An Experienced Mama’s Introduction To Starting Your Baby On Solid Food

Here is an introduction to starting your four-month-old baby on solid food.

This blog post was sponsored by Healthy Times.

I’ve had the chance to go through this TWICE now. My baby Glorianne started solids about a week after she turned four months. 

Oh my goodness she was so ready to eat.

I’m not set on any specific feeding philosophy. As with every other aspect of parenting, my style seems to be “somewhere in the middle.”

I love the idea behind baby-led weaning – mainly how it promotes independence. But that sure doesn’t mean I won’t be spoon-feeding purees as well.

My best advice is to dabble and find what works best for your child at the stage they’re at. Be a student of your child. Be flexible. 

Here are some other tips for you to consider: 

Make sure she is ready. At four months, Annie could hold up her head in the high chair without any issue. She also really obviously wanted to eat. She’d eye us like a hawk when we put food in our mouths. When I’m holding her and taking a sip of water, she does this cute thing where she tries to grab my cup and put it to her own mouth. Smart girl. 

Start with traditional first foods. My pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to feed Annie anything except dairy and honey. That said, I still prefer to stick with traditional foods first simply because these have been proven to be easier for the little tummies to handle.

• Rice cereal is a great starter food. It’s bland and watery. Mix one tsp with expressed breast milk to give your baby her first nibble. If your baby is resisting, just add more breast milk and it’ll basically be breast milk on a spoon.
• We personally prefer to use Healthy Times Organic Baby Cereal. We started off with Healthy Times Brown Rice Cereal but transitioned to the Oatmeal Cereal within a week. I found that Annie actually preferred oatmeal probably for it’s nuttier taste and thicker texture. This girl’s palate is developing fast. We trust Healthy Times for our baby because it has the vitamins and minerals Annie needs for brain development, strong bones and teeth and a healthy immune system. The cereals are dairy and soy-free. Healthy Times recently launched two new products and has expanded in-store availability to Loblaws in Ontario. 

• Annie has tasted a good variety of fruits and veggies as well: banana, avocado, apple, pear, carrot, green beans, zucchini, butternut squash & sweet potato.

Freeze homemade baby food. I find steaming and mashing fruits and veggies to be the easiest method to make purees. I store individual portions in ice cube trays. Thaw and warm up whenever your baby needs to grab a bite.  

Increase the repertoire every three days. Take your time and use a methodical approach to introduce new foods. Be on the lookout for any food sensitivities and allergies. It’s easy to want to introduce quickly especially seeing your baby so excited. But I’m in the process of backtracking myself as I have some suspicion Annie might be reacting to something. 

Develop a consistent schedule. I started feeding Annie sporadically – a  nibble here, a taste there. But once she was acquainted, we got into a consistent routine. We currently feed her once a day during lunch. She likes to sit in the high chair with everyone else at the table. She knows that when she’s in the highchair and the bib is on, its time to feast. She gets really excited anticipating her food!

So there’s my introduction to starting your baby on solid food. Annie will be 6 months soon so I’ll be dabbling in baby-led weaning too but for now, purees are working out great for us. I hope that your baby transitions to solids as smoothly as ours. I’d love to hear if you have any tips to share as well. And take a look at some of our all-time favourite baby food recipes!

Good luck!