Just a quick post on solids: passing on the lessons learned from transitioning Bub from breast milk to solids. Sounds simple enough doesn’t it. Reality is, it can be filled with uncertainty- I remember feeling anxious, stressed and had no clue so thought I’d share my thoughts to help you….

When to start on solids

Typically around 4 months is when a baby can start showing signs they’re ready for solids. Some could start a bit earlier and others a bit later. For us, Bub didn’t seem ready until around the 6 month mark. I remember feeling bit worried and putting pressure on myself to get him into solids especially as other babies we knew had started.

I attended a solids session held by the maternal child health service (freebies are great) for some tips. Generally, once Bub has decent neck control, shows signs of interest in the food and can sit in a high chair is when you can start.

What to feed them

We were recommended to try baby rice cereal. Bub did not like it and IMO, it tasted like crap. It’s so funny now that I look back. There’s so much money made from tapping into parent insecurities and offering things like baby food, purée machines etc. I think these things are great from a convenience perspective, but don’t get sucked in to believe that you have to have these things in order to start your baby on solids. Mashing food with a fork is a sufficient substitute and ‘real’ food rather than store bought baby food is preferable.

One thing we were told was not to add salt or sugar. But I got obsessed with making sure the food was plain and ‘healthy’ that I would dread each meal as it was hard to give variety and make it healthy AF.

On a side note: Bub loved banana. But then he got constipation and when he tried to poo, he would strain so hard. I remember getting so worried and called the MCH for advice. The best advice I got was: don’t complicate it, just give them what you’re eating (apart from if there’s a lot of salt or sugar-in these instances take the food out before seasoning and give Bub the unseasoned portion).

That made a world of difference – we couldn’t give Bub everything we ate, but usually could use something so saved us having to separately prepare food for him.

It’s all about balance

For me, I think it gets too hard and unnecessary to prepare Bub’s meals separately and make sure it has no added salt or sugar plus is as healthy as can be.

So long as your meals are relatively healthy, a bit of seasoning was fine for us. Bub seemed to like food more with seasoning than without. Bub didn’t like when it was too healthy either.

Are they eating ok?

I found Bub didn’t take to solids as enthusiastically as I hoped. This caused some stress as I was worried he wasn’t getting adequate nutrition. Around this time, I started weaning him off daytime breastfeeds so wanted to make sure he was getting adequate nutrition. I found though over time, his solids appetite increased gradually.

So overall lessons:

-No rush to get onto solids and when you do, simple whole foods is best.

-Once they start eating more, don’t need to over complicate it- if you generally eat a healthy diet then give Bub what you’re eating (will save you prepping and cooking separate meals)

– Relax: Bub knows what they’re doing. They will eventually eat solids so try not to stress if it’s not planning out like you thought it would.