Introducing solids?

I managed to get Sam to hold out until just over 5 months (but this was more because of the allergies in our families). She was so interested in food by the time I actually gave it to her. She used to start opening her mouth when the spoon was going to my mouth

I tried to start her with the baby rice, but she HATED it! We ended up just going with plain old baby apples and pears for the first foods and I am now glad we did as she loves fruit. Still hates the packet cereals, and she is the most unfussy kid with food that I have ever seen. They must be pretty bad for her to turn them down

You will know if she is ready because she will open her mouth for the spoon and swallow it. If she is not ready she will just push it out with her tongue.

BTW just as a side note, good plan to not introduce them until after 4 months if you can. Their little tummys aren't yet mature and actually absorb some of the food into the blood stream which can create problems with allergies in the future.

Edited by Mum2Sam

When we started solids Daniel hated baby rice too (still does). His first food he liked was pumpkin and sweetcorn. Didn't like fruit at all (and mostly still doesn't).

We started Tom on pears at 4months, 1 week. I really wanted to hold off longer but he was so ready.

Mum2Sam wrote: Do any babies like the cereals?

Have you tried them yourself? They are pretty gross!

started Ella when she was 4 1/2 months. She was also trying to reach for our food, everything was going in the mouth and when I gave her some food one a spoon she knew exactly what to do with it (before I used to give her a bit of boiled water on a spoon to get her used to it).

Started on baby rice, which she was Ok with but very quickly moved to veges (started off with kumera and then pumpkin). Didn't give her fruit until a couple of weeks afterwards- was hoping to get her used to her veges and then move onto the sweeter stuff but she prefers fruit over veges, so it didn't make a difference.

Have been wondering about the baby muesli, as I am running out of breakfast ideas for Ella, but the stuff for 6 months looks so boring...the 8/9 old muesli looked far more interesting.

I wouldnt bother with baby rice, it is a carb and they get plenty of carb from your milk.

The bounty book is much more helpful about solids than the plunket book I found, so if you have one, read it for an overview.

We started Lily almost at 6 months as I have allergies and I am following an allergy diet introduction plan.

Funnily enough, I thought Lily was well ready for solids as she was really interested in what we ate, well when it came to it it took a couple of weeks before she really enjoyed them, so don't worry about the signs, i think a lot of them are developmental and don't mean a baby wants or needs solids.

With your bubba being prem, i would also check with your paed, as they can have different suggestions for starting prems on solids due to immature systems etc.

Although many of the foods taste bland or yuck to us, they taste different to babies as they have more tastebuds than adults, whcih means things taste stronger - so don't worry about how they taste to you!

if you are planning on trying ready made older foods early, do check ingrediants as some will have wheat or dairy in it (not an obvious inlusion either)as you can have that around 8-9 months if no allergies, but it can cause havoc on a younger body and lead to things like (bad spelling) excema.

We started Caleb at 4.5 months. He was still hungry after his early and late breastfeeds and if we topped him up with a bottle he'd spill. He was also really interested in what we were eating.

His first food was baby rice and he seemed to like it but will only eat it now if its mixed with fruit or veges. Next foods were pureed veges (carrot, pumpkin) then fruits (apple, pear, banana). After that we introduced advocado, kumara, potato, peaches and apricot. He is having a bit of mince now but I haven't tried any other baby cereals.

Thanks Yummymummy. We got told by paeds on discharge from NNU to treat baby like any typical fulltermer (including milestones) and LMC/Plunket haven't said any different so we have been going by her actual age for everything!

We have only one visit to paed to sign her out in 8 days so will double check with them then.

Would be good if you could bump that thread for me.

Cheers, night.

Edited by babyg

babyg wrote: Would be good if you could bump that thread for me.

Done - it's in general chat

Hello everyone
I have just started my son on solids, he has tried banana, pear and avocado so far. Just wondering how many times a day I should be offering it to him? I started off with just the dinner time feed but he still seems to be starving throughout the day breast feeding 2 hourly! He is still sleeping through the night. Is it ok to offer another meal? Going to try kumara tomorrow hopefully that will fill him up! he doesnt seem to be fussy so far so fingers crossed!