What age did you introduce food (and why)?

[ashley2pink]

And snatching food wouldnt convince me of readiness. My babies start grabbing anything in front them by 4 months old. And yes, they will put it in their mouths too. Thats what babies do to explore the world around them. I dont think its a readiness sign

 

[stepmum]

I'm the one person who chose 3 months as the poll is in months and not weeks HOWEVER it was actually 15 weeks and this was due to various medical reasons and this was encouraged by our consultant. The benefits outweighed the risks in our case.

 

[Ashley2189]

My LO will be 5 months on the 29th. We are going to give her her first taste of food this Thursday the 24th (for Thanksgiving). I'll give her a bit of sweet potato to see how she does. Depending, we might start giving her snacks or wait a month until Christmas to try again. I've been feeding her pieces of frozen breast milk to soothe her gums, and she LOVES it. opens her mouth really wide, and tries to do it herself lmao

She sits upright completely unaided for at least 5 minutes, often more, at a time. She has the sweaty hands and feet, but has had this since like 2 months old so I don't count that lol she does watch us as we eat and move her mouth like she's chewing haha but she just tries to mimic everything we do anyway. if we have it, she wants it. and of course EVERYTHING goes into her mouth, so that's really not a "sign" either. I'll just see how it goes on Thursday and we'll go from there.

 

[ashley2pink]

My dd has clammy hands and feet. Started around 1 month

 

[nugget80]

I waited til 22 weeks... Was gonna try wait til six months but lo began dropping his milk feeds again and fussing at the bottle. He has taken to it really well and now has three small meals a day. He is still not great with milk but takes around 18-20oz a day and I no longer have to fight to get him to drunk it! He does have reflux and gp advised that when e start to go to three meals quick so don't have to force the milk issue which was stressing us both...

 

[k4th]

We started at 5 mths because lo was sitting well, supporting her head, could get things in her mouth by herself and was diving for our food!

 

[Scottishmum2B]

I'm the one person who chose 3 months as the poll is in months and not weeks HOWEVER it was actually 15 weeks and this was due to various medical reasons and this was encouraged by our consultant. The benefits outweighed the risks in our case.

Hope you dont mind me asking but how did your LO get on with food at 15 weeks?

xx

 

[jenfen]

Toby was just over 5 months. He has always been difficult to feed milk and I was getting so worn out trying to get him to drink his milk. He was also very unsettled between milk feeds and waking multiple times in the night.
He could do all the basic things (hold head steady, sit well upright in his high chair and was putting stuff in his mouth) and didn't appear to have the tongue thrust reflex any more.
We still started slowly with single fruit or veg purees once a day and then really kicked things off when he was 6 months. We do traditional weaning with finger foods. My lo has a wide variety of foods, enjoys chewing the finger foods and can eat lumpy food no problem. I had read a lot about BLW and was planning to try it but TW with finger foods is working well for us.
Toby doesn't have so much milk now and tends to drink what he does have so much easier so life is happier!

J x

 

[lilliesmummie]

13 weeks, because i believed she was ready.. But gave her nothing else besides rice. Shes now 15 weeks and i'm going to try porridge. She loves it and i dont feel guilty for weaning early.. She was on too much milk too soon according to my HV (who also agreed i could wean when im ready as L seemed) xxx

 

[mum22ttc#3]

We started at 5.5 months (24 weeks). I had tried to give LO purees at 18 weeks but she refused point blank to take any. I decided to wait until nearly 6 months and to try BLW instead of TW, which I had done with both DD1 and 2. So glad I choose this option, or rather LO did.

 

[stepmum]

I'm the one person who chose 3 months as the poll is in months and not weeks HOWEVER it was actually 15 weeks and this was due to various medical reasons and this was encouraged by our consultant. The benefits outweighed the risks in our case.

Hope you dont mind me asking but how did your LO get on with food at 15 weeks?

xx

No not at all, he had all kinds of different medical problems, he had silent reflux and comfort ate and then he was taking too much milk which gave hime lactose overload, this in turn gave him really bad constipation which impacted on his hernia and could have required surgery. I'm pleased to say he only has a touch of reflux now, no constipation and his hernia is virtually gone. He loves his food, we're up to two meals a day, we try 3 sometimes but only when he's been good with his milk. He loves his veg the best. He's a messy eater though as he likes to get his hands involved. I think he had lost his tongue thrust reflex when we started him though as nothing ever came back out. All in all it's been perfect for us. xx

 

[XJessicaX]

we started at almost 20 weeks, very slowly and just on baby rice. Started because I thought my LO was ready and honestly....because it looked fun and was fun!

