|
Many health professionals
suggest starting solid foods at four months
of age. However, most babies do fine with
breastfeeding only to six months of age
or even longer. You should start your baby
on solids when s/he shows signs of being
ready for solids, not by the calendar. See
below. Health Canada and UNICEF recommend
breastfeeding exclusively to about six months.
Why start solid foods?
- Because there comes
a time when breastmilk no longer supplies
all your baby’s nutritional needs.
(This does not mean, as some uninformed
people say, that there is no nutritional
value in breastmilk after the baby is
six months old.) A full term baby will
start requiring iron from other sources
by 6 to 9 months of age. The calories
supplied by breastmilk may become inadequate
by 8 to 9 months of age, although some
babies can continue to grow well on breastmilk
alone well past a year.
- Because some babies
not started on solids by a certain age
(9-12 months) may have great difficulty
accepting solid foods.
- Because it is a developmental
milestone that your child passes when
he starts solid foods. He is growing up.
Usually, he will want to eat solids. Why
stop him?
When to start solid
foods.
The best time to start
solids is when the baby is showing interest
in starting. Some babies will become very
interested in the food in their parents’
plates as early as four months of age. By
five or six months of age, most babies will
be reaching and trying to grab food that
parents have on their plates. When the baby
is starting to reach for food, grabs it
and tries to put it into his mouth, this
seems a reasonable time to start letting
him eat. There really is no reason to start
on a specific date (four months, or six
months). Go by the baby’s cues.
In some cases, it may be better to start
food earlier. When a baby seems to be hungry,
or when weight gain is not continuing at
the desired rate, it may be reasonable to
start solids as early as three months of
age. Starting at three months of age when
things are going well, however, is not recommended
(see above). However, it may be possible,
with help, to continue breastfeeding alone
and have the baby less hungry and/or growing
more rapidly. See Protocol
to Increase Breastmilk Intake by the Baby.
See also handout #25 Slow
Weight Gain After the First Few Months
for reasons your milk supply may be down.
Also check the videos
so that you can use the Protocol better.
But if the techniques used in the clinic
do not deal with the problem, adding solids
can help. There is no advantage to giving
artificial baby milk (formula) and there
may be some disadvantages, especially if
it is given by bottle. The baby who is not
satisfied completely at the breast may start
to take more and more from the bottle, and
end up refusing to take the breast.
The breastfed baby digests
solid foods better and earlier than the
artificially fed baby because breastmilk
contains enzymes that help digest fats,
proteins and starch. As well, breastfed
babies have had a wide variety of tastes
in their lives, since the flavours of many
foods the mother eats will pass into her
milk. Breastfed babies thus accept solids
more readily than artificially fed babies.
Breastmilk is amazing stuff, eh?
How should solids be
introduced?
When the baby is starting
to take solids at about six months of age,
there is little difference what he starts
with or the order foods are introduced.
It is prudent to avoid highly spiced or
highly allergenic foods at first (e.g. egg
white, strawberries), but if the baby reaches
for the potato on your plate, make sure
it is not too hot, and let him have the
potato. There is no need to go in any specific
order, and there is no need for the baby
to eat only one food for a certain period
of time. Some exclusively breastfed babies
dislike infant cereal when it is introduced
at about six months of age. There is no
need for concern and no need to persist
if the baby doesn’t want the cereal.
There is nothing magic or necessary about
infant cereal. Offer your baby the foods
that he is interested in. Allow the baby
to enjoy food and do not worry exactly how
much he actually takes at first. Much of
it may end up in his hair and on the floor
anyhow. There is no need either that foods
be pureed if the baby is six months of age
or older. Simple mashing with a fork is
all that is necessary at first. You also
do not have to be exceedingly careful about
how much the baby takes. Why limit the baby
to one teaspoon if he wants more? You do
not need to waste your money on commercial
baby foods.
Be relaxed, feed the baby
at your mealtimes, and as he becomes a more
accomplished eater of solid foods, offer
a greater variety of foods at any one time.
The easiest way to get
extra iron for your baby five or six months
of age is by giving him meat. Infant cereal
has iron, but it is poorly absorbed and
may cause the baby to be constipated.
There is no reason to
introduce vegetables before fruit. Breastmilk
is far sweeter than fruit, so there is no
reason to believe that the baby will take
vegetables better by delaying the introduction
of fruit.
Respect your baby’s
likes and dislikes. There is no essential
food (except breastmilk). If your baby does
not like a certain food, do not push it
on him. If you think it important for him,
wait a few weeks and offer it again.
At about eight months
of age, babies become somewhat assertive
in displaying their individuality. Your
baby may not want you to put a spoon into
his mouth. He very likely will take it out
of your hand and put it into his mouth himself,
often upside down, so that the food falls
on his lap. Respect his attempts at self-sufficiency
and encourage his learning.
What if I am starting
solids at three months?
At this age, it may be
prudent to go a little more slowly. Start
with infant cereal or easily mashed foods
such as banana. Sometimes a baby will eat
better from your finger than off a spoon.
Go a little more slowly with quantities
as well. But as the baby tolerates solids,
both quantity and variety of foods can be
increased, as the baby desires. Incidentally,
why are you starting solids at three months?
Many grandmothers are keen that the baby
start “real food”, but if there
is not a good reason to start at 3 months,
don’t. (The most common legitimate
reason to start earlier than five or six
months of age is poor weight gain not corrected
by correcting latch, using compression,
switching back and forth, using domperidone)
Solids or breast first?
There seems to be considerable
worry when a child is starting solids about
whether to give the breast first or give
solid food first. If breastfeeding and the
introduction of solid foods both are going
well, it probably does not matter much.
Indeed, there is no reason that a baby needs
both breast and solids every time he eats.
Questions? (416) 813-5757
(option 3) or drjacknewman@sympatico.ca
or my book Dr. Jack Newman’s Guide
to Breastfeeding (called The Ultimate Breastfeeding
Book of Answers in the USA)
Handout #16. Starting
Solid Foods. Revised January 2005
Written by Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC. ©
2005
This handout may be copied
and distributed without further permission,
on the condition that it is not used in
any context in which the WHO code on the
marketing of breastmilk substitutes is violated
1. Breastfeeding:
Starting out right
a) The
importance of Skin-to-Skin contact
2. Colic in the Breastfed Baby
3. a) Sore Nipples
b) Treatments
for Sore Nipple and Sore Breasts
4. Is my baby getting enough?
5. Using a Lactation Aid
6. Using Gentian Violet
7. Breastfeeding and Jaundice
8. Finger Feeding
9. a) You should continue breastfeeding
(Medications and breastfeeding)
b) You
should continue breastfeeding (Illness in the mother or baby)
10. Breastfeeding and other foods
11. Some breastfeeding myths
12. More breastfeeding myths
13. Still more breastfeeding
myths
14. More and more breastfeeding
myths
15. Breast compression
16. Starting solid foods
17. What to feed the baby when
the mother is working outside the home
18. How to know a health professional
is not supportive of breastfeeding
19. a) Domperidone 1
b) Domperidone
2
20. Fluconazole
21. Breastfeed a toddler –
Why on earth?
22. Blocked ducts and
mastitis
23. Breastfeeding your adopted baby
24. Miscellaneous treatments for problems
25. Slow weight gain after
the first few months
26. When the Baby refuses to
latch on
27. Expressing Milk
28. Toxins and Infant Feeding
How breastmilk protects Newborns
Risks of formula feeding
Breastfeeding and guilt
Candida protocol
Protocol to increase the intake
of Breastmilk by the Baby ("Not enough milk")
When latching
Protocols for Induced Lactation
|
