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Many
health professionals suggest starting solid foods at four months
of age. However,
most babies do fine with breastfeeding only to six months of age
or even longer. You
should start your baby on solids when s/he shows signs of
being ready for solids, not by the calendar.
See below. Health
Canada and UNICEF recommend breastfeeding exclusively to about
six months.
Why
start solid foods?
- Because
there comes a time when breastmilk no longer supplies all
your baby’s nutritional needs.
(This does not mean, as some uninformed people say, that there is no
nutritional value in breastmilk after the baby is six months
old.) A full
term baby will start requiring iron from other sources by 6
to 9 months of age. The
calories supplied by breastmilk may
become inadequate by 8 to 9 months of age, although some
babies can continue to grow well on breastmilk alone well
past a year.
- Because
some babies not started on solids by a certain age (9-12
months) may have great difficulty accepting solid foods.
- Because
it is a developmental milestone that your child passes when
he starts solid foods.
He is growing up.
Usually, he will want to eat solids.
Why stop him?
When
to start solid foods.
The best time to start solids is when the baby is showing
interest in starting. Some
babies will become very interested in the food in their
parents’ plates as early as four months of age.
By five or six months of age, most babies will be
reaching and trying to grab food that parents have on their
plates. When the
baby is starting to reach for food, grabs it and tries to put it
into his mouth, this seems a reasonable time to start letting
him eat. There
really is no reason to start on a specific date (four months, or
six months). Go by
the baby’s cues.
In some cases, it may be better to start food earlier. When a baby seems to be hungry, or when weight gain is not
continuing at the desired rate, it may be reasonable to start
solids as early as three months of age.
Starting at three months of age when things are going
well, however, is not recommended (see above).
However, it may be possible, with help, to continue
breastfeeding alone and have the baby less hungry and/or growing
more rapidly. See Protocol
to Increase Breastmilk Intake by the Baby.
See also handout #25 Slow Weight Gain After the
First Few Months for reasons your milk supply may be down.
Check the videos
so that you can use the Protocol better. But if the techniques used in the clinic do not deal with the
problem, adding solids can help.
There is no advantage to giving artificial baby milk
(formula) and there may be some disadvantages, especially if it
is given by bottle. The baby who is not satisfied completely at the breast may
start to take more and more from the bottle, and end up refusing
to take the breast.
The breastfed baby digests solid foods better and earlier
than the artificially fed baby because breastmilk contains
enzymes that help digest fats, proteins and starch.
As well, breastfed babies have had a wide variety of
tastes in their lives, since the flavours of many foods the
mother eats will pass into her milk. Breastfed babies thus
accept solids more readily than artificially fed babies.
Breastmilk is amazing stuff, eh?
How
should solids be introduced?
When
the baby is starting to take solids at about six months of age,
there is little difference what he starts with or the order
foods are introduced. It
is prudent to avoid highly spiced or highly allergenic foods at
first (e.g. egg white, strawberries), but if the baby reaches
for the potato on your plate, make sure it is not too hot, and
let him have the potato. There
is no need to go in any specific order, and there is no need for
the baby to eat only one food for a certain period of time.
Some exclusively breastfed babies dislike infant cereal
when it is introduced at about six months of age.
There is no need for concern and no need to persist if
the baby doesn’t want the cereal.
There is nothing magic or necessary about infant cereal.
Offer your baby the foods that he is interested in.
Allow the baby to enjoy food and do not worry exactly how
much he actually takes at first.
Much of it may end up in his hair and on the floor
anyhow. There is no
need either that foods be pureed if the baby is six months of
age or older. Simple
mashing with a fork is all that is necessary at first.
You also do not have to be exceedingly careful about how
much the baby takes. Why
limit the baby to one teaspoon if he wants more?
You do not need to waste your money on commercial baby
foods.
Be relaxed, feed the baby at your mealtimes, and as he
becomes a more accomplished eater of solid foods, offer a
greater variety of foods at any one time.
The easiest way to get extra iron for your baby five or
six months of age is by giving him meat.
Infant cereal has iron, but it is poorly absorbed and may
cause the baby to be constipated.
There is no reason to introduce vegetables before fruit.
Breastmilk is far sweeter than fruit, so there is no
reason to believe that the baby will take vegetables better by
delaying the introduction of fruit.
Respect your baby’s likes and dislikes.
There is no essential food (except breastmilk).
If your baby does not like a certain food, do not push it
on him. If you think it important for him, wait a few weeks and offer
it again.
At about eight months of age, babies become somewhat
assertive in displaying their individuality.
Your baby may not want you to put a spoon into his mouth.
He very likely will take it out of your hand and put it
into his mouth himself, often upside down, so that the food
falls on his lap. Respect
his attempts at self-sufficiency and encourage his learning.
What
if I am starting solids at three months?
At
this age, it may be prudent to go a little more slowly.
Start with infant cereal or easily mashed foods such as
banana. Sometimes a baby will eat better from your finger than off a
spoon. Go a little
more slowly with quantities as well.
But as the baby tolerates solids, both quantity and
variety of foods can be increased, as the baby desires.
Incidentally, why are you starting solids at three
months? Many
grandmothers are keen that the baby start “real food”, but
if there is not a good reason to start at 3 months, don’t.
(The most common legitimate reason to start earlier than
five or six months of age is poor weight gain not corrected by
correcting latch, using compression, switching back and forth,
using domperidone)
Solids
or breast first?
There
seems to be considerable worry when a child is starting solids
about whether to give the breast first or give solid food first.
If breastfeeding and the introduction of solid foods both
are going well, it probably does not matter much.
Indeed, there is no reason that a baby needs both breast
and solids every time
he eats.
Questions?
(416) 813-5757 (option 3)
or drjacknewman@sympatico.ca or
my book Dr. Jack Newman’s Guide to Breastfeeding (called The Ultimate
Breastfeeding Book of Answers in
the USA)
Handout
#16. Starting Solid Foods.
Revised January 2005
Written by Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC. © 2005
This
handout may be copied and distributed without further
permission,
on the condition that it
is not used in any context in which the WHO code on the
marketing of breastmilk substitutes is violated.
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