How to start babies on solid food: An evidence-based guide

© 2022 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved

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Introducing solid foods to your infant is a messy, amusing, and sometimes frustrating business organization. How practise you start?

The first thing to understand is the goal. You lot aren't trying to replace your baby'south chest milk or formula intake with solid food.

That's because solid foods don't provide the complete nutrition that immature infants need. If young babies reduce their breast milk intake, and replace it with cereal or other infant foods, they are at hazard for poor nutrition (Sen et al 2017).

So when you introduce solids to your infant, yous are entering a transitional period. Your baby will nevertheless rely on breast milk or formula for the bulk of his or her nutritional needs. Just your baby will exist learning nearly solid foods — learning how to eat, and how to take new flavors and textures.

And this agreement can go on you from becoming overly frustrated. Your baby doesn't have to empty a jar of baby nutrient in society to make progress. Repeated tasting of foods — and do moving food effectually in the oral fissure — is important progress past itself.

With that understanding in listen, what else does the testify tell us about introducing solids to babies? Hither are some common questions — and answers.

one. When is a infant ready to start solid foods?

Experts agree that yous shouldn't first until your baby can hold his or her caput steady, and can sit upright in a high chair or infant feeding seat.

Babies demand to stay vertical so they tin can swallow well and avoid choking.

In addition, you lot'll have more than success if you wait until

• your baby shows signs of beingness curious about nutrient, and
• your baby is developing the ability to transfer food to the back of the mouth with his or her natural language.

What about a baby's historic period? How old should a baby exist?

For decades, pediatric organizations have recommended that babies breastfeed exclusively until 6 months postpartum. And so parents are brash to begin introducing solids.

But recent inquiry suggests at least one advantage for babies who offset betwixt 4 and 6 months: Exposure to foods during this time frame might aid lower a infant's run a risk of developing allergies (see beneath).

Information technology's also possible that introducing a variety of foods between 4-vi months could help make children more than willing to try new foods equally they get older.

Why not starting time solids even earlier? Experts warn against this because babies younger than 4 months are at college risk of choking. In improver, babies may respond to the introduction of solids past drinking less of the chest milk or formula they need to thrive.

Finally, studies propose that starting solids before 4 months doesn't reduce the run a risk of allergies (West 2017), and some researchers worry that it might actually increase the risk.

And then that's the argument for targeting the 4-6 calendar month time window: It might minimize your babe'southward gamble of developing allergies, and reduce your child's take chances of condign fussy well-nigh food (Harris and Mason 2017).

Nevertheless, this research concerns the scenario where you spoon-feed a young infant puréed foods.

What if you look until your baby is 6 months erstwhile, and then begin offering your babe a option of finger foods?

Baby-led weaning: Another approach to introducing solids

Waiting, and then letting babies choose from a ready of pre-selected, safety finger foods is the cornerstone of an approach called "babe-led weaning."

In studies that compared baby-led weaning to traditional feeding, researchers haven't found any notable, long-term differences in result: As long as parents are conscientious to offering their babies the right mix of foods — and avoid choking hazards — kid outcomes have been similar for both groups (Dogan et al 2018; Morison et al 2018).

One notable exception is a report that children who'd experienced babe-led weaning tended to consumemore fruits and vegetables by the age of 2 years (Morison et al 2018).

That last effect suggests that baby-led weaning, beginning at the age of 6 months, is another path to broadening a child's diet. Merely in that location's a trouble with this determination: These studies didn't specifically test forhistoric period. We don't know when babies in the control groups started eating solid foods.

It's possible that babies in both groups — baby-led and spoon-fed — began solids effectually the same time (at 6 months). So we can't conclude that baby-led weaning at six months is any better or worse than beginning spoon-feeding at 4 months. Not when it comes to long-term intake of fruit and vegetables.

Futurity inquiry is needed to settle this bespeak. We too need studies that address the evolution of allergies. To date, nobody has compared allergy outcomes (baby-led weaning that begins at 6 months versus spoon-feeding that begins between 4 and 6 months).

Choosing the right timing: What's bottom line?

