Starting Solids - 6 months

I am sorry that I haven't been posting as often as before. Life gets busy with kids and a husband and taking care of a house. I am sure you all know how busy mothers can get. So forgive me and be patient with me. I will try better to stay on top of my posting.

I thought that I would help with what to feed your baby if you are staring solids. I got this wonderful book from my sister called "Super Baby Food." It helps you know what to feed your baby month by month and gives you a food schedule to work with your nursing schedule.

If you want to be efficient and make your own baby food this book also helps you with that. I personally don't like the baby food in the stores. I used them with my first baby and she is a very picky eater and it was expensive. So I decided not to use it with my second baby and it was so much easier. My son just ate what he could eat from the table. I did have to make the food liquidy thin so that he could eat it, but it was much cheaper. With this book, I knew what I could give him and what I had to wait to feed him. He to this day eats anything that is put before him.

Here is a list of the first foods to give your baby:

Homemade cereal or store rice or grain cereal (rich in iron)

Oatmeal

winter squash

papaya

mango

pears

bananas

In the baby section at the store, you will find fun snacks to give to your baby. They are big enough for a six month old to hold because your baby is still working on feeding itself. The snacks can't be small like cheerios because your baby is still to young to pick up the small things.

Here is a daily feeding schedule to follow to help incorporate the solid foods:

When your baby wakes up, just nurse your regular feeding. Then you can nurse your second feeding and add some food. At noon time or before a nap do your regular feeding. After the nap or afternoon feeding, you can add some solids. Then you proceed the rest of the day with your nursing times. Make sure when you do feed your baby solids to add some water with the meals. Try to find some sippy cups that your baby will like to help them learn to transition from breast to cup with the time comes. If your baby seems hungry at night after nursing time then you can offer a snack before bedtime. Make sure that your baby is still breastfeeding atleast 5 to 6 times a day. If they aren't nursing that often then you need to pull back some meal times to make sure that your baby gets enough breastmilk. Your breastmilk is still the most important food that your baby needs, so don't worry to much about how much solids he/she is eating.

When you do start solids, you need to make sure that you start each new food in the morning and long before a nap. You never know what your baby might be allergic to, so you want to make sure that you can find out before they go to sleep. You can add more food next month. If your baby has a hard time with solids don't worry. My little girl wouldn't take to solids until about 8 months. You do need to make sure that your baby gets used to solids before 10 months or they will struggle with food. Good luck with the solids