Is food essential at 6.5 months?

[alisunshine29]

My daughter is 6.5 months, exclusively breastfed. She isn't interested in food one bit - she holds it and drops it without tasting (trying to BLW.) She also won't eat from a spoon. i BLW'd her sister who didn't really eat 3 meals til 11 months or so but is now 5, very healthy and eats everything. Haven't had DD2 weighed for months but she seems to be growing/developing fine. Should I keep trying to offer food at each meal or leave it a while?

Food isn't essential at all at this age and there is some evidence that delaying solids may be beneficial. I can't do links ATM but try googling kellymom why delay solids

DS had zero interest in food before he could manipulate a fork and feed himself. He was well beyond a year. He's a healthy, active little chimp who has followed the 50th centile since he was 3 months old. I offered (and binned) solids every day from 6 months. It can be a worry when everyone else seem to have kids who hoover up everything in sight, but they get there in their own time.

My mum apparently didn't even offer me solids until I was 12 months old. She decided she wanted Christmas dinner to be my first meal!

From what I have read, babies are born with six months supply of iron. Breast milk does not contain sufficient iron so they need solid food at six months.

The BLW is "food is for fun until they're one" so your child should still be getting most of their nutrition from breastmilk, not from solid foods.

And to put your mind at rest about iron, read what Kellymom has to say about it here. This is evidence based research. Unfortunately some of the formula marketeers picked up on the 6 month iron thing and have made a fortune frightening parents into giving iron supplements or iron-enriched formular, which turns out to be potentially damaging! The following quote is interesting:

In one of these studies, done by Pisacane in 1995, the researchers concluded that babies who were exclusively breastfed for 7 months (and were not give iron supplements or iron-fortified cereals) had significantly higher hemoglobin levels at one year than breastfed babies who received solid foods earlier than seven months.

The advantage of BLW after 6 months is they can have pretty much anything, so I give DS a tiny portion cut off my dinner, costs pence and I really don't care if he doesn't eat it (I may worry more when he's older). It also means he can "join in" the family meal in his own way.

I've a friend who breastfed her 2 DC exclusively for the first year. They are completely fine of course. The iron in breastmilk thing is a myth, but if you google enough you can find any viewpoint you like on this matter. I went with "food is fun up to one" with DS1 & did BLW, but DS2 was totally different in temperament, size, etc & just eats & eats. Do whatever feels comfortable, as long as DC are healthy, you can change it up at any point.

Yeah, the whole idea of depleting iron stores is bunkum.

I had one who waited until 7 months before showing an interest and another who was still like a baby at 6 months and was pretty much 10 months before she even tried, took another year before she actually started eating.

Totally agree with the others, your iron stores don't just suddenly run out at six months, they "may" start to deplete after 6 months.