WHEN TO START SOLIDS: Ah, the million-dollar question. Ask 5 people and you’ll get 6 answers. The best person to ask is your baby! It is more important to go by your baby’s developmental signs rather than their age to know when they are ready to start solids foods. EATING food is an oral-motor developmental skill, and just like rolling over or smiling, there is a range of ages when babies become ready for this milestone. Most babies are ready for solid foods on a spoon somewhere between 5-7 months. EATING food is fundamentally different from TASTING, which most of us don’t really think about, because we don’t remember back when we learned to taste and eat food ourselves! See our post on tasting, which recent research has shown helps babies become familiar with flavors, so they more readily accept a wide variety of solids foods when they are ready. If your baby was born prematurely, they will likely not be ready for solids until a little later, because of this developmental approach.
Signs of being ready for solids and spoon feeding include:
- Sitting up with little support
- Good head control/neck strength
- Showing a very strong interested in food
- Able to reach out, grab, and bring something to mouth
- When you touch your baby’s lips, he opens his mouth and his tongue stays back and flat in his mouth instead of coming forward to suck (he is losing the rooting reflex)
Exclusively breastfed infants need daily food sources of iron after about 6 months. See our post on iron-rich baby foods for more details.
HOW TO START SOLIDS: It’s easier than you think, especially if your baby is ready. If you or your baby’s father or siblings have no food allergies, your baby can eat ANYTHING they are interested in, including peanut-containing foods. Read these newest guidelines on introducing peanuts from FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education). There are no rules about what foods should be offered first, or how long to wait before offering another new food. Follow your baby’s lead and you can’t go wrong! It can be as easy as mashing the food you are already eating yourself to match the texture to your baby’s developmental ability. It’s very important to allow your baby to progress with handling different textures of food. Many parents fear their baby will choke; you can read this downloadable PDF to learn about the difference between gagging and choking and the importance of gagging for your baby’s learning process. S/he may be reaching for food off your plate – let them! You want your baby to learn to like the food you usually make in your household. There is nothing magic or special about commercial baby foods other than convenience. Although infant cereal is convenient and iron-fortified, the FDA has warned parents there is arsenic in rice cereal that may reach unsafe levels if that is the only kind of infant cereal you feed your baby. It’s best to offer a variety of cereal (or any food) rather than the same foods every day. Whether you use commercial baby food or not, it’s important to incorporate table foods and different textures to your baby so they can progress with their chewing and self-feeding skills.
For even more in-depth information, the Ellyn Satter Institute has some excellent resources for parents on feeding children of all ages, and the CDC website page on Infant and Toddler Nutrition is also excellent.
If you haven’t yet had a chance to attend, we invite you to come to one of our INFANT FEEDING CLASSES. It is free, offered virtually or in the classroom (location announced monthly) the first Thursday of each month from 6:30 – 7:30 pm. You can bring your baby and anyone else who is interested in attending! We teach you everything you need to know about starting your baby on solids, including showing a video and doing a “taste-test” so that you can experience for yourself how your baby learns to chew and swallow different textures of food. Most parents are worried about their baby choking and we spent time on this topic too. Contact us if you would like to attend this class!
DISCLAIMER: We know when you surf the web for information, you can get conflicting results, and it’s not easy to know whether you are finding evidence-based, high quality recommendations. That’s part of our job here at Kodiak KINDNESS; we are here to support your informed decisions about infant feeding through your baby’s first year. We’ve done some background work, and to the best of our knowledge, this post reflects current best practices. However, the information contained in this post and any links contained herein is for your informational use only; it is not a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Furthermore, Kodiak KINDNESS is not responsible for the accuracy of any information contained in this post or links contained herein; it is for you to review at your own risk and discuss, as needed, with your health care professional in order to make a plan that suits your individual circumstances.