When can babies consume solid nutrient?

As long as your baby shows signs of readiness, yous can commencement solids any time between 4 and half-dozen months. Until and so, breast milk or formula provides all the calories and nourishment your baby needs – and can handle. Infants don't notwithstanding have the concrete skills to eat solid foods safely, and their digestive organization isn't ready for solids until they're at least 4 months old.

If y'all're exclusively breastfeeding, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends waiting until 6 months one-time to starting time solids. That's considering sectional breastfeeding is and so beneficial for your baby.

Even subsequently your baby starts solids, breast milk or formula will still provide the majority of your babe's calories and nutrition until they're a yr old. Both provide important vitamins, iron, and poly peptide in a form that's easy to digest. See how much breast milk or formula babies need after starting solids.

How tin I tell when my infant's ready for solid food?

Your baby will give you lot clear signs when they're fix. Await for:

  • Head control . Your infant needs to be able to go along their head in a steady, upright position.
  • Sitting well when supported. Your baby needs to be able to sit upright in an infant feeding seat or highchair to swallow well.
  • Losing the "extrusion reflex." Your babe's rima oris and tongue develop in sync with the digestive system. To start solids, they should be able to move food to the dorsum of their rima oris and swallow it, instead of using their tongue to push button food out of their mouth.
  • Meaning weight proceeds. Your babe may be fix to eat solids if they've doubled their nativity weight, weigh at to the lowest degree 13 pounds, and is at to the lowest degree 4 months old.
  • Marvel nigh food. Your baby may begin eyeing or reaching for your food or may open their mouth if you offering them a spoonful.

Keep in mind that merely because your infant is vi months sometime, it doesn't mean that y'all have to innovate solids. Some babies may be prepare for solids past 6 months, while others may need a little bit more fourth dimension.

What are the all-time first baby foods?

Offset your baby with whatever pureed single-ingredient food. Although it used to be standard for parents to give baby cereal as a starting time food, that's not necessary. Good start baby foods include

  • pureed squash
  • applesauce
  • mashed bananas
  • mashed avocado
  • pureed peaches
  • pureed pears
  • pureed meats
  • whole-grain, fe-enriched babe cereal

If your baby is breastfed, the AAP suggests meat as a first food because the iron in beef, chicken, and turkey helps to replace atomic number 26 stores, which kickoff to diminish at well-nigh 6 months of age.

What to know most food allergies when starting solid food

Experts recommend that yous introduce 1 nutrient at a fourth dimension to your baby, and wait 3 to 5 days before introducing another food, then you lot tin watch for any allergic reactions. It's likewise a good idea to write down the foods your baby samples. If they accept an adverse reaction, a nutrient log volition make it easier to pinpoint the cause.

You don't take to put off giving allergenic foods such as eggs or soy. There's no bear witness that waiting to innovate certain foods volition assistance your baby avert allergies. In fact, there's evidence that the contrary is true.

Co-ordinate to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), incorporating unremarkably allergenic foods into your baby'due south diet starting at effectually 4 to 6 months (and continuing through babyhood) may really help preclude the development of nutrient allergies.

Get-go with traditional get-go foods, such as atomic number 26-fortified infant cereal, pureed veggies, fruits, and meats. Once you've tried a few of these foods and your infant seems to be tolerating them well, you tin innovate more normally allergenic foods, such as soy, eggs, wheat, fish, and peanut products.

Food manufacturers accept products on the market designed to help you incorporate commonly allergenic foods into your child's diet. These stir-in powders and finger foods may comprise i commonly allergenic protein or a blend of several.

Special precautions need to exist taken with certain babies. If your child falls into any of the following categories, consult with your baby's doctor or an allergist to create a customized feeding programme earlier calculation solids to your baby'southward diet:

  • Your babe has a sibling with a peanut allergy.
  • Your babe has moderate to astringent eczema despite post-obit a doctor'southward treatment programme.
  • Your baby previously had an immediate allergic reaction to a new food or has been diagnosed with a nutrient allergy.
  • Your baby's blood test was positive for an allergy to a specific food.

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If your baby is allergic to a new nutrient, you'll encounter signs of a reaction within a few minutes or hours. About children with food allergies have balmy reactions. If you lot notice hives, airsickness, or diarrhea, call your babe'southward doctor for advice.

If you lot discover wheezing, difficulty breathing, or facial swelling (including the tongue and lips), your baby may be having a life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis.Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.

How to innovate solid food to your baby

The traditional way to start solids is by spoon-feeding your baby infant cereal or purees, but some parents apply a different method called babe-led weaning. Using this method, you put large chunks of soft nutrient on the highchair tray or table and let your baby grab the food and feed themself.

Come across our article on baby-led weaning to discover out how it works. To larn how to start spoon-feeding, read on.

For your showtime few feedings, give your baby just one or 2 teaspoons of pureed solid food or baby cereal subsequently nursing or bottle-feeding (so your infant doesn't get hungry and frustrated).

