6 Month Old Ready to Start Solids

Hi K.,
I see that you've already received quite a bit of differing advice...that's one thing I'm quickly learning about parenting - everyone has their own way of doing it. So, with that, here is what I did when I introduced my exclusively breastfeed son to solids at six months. I started with rice cereal mixed with breastmilk once a day. Once he got the hang of eating from a spoon, I feed it to him twice a day and increased the amount. Then I slowly introduced veggies and fruits - first mixed with some BM to help him adjust to the taste, and increased the meals to three times a day. Some days he ate a ton, some days two bites was a struggle. My doctor told me veggies first, and only introduce a new food every 3-4 days. I did introduce some fruits early - and my son still likes vegetables! I always nursed him first until he was about 9 or 10 months old. As long as you avoid the "allergy trigger" foods (peanuts, egg whites, citrus, strawberries..ask your doctor for the entire list), I don't think there is a wrong way to do it. It sounds like your guy likes to eat, so just have fun with it and enjoy watching him experience something new. Keep your camera ready! And do what feels right to you.

Like most have said here, start with once a day. But I disagree with mixing it with white grape juice. With all of my children I learned if you introduce fruits first it is alot harder to get them to eat their veggies. I would mix it with breastmilk or water. Itroducing a cup at the same time is a good idea too. Your lucky to have a daycare system that supports your breastfeeding. I found out that mine was throwing out my expressed milk & giving my baby formula. She said it "grossed her out" I had a new caretaker the next day. Congrats on your little sweety. Boys are quite an adventure!!!

For starters when you introduce the cereal only give about 2 tablespoons at a time. Mix 2 tbsp. of cereal with your bm and add some baby food (fruit) to it. Do this for breakfast. At lunch give him the fruit and milk. At supper give him some cereal and more bm. Of course be sure that he gets some bm in between meals as well. Before he goes to bed give him another 2 tbsp. of cereal w/fruit. You want to wait a 2-3 days before introducing another food to him though, incase he has a reaction to the fruit that you gave him. If he does then you will know not to buy that food for him for a while, and try something else. You can also buy the jars of veggies. Just be sure to introduce something new every 2-3 days to be sure there is no reaction to any food. If he does good, then give him 1/2 to 1 jar a day. At lunch and at supper would be good. Then at bedtime give him another 2 tbsp. of cereal with fruit and put him down for the night. He may sleep better now, and he will not need quite as much bm, but he will still need enough to get him through the time frame from one meal to the next. When eating solids he will start to take less bm than before because his tummy will be full longer.

D.

I am 31 and have been married for almost 12 yrs. My husband and I have 3 boys ages 10,7, and 4.

I was told to start once a day, feed it to the baby when we eat (with a spoon, not in a bottle) and up it gradually to 3 times a day. I was also told not to remove any bottles/ nursing, that baby would adjust. I did both of my kids this way and they transitioned fine.
Good for you too BTW, for pumping and nursing exclusively- that's a lot of work at work!
HTH-
J.

It is so wonderful to hear that you still breastfeed-and your son drinks only breastmilk. I would advise not to give him the cereal- it has a different type of iron in it than breastmilk- it has the same type that formula has- and there is a great chance he won't tolerate the cereal well. I have read to not give a baby cereal- if they are breastfed. I learned the hard way with my first daughter- she would get very sick- have terrible diapers and we didn't know why. Until- we took her off of cereal. Our next daughter we never gave cereal to her, and then our 5 month old will never have it as well. I would start your son off on Stage 1 vegetables- like- sweet potatoes. It is also wonderful to hear that you waited as well to give him solids till- 6 months old. A lot of people start way too early. I have a 5 month old- we won't be giving her solids till at least 7-7 1/2 months old. Hope this helps!!!

A little about me: Stay at home mother of 4 childrfen and hopefully more- ages:8 year old,7 years ols,2, and 5 months.

