Some sources say 4 months, some say definitely not until 6, some say definitely before 6. It's annoying. Some say rice cereal first, some say avoid rice cereal at all costs, some say purees, some say sticks of food...
Our pediatrician encouraged us to wait until as close to 6 months as we could based on the current AAP recommendations and to only do rice cereal if we were feeding fruit at the same time (something about the iron and vitamin c combo). Then, consumer reports came out with a big arsenic in rice warning...
I was set on waiting until 6 months for solid fruits and vegetables. I was up in the air about cereals. Just after 5 months, Luke started being really hungry. I exclusively pump and it's normal for a baby on expressed breastmilk to eat about 25-30 oz a day. For about a week, he was eating 35oz a day. I decided to try the oatmeal. I know that in the beginning they don't eat enough to matter but I figured by the time he figured out how to actually eat it he'd really need the calories.
I always thought I'd make my own baby food purees. Then once I was a mom, I learned about Baby Led Weaning and since I don't eat food pureed and swallowing mush isn't teaching a baby to eat- I really liked the ideas of BLW. But the one philosophy of BLW is no cereal because it doesn't have nutritional value and no purees because it doesn't teach them how to eat. BLW also doesn't have an order of foods to be introduced.
We decided to do a hybrid of BLW and traditional cereal/puree feeding. I'll give cereal and some purees at daycare eventually but we'll do BLW at dinnertime.
We decided to start oatmeal cereal right after 5 months because that was when he was drinking about 35 oz of breastmilk a day and showing other signs of readiness: sitting, reaching, interest in food, opening his mouth, etc
The first time we did oatmeal he really liked it and ate his 10 spoonfuls worth. Since then, we've given it to him about 3 times. Not everyday, it's one more step that I'm just not ready for... but days that he seems really hungry I'll feed him milk first then oatmeal about an hour later. Watch a video of Luke eating his oatmeal here.
I plan to start fruits and vegetables on his 6 month birthday. We will start with large pieces of banana and avocado then move on to other foods with the BLW philosophy. I'll use purees at daycare and during the day and we'll do BLW at dinnertime. It's going to be exciting to watch what Luke enjoys.
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