If your baby meets the bones safety prerequisites, and you provide your baby with purées, and then your baby is set to kickoff eating "baby food" at 4 months. Starting between 4 to half-dozen months might reduce your child'southward adventure of developing allergies.

Only it'due south not clear if your baby volition exist any worse off if yous wait until 6 months and begin your baby on solids past offering a variety of prophylactic, nutritious, finger foods. Possibly, you lot will miss an opportunity to lower your child'due south allergy take chances, only we need more than research to be certain.

2. What should a babe's first food be?

If you live in the United States, you've probably heard recommendations about unseasoned rice, puréed and mixed with breast milk or formula. Typically, parents are advised to mix babe rice cereal to a very sparse consistency.

This works. It's acceptable. Merely there haven't been whatever studies showing that rice is the best choice, and if you take an anthropological perspective — looking at how people accept fed their babies worldwide — it'south clear that rice is just one of many baby foods.

For instance, in traditional agricultural societies, parents provide their babies with a strained or puréed mash of whatever carb-rich staple was at manus  — millet, corn, oats, or rice — and mixed it with creature milk.

Hunter-gatherers offered their babies mashed-up fish, meat, and animal fat (Howcraft 2013).

Nowadays, medical organizations are more savvy to all of this, and they recognize that babies may begin with a variety of different puréed foods.

In fact, the American University of Pediatrics notes that puréed meats are good first foods, especially for babies that have been exclusively breastfed. Meats are a good source of fe, and iron stores can go depleted in breastfed babies.

Other skillful choices include puréed bananas, apples, pears, peaches, and sweet potatoes.

But the accent is on puréed foods — non chunks, globs, or gummy pastes. These latter foods, like nut butters, are choking hazards, and then continue these away from your baby.

Likewise, don't add honey to your baby's foods — it tin can cause botulism.

And if you're feeding an older infant — half-dozen months and up — and want to introduce finger foods? Follow these strict guidelines to avert choking hazards.

In their carefully-planned program for safe baby-led weaning, Elation ("Baby-Led Introduction to SolidS"), researcher Lisa Daniels and her colleagues propose parents to follow these guidelines (2015):

• Always test the foods yourself before you give them to your baby. Brand sure foods are soft enough "to mash with the tongue on the roof of the mouth (or are big plenty that pocket-size pieces don't pause off when sucked or chewed, east.g., strips of meat)."

• Don't offering foods that "class a crumb in the rima oris."

• Make certain the foods you lot offering "are at least as long as the child'southward fist, on at to the lowest degree i side of the food."

• Brand sure your baby is always sitting upright during the repast — not leaning back.

• Don't leave your babe unattended. An adult should monitor the babe at all times during the meal.

• Don't try to put finger foods in your baby'southward oral cavity. "Never put whole foods into the infant's rima oris – the baby must do this at their ain pace and under their ain control."

iii. Should I avert feeding my infant foods that are potentially allergenic?

Dissimilar families have unlike health concerns and risk factors, so y'all should hash out this with your pediatrician to exist sure.

But in general, the news for babies without special risk factors is reassuring.  You probably don't need to limit your baby's diet to hypo-allergenic foods.

On the contrary, recent studies suggest that early on exposure to potentially allergenic foods might actually protect children from developing allergies (east.thou., Abrams and Becker 2015, Dutoit et al 2016; Ierodiakonou et al 2016).

For example, researchers reviewing testify for the Periodical of the American Medical Clan have concluded there is "moderate-certainty evidence from v trials (1915 participants)" that babies introduced to eggs between 4 and 6 months are at lower take chances for developing an egg allergy.

In add-on, the researchers judged that there was "moderate-certainty evidence from 2 trials (1550 participants) that early peanut introduction at four to 11 months was associated with reduced peanut allergy" (Ierodiakonou et al 2016).

They also judged at that place was "loftier-certainty evidence that the timing of gluten was non associated with celiac disease risk" (Ierodiakonou et al 2016).

If this sounds like a U-plough in our understanding of allergy take chances, it is. Years agone, pediatric organizations advised parents to avoid exposing their babies to potentially allergenic foods. They thought that early on exposure could induce allergies. But the former advice is shifting in response to the show.

