Every little thing You Must Know (2024)- The Breastfeeding Mama

Introducing your infants to solids is an thrilling milestone of their life (and yours!) There are lots of questions surrounding how you can introduce solids to breastfed infants particularly since you wish to guarantee your child remains to be getting the correct diet they want. 

On this submit, we are going to go over every part it’s worthwhile to get began. My largest piece of recommendation is that this – strive to not stress! While you attempt to push a regimented schedule, it may be anxious for everybody concerned. Going slowly and having enjoyable introducing your child to the world of meals, whereas ensuring breastmilk is your youngster’s foremost supply of diet, is nearly all the time a recipe for achievement.

When to Introduce Solids

When to introduce your child to solids is a private determination. The AAP and WHO each advocate completely breastfeeding for the primary six months, however some mothers and dads wait longer primarily based on their desire. 

The suggestions have modified through the years, and you’ll actually encounter individuals who let you know that it’s worthwhile to introduce strong meals at 4 months. Nonetheless, that’s not what present analysis helps in MOST conditions (see the part on allergic reactions beneath)

Everytime you start, you wish to be certain that your child is prepared. 

Greatest Merchandise for Introducing Solids

I’m very a lot a minimalist in relation to child merchandise for solids. I don’t suppose you really want fancy blenders, costly spoons, or excessive finish hair chairs – you simply want the fundamentals!

Nonetheless, there are three merchandise I actually do love and discover tremendous useful:

• Silicone Catcher Bibs – these are AMAZING. There are tons of various manufacturers, and I truthfully don’t even bear in mind which of them I bought. However simply get some. They catch nearly all of the meals my son drops as he’s feeding himself, and it rarely will get on the ground. And they’re SO straightforward to scrub.

• ezpz Meals Mat – I’ve tried a number of manufacturers of silicone bowls and plates, and it solely took a mater of seconds for my son to fling them on the bottom. This was NOT the case with ezpz. I noticed them on Shark Tank years in the past, and with my third chld, I lastly bought my fingers on this. I LOVE utilizing this for placing meals in and my son can’t transfer it. They’ve an ideal child meals introduction set that additionally cups with a silicone cup, spoon and fork. I’m a giant fan of their merchandise for brand new and creating eaters!
• IKEA Excessive Chair – With my first two youngsters, we had restricted area, so we bought an area saver excessive chair that we simply put in a daily chair. With my third, I made a decision to get a free-standing excessive chair. Everybody really helpful the IKEA Excessive Chair – it’s SO low cost (simply $19.99!). It’s not the best high quality, but it surely’s straightforward to maneuver, tremendous straightforward to scrub, and it’s simply quite simple. It’s been superior for my son!

Indicators your Child is Prepared for Solids

When deciding to introduce your child to solids, there are a lot of indicators to search for to see in case your child is prepared. 

Previous to solids, it would be best to take into account the next:

• Child is a minimum of six months outdated.
• Your child has good head management.
• Sit upright in a excessive chair unassisted.
• Has misplaced the tongue-thrust reflex. (That is what helps your child push the spoon out of their mouth)
• Your child tracks meals if you find yourself consuming. Makes noise/ reveals pleasure with meals/ tries to seize meals you’re consuming. 

In case your child is waking up in the course of the night time or is creating at a quicker fee than the common youngster ARE NOT indicators that your child is prepared for solids. 

Many infants get up all through the night time, and it’s typically not as a result of they aren’t getting sufficient to eat.

Some infants might meet these milestones earlier or later than different.

How you can Introduce Solids to Breastfed Infants

When beginning your child on solids, you wish to begin slowly. You wish to begin by introducing your child to 1 meals at a time as soon as a day. It’s endorsed by the AAP that you don’t provide snacks to your child till they’re a minimum of 9 months outdated. 

Snacking fills your child’s abdomen and prevents them from getting as a lot diet as they want from breastmilk. 

While you start introducing solids to your child, it is very important do not forget that the aim of solids is to show your child to eat and introduce them to completely different textures and flavors, it’s not to exchange the diet in breastmilk. 

It is best to introduce your child to 1 meals at a time. As you strive new meals, it is best to observe in case your child has a response to it akin to diarrhea, vomiting, or bizarre rashes. For those who don’t see any preliminary reactions proceed to feed them the identical meals for a minimum of 3 days. This ensures no reactions pop up later. 

