Advice for Starting Baby on Solids?

My baby will turn 6 months next week and my hubby and I are going to try to start giving him rice cereal. Any advice on how to start the whole process? And once we start rice cereal, do we then wait three days to introduce another food, such as mashed bananas? FYI, I am nursing him and I know that I need to provide him with solids after a nursing session so he'll continue to get the nutrients from milk. Thanks in advance!

Go slowly. And you might consider mashed bananas first instead of cereal. Bananas, avocados and sweet potatoes are the first foods recommended by La Leche League.

You want to wait at least 5 days in between new foods to watch for a reaction. And it's best to give something new in the morning so you are less likely to have a baby up all night with a tummy ache if it doesn't sit well.

Yes, you definately want to nurse first and then offer solids an hour or so later when he is alert and in a good mood. This will make him more likely to be willing to try something new and also help protect your nursing relationship.

Solids in the first year are really mostly for fun and practice. Breastmilk will remain his main source of nutrition for a long while yet. At 6 mos you don't even need to offer the solids every day. With my kids, if we were going to be out running around, it was just easier to forget the solids and nurse. If we were home, they had a solid meal.

In my opinion, the whole "veggies before fruits" thing is a load of hooey. ESPECIALLY for a breastfed baby. Breastfed babies are already used to a variety of flavors since the milk changes based on what mom eats. AND they are used to a sweet taste.

With my son, we tried the popular way of giving rice cereal first and then veggies. Now, at age 8, he is a VERY picky eater who won't even try new things most of the time.

With my daughters, we followed LLL's suggestion of bananas/avocados/sweet potatoes and never even used baby cereals. Now, at 4 and 6 yrs, they are adventurous eaters who will at least try almost anything. They eat salads, apples, carrots, spicey foods, etc.

ETA:
DO NOT feed cereal in a bottle. This defeats the main purpose of introducing solids, which is to learn a new way to eat! Cereal is only put in a bottle for a baby with reflux under the advice of a doctor.

I would give my daughter rie cereal before her last bottle of the night. I would mix it with formula and feed it to her. If you are going to start anohter solid you should wait 3 days to make sure your baby does not have an allergic reaction. I started me daughter out with veggies because they say if you give them fruit first they will never want to eat veggies!! She is 6 /12 months and loves her veggies!! Good luck

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids...

six months is a good time to start your baby on solids, the best way to do it is with a bottle that has a fairly large hole in the nipple and just add some rice cereal to the breast milk (not water). then in a week (you need a week for each new food to make sure of no allergies) you can add some bananas. then the next week add some applsauce if that goes well (don't use any exotic fruits the first few weeks). usually trying this at night before bed will help them sleep better since their tummies are full. then over the next few weeks you can give it to them for breakfast, then lunch too if you want. but hopefully after the first few weeks your baby will be ready for food from the spoon (which is the same mix as for the bottle). all this feeding will kepp him full for longer and help him sleep better at night and for naps. plus, it will give you a little more time between feedings (as i'm sure at 6 months he has a big appetite!!) good luck!!

If he can hold his head up on his own then start. Don't feed it to him in a bottle spoon feed. That will start to introduce him to new things.

Just start with a little rice cereal, made with breastmilk (or formula) on a soft spoon. Most babies take to it well, though they take a while to get used to the idea that they don't suck on the spoon. Gradually introduce new foods, but not too much banana and this can cause constipation, and that's not fun!