For case, the American Academy of Pediatrics (2017) advises:

"At that place is no testify that waiting to introduce babe-safe (soft), allergy-causing foods, such as eggs, dairy, soy, peanuts, or fish, beyond 4 to half-dozen months of age prevents food allergy."

A notable exception concerns infants with older siblings who are allergic to peanuts. If this is your situation, researchers recommend that yous get your baby tested past qualified allergist before exposing your baby to peanuts (Liem et al 2004).

4. Can I add spices to baby food?

As I note elsewhere, experiments suggest that babies savour flavors similar garlic, and overall, the prove is clear: There is nothing natural or normal about restricting infants to flavorless, banal food.

Even before they are built-in, opens in a new window infants are exposed to flavors in the foods that their mothers eat. Food flavors are besides opens in a new windownowadays in chest milk. And in cultures throughout the world, babies' first foods are mashed up or pureed versions of the foods their parents eat.

This doesn't mean we should spice upwards an babe's food with reckless abandon. Babies may feel flavors a bit differently than we do, and have a lower tolerance for biting flavors and spicy irritants.

Moreover, some commercially bachelor spices are contaminated with atomic number 82. It makes sense to avert overwhelming your infant with intense flavors, and to be cautious about the source of your spices.

But studies bespeak that babies tend to like flavors they have encountered via their mothers' diets — during gestation and breastfeeding. So if spices like garlic, cumin, or cinnamon are a part of your diet, your babe may be appreciative of such flavors.

5. What if the baby makes faces while eating?

What if a baby makes dramatic, negative facial expressions after tasting a item food? Does this mean you should terminate offering information technology?

Babies are notorious for making faces in reaction to new foods (Forestell and Mennella 2017).

For case, in one study, researchers recorded the facial expressions of babies tasting pureed green beans for the first time (Forestell and Mennella 2007).

These were the most common reactions:

• 95% of the babies squinted
• 82% waggled their brows
• 76% raised their upper lips
• 42% wrinkled their noses

In short, babies looked disgusted, and the more disgusted they looked, the more slowly they ate!

But here's the important point: They got over their initial dislike for light-green beans. Information technology just took time.

After following an 8-day regimen of repeated feedings, the babies were eating three times every bit much pureed dark-green beans every bit they had eaten during their very first feel.

But none of this means you should force your baby to consume. That'south not a good idea. Instead, hold a spoonful of the nutrient up to your baby's mouth until he or she has pushed it away. Then expect a bit, and try again, for a full of 3 tries.

6. What if a babe keeps pushing the food back out with her tongue?

That'south non unusual. Nor is it unusual for a baby to utilize his tongue to push food to incorrect parts of his oral fissure. Instead of moving food to the back of the throat, where it can be swallowed, babies may push food into the spaces betwixt their gums and cheeks, and finish upwards spitting some (or all) of the nutrient out.

What's going on?

Part of the trouble is that your baby is still experiencing what doctors call the natural language thrust reflex — automatically pushing the tongue forward in response to stimulation of the mouth. The reflex is good for suckling, but non so helpful for ingesting solid nutrient.

Another problem is that your baby is still developing the necessary skills to move food toward the dorsum of the oral cavity.

And then if your baby is ejecting food, does this hateful you lot should stop trying to feed your baby solids?

If your baby is very young, and pushes out everything you lot try to feed him, so you might wait a few days, and try again. But if your babe is doing information technology only sometimes, and so you'll want to keep at information technology. Your baby needs the do!

7. What should I exercise if my baby rejects a new food?

Sometimes it isn't just that your baby makes funny faces.

Your infant actively rejects nutrient, past turning away from information technology, or pushing dorsum the spoon.

It'southward important to respect these signals and back off for a while. But you lot shouldn't giving upwardly entirely. Experts suggest that y'all try over again — the next mean solar day.

Research confirms that it's perfectly normal for babies to reject new foods on their outset, 2d, and even tertiary tries In fact, babies need many, repeated tastings to develop a liking for a food.

In experimental studies, it has taken 8-ten days of repeated, daily exposure for babies to kickoff accepting a new food (Mura Paroche et al 2017; Forestell and Mennella 2007).