Since you have the cereal, go ahead and use it to thicken runny jarred food, but EBF babies don't need cereal. Cereal is made for formula feds who need the extra carbs, DHA (already in breastmilk) and iron (if you get the iron-fortified stuff). It's also made to "teach" a child to eat when you start too soon between 3 and 6 months. Since you have waited, you shouldn't have to teach your baby to get past the tongue-thrust reflex.
If you want to start with it, go ahead, but there's no need and it tastes like cardboard. A friend gave me some to try and my boys would only eat it mixed with other things.
EBF babies can start with things like avacado, sweet potatoes, bananas, etc...for for high-calorie, good-fat stuff.
I make all our food for home and sometimes take jarred for outings if it will be easier, sometimes take what I make at home. As for a schedule, offer solids 30-60 minutes after a nursing session 3 times a day. I don't know about your son, but mine is on a 2-nap schedule, so our day goes like this:

Wake up, nurse
1 hr later, Quaker oatmeal with peaches I pureed

nap, wake up, nurse
1 hr later, sweet potatoes or chick peas, vegies, fruit

nap, wake up, nurse
dinner with the family, kind of whatever he didn't eat for lunch

The freezer trays I use for the food are 1 ounce each, so it's easy to give him variety in each meal. If you are doing jars, you can get stage 2s which are the same as stage 1s but bigger so they are more cost effective. Since each jar is 4 ounces, you won't be able to give as much variety in each meal, but they say you should look at a week's-worth of food when considering a baby/toddler's diet. You don't have to have each meal be a rounded diet.

PM me if you want info on making your own food.

He will adjust himself and decrease the amount of BM he gets. Don;t worry infants and children have a built in ability to honor when they are full it is us adults who teach them bad habits adn try to stuff them. Let him set thepace adn do not worry... he will adjust fine adn on his terms.
R

Does your 6 month old have teeth? It makes sense that when they get teeth, they're ready to start solid food. I had never thought about it until another mom pointed it out to me.

FEED ME I'M YOURS by LANSKY will give you all kinds of ideas and details at many stages for the various stages of a young life.

Hi,
I got this very helpful book:
http://www.superbabyfood.com/
which I don't follow exclusively, but it has lots of good info about amounts of food, etc. OUr baby is 10 months old, and at 6 months we decided to start with all fruits and veggies, and some grains (oats, rice, millet) then add some legumes, and we're holding off on dairy and animal protein until one year at least. And one challenge is that we want to use exclusively organic--the pesticides, etc. can't be good for a baby. So we have gone to the local farmers market, and health food stores, and our local grocery also has some organic stuff. So far, so good. If you want to get prepared baby food, I hear that Babies R Us has good prices on cases of Earth's Best organic food jars.

Our baby loves avocado (one of the first solids we gave her, and we give it to her every day) so I recommend trying that. It's packed with good stuff, vitamins, good fats, etc. Bananas aren't a favorite, but avocados and bananas are both good starter foods.

As for breastfeeding, I have also continued to breastfeed, and our daughter just seems to regulate herself. Good luck!

I started by adding the cereal to night feeding before bed at first and then added it to breakfast feeding. Maybe two tablespoons at a time then increased it. Generally the child itself with cut back on the liquid diet as they add the solid foods because their stomaches are fuller and they don't need as much. Once I knew the child could handle the rice cereal (after two weeks) I went on to oatmeal. Two weeks. Then I introduced vegetables and stayed with the same one for at least 3 days to make sure there was no reaction before moving to the next one. Make sure you don't do all the yellow/orange one in a row because it can affect your child's skin color. I did green beans, then squash, then peas, then yams, etc.. Fruits and egg were the last things I introduced.
I also used a blender (didn't have baby food grinders when my 1st 2 were little and introduced vegetables baby foods just don't provide like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, etc. I stayed away from tomoto because of the acid, same way with oranges until they were older. Mashed potato was something I used from a box of instant and I used Mott's normal applesauce with no sugar added.
Good luck!

