When to Start Solids

we started at 6 months as to help with BF. however, if you are not BF you can probably start earlier. your ped. will probably let you know. i would just recommend not putting any cereal in their bottle. you want to start with a good habit of teaching them to eat normal. we only kept evey on rice cereal with formula for about a week. she didn't like it at all like that. she wanted something different. i mean to them, they eat that out of a bottle, not spoon, right?? so we started to mix with veggies first. not fruit. we didn't want her to get "spoiled" by the sweet taste of fruits. we started with sweet potatoes and then carrots. we mixed about a tsp. of baby food with about a tsp. of cereal and a little formula to thin it out some. evey doesn't eat very much at once. only 2-3 tsp. she eats cereal twice a day. you can also start them on the gerber puffs (finger foods) any where from 4-6 months. they don't need teeth. just watch them carefully because they will "choke" the first few times you give them...they are just learning to swallow. evey "choked" for one day, then the next she ate them like a pro. amazing how quick they learn. hope this helped.
oh, my ped said to start out with cereal mixed with formula twice a day. give them the amount that can fit in their fist. he said to make it as thick as you like to make your oatmeal. i started out medium thickness. they will gag if it is too thick and you can just add a little more formula.

I started my son at about 6months,cause he was like going through 16 oz of formula for breakfast. They told me to start cereal. My son didn't like it with formula so they told me to use diluted baby juice.

Generally you should start at about six months. Feeding anytime before that may cause allergies. Formula or breastmilk has all the nutrients she needs until then. Start off slowly with rice cereal, and then gradually introduce new foods from there. You're pediatrician should discuss this with you if not at her 4 month ckup then they should at the six month.

I started my granddaughter on cereal at about 1 1/2 months because she was not sleeping through the night and the milk just didn't seem to satisfy her (I actually began teaching with a spoon not a bottle). That was just a little cereal at night to help, then at 3 1/2 to 4 months, I started giving her ceral in the morning and mixed in fruits at night and now at 5 1/2 months she is eating veggies, fruits and cereal (3 meals a day). Just to change her diet, I add fruit to her cereal too.

Hi T.
The reccomendation from the AAP is 6 months, although some go as young as 4 months. Yes, I'd start out with rice cereal for about a week, and then you can add a fruit or veggie. Just remember to only introduce a new food every 5 days or so, so you can rule out any food allergies.
If you try her and she doesn't take to it, give her another few weeks to a month and try again.
Good luck!

Hi T.,
I am a first time mom of a beautiful 5 month old baby boy and not to long ago I was asking the same question. I asked my doctor and he said that I could start adding rice cereal to the formula around 3 months (2 times a day) and start baby foods (veggies & fruits) around 4 months or when your baby can sit up pretty well and is able to move his head away when he no longer wants any more. He then said I could start the meats baby foods around 6 months. My son eats his solids now 3 times a day. Fruits in the morning and his veggies for lunch and dinner. I do not give him the rice cereal in his formula any more because he is now eating his solids. I hope this helps. Have a great day!! :o)

Hi T., I am a mother of four and my newest angel turns 10 months old today:) Your baby is 3 1/2 months? Istared giving my little man cereal around 4 months. I mixed like 1 tbs cereal with an ounce of formula? I think. You want it nice and runny at first for a little while until they get the concept of pushing it to the back of their mouth. At first the whole initial point of introducing it is to get them used to using a spoon. Maybe start out by giving it to her once a day until she seems to be getting down the concept. Then switch to 2 times a day and get it a little thicker. They say not to start fruits and veggies until they are 6 months old, due to alergies and things like that, but your her Mommy and you know her best. I hope I have been of some help, have a great day, and good luck:)

The recommendation now is to wait to give solid food until 6 months of age- they have found a lower risk of food allergies if you wait until then, besides the baby does not need anything else for nutrition before then.

Here is how it was recommended when I was doing this for the first time: Start with rice cereal mixed with formula, then comes the oatmeal cereal with formula, then mixed grain cereal with formula (if you want to). Introduce only one new food for a week, then another new food for a week (you can alternate at that point with the other foods you have already introduced), etc. This way, if your baby has an allergic reaction you know what it was to. I offered all the vegetables first, then the fruits because my mom said it was better that way (less likely to reject the vege's in favor of the sweet fruits.) I really liked the book "Super Baby Food" by Ruth Yaron. I did not grind my own grains and beans like she does, nor did I follow her plan exactly- but the book has great info on what to introduce when and making your own baby food.

As far as how many times per day and how much- I don't remember all of that! I will have to read the responses to your question to refresh my memory- my son is 3 months old too!

I started to introduce it around 4 months. It only took him about a week to pick it up. Start with one time a day and as you notice her picking it up (pushing the food back with her tongue and swallowing), move to fruit and veggies. Start with a half container to gauge how much she can eat and add some cereal to it. My son just turned 6 mos. and eats one whole container mixed with cereal or oatmeal for breakfast and lunch and eats 2 containers with cereal for dinner! FYI-don't mix formula with the cereal and fruit. Also, ho help her get the hang of it. Put a lil bit of food in her mouth, then put her bottle in so she will start to suck and swallow. Once she gets it, if she starts to get fussy during a feeding and won't open her mouth try to trick her by putting the bottle just to her lips so she opens and put the spoon of food in instead, works everytime!