When to Start Feeding Solids to Your Baby

You may be wondering when you should start feeding solids to your baby. It’s a legitimate question that requires a response. Knowing when to start feeding solid food to your child allows you to make the transition from breastfeeding or bottle feeding to eating with their hands or a spoon.

The Transition from Liquid Foods to Solid Food

So, when should you start introducing solid food to a baby? The answer is whenever the little one shows that he or she is ready. When they start to have interest in the things you eat and are four to six months of age, they’ll be ready to try some solid foods.

Signs That Your Little One is Ready to Eat Solids

If you want to know if your baby is ready to have a taste of their first solid foods, you’ll be able to tell by looking for specific signs. Here are the things that says you’ll notice in a child that is ready to make the transition from a liquid diet to a solid diet:

• They can hold their head up on their own. If they can’t, solid food could choke them.
• They can sit upright without slouching. Again, this is a safety tip.
• They can help the food travel to the back of their mouth with their tongue. It means they’re able to taste the food and receive the nutrients from it because they’re spitting less out.
• They’ve gained enough weight to digest the food properly. Babies under four months are too young and still developing.
• They want to taste the food, touch it or try to feed themselves it. Being curious about the foods they see others eating is a good sign that it’s time to let them start trying new things.

Now that you’ve identified signs in your child that indicate that they’re ready to move onto the next stage of eating, you’ll want to find some foods that they can try safely. One thing you can do is puree a food and leave it in its natural state without adding salt or sugar. Meat for breastfed babies is an ideal choice because of all the iron they got from breast milk.

Beef, chicken, and turkey baby foods found at the grocery store can serve as first foods.

You can also make your own:

• pureed sweet potatoes
• squash
• applesauce
• pears
• peaches, and bananas

These all have the right texture and are foods that babies love.

Mealtime for Baby is Easy to Plan as They Grow Because You Know What They Love

Now that you know when to start feeding solids to your baby, you’ll be more than ready to do so. It’s something that you can prepare for in advance. By weaning your baby off the breast or bottle and introducing them to solid foods, you’ll soon see how many things they truly enjoy eating. You’ll have an easier time planning healthy meals in the future because you’ll know what foods the child enjoys and the ones they prefer to skip altogether.

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