Can you believe Ryder is almost six months old? It blows my mind that we have an almost six month old baby in our family but I suppose I should know by now that even though some days feel long, the months fly by!
When you think about all the changes a baby goes through in a year, it’s kind of amazing. They start out as these tiny, wrinkly little things that cannot even hold their heads up and by the time they’re a year old they’re crawling or walking, eating and possibly babbling a few words. It’s pretty darn amazing but I think the fact that babies achieve so many milestones within their first year of life can make everything all the more emotional for parents. So quickly our tiny babies are no longer newborns and then they’re no longer babies and then they’re no longer toddlers… and it’s just a lot to handle sometimes!
One milestone that’s currently on our radar big-time is beginning solid foods with Ryder. Once Ryder hit four months old, I began to receive more and more questions about when I am planning to attempt feeding him food other than breast milk and the answer is soon, but there are a myriad of factors that will play into my decision regarding when we’ll begin solids.
So what is my plan this time around? It’s very similar to the way I approached beginning solids with Chase. (Please note this is simply what I’m doing for my baby and may not be right for you and your baby!)
-
Exclusively Breast Feeding Until Baby is Six Months
I am still exclusively breastfeeding at the moment and planned all along to wait until Ryder was six months old to try solids. (My pediatrician is also fully on board with this plan.) This is what we did with Chase and it worked well for us. I waited until Chase was six months to begin introducing solids and even then we were pretty slow with the amount of food we gave to him.
-
Begin After Baby Shows Signs of Developmental Readiness
I absolutely love the site KellyMom.com for all things breast feeding and baby food related. The site does the best job of concisely answering hot topics related to nursing, feeding, pumping and more. It’s a great resource and one I check frequently when I’m faced with questions about anything related to feeding my baby. One thing the site emphasized with regard to beginning solids with a baby is to check for signs of developmental readiness rather than simply waiting for baby to reach a certain age. This made a TON of sense to me and I’m currently watching for the following signs of developmental readiness in Ryder before beginning solids:
- Baby can sit up well without support.
- Baby has lost the tongue-thrust reflex and does not automatically push solids out of his mouth with his tongue.
- Baby is ready and willing to chew. (As you can see above, Ryder has this one down.)
- Baby is developing a “pincer” grasp, where he picks up food or other objects between thumb and forefinger. Using the fingers and scraping the food into the palm of the hand (palmar grasp) does not substitute for pincer grasp development.
- Baby is eager to participate in mealtime and may try to grab food and put it in his mouth.
-
Begin Including Baby in Mealtimes ASAP
Right now I must admit that we’ll often wait until Ryder is napping or happily playing in his activity jumper to dig into our dinner at the end of the day. I’d love to begin incorporating Ryder into mealtimes before we begin solids by giving him a spoon or something to hold and letting him sit up at the table with us in his highchair. I am hoping that by getting him used to sitting up to eat with us, the transition into trying new foods will be exciting and even welcomed!
-
Begin with Vegetables and Fruit
(Flashback photo of Baby Chase!)
When it came time to introduce solids to Chase, we began with organic rice cereal but fairly quickly switched to fruits and vegetables. Like last time, I plan to do a mix of whole foods and purees. The whole foods that proved most successful with Chase in the beginning were avocados (see above!), sweet potato, butternut squash and broccoli. (I think I had the one baby who hated bananas for the first few months of his life!) I’ll pay attention to iron-rich foods (butternut squash and sweet potato are both good sources of iron) and also plan to try an assortment of fruit and vegetable purees.
We’re already prepared when the time is right with a handful of purees in our pantry thanks to my friends at Beech-Nut®. I used Beech-Nut® Naturals™ and organic baby food purees and pouches a lot with Chase (I picked them up at my local Target) and appreciate the way Beech-Nut® Naturals™ uses 100% natural, high-quality ingredients (no artificial anything!) and cooks their fruits and veggies in the fewest possible steps so they’re as close to homemade as possible. We’ll begin with the single-food purees (carrots, apples, green beans, etc.) before progressing into the combination flavors.
Also, I remember a friend of mine advising me to begin with vegetables when I started solids with Chase and that was something I took to heart and plan to stick to with Ryder as well since fruits are usually an easier “sell” to babies.
-
Remember It Takes 10-15 Tries Before Baby Might Accept a New Food
I remember feeling incredibly discouraged and frustrated during certain feeding times with Chase (and I still feel this way sometimes!) but reminding myself that it can take babies 10-15 tries before a baby will accept a new food (and sometimes more) is very helpful. It reminds me that even if it feels like more food is coming out than going in, it’s still making an impact and helping your little one get used to different textures and flavors.
