5mo has 2 teeth - do i still wait till 6 months to feed solids?

[Felicie]

hi - my 5mo bf daughter has 2 bottom teeth nearly through and is very interested in food. Do I wait until 6months to begin intoducing food? She is very happy with her milk but constantly trying to grab food, copys me when eating, chewing motion etc. Not sure what to do. advice please.

Ignore teeth, ignore the watching you and mimicking (they copy everything you do because they like you ).

If she's sitting, has lost the tongue thrust reflex and can pick up food and put it in her mouth, she's probably ready. A good way to test this is to put a bit of food, fist-sized near her and see what she does.

But no, teeth are no reason to wean. If you think she's displaying the signs above, then no harm in trying imo but if you want to wait and she's happy on milk then there's no rush right now.

To be honest i'd maybe try offering her some of what you have (something soft) and see what she does with it. I know guidelines say 6 months but my daughter was 4 and a half months when we introduced solids and she's taken to everything really well. If she doesn't want it she won't eat it and in that case you'll know she's not ready and can wait a while longer.

thank u ladies. There are so many differing opinions it is hard to know what to do for the best. I think i will see how she responds but try to get to 6months. x

The guidelines are pretty clear but you probably get every man and his dog having an opinion.

All babies need for 6 months is milk. Somewhere around 26 weeks their guts will mature and be ready for solids. Many will be ready before 26 weeks on the dot, but without a window into the gut, you can't know which babies are ready and which aren't, so waiting till 26 weeks provides a sort of safety net if you like.

The external signs of sitting, self feeding, loss of tongue thrust reflex seem to mirror the internal signs of the gut maturing so largely you can follow your baby and when they're sitting and showing signs of grabbing food and eating it, there's every chance they're telling you they're ready.

I found it easier to let dd self feed and know that she was ready that way. You can override the tongue thrust reflex with any baby. SIL weaned dn at 13 weeks for example. I'm sure she wasn't ready for solids (they made her quite poorly sadly) but it was certainly possible to get her to eat it without complaining.

Yep I'd ignore teeth. A Mum I knew a few years ago had a LO who was born with a tooth and got a second very soon after. Don't think he was ready for solids

Best to look for the other signs like sitting unaided, losing tongue thrust relfex, being able to pick things up & put them in their mouth etc.