Introducing solid foods to your baby is a very exciting time! Personally, I started feeding my daughter solid foods when she was around seven months old. For the most part of that year, she relied on breastmilk and we embraced food with this motto: “Food is fun before one!” Since the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that infants be fed solely breastmilk (or formula)for the first six months of life, I approached the “solid foods” world with the attitude that food should be a fun experience for my girl. Different tastes and textures abounded! I used an approach called Baby Led Weaning but before I started the solid food experience with my baby girl, I made sure she was developmentally ready for solid food.
Signs Your Infant is Developmentally Ready for Solid Foods
- Digestive System Readiness: According to Kellymom.com, “although the maturity of baby’s digestive system is not something that we can readily observe, research indicates that 6 months appears to be ideal for avoiding increased illness and other health risks of too-early solids.” Your infant’s digestive system is most apt to be ready for solids after 6 months.
- Sitting up: Is your baby sitting up well and without support? If you answered no, then your baby is not ready for solid foods.
- The Pincer Grasp: Your baby has developed the “pincer grasp,” grabbing foods and other small objects between thumb and the forefinger.
- Bye,Bye Tongue Thrust: Your baby must be able to move food to the back of the mouth, rather than the early infancy reflex of the tongue thrust–pushing something placed on his or her tongue right back out of the mouth!
Some extra things to keep in mind:
-formula or breastmilk should still be the majority of your baby’s diet for the first year
-introduce new foods one by one to determine any allergies or gastrointestinal discomfort
-have fun
It’s not a race. Eventually, your child will be existing on all solid foods and you will miss the day in which all you had to do was clean up a poopy breastmilk or formula diaper. Once they start eating real food, boy, oh boy does diaper clean up take on a new meaning. Wink.