Employ a soft-tipped plastic spoon to feed your baby to avoid injuring their gums. Put a pocket-size corporeality of nutrient on the tip of the spoon and offer it to them. If your infant doesn't seem very interested, but let them odour the food for at present and try once again another time.

If you're feeding your baby fix-to-eat jars or pouches of babe nutrient, put some into a minor dish and feed them from that. (If you dip the feeding spoon into the jar, it's not a good idea to save the leftovers because bacteria from your infant'south mouth will at present be in the jar.) Throw abroad any open up infant food jars within a twenty-four hours or two of opening them.

If you decide to offset with cereal, give your baby 1 to 2 teaspoons of diluted infant cereal. Add breast milk or formula to a tiny compression of cereal. It will be very runny at first, but as your baby starts to swallow more than solid foods, you can gradually thicken the consistency by using less liquid.

Begin with one daily feeding whenever your baby isn't too tired, hungry, or cranky. Your baby may not eat much at first, but requite them time to get used to the feel. Don't exist surprised if your baby is confused or rejects solid food at commencement. Some babies need practice keeping food in their mouths and swallowing.

Eventually you lot tin beginning giving your baby more solid nutrient until they're having a few tablespoons a twenty-four hour period, over ii feedings. In general, your baby could start with pureed or semi-liquid food, then movement on to strained or mashed food, and finally graduate to small pieces of finger foods.

Meet our age-by-age baby feeding guide to detect out what you tin can await side by side.

How tin can I tell when my baby is full?

Your baby's appetite will vary from i feeding to the side by side, so a strict accounting of how much they've eaten isn't a reliable way to tell when they've had plenty. Expect for these signs that your babe is probably done:

  • Leans back in the chair
  • Turns head abroad from food
  • Starts playing with the spoon
  • Refuses to open upward for the next bite (Sometimes a baby will keep their mouth closed because they oasis't finished the first mouthful, so give them fourth dimension to eat.)

Baby nutrient feeding tips

  • Offer fruits or vegetables in any order. Some parents may tell you to starting time with vegetables instead of fruits so your infant won't develop a taste for sweets. But babies are built-in with a preference for sweets, then you don't have to worry about introducing sweet or savory foods in any particular gild.
  • Feed cereal with a spoon only. Unless your infant's doctor asks you to, don't add cereal to a bottle – your baby could choke or cease upward gaining too much weight.
  • Encourage adventurous eating. You don't take to stick with bland and dull. See how to use spices and seasonings to make your baby's food delicious.
  • Give new foods time. If your baby turns abroad from a particular food, don't button. Effort again in a few days.
  • Check for added sugars and too much salt. Bank check the Nutrition Facts characterization on canned, frozen, or packaged foods for "Added Sugars." If there'due south 1 gram or more than listed, consider giving your baby something else, since these sugars and syrups added during the processing of the food aren't recommended for children under 24 months. Also look at sodium amounts. Babies should have no more than one,200 mg of sodium per twenty-four hour period.
  • Know the choking hazards. Don't give your baby foods that might make them choke.
  • Watch for constipation. A babe'due south stool sometimes changes when their diet does. Although information technology'south usually temporary, your baby may have constipation afterwards introducing solids. If you find that your baby is having less frequent bowel movements, or that their stools take become hard or dry and seem hard to laissez passer, let their dr. know. Some doctors recommend calculation high-fiber fruits such as pears, prunes, and peaches to a baby's diet, or giving a few ounces of prune, apple tree, or pear juice each 24-hour interval until bowel movements are dorsum to normal.

Also, don't be surprised if your infant's stools change colour and odor when you add solids to their diet. If your babe has been exclusively breastfed upwardly to this point, yous'll probably notice a strong odor to their formerly mild-smelling stools as soon equally they get-go eating fifty-fifty tiny amounts of solids. This is normal.

How many times a day should my infant eat solid food?

At first your baby volition eat solid nutrient just once a day. Past effectually 6 to 7 months, ii meals a day is the norm. Starting around 8 to 9 months, they may be eating solid nutrient three times a twenty-four hour period. A typical day's diet at 8 months might include a combination of:

  • Breast milk or iron-fortified formula
  • Iron-fortified cereal
  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Small amounts of protein, such as eggs, cheese, yogurt, poultry, lentils, tofu, and meat

There are some unsafe foods  for babies to watch out for. Beloved, for case, can cause botulism in babies less than a yr former. And babies should wait until subsequently their first birthday to try moo-cow's milk or soy milk.

What equipment exercise I demand to feed solids to my babe?

It's helpful to accept:

  • A highchair
  • Baby bowls and plates
  • Baby spoons
  • Bibs
  • A splat mat on the floor

You may also want to introduce your baby to a sippy cup soon after yous start solids.

If yous're making your ain baby food, you'll need:

  • A tool to puree the food, similar a blender, food processor, or babe nutrient maker
  • Storage containers for refrigerating and freezing actress portions (Some parents use ice cube trays – or like devices fabricated only for baby food – to shop and freeze private portions.)