The Spoon Introduction.

K.,

I don't know what defines an "outdated doctor",as proposed by another mother, but our pediatrician also suggested trying a spoon (rice/breastmilk-formula) as early as 3 months which we did with all four of our kids! Your baby does not necessarily need to be sitting up on his own to be able to eat with a spoon. Setting him up in a bouncy seat to where he is comfortably upright is my suggestion. We started so soon with spoon feeding because in my opinion, after having so many people tell me to put rice in their bottles, I decided it was flat out lazy! My kids did the usual "spit" routine, and it does take a few tries, but they all get used to it! At every age!!! Most poeple would cringe at this advice but we did mix a spoonful of applesauce in with the rice to sweeten it up. Their digestive system can handle it and there's nothing wrong with it. There is also the argument that you shouldn't give them anything sweet until they've had vegetables first. Well, I don't know if anyone else has figured this out, but breastmilk is pretty sweet. I'd be screwed with my kids eating vegetables if the myth that,if they have sweets first they won't eat vegetables, was true.
If you give him solids, start with yellow veggies (they have a mild sweetness). Squash was always the first veggie we tried... then carrots and then we moved on to sweet potatoes. Once they'd eat up their veggies, we'd give them a few bites of bananas, applesauce or pears. I hope you have success with this! Please don't be intimidated by other people and their suggestions. This is your baby and ultimatly you'll do what's best for him!

F.Y.I.- My youngest is 4 1/2 months and he is currently enjoying a healthy diet of yellow veggies as well as breastmilk/rice at spoonfeedings. He is growing very well and loves to eat! We started spoonfeeding him a week after he turned 3 months.

Sincerely,
E.

1 mom found this helpful

We did not start feeding our son solids until 6 months. We gave him the Gerber 1st stage solids. But I would recommend giving him a rubber coated spoon to try out and play with. With a lot of supervision of course. I would also introduce him to the high chair pretty soon. We didn't do either of these things and it was more difficult when we started baby foods. He freaked out a little at first but every baby is different. I hope this helps. :) Good luck!

Is he ready to be spoon feed already???? Well, I guess, since he's ready to just got for it. Put one on the hair chair try for him to play with, that way he can get use to the idea and put one in his mouth with food so that he can sees that it taste good too. good luck and whatever you do, DO NOT take your eyes off of him for a split second when feeding him. Are you sure he's ready?? He's growing so fast If he is ready.

He might not be ready yet, but he'll probably be ready really soon (within the next six weeks)!
I noticed one of the moms said to use slightly thicker/chunkier foods-- you could try making your own in a blender-- your food definitely wouldn't be as watery then! My friend has a "recipe book" from Babies 'R Us with baby food recipes.

I personally would wait. Dr. Sears does not believe in any form of introduction of food until 6 months. He doesn't like the spoon because he isn't ready for it. When the tongue comes out like that or pushes it away, it is Finn using an innate instinct to say "Hey, this isn't right."

There's really no reason to begin feeding a baby that nasty rice cereal stuff at 4 months--only outdated doctors recommend it. Babies that are ready for solids should be able to sit up on their own, show an interest in your food, lost the tongue thrust reflex (pushing spoon and food out, that is mother nature's way of protecting them from something their bodies aren't developmentally ready for, so don't shove it in!), baby tries to chew with or without teeth, and the baby is developing that pincer grasp where they use the forefinger and thumb to pick up tiny bits of food--you might notice your baby is doing this when they start to pick up every tiny thing like lint and fuzz and then attempt to eat it!

My baby was doing all of those things (aside from the pincer grasp) at five months, so I made her some baby food to see what she would do. She tried avocado first, and she loved it. She had baby food every now and then (a couple times a week) to get used to eating something other than my milk, and then we started offering her rice puffs. We just give her the rice puffs from the cereal isle, they are a lot healthier than the Gerber kind that have dyes and chemicals, and they are cheaper. She is 8 months old now, and she can pick up all tiny bits of food.

There really is no harm in waiting to feed your baby solids until they are more ready. If he can't eat from the spoon then he probably just isn't ready.

This link has a lot of information and links to other pages with even more info:
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-when.html

K. -

I have a 6 month old, Grace, and we were also told to start offering solids at 4 months, so don't feel bad based off of what everyone else said. :-) For us it started off really messy but after about a week Grace got better at swallowing and using the spoon. I have found Grace likes the flatter spoons like from Gerber as opposed the the curvy ones like Nubby, it's harder for her to get the food off.

Good luck!

when i first started my dauhgter on solids @ about 3 months, i 1st dipped my finger in stuff and then let her taste off my finger. after a few successful tries like that, then i tried with a rubber tipped baby spoon. just mix some rice cereal(it's the easiest on little tummies to start) with some water, forumula, or breast milk until it's soupy, then just put it up to his lips and let him kind of slurp it off. after he gets used to that, you can start to thicken it up a little more so you can actually put the spoon in his mouth. just be patient, it's a new experience for him and it'll take some time for him to get used to it. just have fun watching him get messy and invest in some really big bibs.

Don't push it! The AAP and the WHO both say you are supoposed to wait until 6 months to introduce solids (many doctors for some reason chose not to follow this guide line...) Let your son play with a spoon and chew on it for a while. Wait to start solids until he is at least showing a real interest in the fact that you are eating. I believe what defines an "outdated doctor" is any doctor who goes against the recomendations and guidelines set up by their governing board (the AAP), i.e. recomending cereal before it has been proven healthy for a child. Medical and health research are forever changing. As for starting at three months, there is a plethora of evidence that babies' digestive tracks aren't ready for solids and don't have the enzymes to break down the food. Before going against your doc's advice, do some reading - many times they tell you things for good reasons. OK, I'll hop off my soap box:) Just remember, babies need nothing but breast milk for the first year and there is no evidence that solids help a baby sleep through the night even though people will say they do.
Good Luck!

