Thread: Questions about starting solid foods

How old is he? What can he do? As far as sitting supported, sitting unsupported, crawling?

Gerber ranks their foods in stages: Stage 1 is for supported sitters, Stage 2 is for sitters, and Stage 3 is for crawlers. Generally those "chicken noodle" ones are stage 3. You should wait until he has stronger jaws and has more of a mashing action going on.

If I'm reading your signature right and he was born on 5/3, that means he's only about 4 months old. A lot of people are putting off introducing solids until 6 months or longer. You'll want to stick to the stage 1's until he hits 6 months or more, unless he gets to sitting really early! Then Stage 2s.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that he is 4 months old...he can sit up by himself but can't sit up for very long (I guess you can say supported sitter) He can put things to his mouth and eat with a spoon, the dr said he is very advanced for his age. He eats the solid foods right now. The dr felt he was ready. So do I...There are some foods I WILL NOT give him yet until 6 months or older. I just wanted to know what other people were doing. :-) thanks

Another thing you can look into is Baby Led Weaning. It's supposed to be more "natural" than purees, very "in" right now. Basically what you do is give baby the same foods that you eat, maybe mashed or cut up into chunks, just in a way that he can handle.

Giving solids before or after 6 months is one of those "mommy wars" topics. Don't worry, I don't intend to put you down or question your decision on when to give food! You and your doctor are 100% the most qualified people to decide that. Personally, I started giving solids at 5 months, but put off giving them regularly until after 7.

Something I really like to do is mix a fruit puree, yogurt, and rice cereal powder. Yogurt might be one of those foods you want to wait until after 6 months for, I'm not sure on that. But it makes a tasty little treat with a little texture

Thanks :-)

Little nailed it!! Way to go Little!!

The only thing I can add...when it comes time for "finger foods" and you are tempted to give your baby Cheerios or some other store brand of the same type (little oat shaped rings), beware that most of these have as much sodium as a serving of potato chips and researchers now believe that this may predispose American children to their desire for salty food later in life.

The U.S. populations consumes the most salt and salt enhanced foods by far in the entire world.

Just something to think about...

My wife and I gave our children Cheerios, thought it was cute, and were ignorant to the sodium content. Please don't be ignorant like we were.

Parenting is the most challenging and rewarding of all of life's experiences!