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| Nutrition for Baby p. 1 |
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| Starting Solids - later is better! |
| Pediatricians used to recommend starting solids at 4 months. Some still do. However, this is outdated advice. The American Acadamy of Pediatrics has, since 1997, recommended exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months, followed by a gradual introduction of solids to complement breastfeeding for the next 6 months, with breastfeeding continuing for as long as both the mother and baby desire beyond that first year. Studies have shown that there is usually absolutely no benefit to introducing solids before 6 months of age -- the digestive system of the baby is too immature to extract nutrients from solids sufficiently, filling the baby up on solids will possibly decrease the baby's intake of breastmilk (which is what the baby really needs to grow and develop optimally), and can predispose the baby to various illnesses and allergies. According to La Leche League's The Breastfeeding Answer Book, when babies who started solids at 6 months were compared to babies who started at 4 months, those babies who began solids later had accelerated neuromotor development and less instances of infectious disease. |
| Between 6 and 9 months, solids aren't providing much nutrition to speak of, they're just for experimenting, expanding the senses of taste and texture. Many a breastfed baby has bypassed the cereal and jars stage and gone straight to unseasoned finely cup up food straight off Mom annd Dad's plates with absolutely no problem. My pesonal opinion of cereal is that it is actually not the best first food. It's pretty tasteless, messy, dries to something as tough to remove as wallpaper paste, and some people believe that the added iron is very, very constipating. It is also most likely not needed. |
| In the early stages of introducing food, you will save yourself a lot of money and frustration if you make a tray of your own babyfood. Sweet potato is a good start, so I will use that as an example. Peel and cut up a small sweet potato. Cook the sweet potato by baking it or steaming it. (Boiling will leach away more of the nutrients than the other methods.) Allow it to cool, and then put it in the blender or food processor. You can add water or breastmilk to the potato to get it to the consistancy that you want. This is a big plus to making your own baby food: you can custom-tailor it to your baby's changing developmental needs. Next, put about 1-2 teaspoonsful in each compartment of a clean ice cube tray and freeze. Pop all the cubes out and store them in the freezer in a zip-lock bag. When you want to let the baby experiment with food, take out one of the cubes, defrost it, and you're ready to go. Very inexpensive, tasty, and very little waste. |
| There is no magic order in which you should start particular foods. I would recommend, however, that you begin with the very least allergenic foods possible. These include pears, carrots, squash, and peaches, in addition to sweet potatoes. Bananas and rice, both common first foods, are actually more likely to result in some sort of allergic reaction than any of those other foods I listed. |
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| Starting Solids: Later is Better; Readiness Signs; What to Start With; Breastmilk or Solids? |
| Readiness Signs |
| A baby should be at least 6 months of age and show all of the following signs of readiness before beginning solids: The ability to sit up unassisted; Loss of the tongue-thrust reflex; Readiness to chew; The ability to pick up food and put it in her mouth; An increased demand to nurse that is unrelated to illness, teething, or change in routine and lasts more than 4-5 days. |
| Offer solids about 1/2 hour after a nursing session, so that the solids do not interfere with the nursing session and so the breastmilk has a chance to start being absorbed. Solids should not begin to replace a nursing session until at least 9 months. When you first introduce solids, do so very slowly: one single-ingredient food introduced at a time, don't introduce another single-ingredient food until at least 4 days later (you're watching for reactions -- not just hives, but tummy upset, gas, & changes in sleep patterns or behavior), and don't give the new food at dinner time (in case baby has a reaction, it would be better for it to occur during the daytime than at night when everyone needs their sleep). |
| Breastmilk or Solids? |
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| For Baby |
| For Mom |
| Last Updated January 28, 2004 |
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| What to Start With |
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