Introducing your baby to solid food

There are so many milestones to follow in the first year of your baby’s life.  Assuming your child is developing normally, many of those milestones happen without you having to do much to make them happen.  Babies will eventually roll, sit up, crawl, pull up to stand and walk, often all within the first year of their lives.  Starting to eat solid food is a milestone that you, as a parent, will need to initiate.  I have found that the information around solid food, such as what to feed, when to start and how to get started, is somewhat lacking and often confusing.  Often pediatricians will say “You can start solid foods!” without giving any more details about what that means.  When I didn’t talk to moms in groups about solid food, I would get a crazy flurry of emails when everyone’s baby was turning 6 months, asking “how do we do this?!”  So for the last several years, we always spend some time talking what it means to introduce solids and where to find information about this.

The information that I cover goes over when to start, how to feed (purees vs a baby led weaning approach), a conversation around allergies, and also how things typically progress as your child gets older.  My goal is to give moms the information that they need to make an informed decisions.  These days, at your baby’s 4 month check up, many pediatricians will tell parents “Okay, your baby is 4 months old, you can start solids now!”  Yes, you can start but you don’t have to.  The recommendation to start solid food this early came out of the 50s and 60s before formula was what it is today and also at a time when the recommendation to breastfeeding moms was to put babies on a 4 hour feeding schedule, practically from birth.  Any nursing mom can tell you that, in the early weeks and months, if you are only nursing every 4 hours, it can be hard to establish a good milk supply.  This means that by 4 months old, moms were feeling like their supply was decreasing.  In the absence of formula, the answer was to feed babies food which would need to be pureed.  However, if you have a well established milk supply or are feeding formula, many babies are just fine with drinking milk alone until they reach 6 months old.  I will often ask moms in group to raise their hands if they have a lot of free time.  😆  My point is that feeding solids is something else to do in your day and it adds to the very demanding job that parents already have of caring for children.  At some point in my children’s lives it occurred to me that it is a lot to be feeding 3 meals a day, every day!  Among other things, holding off until 6 months gives you a bit more time to get milk feeding and all of the other aspects of infant life established.

When it comes to what to feed and how to get started, I like to talk parents through what the different the options are.  You are not going to do it wrong.  Many parents are familiar with feeding purees.  They can be store bought, you can make your own or you can sign up for any number of subscription services where food is delivered to your home.  There is a level for everyone.  Or, you can take the Baby Led Weaning (BLW) approach where you are offering your child whole foods that are cut in stick shapes that they can hold onto and feed themselves.  Ideally, your child is able to sit up with little to no support, reach out and grab for a piece of food and put it into their own mouth.  This action is actually how you know your child is ready to eat solid food.  Prior to being able to do this with food, babies will practice these skills by putting toys in their mouths and making chewing motions. 

You can also take a combined approach of offering whole foods and then following up with purees.  While there are a lot of BLW Facebook groups that can provide helpful information for feeding in this way, if you are offering as well as whole foods, I would resist the urge to post in these groups as there is often a lot of shaming for moms who are not doing BLW exclusively.  Sad but true.  No matter how you are choosing to feed your baby, be sure you are offering milk (breastmilk or formula) prior to solids.  Solid food, in the beginning, is largely carbs.  You want to ensure that your baby is still getting all of the nutrition needed out of milk.  Solids food is supplemental.

Allergies are often a big concern when starting solid foods.  The biggest change to the recommendation on the introduction of allergens is related to peanuts.  Back when my kids were little, now 16 years ago, the recommendation used to be to hold off on introducing peanuts until sometimes 2 years old.  Studies since then have determined that the delayed introduction of peanuts has led to more peanut allergies, not less.  For this reason, many pediatricians often advise parents to introduce peanuts to babies as young as 4 months old.  This can be done by adding peanut power to food or even putting it in a bottle with breastmilk or formula or even putting some peanut butter on a pacifier or your finger for your baby to get a taste of it.  I always encourage parents to be in close contact with their pediatrician or an allergist if there are any allergy concerns.  Also, if your baby has eczema, be particularly on the lookout for egg and peanut allergies as they are linked to eczema.

Lastly, in terms of the progression of solid foods, usually by 8 months old, babies are starting to eat 3 means a day and, even if you started with purees, you are starting to introduce more whole foods that your baby can learn to pick up and feed themselves.  At about 8 months (sometimes earlier for girls then boys who may develop fine motor coordination sooner), your baby has the pincher grasp which enables him or her to pick up small pieces of food and put it in his or her mouth.  This means that you can start offering your baby all sorts of things!  Cut up fruits and veggies, pieces of meat, chicken, fish, cheese, whole beans and all sorts of more nutrient rich foods.  This is often the point in time when the amount of milk that your child takes in will start to decrease as solid food takes over.

So there you have it.  A very general run down on some things to keep in mind when you are starting to think about feeding your baby solids.  Bon appetite!