Introducing Foods

Is 4 1/2 months too soon to introduce foods to my babies. I find that they are eating more often than usual within the last few days and I am starting to think that they are not getting full after the normal feeds. 4 ounces every 3 hours except that twice a day I do 6 ounces. What do you think? What foods are the first foods to start with? HELP!!!!

 

Yes, it's too soon. It's normal for babies to hit a growth spurt around 4 months - that's probably why they're so hungry. The AAP and other major medical organizations recommend delaying solids until 6 months, for many reasons.

 

I started at 4 months with all of my babies, per my ped's recommendation. I started with Rice cereal, but quickly moved to veggies and fruits because they didn't care for plain cereal.

 

I toyed with the idea of solids at around 4 months and got the OK from my doctor. My boys were taking up to 40 oz. a day and not able to go even 3 hours without a bottle many days. I didn't actually start solids until 5 months because even though they were hungry, I didn't feel they were developmentally ready. At 5 months we started with rice cereal once a day and it went well. We moved up to cereal twice a day at just under 6 months, and we tried barley cereal too. At 6 months we started with some fruit and veggies (very gently, something new every few days) and it's been great! My boys still take 28 oz of formula per day, and two good meals of cereal, fruit and veggies. The doctor is really happy with their health.

 

My doc told us to start cereal at 4 months ... but my DS was eating 8oz at every one of his bottles ... my DD was eating consistently 6-7oz at each bottle. Why don't you just try to make them bigger bottles? 4oz at a feeding really isn't that much ... I would talk to your pedi about it. We did cereal for a month, and started introducing fruits and veggies at 5 months.

 

We started at four months as well, per our pedi recommendation. We started off with rice cereal and then introduced fruits and vegetables every 3-4 days (to ensure there were no allergies). I could just tell Liam was ready for it, he was always hungry.

 

I agree that you should bump up their bottles by an ounce or two before you start solids. My guys were taking at least 7 oz. per bottle by the time I started solids. Formula or breast milk needs to be the bulk of their diet.

 

I would first try to see if they'll take bigger bottles. I pump and add formula and my girls take about 6 oz. every 3-4 hours. It ends up being 4 bottle feedings per day, plus nursing in the morning for a full feeding and maybe a "snack" nursing at night....so basically five and a half feedings. It does seem that when you start cereal so young, it's just "filler" and the babies really don't benefit from it very much nutritionally.

 

I too was going to say, why not increase their bottle size?

 

My grandsons were taking 8 oz bottles every three hours so just shy of their four month check up the pedi recommended we begin rice cereal and then after a few days to offer fruits and veggies. We followed his recommendations of offering each food for three days to make certain there were no allergies, etc. They took to the spoon and solid food like ducks to water. At their six month check up he told us to add meats. They are seven months old and each morning they get cereal/ fruit and veggie. Lunch includes a meat and veggie and dinner is typically a veggie meat combination with a fruit. They take a bottle with each meal and a supplement bottle midafternoon after their nap.

 

QUOTE(kajulie @ Sep 26 2007, 08:33 AM) [snapback]424000[/snapback]
I too was going to say, why not increase their bottle size?

I would suggest waiting on solids a little bit. I would increase the ounces in their bottles before I'd add solids.