4 months old!

The girls have their 4 month appointment tomorrow, I'm SO scared! I've never gone alone to get their shots done, and tomorrow is the day. Oh boy. I'm going to give them tylenol in the morning before their appointment, but my anxiety is just through the roof for some reason Anyways, I am going to talk to the pedi tomorrow about starting them on baby food, etc. They already get cereal in their bottles, so I'm not overly excited to start feeding them that. But, I need a couple questions answered.
*Is it better to feed them baby food from the store, or should I make it?
*How much should I expect them to eat at a time, and how often do they get food other than formula?
*What's the best food to start with?

TIA!

 

GL with your appt tomorrow. They and you will be fine. :hug: As for the food, I did both-bought and made my own. We started cereal at 4 months since they were already getting a ton of cereal in their bottles for reflux. But they really didnt get the hang of it and get consistent until about 5.5 months. So I just did it every so often and not every baby every day. It was too stressful for me.

They were still taking all of the same amount of formula and gradually increasing their intake still while on solids. It wasnt until closer to the end of the first year that formula starts to take a backseat to solids.

Our first food was sweet potatoes for all of my kids besides cereal. GL!!

 

If you buy baby food, you don't need to skip Gerber and buy "Organic"--apparently there are very strict regulations on what can go into regular babyfood and it's all pretty much organic anyway. The same stringent rules don't apply to the organic brands. GL!

 

With my oldest son I started him on cereal around 6 months old. He hated it and I quickly skipped to mushy arrowroot cookies (my mom fed all 4 of us this as our first food).

My oldest daughter I started on cereal around 3 months (she was a big baby), she hated it and I moved onto the cookies.

I started the twins the other day on cereal, and of course, they aren't thrilled! So I picked up cookies today. I"m doing it at noon, I was using 2 tbsp's of rice cereal, 1 scoop of formula and 2 oz of water to mix their cereal up. They only ate maybe half an oz each or so, it's just teaching them how to eat it. I figure they'll learn faster with something they enjoy, like cookies!

 

How did the appointment go? I hope it went well.

 

I hope the appointment went well.
*Is it better to feed them baby food from the store, or should I make it?
For most things it's better (healthier, cheeper) to make your own food, so if you can then go for it! However if you can't/really don't want to then it's not going to harm them to have store bought stuff. Or you can do a mix of both, whatever suits you.
*How much should I expect them to eat at a time, and how often do they get food other than formula?
To start off with you should only expect them to eat maybe a few spoonfuls, and you only need to offer the solids once a day. At this stage it's really about them getting used to taking food off a spoon, moving it to the back of their mouth to swallow and the different texture. All their nutritional needs should still be being met by the milk they drink, so don't worry if all they do is spit the solids out to start with. It's also good to pick a time when they are not extra hungry (either give them most of their milk feed first or wait until a little while after the full milk feed) so that they're less likely to become frustrated if they don't eat.
*What's the best food to start with?
Other than baby rice (which I generally mix with other things anyway) the first veg I give is carrots and sweet potatoes and the first fruit is apples and pears.

If you are considering making your own food, or just to get ideas of when to introduce which foods, these websites are really useful: wholesomebabyfood and Annabel Karmel

 

The appointment went better than I thought, and they slept ALL day so it was actually surprising for me. It got me when they stuck ALL the needles into their legs at once, and the girls stuck their little bottom lips out and cried. It killed me, but they slept so good all day. They've been up for a while this evening and I'm not hopeful that they will sleep their usual 10-12 hours tonight because it's been pretty hard to get them down in bed.

As for the food question. Their pedi doesn't agree with feeding them anything but formula for at least the first 6 months. However, this was our last appt with him before switching to another office (one of his colleagues, actually). But, I think it's ultimately parets choice if we start them at 4 or 6 months, correct? I've bougth organic sweet potatoes and bananas, Gerber brand. I figure I could at least try it, if they don't like it I will know. At best, I can start getting them used to eating from a spoon, etc. And I would obviously be able ot detect any allergies if I give them the food first thing in the morning.

Any advice?

 

There is so much conflicting evidence on the 4 month/6 month debate. Ultimately yes, you as the parent know whether your baby is ready for it.

For me, Liam was basically refusing his noon bottle. Normally the babes eat at 9, 12, 3, 6, 9. But he was only eating 1-2 oz at noon (instead of the 4-6 he normally eats). So I decided to make the noon feeding a "solids" feeding, and then shift the rest of the schedule to 1, 4, 7, 10. Worked like a charm, they aren't eating a whole lot at their solids, and then are hungry enough to eat their 1pm bottle better.

I suggest starting with something like cereal, mostly because it's almost completely hypoallergenic (there's not much in it ), but also because it's cheaper, and they aren't going to swallow much right now. A jar is more expensive to use. But of course again, that's your choice what you want to try first, just be prepared most of it will likely end up on their bib (and in their hands and on their highchair ). And remember to go at least 3 days before changing the food, to watch for allergies. I'm planning to keep a chart handy so I can write down who liked what, who hated what (and remember babies need to try something up to 10 times before they'll enjoy some foods), and who had a reaction to what/when.