Sunday, April 26, 2009

When to start solids...

When your little one turns 4 months old the pressure for solids starts... people start asking you if he is on solids yet. There is a rumor out there that rice cereal at night makes babies sleep longer. BUT every scientific study proves it doesn't. What do you do when your pediatrician tells you that that is true though. Supposedly, an infant is ready to swallow some where around 5 months and 1 week. On the other side you have the breastfeeding champions with their banner for 6 months of only breast milk. Like many things in the parenting realm you are not given a one size fits all answer, it is your choice. We will probably start on some weekend between 5.25 and 6 months. We said we were going to start several times after work but then we get tired and forget. I will give you updates!
We started sleep training last night so that will be our main focus for the next two weeks (remember if you have a baby that slept through the night early to NOT complain about other sleep issues, the sleep deprived will want to throttle you!).

2 comments:

Genesis said...

Our doctor told us to start him on solids one week before our next appointment, which is his 6-month appointment but comes a week or so before he's actually 6 months old. She said to start with cereal (water it down with breastmilk at first) and then, 3 days before the appointment, start giving him pureed carrots. That sounded reasonable to us, so that's the plan unless something drastic happens between now and then.

christalee said...

BUT, just to complicate things even more... there are several studies that indicate that introducing grains too early can cause allergies later on. Grains are harder to digest than either fruit or veggies. Why not start with fruit, move to veggies, and THEN do grains?