Question of the Day
When did you begin introducing solids to your little one? What were some of their favorite “first foods?”
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
Hey Julie! Your little guys are just the cutest. I love that you’re sharing great advice about waiting til after baby shows signs of developmental readiness! I just wanted to add a dietitian’s perspective to early food choices- I would try to incorporate some iron rich foods, too, when Ryder starts eating. Breastfed babies need more iron once they start eating solids since our breast milk doesn’t have all that they need. Really soft cooked meats (or meat purée) are a good option. I also love lentils and beans for beginning eaters, and you can easily purée them too. You might already know to do this but I just wanted to share since I didn’t see it in your post. 🙂
Hi Kacie!! Thanks so much for sharing your perspective! I mentioned focusing on iron-rich foods under the fruits/veggies bullet point but didn’t think about beans and lentils so early on — LOVE that idea! Thanks!!
Oh whoops- I must have been speed reading and skipped over it!
My little one is getting close to 6 months too, and I’ve been picking up Beech Nut organic purée as well. They are my favorite!! I exclusively breastfed my older daughter for 6 months and plan the same this time. My daughter was also a banana (and avocado) hater, haha. So excited for the food stage….but yes, time sure does fly!!
Isn’t it funny to see what they like and don’t like? I thought bananas would be a sure thing but it took Chase a while to like them — not until he could basically hold the whole banana himself as a toddler! And he randomly liked salmon as a baby — I wish that one stuck around! Haha!
My guy just started this week with foods! We started with sweet potato, avocado (huge hit), broccoli, and banana. Just like his brother banana was not a huge hit, and the confusion on his face was comical. ha! We did a mostly baby led weaning approach with my first son and plan to do the same with our second. Although I have some pureed frozen pumpkin I might give to him from the fall season.
oh man it’s always so funny to see how they respond. the facial expressions are the BEST — a mix of “why are you doing this to me? what is this? maybe i like it? no it’s awful. now let me try again. give ME the spoon!”
Hi Tanya! At what age did you start incorporating these foods?
Hi Julie!
My little one is 9 months old now and we too waited for readiness signs before starting on solids. There’s an on-line baby led weaning course called Feeding Littles that I did and absolutely loved. They’re also on Instagram. You should definitely follow them!
i love their IG account!! they just posted a pic about toddler eats from breakfast to dinner that was SO chase and made me feel better — as in his eats the best in the morning and it slowly trickles down.
loved this article! my LO is 4.5 months and i’m waiting until he shows signs of readiness as well, especially being able to sit up well (he still has a little of the bobble head going). I feel like it’s so dependent on the individual child, some are ready quicker then others. I remember my pediatrician giving me the go ahead at 4 months with my now almost 3 year old and she wasnt ready until closer to 6 months for anything. I get a bunch of prodding from my MIL about starting cereal early (i dont know what it is about the generation and being obsessed with cereal!) but I’m playing it by ear and i’ll start him when I feel comfortable, just like I did with my oldest. The time is definitely flying by so quickly! I can’t believe Ryder is already almost 6 months <3
Julie, your boys are so stinkin’ adorable! You are so blessed. Thank you for giving us a glimpse of your life. Hope your Thursday is good.
Thank you Kimberly! They certainly make me feel like a lucky mama!
We did exclusively breastfed for 6 months as well. Our son was ready then. We tried cereal and he had a strong unpleasant reaction to it. We never tried it again and went to soft foods and purees. We loved the beechnut ones. The only ones we bought instead of making our own. I can’t remember when it’s ok to start, but scrambled eggs were a huge hit and still are in our 2.5 year old.
I hope Ryder likes eggs! Chase isn’t into them even as a toddler although he will now eat hard boiled egg whites but “not the oaks (yolks).” ?
i love to keep the beech-nut jars for things after i use them! Ill put homemade baby food back in them or put salad dressing or granola in them to send with my husband for work. They are perfect to put in the dishwasher and really cute little shape! and im not upset if they get left behind or thrown out in his work truck since they arent my nice Tupperware.
Love the idea to use them for salad dressing! I save mine too and often use them for bulk bin snacks — nuts, yogurt raisins, etc. — and think they’re a great size for that kind of snacky stuff!
My newest little guy is only 10 weeks but I’m already getting excited for when he begins solids because it’s so fun to introduce new foods! We will be waiting until six months and following a baby led weaning approach. I’ve been following an Instagram called “babyledweanteam” which has been super informative and helpful. When I did babyled weaning with my twins, I wasn’t as informed. Have fun with this new stage with Ryder! I can’t believe how fast the time goes with your second (or third) baby. ?