 

[Scottishmum2B]

I'm the one person who chose 3 months as the poll is in months and not weeks HOWEVER it was actually 15 weeks and this was due to various medical reasons and this was encouraged by our consultant. The benefits outweighed the risks in our case.

Hope you dont mind me asking but how did your LO get on with food at 15 weeks?

xx

No not at all, he had all kinds of different medical problems, he had silent reflux and comfort ate and then he was taking too much milk which gave hime lactose overload, this in turn gave him really bad constipation which impacted on his hernia and could have required surgery. I'm pleased to say he only has a touch of reflux now, no constipation and his hernia is virtually gone. He loves his food, we're up to two meals a day, we try 3 sometimes but only when he's been good with his milk. He loves his veg the best. He's a messy eater though as he likes to get his hands involved. I think he had lost his tongue thrust reflex when we started him though as nothing ever came back out. All in all it's been perfect for us. xx

I'm glad it worked out well for yourself and LO.
I was only asking as my hv has said I should consider starting to wean soon as my LO is big and takes an awful lot of milk but I wasn't sure how she would get on as she is only 13 weeks the now.
xx

 

[angelpkj]

like a week before he was 4 months old,he was showing all the signs,kept watching me when i had food like a puppy begging he had 2 teeth so i thought i will try him and see how he is plus get some use out of his teeth,i think if he didn't have teeth i would of waited another month

had no problems he wanted the food straight away so never struggled to give him solids

 

[stepmum]

I'm the one person who chose 3 months as the poll is in months and not weeks HOWEVER it was actually 15 weeks and this was due to various medical reasons and this was encouraged by our consultant. The benefits outweighed the risks in our case.

Hope you dont mind me asking but how did your LO get on with food at 15 weeks?

xx

No not at all, he had all kinds of different medical problems, he had silent reflux and comfort ate and then he was taking too much milk which gave hime lactose overload, this in turn gave him really bad constipation which impacted on his hernia and could have required surgery. I'm pleased to say he only has a touch of reflux now, no constipation and his hernia is virtually gone. He loves his food, we're up to two meals a day, we try 3 sometimes but only when he's been good with his milk. He loves his veg the best. He's a messy eater though as he likes to get his hands involved. I think he had lost his tongue thrust reflex when we started him though as nothing ever came back out. All in all it's been perfect for us. xx

I'm glad it worked out well for yourself and LO.
I was only asking as my hv has said I should consider starting to wean soon as my LO is big and takes an awful lot of milk but I wasn't sure how she would get on as she is only 13 weeks the now.
xx

Oliver was too and considering he was still little as he was preemie his little tummy couldn't handle all the milk. As soon as we started weaning we gradually started to reduce his milk intake and it is now at a comfortable amount. If you do it slowly, the reduction is gradual too so not too dramatic.

 

[palange]

Oh I'm so glad to see that the majority of folk weaned at 4 months. I'm fed up with hearing how it shouldn't be done earlier than 6 months. My mother weaned all 4 of us at 3 1/2 months and we're all fine and healthy, have no health or speech problems.
There is no way I could have delayed until 6 months.

 

[summer rain]

6 months is the governments advice and is evidence based; but it is safe to wean from 17 weeks in most cases. I never heard early weaning is meant to cause speech problems-so not sure why you mentioned your LO not having those anyway? Even if people do not all wean at 6 months; them moving the age to 6 months has had a huge impact on the statistics regarding those who have weaned considerably earlier than the recommended weaning age, people won't think much of weaning 1 month before the recommended age but may think a bit harder if they were considering weaning at an age which is now 2-3 or more months before the now recommended age. A government infant feeding survey in the late 90s showed that 90% of parents introduced solids by bang on 3 months, despite it being recommended to wean no earlier than 16/17 weeks for several years by then; the 2005 infant survey showed this figure had been cut to less than 10% (Figure 7.2, page 248 of the full Infant Feeding Survey 2005). A lot of parents are still weaning between 3 and 4 months but even that figure has been dramatically cut since the year 2000 and hopefully will have been further reduced when the full 2010 infant feeding survey is published next Autumn. xx

 

[Mrs_Random]

How do you know if a baby has lost their tongue thrust without trying them on food?

 

[summer rain]

^Say for example if you give them calpol or another medicine by spoon...xx

 

[Lauki]

How do you know if a baby has lost their tongue thrust without trying them on food?

When I used to give Sophie medicine it would always come straight back out, she'd push the syringe/spoon out. Now I can put something in her mouth without her pushing it back .