I would never start any of my children on cereal again. I'd wait, continue with breastmilk for another month or two and then start on veggies. One veggie per week or week and a half, and then a different one for a week or week and a half. And so on. Only once a day.

My last two children were breastfed and I started them on cereal first and it was HORRIBLE. They got horribly bound up, couldn't poo for days, had to use suppositories. I did enough research that I feel very secure in knowing that if I were to have another one, I'd skip the cereal. After each of my children went through all the issues from cereal I never fed it to them again. They've turned out just fine. :)

Good luck.

Congratulations on making it to 6 months breastfeeding exclusively! That's not easy to do.

From what I've read and heard from my pediatrician, you should start with just a couple bites of rice cereal a day, giving more as the baby wants more. Build up to about a quarter cup a day to start, but it won't take long before the baby likes it and wants more, especially if it's mixed with breast milk (but you can also mix it with water).

Don't worry so much about the quantity, as breast milk remains the most important food until the baby is a year old. The rice will give him iron and get him used to a new texture.

You can also start with other foods, or introduce them soon after the cereal, such as avocadoes and sweet potatoes.

I would start with feeding him cereal just once a day, and add more solid food feedings as he gets the hang of it. They say babies should eat cereal after breastmilk because they need the more nutritious part first, but if he's too full he probably won't be that interested in the cereal. I would pick a time of day when he is generally in a pleasant mood. I have read that you don't necessarily have to start with cereal, but it seems most people still do. Are you going to mix it with breastmilk? That's what I would do. You're doing a great job so far with your 18 pounder, so trust your instincts!

No matter what, do not cut down on breastfeeding in the first year! My daughter is 9 mos old, she eats 3 meals a day and has snacks, and I still BF her every 3-4 hours. That is their most important form of nutrition! Good luck, I'm sure the other mom's gave you lots of info.

I didn't have a chance to read all these responses, but I want to mention that the most important thing to do when introducing solids is to only do one at a time! Start with the rice cereal and mix it with breast milk - it will taste like paste with water. You can start really runny (I used about 3 T of formula to 1 T of cereal at first) and then gradually thicken it to the consistency that he prefers. Make sure you warm the breast milk before you mix it. I think that makes it a lot more palatable. Then after at least a week, introduce a veggie. They say "yellow" veggies, like sweet potatoes and carrots, are best to start with. I just started my 5 month old daughter on rice, then sweet potatoes, and now carrots. Next up are peas. But like I said, once you've determined that he can take the rice and there are no signs of allergies (rash around the mouth or anus, fussiness, irritability, loose stools) then you can add a new food, at the rate of about one a week. If there are signs of sensitivity, stop feeding that food and try again with it in a few months (that's what "What to Expect" says). My daughter still gets mostly formula (or bm in your case), as a baby at this age should. When she wakes up from her afternoon nap, at around 4:30, I give her "dinner" - rice and 1/2 to 1 jar of her current veggie. I make the two in separate bowls, but I alternate spoonfuls of just rice, just veggie, and then a little of each to introduce a variety of textures. I'm not trying to fill her up on this because she still needs to get the majority of her nutrition from formula. What you're trying to do here is just teach him to use his mouth and tongue to eat, and to introduce him to the taste of foods. But since your son is breastfed, he's already got a lot of tastes he's used to so take advantage of it! Experiment with as many foods as you can, but of course avoid egg whites, nuts, sesame seeds, strawberries, honey, etc. and again, only introduce one at a time. Good luck! Feeding our daughter her "dinner" is one of my favorite parts of my day :)

We use the Earth's Best rice and I think it has a much better taste than the Gerber rice, for some reason. Plus, it's organic. Also, after I've introduced veggies I'll move to fruits - pears or bananas are good to start with. And when I've introduced everything, I'll move to solid feedings twice a day and treat them like "snacks". She'll still get mostly formula, but mid-morning I'll do some cereal and a fruit and mid-afternoon I'll do some cereal and a veggie.

