Thursday, November 19, 2009

Ready already??

Who knew there was so much information out there on feeding solids to your baby??

I've been debating starting Caleb on solids recently. There are those who swear by starting at 4 months and claim that baby's sleep vastly improved with the introduction of those extra calories. And then there are those (like our pediatrician) who say to wait until 6 months, to be sure that baby's digestive system is fully prepared for this new stage in the feeding game. Caleb is almost 5 months old, so I've thought about going ahead and starting. He'll be 6 months old a few days before Christmas and with all the Christmastime activities going on I would like for him to either be somewhat established on eating solids, or I'd like to wait until after the holiday season to start so that I can be more structured in my approach. So basically, it's either 5 months or 6.5 or 7 months.

Tough decision.

I think I'll probably wait until after Christmas and New Year's and then start him when he'll be about 6.5 months old. Breastfeeding is going well, and there is nothing as nutritionally perfect for him as breastmilk so why replace it with other things before I need to?

The next question is: when I do start him on solids, what solids do we try first? I've heard everything from banana, to avocado, to the traditional rice cereal. I haven't spoken with my pediatrician about this yet, but my guess is that she'll recommend rice cereal. I guess if they've never had anything else, the blandness of rice cereal won't be an issue, whereas starting with something sweet, like banana, might make rice cereal seem a little boring.

So many choices. I'll have to do a little reading over the next month or so before I make these decisions. I'm excited to start solids with Caleb, but at the same time, WHAT? He's already ready for solids?? People weren't kidding when they told me it goes by quickly.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Ireland Family said...

hey! i think you are suppose to start with rice cereal and then most people start with veggies b/c they aren't as sweet as fruit - that way they will eat the veggies. i think you are suppose to do one food for like 4 days to make sure there isn't a reaction and then you introduce another food. our ped. said to start lillie at 4months w/rice ceral and then foods at 6months. i dont' remember if i waited all the way until 6 months or not but that is what we do. i hope that makes sense. i'm sure whatever you are comfy with will work fine. my mom always says when we were little you did start any food even cereal until 6/9 months.

November 20, 2009 at 5:17 PM  

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