When did you start your baby on solids?

[SundayMorningSun]

So I realise the NHS guidance is "about 6 months", but what did that look like for you?

Some people seem to take "about 6 months" as "no sooner than 6 months", but that doesn't seem to be the actual NHS advice.

Our DD is under a paediatrician who has said she's showing all the signs of being ready and we can start whenever, though with purees if we started soon (she's just shy of 5 months). It feels like a big decision, but I'm probably overthinking it!

What signs is she showing? It's a faff so I'd leave it later just on the effort required. I started dd at 17 weeks (advised at the time) but in hindsight it was too early. Ds was 23 weeks and he was more ready

You will get lots of anecdotal "I weaned my kid early and they were fine" but just wait, wait until 6 months. Even just for your own conscience so you can be 100% you aren't causing any harm.

I weaned my first at 6.5 months. To me, his signs of readiness were:

• Sitting up unaided for a good minute plus, and able to grab toys etc and not fall over from being distracted. This is IMPERATIVE to help prevent choking - if your baby is reclined in a highchair because they can't sit up, they won't be able to thrust themselves forward to mitigate a choking incident.

• Loss of tongue thrust reflex. A baby not ready will will automatically thrust their tongue forward to expel food.

• I did BLW (baby led weaning) and I waited until my son was starting to master the pincer grip. This really helped with him feeding himself.

Don't feel rushed into weaning - early weaning is thoroughly outdated advice. Multiple studies now state that waiting until 6 months plus is best for baby. Just hold on, they have the rest of their lives for food and these next 4-8 weeks will fly by!

Can your dd reach out, take food in her hand and put it in her own mouth? If yes, she might be ready
If she's under 6 months it's unlikely she's ready

Hi @SundayMorningSun

Is she sitting on her own yet? My understanding is that they should be to be starting weaning.

Dd1 was about 7 months when we started introducing foods. We wanted to go down the finger foods route so we waited till she passed 6 months and was quite sturdy when sitting.

Dd2 has just turned 5 months. She is definately interested in food and I think she would be up for trying some. But she is not sitting unaided just yet so will wait till that happens. If this is before 6 months then we may try her with a tiny bit of baby rice or a puree, just because she seems so interested, but wont do anything more than that till she is past 6 months.

About 5.5 months for both.

Straight onto normal food. Finger foods etc.

Hmm, ok. My understanding from the paed (and the NHS and NCT websites) was that they needed to be able to hold their head steady and sit WITH SUPPORT not sit UNAIDED - I will ask for advice to double check.

She can sit in a chair no problem, but not unaided yet.

She can pick up a dummy and put it into her mouth, so I think she'd manage to do the same with a spoon/food.

The paed just said to give it a go, and if she pushes it out of her mouth to leave it a few weeks. (Tongue reflex etc.)

I can't find any research that says 6+ months, only "about six months" or "4-6 months", but I've not had a thorough look. Does anyone have any info on the evidence for 6+ months? Would 5.5 months or so be considered "early" if the advice is "about 6 months"?

I started at 17 weeks with both of mine (they are now 14 and 13). They don't seem to have suffered any ill effects from being weaned earlier than most babies seem to be now - they have both always been good eaters and are very healthy.

@dementedpixie I hear you about it just being a faff! For this reason alone I'm probably going to put it off...

5.5 months and she ate with gusto from the first mouthful!

I started just shy of 5 months with DS. He had lost his tongue thrust by then and took to purees like a pro! He's just over 10 months now and eats like a horse and has no digestive issues or allergies. I made sure to expose him to all the allergenic foods by 6 months (except shellfish)

Waiting to 6 months minimum is probably not the safest option - slightly earlier exposure to key allergens is increasingly seen as best practice as per PP.

5.5 months but should have done it sooner. DS could sit unaided from 4.5 months, and was reaching out and trying to grab and eat food from 5 months. I initially stopped him doing it because I was trying to stick to the guidelines, but at 5.5 months he grabbed a banana from his cousin and ate half of it and that was that.

Ds1 (15) was born just as the advice was changing from 4 months to 6 months, so I was getting loads of conflicting advice. I trusted my instinct and started him on solids about 5 months.
Ds2 (13) was 5.5 months.

Or maybe they were the other way around. I can't remember now

Both my babies were around 10lbs at birth. My eldest started on pureed stuff (banana I think) around 4 months as he was hungry and ready. His first word was actually 'banana'! He took to it well. I continued to breastfeed until I returned for work at five months. My second also started on pureed food about four/five months - her first word was 'more'. I continued to breastfeed her until a year old but she was definitely into the food.
You can listen to the recommendations but also use your own common sense.

17 weeks for severe reflux

About a week before 6m with DC1, he was sitting and showing real interest in food. Was great with proper food straight away, I'm not really a fan of purées.

DC2 the consultant paediatrician told us to wean at 17 weeks
He was nowhere near ready and never in a million years was I going to do that. We will likely do a week or two earlier than DC1 but definitely not before that.

Just before 6 months, but she showed no real interest before that. Even after that it took a while for her to be interested, she didn’t eat much at all until starting nursery at 10 months when it seems peer pressure worked.

My HV came out today and said 6 months, my DS is 17 weeks. She said to take it slow

Also yes to it being a massive faff! When we started I really missed the days of just getting a bottle together instead of having to arse about with food that wasn’t eaten anyway.

I have three. The first I started at 6 months on the dot. My second had all the signs of readiness (including sitting completely unaided) at 5 months, I held off until 5.5 months when she grabbed a banana out of her sister’s hand, took a bite out of it, chewed it and swallowed it.
DS approx 5.5 months, he also showed all the signs of readiness.

Oh and I never puréed anything.

5.5 months for my first (I just couldn’t wait, pfb!)
4 months for second as she was on a medical research trial and had to be weaned at 4 months
6 months for my 3rd and 4th
They “showed signs” of being ready from about 4.5 months, all biggish (heaviest at birth was 10 pounds 6) breastfed (?whether it matters) but it did them no harm to wait to 6 months.

To be honest was partly because there is a whole lot less boiling and purée making for a 6 month old. A week or so in and I could mash some of what we are eating.
My first had baby rice, then purée root veg and then fruit, like I was told to, but they all eat fine now so I don’t think either way superior.

I was spoon feeding the 4 month old fish, peanut butter, eggs, yoghurt, weetabix and tahini for the trial. She still loves sesame tastes!

DC1 16 weeks. The HV badgered me to do it, the advice back then was different but starting to change I believe. It was an awful experience tbh.

DC2 7 months, simply wasn't interested in food before then.

DC3 was just shy of six months. He swiped a soup covered piece of bread out of my hand and gummed it to death gleefully.

DC4 was nearly eight months. Like DC1 he had zero interest in food before then although I was offering it to him.

Neither of mine wanted food before 6 months and trying to fed them earlier would have been a futile activity