For those who begin giving your child quite a lot of meals unexpectedly they usually have a response it’s a lot tougher to determine which meals precipitated the response. Simply because your child has a response when they’re little, doesn’t imply they’ll for his or her complete life. Speak to your Pediatrician about any reactions that you simply see. 

You wish to provide your child quite a lot of various kinds of wholesome meals. Even when the primary time they don’t prefer it, strive it once more at a later level to allow them to develop a style for it. 

Breastfeeding and Solids Schedule

I typically don’t advocate a strict schedule with solids. It’s essential to be sure you usually are not changing any breastfeeding periods with solids, particularly to start with.

Many moms will provide breast milk first after which solids about 15-Half-hour later. I typically simply provide solids once we are consuming – generally my children would eat three meals a day, different instances one.

To start with, your youngster might not be in any respect or will solely eat a little bit bit.

That’s completely superb. At six months, I might counsel simply providing one thing as soon as a day and going from there.

Here’s a pattern schedule for a child between about 8-9 months. Your child might wish to breastfeed extra ceaselessly than this, and that’s okay. Heaven is aware of my son does!

8:00 AM – Breastfeed

8:30 AM – Supply a small meal – I love to do apple sauce combined with peanut butter or oatmeal and peanut butter (if there’s a concern about allergic reactions, be sure you work along with your pediatrician)

11:00 breastfeed till your child is full. 

11:30 Put together strong meals and provide to child

11:40 When your child is completed consuming solids, you possibly can provide breastmilk once more if desired. 

2:00 Breastfeed

5:00 Breastfeed

5:30 Solids

7:30 Breastfeed and Mattress

I typically advocate not providing solids too quickly earlier than mattress, simply in case one thing bothers their tummy.

How you can Guarantee Your Child is Getting Sufficient Vitamin 

One of many foremost considerations when beginning solids is guaranteeing that your child is getting the correct diet. 

To make sure that your child is getting the correct diet, you wish to be sure you are all the time breastfeeding earlier than every strong feeding. Breastfeeding needs to be your child’s foremost diet till one 12 months outdated.

Spoon Feeding Vs. Child Led Weaning

Spoon feeding and Child Led Weaning each have their very own advantages and drawbacks. 

Child Led Weaning permits your child to discover and experiment with completely different meals inflicting them to learn to deal with new flavors and textures whereas spoon feeding is barely instructing them how you can eat one textured meals. 

Spoon feeding is simpler, much less messy, and takes much less time than Child Led Weaning. 

Child Led Weaning can get actually messy however permits your child to regulate how a lot she or he needs to eat which helps stop your child from over consuming. 

I truthfully do a “hybrid” methodology. I like to let my youngsters discover and self-feed themselves, and they’re all the time given what we’re consuming at foremost meal instances. However generally it’s simpler and extra handy to supply one thing with a spoon! There’s no flawed reply.

No matter which methodology you select, it’s important that you simply carefully monitor your child as they’re consuming. 

It is a nice article that discusses introducing solids – significantly with an emphasis on nutrient wealthy meals. This can be very lengthy however well-researched.

Advantages of Spoon Feeding

Spoon feeding greens and fruits is a quite simple option to feed your child. It is so simple as shopping for jars and pouches to all the time have available in your child when they’re hungry.

Spoon feeding may be very handy and straightforward to throw within the diaper bag in your nights out or visiting household and mates.  

Spoon feeding additionally means that you can simply observe how a lot your child is consuming since you are feeding them. 

Advantages of Child Led Weaning

One of many foremost advantages of Child Led Weaning is it helps scale back choosy consuming behaviors. Not solely that, but it surely helps develop age-appropriate oral motor management. 

It is very important expose your child to all kinds of flavors and textures and with Child Led weaning it does simply that. 

One of many largest advantages of Child Led Weaning is you could really all sit down and eat collectively as a household and nobody is having to take time to spoon fed the child. 

With Child Led Weaning your child often eats meals that the household is consuming. 

Additionally, one other plus is you’re spending much less time making ready meals for dinner as your child simply eats what you’re cooking. 

Concepts of First Meals for Child Led Weaning

When beginning Child Led Weaning you wish to begin with mushy straightforward to mash meals. You wish to be certain the items are large enough in your youngster to have the ability to grip simply. Some nice choices are bananas, steamed greens akin to candy potatoes, squash, pasta, and avocados. 

