When Should I Start Feeding My Baby Solid Food?


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There is no hard and fast rule about when to start your baby on solid foods, though most experts will tell you to start somewhere between four months and six months of age. The American Association of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months, but even they recognize that there is not a set time for babies to begin eating solid food.

More importantly than exactly how old your baby is when you start introducing solid foods is whether or not your baby is ready to eat them, and this comes at slightly different ages with different babies. Here are some of the signs you should look for to tell you that your baby might be ready to start trying solid food:

  • Curiosity about what you’re eating. Baby will start to pay more attention to what’s on your plate, perhaps even trying to snag a handful of it.
  • Significantly increasing appetite. Baby will begin needing more to eat, more often. Of course, this is also tied to normal growth spurts, and many experts suggest that your baby may be better off with more breast milk if she’s under six months old.
  • When your baby is able to control her head movements and sit in an upright position, she is probably ready to start trying out that first spoonful of cereal.
  • If your baby is making chewing motions, he may be ready for you to give him some solid foods. As your baby develops, some of the suckling reflex will give way to an ability to control his mouth and tongue.
  • Baby will show an ability to let you know definitively when she is full by turning away from the breast or bottle. It’s important that your baby is able to let you know when she’s full before you start exposing her to solid foods.

Of course, when you start with solid foods, start slowly. With all of the baby food available on the shelves today, it may be tempting to go out and buy one of each so your baby can experience new things, but hold off on that for the first month or so. Start baby off with plain, bland rice cereal. You can then progress to the strained fruits and veggies and on to more interesting options.



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