started offering finger foods around 6 months. You need to always feed bm/formula before solids until 1 year of age then you can switch to offering solids before milk. If you leave it up to baby they will decide how much milk and solids to eat, easy!

 

[JenX]

We did baby led weaning also- and started at 7 months. My LO has never had a purée or any type of baby food in her life, only real food.

As far as preparing goes, it can be a good idea to start sitting your baby in his or her highchair during mealtimes to get them used to that part of the experience. Then when you actually start to offer food, it is less for them to get used to. We started sitting my LO in her highchair with us at the dinner table from about 5 months. She would play with a toy while we ate. If you are going to spoon feed, I would suggest giving them spoons to explore and play with at mealtimes so they can get used to those, too.

 

[luna_19]

Oh yes we started sitting him in the high chair during meal times around 4.5 months with an empty sippy cup to play with

 

[tattlebaby]

Wow..thanks guys these are some awesome tips! I NEVER knew babies can go straight from BM to finger-sized foods .lol. I guess growing up everyone I always knew did Purees, it's just what you do I thought. In addition to the baby bullet that I got yesterday, I received a bunch of baby food maker appliances at my baby shower too, I guess I won't be needing any of them then huh? How about if baby is starting to teeth at 6 months, this means they wouldn't have teeth to chew yet, would giving them purees then make sense to make the food easy to digest?

Any suggestions as to what foods to start off with?

 

[luna_19]

my lo doesn't have any teeth yet at 9 months. We started out with soft foods like avocado, cucumber, hummus, well cooked veggies, tofu, we don't eat meat but I know people do give meat also. Now he eats basically whatever we are eating, lots of fruit and veggies, mashed beans, cheese, yogurt. It's pretty amazing how well they can chew without any teeth

 

[irish_cob]

You don't have to do blw, it's ok to do purées if that's what you want to do. It's just I'm busy enough without trying to spend ages producing baby mush! It also means they learn to chew first not swallow first then chew later as with purées which actually reduces the risk of choking. It seems to make them less fussy too.

I wanted to do blw with dd1 but I was getting loads of grief that I needed to get her weaned ASAP, and put under loads of pressure by the health visitors when they found out I hadn't started weaning at 24 weeks (she wasn't ready) even though nhs and WHO guidance says wait til 6 months/26 weeks. I spent hours making purées that she wouldn't eat then ended up relying on jarred baby food which is basically bland mush. She is so fussy and hard to feed now. In contrast the baby will try anything. How long it will last I don't know but she's doing really well so far!

Others have found that their babies fed purées move to finger foods easily and aren't fussy so it doesn't always go together but most people find blw babies are more adventurous and less fussy about food in general. I wish I'd been stronger with dd1 and stuck to my instinct.

Above all have fun! This is all about introducing your baby to the wonderful world of food, the textures, the feel, the smell, the taste. It's not just about shovelling mush down his neck, so even if you give purées give him some finger foods to explore and play with. And skip the baby rice, it's bland overpriced over processed cereal, not good. Before the age of one milk is the main source of nutrition and once they hit 12 months it doesn't just swap overnight that they suddenly eat loads and don't need any milk, it seems that gradually they work out what this eating business is and get to grips with it

 

[Pielette]

With my eldest we did traditional weaning and my youngest we did baby led. I can honestly say that baby led was so much easier! At 6 months we just started sitting him down with us at mealtimes with a bit of whatever we were having, watching out for salt. It took about 2 months for him to get the idea, at first he just played with it but that's fine because he was still having plenty of milk.

I only did it that way because the thought of having to do a load of pureeing around my baby and toddler was just not appealing. However, I now have the most fantastic eater. He loves his food. For number 3 I will definitely do the same.

As for milk, I kept to the same schedule he always had and fitted in mealtimes around it. I continued to offer breastfeeds until he gradually cut down and eventually just wasn't interested. He was still on 5 feeds a day at 6 months, dropped to 4 at about 9 months, 3 at 10 months and now on 1 a day. I let him lead me.

If you're interested in baby led weaning, there's a fab book by Gill Rapley which was so helpful for me to get my head round it.

 

[tattlebaby]

Omg..wow, this is some amazing information. And I love the idea of BLW . Def. plan on doing this. Just gotta get everyone on board lol. So once again I have a puree food maker and a baby food steamer. Guessing the steamer I should keep and the puree maker return? Also our pediatrician says we should introduce solids by starting with iron fortified cereal, he said at 4 months. will my LO be getting enough iron with BLW? We're in the US..wondering how i never heard of BLW. Perhaps its a much more common practice in the UK??

 

[JenX]

Don't do the rice cereal. If you are breastfeeding, read the link below about iron. My doctor tried to get me to give iron as well because we were breastfeeding and I didn't. We didn't start BLW until 7 months and she hardly ate anything until 10 or 11 months (she just wasn't into food, many babies take to it much quicker) and her iron levels when tested are perfect. Another mom in my breastfeeding group did give iron and it stained her baby's teeth. Turned out she didn't need to give it at all. If they are concerned about your baby's iron levels, have them tested. They can do the test right in the office and get immediate results. It is just a finger prick test.

https://kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/iron/

Rice cereal has little nutritional value and they don't even have the enzymes to digest it properly at that age.

Here's an article on why to skip the cereal:

https://breastfeedingmamas.org/skip-the-cereal/

 

[staralfur]

Our public health nurse also said that they recommend iron fortified cereal to begin with, but then she added that meat serves the same (and probably better) purpose. So introduce something like ground beef or chicken (something soft/easy to gum on) once you've started.