Starting on Solids

egan2020

My daughter is 16 weeks and I think I'm going to start her on solids in the next two weeks. I plan on giving her baby rice for the first few days but my question is roughly how many spoons should she be eating. I have a nine year old daughter already but I went back to work when she was five weeks and my mother more or less handled the transition so this part is new to me.

Also, should I offer her cooled boiled water from a cup as her drink when she's eating or should I offer her formula from the bottle?

Finally, I've been reading a bit on this and a few sites suggested starting babies on pureed vegetables before fruits as the baby might not take to the vegetables having had the sweet taste of fruit. Anybody have any experience with this?

Hannibal Smith

egan2020 wrote: »

My daughter is 16 weeks and I think I'm going to start her on solids in the next two weeks. I plan on giving her baby rice for the first few days but my question is roughly how many spoons should she be eating. I have a nine year old daughter already but I went back to work when she was five weeks and my mother more or less handled the transition so this part is new to me.

Also, should I offer her cooled boiled water from a cup as her drink when she's eating or should I offer her formula from the bottle?

Finally, I've been reading a bit on this and a few sites suggested starting babies on pureed vegetables before fruits as the baby might not take to the vegetables having had the sweet taste of fruit. Anybody have any experience with this?

Annabel Karmel's book was my bible for weaning, it really is fantastic. It tells you what to start the baby on first, pictures of the consistency it should look like, and what vegetables give what nutrition and how to mix it up so they get everything.

Anyhow, the important thing to note is, when you're starting off, you're not actually feeding them to make them full, they have their bottles/breastmilk for that, you're just teaching them how to eat from a spoon and swallow. So only try the smallest amount and you only need to give them a few spoonfuls, just to get them used to it.

What I did was, I did it around the time my son was due is 11am bottle. So I gave him an ounce or two of the bottle, so he wasn't starving and then gave him a couple of spoonfuls of the baby rice, then the bottle, then some more baby rice. I kind of built it up as the days went on.

But seriously get Annabel Karmel's book it really does cover everything. You can play fast and loose with some of the ingredients as you move on and I didn't really stick to the daily menus at the back because sometimes I just didn't have the time, but as a guide it's great.

I think she's a bit young to be drinking from a cup, I'm not sure she'll get the suck action, you could try, but I just used the bottle. And yes, I've heard about using the veggies first before the fruit, and carrots before potatoes because the latter are too starchy.

Cottontail

I'd second the annabel karamel book too, I found it great because I didn't know where to start when weaning my little fella. The weaning can be a bit daunting at first but it can be great fun then finding out what they like/don't like to eat. My little man is a great eater now (thankfully) but the only thing I can't get him to eat in any shape or form is eggs!

egan2020

Thanks for the replies. Is this the book?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=anabel+karmen&x=0&y=0

Hannibal Smith

hmmm the cover seems to have changed, but I think it's this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weaning-Annabel-Karmel/dp/1405348240/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1314801054&sr=8-2

But I'll look at the book when I get home and tell you later, if that's ok, before you spend money on one that's a bit more advanced or something.

And cottontail...+1 re the eggs! :mad:;)

Cottontail

this is the one I got:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Annabel-Karmels-Complete-Toddler-Planner/dp/0091924855/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314804024&sr=8-1

In fairness though, I have about 3 of her books and there's a lot of the same stuff in all of them, so I'd say any of them would do!!

egan2020

Mentioned this thread to my sister on the phone tonight and she tells me that she has an Annabel Karmen book that she received as a gift so I'll check it out tomorrow.

On the subject of eggs, she has the opposite problem. Her 2 year old can't get enough of them. She has three hens and he goes out every morning to collect the eggs so he can have scrambled egg for breakfast

xzanti

My little man loves eggs aswel.. mashed up in a cup with plenty of Kerrygold butter

Bagheera

xzanti wrote: »

My little man loves eggs aswel.. mashed up in a cup with plenty of Kerrygold butter

Yum, I love that myself!

OP I have annabel karmel's book and I find it great; I've only had my little one on solids for about 3 weeks and it's going well. I tried him on baby rice initially but he kept getting sick after it. I bought the 'Plum' baby porridge and that seems to go down well with some fruit mixed in for breakfast, then he gets pureed veg for his tea.

Good luck!

*Mode Note *

Please do not use abbreviations such as dd,lo,ds,dp

Thanks

egan2020

Just checking in with an update. Started Lexie on the baby rice and she couldn't get enough of it. First day, I mixed about two tablespoons of rice with about 1.5 ounces of formula. I expected her to take a baby spoon or two but she cleared the bowl. The first couple of spoons came straight back out again but when I held the spoon in her mouth she sucked the rice off the spoon and got the hang of it pretty quickly. Looks like she's going to like her food - just like her mother

Got an Annabel Karmel book from my sister too - Baby and Toddler Food Diary and there's some interesting reading in there. One question I would like to ask though is how long did you wait until introducing the second meal. The book seems to suggest a couple of weeks. However, I believe the PHN told me to wait about 4 days when I was in for three month check up.