LO is almost four months, and people are constantly asking if she has started solids yet! Also telling me to put cereal in her bottles, etc. I have read that for breastfed babies it's better to start closer to six months, but people look at me like I'm crazy if I tell them that. I'm inclined to wait, partially because I don't see the big rush if she is thriving on breastmilk. What do you bees think?
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No rush! I waited. I wanted to make sure LO was ready . . . it was pretty clear when that happened (right around 6 mos.), i.e., interested in food and reaching for food. Also, I wanted to make sure she was ready physcially, too, i.e., had good head, neck, and trunk control.
ETA: Even though my LO didn't gain a ton of weight (she has been in the 27th percentile for weight for quite a while now), my Ped didn't think we needed to start solids early.
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@kml636: No rush, we started at 4 months only due to her not gaining weight, I was planning on waiting closer to 6 months. Our doctor did say it was good to at least start with rice so they get used to a spoon.
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Gosh, who is rushing you? I would tell them that you are going to start her on solids when she is ready. There is no rush! Do it at your leisure and when you're ready. Definitely don't do anything before you're comfortable with it. And cereal in bottles? GAHHHH!!!! That's all I have to say about that. Haha.
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DD is 4 1/2 months and i'm experiencing the same thing! Maybe our parents' generation started earlier. Our pediatrician said we would talk about starting solids at her 6 month well visit and there is no need to start them sooner.
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Ugh we got pressure too! It started at 2 months though! "Put rice in her bottle", umm no she doesn't really take a bottle and I'm not putting rice in it when she does. Oye! We started just after 5 months when she showed signs of being ready, and she could already sit up on her own. Stand your ground, you know what is best for your baby.
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this is my biggest pet peeve with my dh's family right now. EVERYTIME we see them they ask why we haven't given her food yet, she must be starving, and if they see her look at food they are like "omg she wants food so bad, poor baby!" the little chunkster is 17 pounds at 4 months old on just my BM, I'm pretty sure she's not starving!!!!! drives me crazy! they also say that her short naps (45 mins) must be because she is so hungry, which also drives me insane. I always tell them short naps at her age are very common and its a developmental thing. I just think older generations started solids a lot earlier and they are unaware that the new recommendation is 6 months.
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My LO will be 4 months next week and people are already asking us this too! We are waiting until six months primarily because of her allergy issues. She is thriving extremely well on just breastmilk so we're in no rush.
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The AAP only changed their recommendation to 6 months about a year ago, and it really doesn't seem to have spread to the masses yet. We got so much pressure to start E at 4 months, our daycare teacher even told us babies that start later have a hard time learning to eat. Well we waited until he was a week shy of 6 months, when he really seemed ready and showed interest. Lo and behold he was the best eater in class. Ignore everyone.e the best you can, you know what's best for your baby.
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We started at 4 months. He wasn't interested in it at all. At 6-7 months, he's beginning to show interest. He spits out his purees all the time. He's best with his mesh feeder these days for solids.
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We got some pressure as well. I waited until closer to 5 months to start and I had some friends asking me 'why are you waiting so long'. Honestly, one of my mommy friend's reasoning was so lame... she wanted to start right at 4 months because it gave her something "new & exciting" to do with her LO.
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Lots of family members wanted to feed him early but I decided to let DS dictate when he was ready to eat. No cereal in a bottle or anything like that.
He started around 4 months licking his lips and crying when I would eat in front of him, banging his hands in frustration. When I did feed him solids he knew to "chew" (mashed with his jaw) and swallow. There was no denying he was ready. He knew what to do with the first bite.
I think you'll know when your LO is ready. -
I think a lot of the older ppl are outdated in their information. 4 months used to be the norm, it's not anymore. I think you should rely on your mother's intuition and try to ignore the pressure.
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I had a lot of pressure too! I did start at 4months, but was still irritated that so many family members were all over me about it. Do whatever feels right to you!
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@NovBaby1112: same here, my MIL sent a baby bullet in the mail!
