How early is to early to start your baby on solids?

Question

How early is to early to start your baby on solids?

Answer 1

they say not to start your baby on solids until 6 months , but my bub was always hungry so i started them a tad earlier and they have run off all those fat roles off of the legs and they are healthy.its best to check with you health nurse.

Answer 2

Baby food just use your best judement..

6-7 months is a good age to start them out on it but start with veggies first then fruits and work it up thru them all. when they start to get teeth like 8 teeth then they can eat the todler entree's like real food. carrots cooked, green beans cooked, and everything else but usually thats when there around one years old.

6 months until 11 months baby food should BE great!!

good luck  

Answer 3

Don't start before 3/4 months. You CAN start before 6 months, personally I wouldn't listen to the american board of anything, the UK has the best medical care anyway. That's another issue though.

You start when your baby is ready, they'll tell you. I was weaned at 3 months as it was necessary and my son was 4 months. Most children are weaned younger nowadays. Just start with plain porridge, move onto pureed fruit then mashed potato and veg, stuff like that. It's unlikely your child will develop any sort of allergy, but do not give them salt as their kidneys aren't built for it yet.

Ask your health visitor, they'll know best, failing that ask your doctor/nurse/midwife.

Good Luck

Answer 4

The guidelines say 6 months although when my eldest two were younger it was 4 months and they are ok. My youngest was ready at 4 months but i left it longer because of the guidelines  and was constantly breast feeding her and she went from sleeping through the night to waking up for a feed so looking back i should have weaned her earlier. Whatever the professional advise i would say all babies are different  but i would probably say not before 4 months!!  

Answer 5

Never before 6 months, not before they can sit unaided and not before they have lost their tongue thrust!

If you give solids to early you put a strain on their digestive system, kidneys, increase risk of allergies and obesity.  Of course many say "well my baby was on food at 6 weeks and she is fine" they don't know for sure.  You need foresight in this parenting business, the consequences of what you do in the first years may not be evident to a decade or 2 later.

I tend to do baby led weaning with mine, if they are developed enough to be able to pick up solid food and put it in their own mouth they are ready (and no they don't choke).  All that hungry baby stuff is nonsense too.  Society has this odd idea about how often a baby should feed, it's nothing like nature intended.  So a 16 week old in the middle of a growth spurt will want to nurse every 5 seconds (feels like) but that is on purpose, to increase supply during a growth spurt.  Early solids may physically fill them up for a parent's convenience but per volume there are far less calories (and none of those fatty acids the brain needs) in solids compared with breastmilk so it's not even the answer for a baby not gaining weight either.  Early solids can also interfere with iron absorption leading to anaemia.  Iron is important in development at this age.

Answer 6

at six months we stopped breastfeeding completely and used Similac Advanced and Nestle Good Start formula and started Gerber first foods and gradually worked up until a year and at a year we started using Similac Go and Grow formula and then they ate all regular human food.

Answer 7

DO NOT DO IT BEFORE 6 MONTHS OLD! This is what is recommended by the american assosiation of Pediatrics. Babies should be eating finger food by nine months but having formula untill 12 months and then off to milk and eating like a big girl/boy. some mothers are giving their children rice cereal before the 6 month marker and although that was something our parents did with us it turns out that giving your children anything other then breast milk or formula before 6 months can lead to allergies, and stomach and digestion issues. Hope this helps! Good Luck  

Answer 8

I think the general advice is 6 months but I started giving my son baby food at about 3 months. If your baby seems hungry after the milk or he looks at your food with interest you can probably start him/her on the rice cereal mixed with formula. They say not to start too early with too much variety b/c some babies develop food allergies. So just start slow with bland foods and only one time a day until the baby gets used to it.  

Answer 9

my son was underwiehgt so the doctor put us on a special diet. i was told to thicken his milk at first and gradually make it thicker.... by the time he was 3 months old he was eating mashed potatoes. i saw on another site... maybe babycenter.com that you can normally start whenever the baby can swallow without choking and due to developemental stuff one baby may be slow while another one is able sooner.

Answer 10

I had a very big, very hungry baby (born 9lb 5oz), he was 14lb by 9 weeks, that was just on breast milk, he was seriously draining me. The clinic nurse suggested I put him on a very watery mixture of Farex, mixed with breast milk, and fruit gels once a day to keep him satisfied. It did help a little bit

Therefore I was feeding my baby solids from 9 weeks onwards, he is now 15, very tall and skinny, and still does nothing but eat!