At Cameron's four month doctor's appointment we were told she is ready for solids. For the past month Cameron has stared at me intently while I eat. She seems interested which is a good thing. I'm just not so sure her digestive tract is ready.
I was originally thinking that I would wait until Cameron was six months old and embark on the "baby-led" feeding plan. What is that? Basically it means you forgo the puree stage of baby food and start them on actual food at six months. If you are interested, here is a good overview of the program. But my doctor kind of pushed me towards starting Cameron on the rice cereal sooner than that. Her best argument? Cameron will probably start wanting more food and waking up more during the night. Ah, yes. She had me at less sleep.
So I am going to start Cameron on rice cereal within the next week or so. The thing that annoys me the most? That I have to use my precious breast milk as the mixer. I know, I know; I don't have to but I'd feel more comfortable. Why mix in formula or apple juice if she hasn't had those before either? One new food at a time...more for my sanity than Cameron's digestive tract.
But I am torn about starting her on other foods. Do you think I can stick with rice and oatmeal cereal for a while and then go to the baby-led method? Has anyone else tried that method?
Hey, It's Okay
1 day ago
6 comments:
We wanted to start foods later on (6 months) but went for it at 5 for teh same reason yoru pedi said - better night sleep! We noticed they were more hungry and I can only pump so much milk (30 oz per kid, at that point!!) so solid food to the rescue.
As far as feeding her just rice or oatmeal, that should be fine for as long as she'll let you. Some babies like the taste, others don't. Watch out though - rice made my kids WICKED contipated. The doc said esp. breast fed babies have this issue because they have had something so easy to digest (breast milk) and now all of the sudden they get something harder - the system just isn't used to it.
Good luck - its a lot of fun!! My fav food for the kids is still avocado. No cooking and always a hit :)
My kids didn't like rice cereal so we quickly started mixing in fruits and veggies. Honestly, don't follow rules - use water to mix rice cereal. Go ahead and throw in some jarred sweet potato even the first time you introduce it. People all over the world do things differently - there is no right way. P.S. it does NOT help them sleep through the night - but it convinced me to sleep train Ned.
just take it as it comes, use the guide as just that a guide. that's what we've done with the kids & each kid was a little different in when they wanted solids.
We started Finn earlier than originally planned (per doctor recommendation for his reflux) at 4months old. We stuck to just cereal for the first month, didn't introduce any fruits/veggies until he was 5 months old. It worked out well for us.
By the way, you may not want to use your breast milk as a mixer because the enzymes in it will quickly break down the cereal. You'll be feeding her soup (OK at first, but she is probably going to want a thicker consistency quickly). I've never heard of mixing apple juice with baby cereal - I would just use water if formula or breast milk wasn't an option, I think.
Honestly, I would suggest waiting until Cameron actually starts waking up more often. She's sleeping OK now, she doesn't need anythign except your breastmilk yet. Let her tell you when she's ready. Introducing solids is a pain, put it off if you can!
We started B at 5.5 months. I had wanted to wait a lot longer, but it worked out well. He was definitely ready when we started him. We started him on rice cereal mixed with breast milk and it was fine - we did mix in veggies fairly quickly though. You just have to play with the amount of cereal to bm to get the consistency right.
I will say this...it made ZERO difference in his sleep. At 11 months he was almost entirely on solids and that was probably his worst sleeping period ever.
Personally if it isn't broke why are you fixing it? If Cameron is sleeping well, then why bother with new food which could cause all kinds of discomfort. Maybe I missed something? (nothing new there). My advice would be the same as A. Let it be, she's happy, you're happy, why rush it?
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