Starting Solids - Keller,TX

usually, you would start with a few bites of the solids then follow with bottle or breast feeding. He may not finish the whole bottle. But you don't want to give him too much of the solid food, where he is not drinking the bottle much because he still will be getting most of his calories and nutrition from the bottle.

I actually have a 6 1/2 mo old. We started foods around 5 months. We started with just one feeding in the afternoons between 2-4. Whenever it was his time for a bottle I gave him some food mixed with cereal and breast milk and then gave him a bottle. We then went to only baby food. Now we do one baby food in the am 9am and then the other in the afternoon. But, I still keep it at bottle time. I always give him the bottle after eating. He'll get to where he will probably not drink as much milk at this feeding and then drop the milk. he still has only milk at all of the other feeding times. We will soon go to 3 baby food meals a day. Hope this helps.

My son is 6 months and we started at 4 months. You can do whatever you want--there is no rule. They reccomend 2 meals a day of about 4 tablespoons (but not to force them!) I usually breastfeed when my son wakes up early in the morning and around 11 or 12 give him solids then milk afterwards when he "asks" for it. I give him another meal in the evening. There are no rules, but I would not give solids before milk if your son is underweight or is not a good drinker because this could make the problem worse. Have fun--solids are stinky messy and so much fun!!

Adding in solids will be a bit of a slow process, starting with just 1 tme a day and working up to each meal. I would certainly do the solids first and bottle after so that he doesn't fill up on the milk. I also tried to start set meal times (whether food or milk) at about 3-5 months, and I must say my boys are still on the same time schedules today and it works great for us. Good Luck...and get ready for lots of funny faces as he likes or doesn't like something!

Our pediatrician recommends feeding the solid after they have had a regular bottle/breast feeding. It's more of an introduction to solids right now (taste and texture as well as determining possible allergies) rather than sustenance.

Hi! I don't think it matters very much, as long as you realize that you are supplementing with solids not replacing a milk feeding, that is, offer just as much milk/formula as you always have (especially at first, because its best to start very slowly with solids). For both of my kids, I started solids at dinner time, offering them just before I normally fed milk (e.g. 6:30 solids, 7:00 milk). Worked great for my first son. For my second, I still offer solids first (because it fits in my family's dinner schedule better), but sometimes he gets too fussy and I need to stop, nurse him, then go back to the solids. Both of my sons LOVE eating, so starting solids was a lot of fun for me. I hope it is for you too!

Hi J.,

When we started solids we were on an eat/play/sleep schedule. So my daughter would nurse, play, eat solids, then sleep. That schedule seemed to work for us.

bottle first then solids at this age. think of solids as a snack and milk as the meal. they won't eat that much solids at first - maybe a spoonful or two unless they just really take to it. good luck!

My daughter is 5 months, too. I usually give her a 6 oz bottle at Noon-ish and then give her some baby cereal, mixed w/formula, then AFTER the bottle.
They recommend giving baby milk first when they are ravenous and then they can calmly take the baby cereal fine.
I also do this at dinnertime -- 6 oz bottle and then some baby cereal.

once we get this cereal down well, I'll try the oatmeal and then go on to veggies... they recommend when you start the baby foods -- you stay on one veggie or fruit for 3 days so if there is an allergic reaction, you know what was the culprit.
They recommend starting veggies first going thru those and then going on to fruits. (Stage 1 baby foods).