Previously, individuals would usually advocate rice cereal as a primary meals. Whereas cereal is usually a good supply of iron, it’s largely empty energy, and it’s higher to introduce nutrient wealthy fruits, veggies, and even softly cooked meat first!

Don’t be afraid to introduce your child new flavors with seasonings as nicely. Round six months is a superb time to make use of seasonings. There’s some debate on salt, however it is a nice article that dives into the topic of salt and infants.

You’ll find that preserving a Child Led Weaning planner/journal of your youngster’s reactions to new meals will enable you bear in mind what they favored and didn’t like. 

Allergic reactions and Solids

It may be a little bit nerve-wracking if you begin to introduce solids to your child for the primary time. Some youngsters do have allergic reactions, and it’s one thing to think about.

In case your child is at excessive threat for allergic reactions, present analysis helps introducing larger allergen meals earlier somewhat than later. It was really helpful to attend till after a 12 months to introduce meals like eggs and peanuts, however now they’re discovering it’s higher to introduce them sooner. Introducing small quantities of an allergen between 4-6 months could also be applicable. Right here is a superb article that reveals an outline of those suggestions.

All the time keep in touch along with your physician if allergic reactions are a priority. Even in the event you aren’t involved, simply watch your child rigorously if you introduce one thing new. It’s typically really helpful to attend a couple of days in between introducing a brand new sort of meals (although if I’m being trustworthy, we solely do this with meals which have the next probability of our children reacting to).

Poop Adjustments with Solids

In case your child has been on a breastfed weight-reduction plan solely, you’re used to them having fairly mushy, low odor bowel actions. The frequency could also be a number of instances a day or each few days – each are regular!

With the introduction of solids, pooping takes a dramatic change. Some infants can have a a lot fouler smelling stool, and it could turn into extra shaped. Different infants should have a fairly free stool.

With my children, it goes backwards and forwards. Generally it’s nonetheless fairly liquidy, whereas different instances they’re passing logs. A number of it will depend on what they ate. With my third child, generally the bowel motion was actually pungent, and when that occurred, he was nearly all the time fussier.

Breastfed child constipated after beginning solids

More often than not, looser stools aren’t an enormous concern so long as child is rising nicely and completely happy. Nonetheless, constipation turns into extra of a priority when you’ve launched solids.

Whereas breastfed infants can go a number of days with out pooping, and it’s fully regular, in the event you discover your child is straining, further fussy, and passing actually onerous wanting stool, they may be battling constipation.

If this occurs, I might counsel backing off the solids for some time and solely providing meals that aren’t constipating. Bananas are extraordinarily constipating.

The Windi by Frida Child is extraordinarily in style and yields nice outcomes. Tummy therapeutic massage may also assist with constipation.

Previously, individuals would counsel utilizing prune juice or Karo syrup, however these aren’t widespread practices anymore.

What if My Child Isn’t ?

All infants develop in a different way. Some might be very desperate to strive strong meals at six months, whereas others will flip their noses as much as it.

In case your chlid doesn’t appear focused on consuming strong meals but, there’s nothing flawed with taking a break and beginning once more a couple of days or even weeks later. It is a massive motive why I really like Child Led Weaning, because it lets you hearken to your child.

Introducing solids IS essential – not essentially nutritionally however for the talents it helps develop. Some infants reply higher to Child Led Weaning and others to spoon feeding. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Placing your child of their excessive chair and simply letting them play with the meals could be actually useful!

After a 12 months, you actually do need your youngster to be frequently consuming solids. For those who discover they don’t need something in any respect, you possibly can all the time attain out to your medical skilled to ask their recommendation on what it is best to do.

I extremely advocate this eCourse – it’s all about fixing choosy consuming and inspiring intuitive consuming.

Closing Ideas on Introducing Solids

Introducing solids to your child is an thrilling time. It symbolizes your child is rising up and turning into extra impartial. Whatever the methodology, you select to introduce solids (spoon fed or Child Led Weaning) crucial factor to recollect is that breastmilk remains to be finest for child. 

What suggestions would you provide different mothers introducing solids to their child? Share within the feedback!  

Katie Clark is an Worldwide Board Licensed Lactation Marketing consultant (IBCLC). She has helped hundreds of moms and households across the globe navigate breastfeeding challenges and questions since 2015. She has a ardour for creating research-based, useful breastfeeding schooling and serving to mother and father discover a option to make breastfeeding work for them. Katie is a mother of three little boys and lives within the nice state of Colorado. She additionally has a level in Communications with an emphasis in print journalism.