My eleven month old (3 months premature) sort of skipped the purées. She wanted thicker foods and appreciated tiny chunks from an early age. We never did rice cereal, only veggies. She eats really well- curry chicken, eggs, fish- basically anything we eat. I’m really savoring this phase, as I know she’ll start rejecting things at some point soon. She still has way more milk than solid food.
That’s so great!!!
Very timely article as we are going through this (though my daughter is 8 months). I’m glad you said it takes 10-15 tries because sometimes I wonder if she will ever take anything besides breastmilk! The biggest issue I’ve run into is all foods cause her major gas or back her up so I’m hoping with more exposure that goes away! Your little guy is adorable 🙂
Thank you for this post! My son will be a year old next week, and it is still a struggle getting him to eat any solid foods. This was encouraging to me! Love reading your blog and seeing your sweet boys grow.
I will be having my first baby soon (due 12/26 so he can really come any day now) and found this super helpful! My doctors have echoed the sentiment that he should only have breastmilk (or formula if breastfeeding/pumping doesn’t go as planned) until 6
Months but I wasn’t sure where to go from there.
this post is so on point with me right now. We started my six month old on solids with the oatmeal on Monday and it is a struggle! She HATES it – spits it right out and screams and cries. My first was so easy and took right to the spoon and food. Now we are trying to figure out if she needs it thicker or thinner or what we can do. Any tips or tricks is GREATLY appreciated!
Hi! Only speaking from experience here and not a doctor, but my boy never took to oatmeal/cereals either. We tried one and what little he did eat he threw it up for the next few hours, so I just did fruits and veggies, never cereal again. He is a great eater now at 2.5 years old.
Great information on when to introduce solids to baby! I’m expecting my first in February and it’s nice to have different perspectives on milestones to keep in my “bag of tricks”. Most people talk about a certain month to introduce solids but I hadn’t ever thought about looking for baby’s signs of readiness, it makes so much sense! I also love that you are incorporating Ryder into meal time even if he isn’t eating solids just yet. Family meal time is something that is really important to family bonding and I think the earlier you can get them used to “it’s time to sit and eat” the better!
Thanks for the tips! I’ll definitely be marking this to reference back to later 🙂
So exciting to start solids! I got the go-ahead from our pediatrician to start at 4.5 months because she needed extra calories, and it was fun trying the different combos! I found my daughter took to the sweeter veggies first like squash, carrot, avocado, etc. before trying the heavier greens.
We are going through this too! My daughter just turned 6 months last week. Even though she was showing signs of being able to start early and our Pediatrician said we could start between 4-6 months, I’ve read that babies should wait a full 6 months before introducing foods since their gut will be better equipped to handle all the new food. And to be honest, it was just easier to keep BF. Her first meal was ground turkey and eggs and it was quite the success, obviously, she didn’t eat all of it (not even close) but she put it right in her mouth and started nawing. We’ve only done 3 other nights since then. Avocado wasn’t really a success, so we’ll try again and then we learned to make sure it’s not too close to bed time, bc she started out happy and then quickly changed to hanger for the boob, so we took a break from dinner so I could feed her and she quickly passed out right after. I think the hardest part for us is figuring out dinner time… Since our daughter is in daycare and she leaves early in the morning we are waiting to be more stable to send food to daycare. We are starting out with BLW, but might also include some purees too.
I remember feeling so intimidated when it came time to start solids for some reason. I don’t know why I was so nervous about it. With our first we didn’t start until he was 8 months old (doctor approved) and with our second we started around 7 months. We started with squash, avocado, bananas and lentils and oatmeal for breakfast. My kids are now 7 and 2.5 – one is super picky and one will eat everything.
I was similar with my daughter. It’s such a fun new stage with babies :). We started her with more veggies and some organic baby cereals and moved on to fruits later. Green veggies were some of her favorites and at 2 1/2 she still likes a good salad. Lol
OMG! Thanks a lot for sharing such an informative page about beginning solids with the baby. I have read your valuable page and gotten much information. I have learned a lot from you that I did not know before. I confused for choosing the First Time Baby Food what would be the best for everything but now my confusion has cleared by your review. I hope your all information will help my elder sister’s daughter. Thanks again Julie and Keep it up………..
Great article! Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I remember there were awesome days when I’d first time solids with my baby and it was fantastic, I glad to have a blog to accompany me in my quest..