2 Minute Doctor Blog: STARTING SOLIDS

Your baby is 4-6 months old, and your doctor has given you the go-ahead to start solids! Wow! It's definitely an exciting milestone and forever will change your habits and feeding schedules. Around age 6 months, your baby's iron stores that they have from birth have started to dwindle. This is why we like to start iron-containing pablum (rice, oat etc.) at this age.

When to start?

First you have to make sure your baby is ready. This is anywhere between 4-6 months, typically. You should make sure your baby is cuing to eat:

- Can sit up and hold their head steady and lean forward

- Open their mouthes wide when you offer food (don't worry, they won't ALWAYS do this...sometimes it will be a struggle, but don't force it at the start!)

- Can let you know that they don't want food by turning their head away

- Look at you and make mouth motions when you are eating

What to start with?

Remember, so far your baby has only had liquids to eat! So start with something very wet, like prunes or apple sauce. Around 6 months, you should start to introduce iron-fortified cereals. You can offer your baby a variety of textures based on their age - mined, ground, mashed and finger foods. Keep in mind, your baby likely has no teeth at this point, and they're just learning to move food around in their mouth, so start slow with soft things to prevent choking and gagging.

EXAMPLE MENU

QUICK TIPS FROM THE DOCTORS:

1) Offer new foods at the start of the day so you have time to monitor for allergic reactions.

2) Giving your baby solids will NOT help your baby sleep through the night - old wives tale! Don't give your baby solids before they're ready :)

3) BEFORE 9 months, continue to offer BREAST/FORMULA first then solid foods. After 9 months, you can transition to the opposite, if you would like.

4) If you are using store-bought foods, look at the nutritional content! I bought something called "Chicken, Carrot and Rice" in a jar, and after about 2 weeks, I checked the back and there was barely any protein in it (it was mostly carrot!).

5) It is VERY COMMON for your baby to get constipated when you start solids - sometimes not pooping for a week! Make sure you hydrate them well, and keep up with the prunes, carrots and pears (all good for constipation). Rice is very constipating for many babies. One of the BabyBuy Doctors switched to oat pablum for this reason.

6) Gagging is common when starting solids - this is normal! Gagging is when a piece of food stimulates their gag reflex and they try to push the food outward. Choking, on the other hand, is when there is something stuck in your baby's trachea (where they breathe from) and is an EMERGENCY. If you don't already know about abdominal thrusts (Heimlich maneuver) or infant CPR, contact your local Public Health Unit, or just youtube some videos until you feel comfortable.