Starting solids

rm to this day I still eat mainly foods I can just swallow. My mom was so scared of me gagging I guess. I hate chewing food.

I do have problems swallowing though so that might be why I favour soft food.

Listen I should not comment regarding babies and food - Isabelle 1 year, still eating:

Breakfast: Milky Purity Cereal (tried the slightly grainy Pro-Nutro, did not go down well)
Lunch: Jar of Level 3 Purity (fruit only - no meat, can't even get Macaroni and Cheese in)
Dinner: Combination of Breakfast and Lunch or a Yoghurt.

Tried her with finger food (bananas and flings) - still gags and then projectile vomits.

So .... my kid will be 16 and still eating pureed food ....

Elaine I actually tried putting the cereal in the bottle and it did not work. It's too thick (maybe I put too much in) to be sucked out of the teat. We are thoroughly enjoying spoon feeding. Casandra is even trying to feed herself now. Of course she misses completely and gets it up her nose or in her eye or something but that's fine. We wipe her clean and try again

Many paeds are now encouraging moms to introduce solids from 4 months. Ours did and Dylan wasn't quite ready and so we started at about 4.5 months.

As the other ladies have mentioned, solids at this stage are not important (under 6 months) and the milk is still the primary feed so give the mild first and then the cereal.

Make it thin to begin with though and see how it goes. Just a teaspoon or two after one meal per day to begin with.

The general rule is you should start introducing solids by 6 months - but I would personally differentiate the solid by putting it in a bowl and offering a spoon.

Part of the solid introduction - is that baby's tongue learns to adjust for the "heavier" textures and be able to move it to the back of the mouth and swallow and not gag.

That is why you start of on something that is very similiar to runny porridge/cereal to allow baby the time to adjust before making it thicker.

I would not add it to a bottle, there is just no need.

Hi Elaine..

Some Mommies may differ on this.
But I am one of those mommies that does not believe in ever adding cereal in milk.

My reasons are,at this stage milk is sufficient for them and adding cereal in their milk will only cause the LO to be full before they have had their daily requirements of milk.

I believe rather in giving a milk feed first and then only give a bit of cereal after the feed.

So Ashlee is 5 and 1/2 months old, and I'm going to start with solids. I've just bought some Rice cereal and will give it a go tonight.

I see on the tin of cereal they show that you can give it as cereal or put it in the bottle. I have always read that you never put cereal into the bottle. What do the other mommies think??