Solid Food - Valley Village,CA

You will know it is time when the baby can move the food from the spoon to the back of his mouth and swallow without gagging. This is developed anytime after 4 months. Start with very thin rice cereal, and if he/she can not swallow without gagging, wait a few days and try again until they can. Once you get him taking rice cereal well, you can start to thicken it, and than move to other foods. Mine both started solids at 4 months and where very ready.

I wouldn't start solids quite yet......wait until they are at least getting in some teeth........baby food is good for a baby.....but not solids for a few more months.

Talk to your Dr. too....every Dr. has a different idea of when it's good to start solids.

Take care and good luck.

I would ask your pediatrician. I'm sure you will get other answers from people on here but I started my son on rice cereal at 4 months per our pediatrician's advice and he took to it great. I started with once a day in the evening and then went to twice a day. Start out with rice cereal and then after you know your baby doesn't have a reaction you can try oatmeal cereal. Then my pediatrician also told me that I did not have to wait until my son was 6 months to try baby food so as soon as I knew my son didn't have any problems with cereal I gradually started introducing baby food. And make sure you introduce new things gradually so as to be sure your little one doesn't have any allergies. Just check with your Ped. first. Every baby is different and some are ready before others. Good luck!!

Wait until the baby is 6 months. Everything changes- the stools, everything. It won't help them sleep better-- this is a myth. Also, you are adding more to do to your life- spoons, bibs, etc... It will all come and you will have a lot of time to do this. Definitely start with rice cereal. Try it yourself- -to me it tasted like cardboard. I did it more to see there were no allergies. You can continue and try wheat cereal and mixed cereal. After this-- go onto #1 baby foods. It is really about the baby getting used to taking in thefood and not pushing it out with their tongue. But take a pic when you give him/her the first taste of rice cereal. :)

There are many physcicians who will say 8-9 months. But they don't know your baby like you do. If that kid is hungry and fluids are not doing the trick, crack open some rice cereal and start from there.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_introducing-solid-foods_113.bc
Here's a good link and website.

I would wait until 6 months.

Also ask your Pediatrician.
You still must nurse/give breastmilk or Formula on-demand... solids does NOT substitute for nursing etc.
Always nurse on-demand or with Formula if you are doing that. And BEFORE giving any solids... otherwise the baby will "wean" from breast or Formula.
For the 1st year of life, breastmilk/Formula is a baby's PRIMARY source of nutrition... NOT solids and NOT other liquids. This is per our Pediatrician.

all the best,
Susan

I would wait until 6 months if you can. My daughter was quite happy with formula only and it was no problem to wait until then, but my son required some cereal at 4 months. If your baby is sleeping through the night (mostly) and makes it at least 3 hours between bottles, there is no need to start food yet. If you feel like your baby is hungry start with rice cereal. Just do a couple tablespoons and mix it with formula, breastmilk, or water. Put the baby in the highchair and feed it with a spoon. Once you have done cereal for a few days you can branch out to oatmeal and other foods. Always wait at least 3 days between foods to check for an allergic reaction. Check out wholesomebabyfood.com to get good tips on feeding and bring it up with your pediatrician at the next appointment, but just go by your baby's cues and you'll be okay!