I wouldn't start with the super-runny rice cereal. Many babies I know don't like the taste. If you taste it yourself you'll see why! I always started the kids out on the other baby cereals... there's a Gerber oatmeal that my kids loved. I also made it a bit thicker than the "first feeding directions" you'll see on the box. Babies need to practice using their tongue to move food around in their mouth. If the food is runny/liquid then they get frustrated because you try moving water around in your mouth - it's harder. If there's some substance to it, they can learn to manuever it from the front of their mouth to the back easier. The first few weeks I tried with my son (at 4 months) was very frustrating until his ped. pointed this out. I just started giving 'stage 2' and similar consistency foods and it was like a switch. He was fine with it. So when the other kiddo came along, I just skipped the stage 1 stuff altogether and started on stage 2. Also, my kids didn't like the spoon very much... they preferred the feed themselves. My son was 100% feeding himself with his hands (just cutup what we were having at meals into pea-size bites) by 7 months - my daughter by 9 months. Try smashing a banana or avacado with a fork and giving that to him instead of cereal. He may just prefer to pick up the chunks by himself to eat like my kids did.

Since your son is only 4 months old, he just may not be developmently ready yet. Babies are born with a tongue-thrust reflex -- meaning that if something other than a nipple goes in, the tongue shoves it out. It's a protective instinct. You avoid alot of frustration if you just wait for that to go away - usually between 4-6 months. If you don't have any success after trying a few days, put the away the food for a few weeks and try again. It will take a few meals/tries for him to learn to move the food to back of mouth even after the reflex is gone -- and runny food just kinda spills out the mouth to make it harder to see if they are pushing it out or trying to swallow it.

One more tidbit my son's ped pointed out. There's a huge difference between gagging and choking. Almost every baby WILL gag when first eating the thicker foods. They are learning to move the food to back of mouth and it will touch the back of the throat, which triggers the gag reflex, while they learn. Many parents give up on chunkier foods when this happens and try again in a few months. Don't! They simply need to practice and if you wait it just drags it out longer. Keep feeding them and let them practice and within a few days they figure it out and they won't gag anymore.

I didn't see anyone mention this and don't know, obviously ;) if your Dr did. Cereal could cause some constipation. My daughter had to be fed 1/2oz of water (she was bottled fed) but I am not sure if it was her or if a lot of babies get it.
She finally got rid of the constipation around 7 months as well as the spitting up..... Stopped at the same time by itself.
I also started her on cereal at about 4 months and she still loves the organic whole grain oatmeal with some milk and banana, I actually loved it as a kid too.
I give her a little with dinner and she opens her mouth so wide she so loves it!! She's 8 months and very weght proportionate.

Best of luck! They grow up so fast!
What is attachment parenting?

Amy

I say skip it and wait till he is a year! ;op I like going straight from breastfeeding to table food and skipping all that pain in the butt baby food. I do give my 10 month some Gerber finger foods but that's it other then my milk :) Of course that's just a personal opinion. If you are set on feeding him then it's just a matter of time and him getting use to it. All babies shudder and act like they don't care for the food or spoon the first few times. Good luck!

It's probably not that he doesn't like the spoon. He's still got the tongue thrusting reflex where he will naturally push objects out of his mouth. This means that he's not ready to begin eating solid foods yet. This begins to fade away around 5-6 months old.

My favorite book is called The Super Baby Diet. It explains what and when to introduce foods and how to make and serve them. However, my son struggles with anemia so I stopped making my own baby cereal and bought the fortified stuff instead.

We started introducing rice cereal at 5 1/2 months and we wasted tons of it before he really began eating about a month later. It was messy and we've got tons of funny pictures to prove it.

E.

4 months is kinda early for solids anyway... we do spoon feeding for our 10mo when it's something like yogurt but otherwise she eats finger food or bites off our plate.

Personally, other than some Organic O cereal, we just do table food and Organic yogurt starting around 9mo. Baby food (especially rice cereal) is overrated IMO.

Here's info on signs that your baby may be ready for solids: http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/T032000.asp#T032001

Here's a few articles about baby cereal and starting directly to table foods.
http://www.mothering.com/sections/news_bulletins/october2...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voeds...

Good luck!

Doctors all have their suggestions, but I started feeding (by spoon) my son at about 3 months, even though the doctor disagreed with it. My mom always had great advice- tell the doctor what he wants to hear and then do what you want, you wake up with the kid every night, you know what he is and isn't ready for, and does and doesn't need.
The thrust reflex is natural and does take some months to go away, but it does not mean he isn't ready for more food. Matthew, my son, just would not quit eating at all hours of the day. Introducing cereal gave me more nights of sound sleep with less feedings, and made him a much more satisfied baby! I agree with Emily's comments 100%...especially the cereal in the bottle. It's lazy and he will overeat!
Also, when he was about 8 months old and eating more stuff like cheerios and easy things like that, Gerber dissolvable foods, I would put some cheerios on his highchair table and give him a spoon just to introduce him to having one in his hand. Does no good at 8 months, but I can tell you by 1 year he was getting the hang of it! Same thing with sippy cups...I introduced it early with no intention of him drinking much out of it, but by 1 year he refused to drink out of bottles...and also gave up the pacifier very readily, pulled it out of his mouth and tossed it across the room at 11 months, never wanted one again.
Hope all that is useful to you!