To ask when you gave your little ones their first taste of solids

[Foreverthinking]

I'm a little confused by advice I was given from the health visitor. She says not to introduce solids of any sort until 6mo

However clearly there are jars of baby food readily available in all shops which say from 4 months.

I have on occasion given a small amount of baby rice and also rusk crushed up and mixed in with milk formula. Baby loved it no problems and is 4 and a half months old.

When did you first introduced yours to solids of any sort?

6 months with all 3.

6 months, as recommended.

Same ^^

5 and a half months when he grabbed some sweet potato off my plate (he’s surprisingly fast when he wants something!). Plan was to wait until 6 months and tbh he didn’t properly start eating anything until round about then anyways. (We had decided to give him small tastes on our fingers after the sweet potato incident)

My DD is 22. If I admitted when I’d be consumed in flames here. I think you should take a cue from your baby. They’ll let you know when they are ready. Like all other developmental milestones, there is no one size fits all.

Baby rice at 5 months then blended veg at 6 months.

My oldest 4 months as Reccommended at the time. She has suffered with eczema and hay fever tho.
2nd tried to wait til 6 months but ended introducing at a little over 5 months. He also had some eczema.
3rd waited the full 6 months. She has perfect skin and no allergies.

The reason they say wait for 6 months is that all babies guts have matured by 6 months and they can break down and process the solid food.
This process happens somewhere between 4-6 months. Some babies as early as 4 months but all by 6 months.

Around 4 months, that was the recommended age when mine were babies.

16 weeks with all of them as was the advice back then - they are all fine

When DC's showed signs they were ready: sitting in a chair without slouching, being interested in my food and trying to grab it and putting it in their mouths. DS at 5 1/2 months old, DD 5 months.

6 months here, the manufacturers want more of your money so say from 4 months. It is a personal choice, be guided by your baby and if they are displaying all of the signs of readiness.

Six months, there's lots of excellent evidence as to why six months is recommended. At six months you can go straight to baby led weaning if you want.

Grabbing at food is not a sign of readiness - see the NHS guidelines.

Dd was 16 weeks and she thrived brilliantly on it. She's 5 now and is no different from her brother who wasn't weaned until he was 7 months. Purely because he wasn't interested in food

I hope to God you didn’t give the rusk in a bottle. Your baby could have aspirated it and choked. Please don’t do that again.

NHS advice is 6mo. There is increasing evidence that introducing some foods slightly earlier might help to avoid some allergies but it is limited. Early weaning is medically indicated in some cases, eg severe reflux, on a doctor’s advice.

6 months

Guidelines were 16 weeks when mine was a baby, started with baby rice at 14 weeks because milk wasn't enough for her. Guidelines change all the time and they're just that: guidelines, not the law.

When they started stealing food off my plate.
Seriously, I used to eat lunch with them sat on my lap, and once they started taking and eating my food I would give them their own baby led weaning style. This would them keep them occupied for long enough that I could eat my own lunch/dinner in peace

If I remember rightly it was at about 23 weeks with dd1, 25 weeks with dd2 and 24 weeks with ds.

Ds1- 4 months as per the guidelines back then
Ds2- 7months, guideline for him was 6 months but he was uninterested in solids

6 months with all 4, the guidelines were just changing when my 16 year old was 4 months so I waited until 6 months instead.

Rusks also have a pretty high sugar content, there are so many other foods that would be better for a baby.

3-4 months, as per guidelines at the time.

Guidelines changed to 6 months, from 4 months 16 years ago and have stayed at that since.

My eldest is 21, he was a big baby and I was a young inexperienced mum so on the incorrect advice of an ill informed health visitor I began weaning with baby cereal and purées at 9 weeks of age. He now has terrible IBS and I often wonder if it is related.

DD was born 16 years later and following my retraining as a midwife. I did baby led weaning with her from 6 months but she probably didn’t eat a significant amount until she was about a year old

6 months with all 3. And then straight onto proper food. No purée, no baby rice, no rusks.