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Based on what I have learned on this site my LO will first get introduced to fruit and veggie purees, not Cheerios or rice cereal. Also, I plan to hold out on solids as long as I can, 6+ months at least. Tell these folks to mind their own business.
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We got the same thing but we just explained our pedi's recommendation (as close to 6 months as possible) and most ppl let it go after that.
Now we're getting a completely different pressure to start... From LO! He's been getting frustrated when we eat, opening his mouth and lunging for our food, etc. We'll be starting solids this week at just shy of 5.5 months.
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Yes! We got a ton of pressure from day care to start him at 4 months. I kept hearing that he was starving (um, 16 lbs and 27 inches at 4 months = not starving). I just held strong to the "our pediatrician doesn't start solids until 6 months" argument, as hard as it was. We ended up starting a few days before 6 months and I'm happy that we waited. He definitely hasn't had any problem learning to eat - in fact, by the second day, he was cleaning the bowl.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: It is still recommended to start with rice cereal (and/or oatmeal cereal) before any purees.
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Ugh, I hear ya. My mom has been bugging me that we need to put cereal in a bottle for LO at night so he'll sleep better. He just turned 5 months last week and I prefer to wait until he's closer to 6 months. He's starting to show signs of readiness. He can sit up pretty well on his own, he can bring objects to his mouth and chews on them. But why start complicating things early?
@Running Elley: how exciting! I think A is pretty close to starting solids. He's showing a lot of signs that he's ready.
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@kml636: LOL oh man! I've honestly thought about printing up articles on why starting at 6 months is recommended and passing them out to DH's family when they say something haha, but I have refrained. they think i "read" too much about baby stuff anyways and that books are useless as well
haha
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This was something that we faced at first too, it's a pretty old school mentality to start solids that early. I was just very matter of fact about when we would start and people let it go.
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@mrskc: We got pressure from my MIL to put cereal in his bottle so he would sleep too. Yea, he's 10 months now, eats three solid meals a day and still doesn't sleep through the night.
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LO will be 4 months next week and I couldn't imagine trying to feed her right now. She has expressed no interest whatsoever!
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Cereal I would skip entirely, honestly. My daughter started grabbing fruits off our plate before 5 months, and clearly wanted to eat them. We started really letting her taste pureed and smashed things at 5 months, and she loved them. She had a lot of diaper rash from it, though, early on, so I think we'll wait a bit with the next kiddo.
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@mrskc: I'm really excited!! Attempting my first batch of baby food today!
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oops @MsLipGloss: I just did a little google search, babycenter.com calls cereal "traditional" first food, but mayo clinic definitely states to start with it. I think I was confused by all the first food posts...first in the sense of new, not in initial introduction.
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I got this CONSTANTLY. It was so annoying. If he fussed at all or didn't STTN for a few nights, the obvious answer was that I was starving him and I should give him solids. My daycare harassed me about putting rice cereal in the bottles from 2 months old. Drove me nuts. He would always fuss after stopping a feed (and still does) but it wasn't that he was still hungry...he just likes to eat! He's always content for several hours if you just distract him a bit after stopping nursing/the bottle. I started a week shy of 6 months with pureed veggies and fruits. I still don't give rice cereal or any of the rice puffs, etc and don't plan to. My pedi said I could wait until 6 months and that's what she did with her kiddos, so that's what I did.
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We actually lost our pedi over this bc apparently P "NEEDED" solids at 6+ months of age & my breastmilk simply wasn't enough calories anymore... A simple reading of the labels on baby foods & the info from our pedi on my bm having ~20-22 cal per ounce proved my breastmilk being plenty & so since P still wasn't showing signs of readiness & not compromising our breastfeeding relation was important to me we didn't "comply" & he fired us.
Kellymom has some good info on solids & why delaying (past 6 months) can be beneficial.
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Just tell them thank you and walk away. Do what you feel is right and ignore everyone else's 2 cents. They don't turn into pumpkins at any particular age if you haven't started solids yet.
If they question you, tell them you are following pediatrician's orders or just nod and smile. Everyone is an expert when it comes to feeding someone else's baby.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Awww - no worries!
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@runsyellowlites: yikes! Unbelievable!