Hi K.. I always started with just once a day. For the first time it is more of an experience and not much ever got into my baby's mouth. Remember to mix the cereal with White Grape Juice. When I introduced the spoon is also when I introduced water or BM in a regular (non sippy cup, just an old fashioned plastic) cup. Also, (I think this is most imp and my ped didn't suggest this) don't feed him for the first time off of a spoon when he is hungry. I strongly advise nursing first and then the spoon feeding goes more smoothly (But it is still very messy) and I always made it runny. If he refuses it runny, I just slightly add more cereal in between each bite till you get a consistancy he likes. Hope that helps, he will let you know when he likes it and when he wants more. However, not all babies like the cereal; my youngest hated it and we went straight to the baby food after trying cereal and her refusing it for about 4 weeks.

I was in the same boat a month ago. We started out just once a day, but day care told me my daughter was eating alot in the mornings and could they give her cereal in the AM as well. So it is dependent on you child let him tell you. My daughter is 7 months and I BF in the Am before work/daycare, then again after work at about 6 after that feeding she gets cereal/baby food, then I BF again before she goes to bed and she will sleep throught the night. I don't know if that was helpful or not. Good luck..

I don't have time to read through the other responses so sorry if this is a repeat! Follow the directions on the rice cereal box for the first several feedings (usually says mix about 1 tablespoon of cereal with 4-5 tablespoons of water, formula, or breast milk). Once he is used to how to swallow that, you can gradually make it thicker. You could probably start out doing that just once a day for at least several days, because rice cereal can be constipating and it will probably be good for his body to have a gradual adjustment. Once he's doing well with that, you can begin to add in veggies and fruits. A lot of people do veggies first because of concern that the baby might really like the sweet fruits and then turn away the less sweet veggies. Squash is good to start with. Then, it is recommended to only add one new food every 2-3 days so you can watch for food allergies and be able to easily identify that it was likely the new food that caused it. He will probably decrease his breast milk intake on his own. My daughter is formula-fed but she was taking 4 7oz bottles a day but is now taking 4 6oz bottles instead. If he develops any problems with constipation, he can have a couple ounces of apple juice in 2 times a day to help move his system. Also, once he gets the hang of rice cereal, oatmeal cereal is supposed to be better at keeping their bowels regular. For my 6 month old, for breakfast I will heat about 3 ounces of water, mix in the cereal, and add half of a small jar of a fruit to that. At lunch she has one small jar of a veggie and one small jar of a fruit. At dinner she will have a jar of a veggie and 2 ounces of cereal mixed with some fruit. Most resources I've seen recommend giving some kind of cereal twice a day because their bodies need the iron. I also like to alternate green veggies with the orange ones. If I give her green beans or peas for lunch, then she would have carrots or sweet potatoes or squash for dinner. I've read some resources that say they really don't need the baby meals with meat in them until they are 9 months old, but often times at 9 months a child can start on some soft finger foods if they have enough teeth. Hope this helps!

this is the chart i followed with my son and i still follow it now he is 8 months old of course he gets more now!!

What to feed
• Breast milk or formula, PLUS
• Iron-fortified cereals (rice, barley, oats)
• Pureed or strained fruits (banana, pears, applesauce, peaches)
• Pureed or strained vegetables (avocado, well-cooked carrots, squash, and sweet potato) How much per day
• 3 to 9 tablespoons cereal, in 2 to 3 feedings
• 1 teaspoon fruit, gradually increased to ¼ to ½ cup in 2 to 3 feedings
• 1 teaspoon vegetables, gradually increased to ¼ to ½ cup in 2 to 3 feedings
Feeding tips
• Introduce new foods one at a time, with at least three days in between to make sure your baby's not allergic.
• Get more detailed tips on how to introduce solids.