So the play a trick on is staying the course, even if your baby seems unenthusiastic. In a given feeding session, go on offering the food until your baby has rejected it 3 times (past turning abroad from it, or pushing back the spoon). Then try again tomorrow.

And exist advised that you might not observe when things starting time to change. In the food introduction experiments, parents reported that they perceived no differences over fourth dimension, fifty-fifty though objective measurements showed the babies had started to come up around: They were definitely eating more of the new foods.

8. What if a baby grabs the spoon during a feeding?

Babies are smart and full of curiosity, and then it's understandable if they want to examine the implements we're trying to stick in their mouths.  Let your baby accept the spoon and look information technology over. Meanwhile, you can continue the feeding with some other spoon.

Does your baby try to catch that one as well? Some parents have institute success by adding fifty-fifty more spoons to the mix — one or more for the parent, and ii for the baby. The idea here is to keep both of the baby'southward hands occupied (holding spoons) while yous feed.

But yous might also try handing your babe a spoon that'due south been loaded with food. Help guide the spoon to your babe's oral cavity, or let your baby attempt information technology on his own.

Your baby's beliefs tin be frustrating, and cause a lot of mess. Merely continue in mind: This isn't a feed-or-starve situation.

Your baby doesn't accept to ingest much solid food during these sessions. They are mostly well-nigh learning. And if your baby is very bang-up to agree and utilise spoons, she's probably ready to larn cocky-feeding, which is a good thing. Allowing your baby to do will hasten the day when she can eat independently.

ix. When can babies consume lumpy foods?

Babies need to acquire about food textures also as nutrient flavors, and then consider introducing mashed or slightly lumpy foods around six-vii months — and before 9 months.

But wait! Babies don't even have teeth however at this age. Then how does this piece of work?

The answer is that babies can mash soft, lumpy foods with their gums. And the exercise this provides might aid babies develop their chewing muscles. Moreover, research suggests that babies may be less probable to develop fussy eating habits if they are exposed to lumpy foods before 9 months of age (Coulthard et al 2009).

But watch out for choking hazards. Some foods might be also lumpy. How can y'all tell?  Researchers recommend you lot taste the food yourself, and brand sure the lumps are soft plenty to brew between your natural language and the roof of your mouth (Cameron et al 2015). Foods that fail this test are high hazard choking hazards.

10. How can I avoid raising a picky eater?

At that place are some factors beyond your command. As I explain in this opens in a new windowevidence-based article about the origins of picky eaters, some individuals inherit traits that make them more resistant to eating new foods (Mennela et al 2016).

But parents tin can make a departure. As noted above, the flavors in a mother's diet make their mode into her milk. And studies reveal that babies develop preferences for these flavors.

So breastfeeding may be 1 style to "program" your kid to accept a wider range of foods.

Consistent with this idea, researchers take found that toddlers tend to swallow more vegetables if they have a history of breastfeeding longer (de Lauzon-Guillain et al 2013; Okubo et al 2016).

And the other important factor is exposing your babe to a variety of solid foods.

When researchers accept tracked children over fourth dimension, they've found a correlation between early food experiences and after eating habits. Kids who are introduced to many unlike foods during infancy tend to eat a broader assortment of fruits and vegetables.

Then it's probably a practiced idea to resist offering your baby only a small number of favorite foods. Keep introducing your baby to new flavors and textures — peculiarly vegetable foods that infants may take longer to develop a liking for.

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References: How to starting time babies on solids

Abrams EM and Becker AB. 2015. Food introduction and allergy prevention in infants. CMAJ. 187(17):1297-301.

American Academy of Pediatrics. 2017. Starting Solid Foods. Retrieved from opens in a new windowhttps://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/infant/feeding-diet/Pages/Switching-To-Solid-Foods.aspx (12/28/2018).

American University of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition. 2000. Hypoallergenic babe formulas. Pediatrics. 106(2 Pt ane):346-9.

Cameron SL, Taylor RW, Heath AL. 2015. Development and airplane pilot testing of Infant-Led Introduction to Solids–a version of Baby-Led Weaning modified to address concerns about atomic number 26 deficiency, growth unpleasing and choking. BMC Pediatr. 15:99.