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@MsLipGloss: @Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Cereals as a first food is still recommended by some doctors and organizations, but that doesn't mean the research is behind it. Recent research suggests that skipping cereals and going directly to veggies and fruits is better nutritionally.
There's a thread about it here - http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-not-doing-rice-cereal
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That's so frustrating that people are pressuring you! A is 19 weeks tomorrow and we haven't started yet... she doesn't seem ready to me, she has started watching us as we eat but she still has her tongue pushing reflex and hasn't started looking hungry or mad when we eat so we're waiting for those cues first. I think we'll start at six months and skip cereal. Can't wait for the eye rolling from my mum at that, ha.
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Bah! Tell them you will start solids when you're good and ready. Sooo totally has nothing to do with them!!
I waited. Dude was almost 6.5 months old before we started!
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: @Arden: I am sure the "risks" (and I use that term loosely) of incorporating cereal (rice or oatmeal, although we started with oatmeal) as a food for a month or two (if that) as it relates to a child's propensity for obesity/diabetes is far outweighed by the food consumption that occurs later during infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood.
@Arden: I am not sure if you realize it, but you have a tendency to come off preachy in your posts. Sharing an information source is one thing, but do us the courtesy of allowing us to draw our own conclusions regarding same (, for one example, "research suggests" doesn't mean *proven* . . . ).
Many doctors recommend iron-fortified rice cereal as baby’s first food because it is less likely to cause an allergic reaction and because most babies sometime after the 6th month require an additional iron source other than BM (BM is low in protein and high in carbohydrates).
Other recommendations for first foods include starting with proteins (BM is already high in carbohydrates):
http://www.lalecheleague.org/llleaderweb/lv/lvdec99jan00p130.html
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@MsLipGloss: I apologize if I come off as "preachy", but I do think you are being a little bit unfair.
@Mrs. Lemon-Lime had expressed that she had decided to start with fruits and veggies based on what she had learned here instead of cereal, and you basically "corrected" her by stating that cereal is still recommended.
I just wanted to add some more information and another point of view by stating that just because something is still recommended doesn't necessarily mean it's best, and that there are other schools of thought.
I said "suggested" and not "proven" because almost nothing can be conclusively proven, there are always two sides to every thing and just because a study comes to a certain conclusion that doesn't mean there won't be another study with a different conclusion.I don't think it was "preachy" to come in and say "There is some research that suggests this conclusion, here's the link to check it out". Everyone here can look at that information themselves and come to their own decision. That's what hellobee is for -sharing information and learning new things. Everyone has a different opinion and we should feel comfortable sharing with each other.
I'm not the only person on hellobee who believes this - many other mamas have chosen to skip cereals for the same reasons I mentioned. I wanted @Mrs. Lemon-Lime to have the opportunity to see other options and opinions since it seemed your comment had made her reconsider, so I linked to the post where it was extensively discussed and MANY other mamas said the exact same thing I said. No one thought they were being preachy - they were just sharing information.
I've talked extensively on the boards about both the allergy and the iron issues in relation to rice cereal and so I don't personally consider them to be good arguments in defense of cereal as a first food, but that's a personal opinion.
You have every right to your opinion, but please remember that everyone else does too and open sharing of information is a good thing and I certainly didn't mean for it to be personally offensive to you. -
If you're not comfortable dont do it! I started at 4 months because DD was ready to eat.
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Ugh...this was my mom. She was pushing solids on us at 3 months! Saying we were starving him and that he needed cereal in his bottle. She was driving me crazy!
We attempted solids for the first time at 4.5 months, and it was a disaster. He screamed through the whole thing. We tried a few weeks later, and while it didn't go great, it was better than the first time. The week after that (about 5 months and a week old), he was much more receptive to it. Now, he'll be 6 months next week and if we're eating in front of him, he's reaching for whatever it is that we have! I just started him on cereal/veggies twice a day (we were only doing once a day before) today!
Take your time. Don't let anyone pressure you into it. Try when you feel your baby is ready or when they're showing you signs that they're interested in food!
haha
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