The Solids Journey & Baby’s Development
Starting solids soon? Wondering where to start? Here’s a general look at starting your solids journey from a developmental perspective and a little update from us. I’ve also included a few top tips from some lovely Mama Bloggers and a FREEBIE at the end of this post.
- Your baby can independently hold their head upright
- They can sit for a solid amount of time (see what I just did there, haha) on their own or with moderate support
- Reaches for food and shows lots of interest in meal times and food items (this is the motivation for them to engage)
- Loses a bit of the front thrusting tongue movements (that’s needed for drinking breast milk/formula)
- Make sure your baby is NOT younger than 4 months when starting solids to avoid serious health impacts
| BLW (Baby Led Weaning) | Traditional Weaning | ||
· Fairly new form of weaning · BLW is basically allowing your little one to feed themselves with finger-foods in place of purées | · Been coming on for generations! · Defined as feeding your little one smooth mash or purées | ||
| PROS | CONS | PROS | CONS |
Sense of independence from the get go (baby led method) | Many mothers have an increased concern for choking – although this shouldn’t be the case and has been shown to be quite safe when carried out correctly | Less concern for choking | More spoon feeding may take place, adult dependent method for the most part |
| No separate meal prep – baby usually eats what everyone else eats | It is recommended to wait for the 6 month mark to start this method (check with your peadiatrician) | Exploring foods starts early especially if baby has shown readiness signs | Separate meal prep can be seen as double work and time consuming – however a whole week’s meals can be prepped on one day and can be quite fun |
| This method can be started between 4-6 months, depending on readiness and the go ahead from your peadiatrican | |||
| No real parent -child power struggle as baby chooses what to eat fro options presented | Spoon feeding may present adult-child power struggle | ||
| Difficult to monitor the amount of food consumed | Easier to monitor food intake | ||
Breakfast and Lunch
After a light morning feed (if really necessary), we’d get up, start our morning routine and get ready for breakfast. Breakfast would range from single or mixed pureed/mashed fruits, such as berries, banana, apple, etc or mashed up hash-brown and eggs as well. I usually leave aside a piece of whatever I am eating for breakfast (which is usually appropriate) and mash it up for him.
Lunch would include mashed veggies or meat. We started out with sweet potatoes and M loved this! We now have butternut, carrot, pumpkin, spinach, etc, blended meat, mashed up chicken, and lentil mixtures too. One of the main nutritional needs for babies would be iron rich foods as their iron stores do decrease with less breast milk/formula intake.
Another important thing to note is food allergies. It’s recommended to introduce allergenic foods earlier on in the weaning journey, rather than later. In fact, waiting to introduce these types of foods, can increase the risk for developing allergies in babies. We fortunately do not really have a history of food allergies in our family, so we were not too strict on waiting too long before introducing a new food. Usually introducing the same allergen food 3-4 times can give a good indication if there’s a reaction or not.
Side Note: It is not recommended to give your baby cow’s milk before they are a year old.
M’s Snacks
Includes avo, cucumber, berries, banana and other fruit/veggie that he can hold and munch on and practice his chewing skills. Fruits that may be too chewy for the age and stage he’s in, we’d place in the Munckin food feeder to prevent choking. We also loved trying out the Squish Food pouches for our snack time!
Occasionally, I’d prep for a whole week of meals for M, place them in a sealed container and store in the freezer. If I knew I’d be using it, I’d store in the fridge for 2-3 days max – usually by then he would have finished them!
Here are a few basic things you may need before getting started:
- High chair – If you would like a post on how to choose a highchair – do leave me a comment!
- Feeding utensils – baby cutlery, baby bowls, plates that grip. We are currently using our 2-in-1 Grippo placemat-plate that stays put! So handy.
- Feeding bibs – we’re using our Hungr Hippo 2-in 1 apron-bib with a handy pocket feature to catch all the spills!
- Storage containers/bags or ice cube trays that actually seal (stores milk or food)
- Baby’s drinking cup
- Last but not least, of course your recipes and ingredients!
Top tips from some awesome Mom Bloggers
@mama_to_the_power_of_4
And that’s a wrap for now! I hope this has helped to make things feel a little less all over the show. 😃
You can click below to download your FREE copy of Baby Mealtime Milestones for the first 12 months.
Disclaimer: Please note that the information provided on this blog post is in no way an alternative to any medical advice. If you have any concerns, please contact your local peadiatrican/doctor.
Also, a special THANK YOU to the beautiful mama’s who offered their top tips to be shared on this platform!
One Comment
Carmen
I really enjoyed this post! Well researched and written x