Coulthard H, Harris G, Emmett P. 2009. Delayed introduction of lumpy foods to children during the complementary feeding period affects child'southward food acceptance and feeding at vii years of age. Matern Child Nutr. 5(1):75-85.

Daniels L, Heath AL, Williams SM, Cameron SL, Fleming EA, Taylor BJ, Wheeler BJ, Gibson RS, Taylor RW. 2015. Baby-Led Introduction to SolidS (BLISS) report: a randomised controlled trial of a infant-led arroyo to complementary feeding. BMC Pediatr. 15:179.

de Lauzon-Guillain B, Jones L, Oliveira A, Moschonis G, Betoko A, Lopes C, Moreira P, Manios Y, Papadopoulos NG, Emmett P, Charles MA. 2013. The influence of early feeding practices on fruit and vegetable intake among preschool children in 4 European birth cohorts. Am J Clin Nutr. 98(3):804-12.

Dogan E, Yilmaz Yard, Caylan N, Turgut M, Gokcay G, Oguz MM. 2018. Babe-led complementary feeding: Randomized controlled study. Pediatr Int. 60(12):1073-1080.

Du Toit G, Foong RM, and Lack Thousand. 2016. Prevention of food allergy – Early on dietary interventions. Allergol Int. 65(4):370-377.

Forestell CA. 2017. Flavor Perception and Preference Development in Human Infants. Ann Nutr Metab. 70 Suppl iii:17-25.

Forestell CA and Mennella JA. 2007. Early determinants of fruit and vegetable acceptance. Pediatrics 120(6):1247-1254.

Forestell CA and Mennella JA. 2017. The Relationship between Infant Facial Expressions and Nutrient Acceptance. Curr Nutr Rep. 6(2):141-147.

Harris G and Mason S. 2017. Are There Sensitive Periods for Food Acceptance in Infancy? Curr Nutr Rep.  half dozen(2):190-196.

Howcroft R. 2013. Weaned Upon A Fourth dimension: Studies of the infant diet in prehistory. Stockholm.

Ierodiakonou D, Garcia-Larsen V, Logan A, Groome A, Cunha S, Chivinge J, Robinson Z, Geoghegan Due north, Jarrold K, Reeves T, Tagiyeva-Milne Northward, Nurmatov U, Trivella One thousand, Leonardi-Bee J, Boyle RJ. 2016. Timing of Allergenic Nutrient Introduction to the Babe Diet and Risk of Allergic or Autoimmune Illness: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA. 316(11):1181-1192

Liem JJ, Huq Southward, Kozyrskyj AL, Becker AB. 2008. Should Younger Siblings of Peanut-Allergic Children Exist Assessed by an Allergist before Being Fed Peanut? Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol. four(4):144-nine.

Mennella JA, Reiter AR, Daniels LM. 2016. Vegetable and Fruit Acceptance during Infancy: Touch on of Ontogeny, Genetics, and Early on Experiences. Adv Nutr. vii(ane):211S-219S.

Mura Paroche M, Caton SJ, Vereijken CMJL, Weenen H, Houston-Toll C. 2017. How Infants and Young Children Learn Almost Food: A Systematic Review. Front Psychol. eight:1046.

Okubo H, Miyake Y, Sasaki S, Tanaka Grand, Hirota Y. 2016. Feeding practices in early on life and subsequently intake of fruit and vegetables amidst Japanese toddlers: the Osaka Maternal and Child Wellness Report. Public Health Nutr.   19(four):650-vii.

West C. 2017. Introduction of Complementary Foods to Infants. Ann Nutr Metab. 70 Suppl 2:47-54.

title image of baby touching hands in high chair by lmnop88a / flickr

imagine of baby foods by Frédérique Voisin-Demery / flickr

image of babe making funny face while eating by Fimb /flickr

paradigm of baby turning away from food by Abigail Batchelder /flickr

image of baby grabbing spoon by César Rincón / flickr

Content last modified 1/2019

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Source: https://parentingscience.com/how-to-start-babies-on-solid-food/

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