I am going to be 100% honest here, I always looked down on people who started their babies on solids at 4 months. In my defense - my doctor with Katie was very strict about not starting until 6 months, so of course, I agreed with her.
Fast forward to now - Exclusively breastfeeding for 4.5 months. (this kid has only taken 1 bottle EVER and it was 1/4 of a bottle and he was sleeping)
Anyway - The new standard is to start between 4 and 6 months. The idea being that if your child isn't ready to eat - they will let you know because they won't be good at it. Makes total sense.
So, we went to our 4 month appointment and I already had the rice cereal in the cabinet at home because I was ready for him to start eating. I Figured if nothing else, maybe it would help him sleep a little longer at night if he got a little cereal. That was all I hoped for. I figured he would practice for a month or 2 before he was ready to actually eat.
I was wrong - he took to the spoon from day 1 and ate his cereal like a CHAMP! I'm talking, opening his mouth for more and reaching for the spoon.
Rice cereal, Barley and Oatmeal - Check.
The downside is he prefers it with Breastmilk over water as do I for the nutritional benefit. I tried formula to see if I could get a break - and he rejected it whole heartedly.
So, I try to pump so that at least one of his 2 cereal servings a day can be with formula - makes me feel better about starting him on food so early.
Clearly he likes it and his tummy can handle it and he's super interested in food. Katie was not.
So, I apologize to all the moms I scoffed at in the past for feeding your babies food at 4 months. I now agree, that some babies truly are ready for it!
Fast forward to now - Exclusively breastfeeding for 4.5 months. (this kid has only taken 1 bottle EVER and it was 1/4 of a bottle and he was sleeping)
Anyway - The new standard is to start between 4 and 6 months. The idea being that if your child isn't ready to eat - they will let you know because they won't be good at it. Makes total sense.
So, we went to our 4 month appointment and I already had the rice cereal in the cabinet at home because I was ready for him to start eating. I Figured if nothing else, maybe it would help him sleep a little longer at night if he got a little cereal. That was all I hoped for. I figured he would practice for a month or 2 before he was ready to actually eat.
I was wrong - he took to the spoon from day 1 and ate his cereal like a CHAMP! I'm talking, opening his mouth for more and reaching for the spoon.
Rice cereal, Barley and Oatmeal - Check.
The downside is he prefers it with Breastmilk over water as do I for the nutritional benefit. I tried formula to see if I could get a break - and he rejected it whole heartedly.
So, I try to pump so that at least one of his 2 cereal servings a day can be with formula - makes me feel better about starting him on food so early.
Clearly he likes it and his tummy can handle it and he's super interested in food. Katie was not.
So, I apologize to all the moms I scoffed at in the past for feeding your babies food at 4 months. I now agree, that some babies truly are ready for it!
OK I totally forgot when we started JC on what so thank God for my blog cause I just went backed and looked. JC was just a few days shy of his 3 month when we started on rice cereal and just shy of 4 months when he started bananas by the end of 4 months he was eating sweet potatoes with us on Thanksgiving. I think every child is different. JC loves food and took to it right away. When bottles, which were already formula, just weren't cutting it we had to move onto something else. Now my kid is an eating champ though we keep it to healthy foods 95% of the time so we don't have to worry about weight.
ReplyDelete-Christine
we forgive you. haha. both jake and aidan started at 4 months (at the consent of their pediatrician who said they were ready). we've done rice, barley, oat cereal for about a month and then started with orange veggies, then green veggies, then fruits (3 days for each food of course so we're just finishing up some orange veggies right now). When I first started with Aidan he was into it for a day and then didn't want it so I didn't push it - we stopped and tried again after a week and then he was a master at the spoon. I think it's true that all kids are different.
ReplyDeleteI tried Bryden at 4 months and she wanted nothing to do with it. Finally at 6 months we tried again and it was successful. I tried James at 4 months and he practically ripped the spoon out of my hands wanting more. So double lesson learned, every child is different and we should accept all forms of parenting (even if they aren't exactly how we would do it). Congrats on the feeding milestone!
ReplyDeleteWe started at 4 months for all of them as well, didn't know any different, its what our doctor said to do! lol (My kid's dr was my pediatrician as well as ALL of my brothers, sisters, cousins, cousin's friends etc... so we trust him :-) ) I however sucked at the spacing to make sure they weren't allergic. With no known food allergies in either of our family, we kinda just went for it when we thought they were ready. Peanut butter by the age of 2 (Which I know is a big no no, but it was one of the few semi-healthy things I could get Jack to eat!), two or three different kinds of fruit in a week. Its different for everyone! and everyone knows they're own children :-) YAY FOR SOLIDS!!!!
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