Does Baby Know Best?

The Real Scoop on Solids

Part Two

By Ann Calandro, RNC, IBCLC

Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization agree that solid foods should be started around 6 months – when your baby shows an indication that he is ready. These experts stress that several developmental signs should be met before starting solids:

• Is your well baby nursing more and more but doesn't seem to fill up on breast milk alone?
• Can your baby sit up well?
• When offered food, does your baby open wide and readily accept the food rather than push it back out with his tongue?
• Does your baby show an interest in what you are eating?
• Can your baby pick up small bits of food and propel them toward his mouth?

In most cases when these developmental steps are met and foods are offered, babies around 6 months of age will begin to accept small amounts of new foods – but it might not happen this way.

My children all seemed ready by 6 or 7 months and began eating small bits of a variety of foods. However, over the years I have talked to mothers whose babies refused solids. These babies were growing well and were happy as clams, but they said YUCK when a spoonful of solid foods approached their tightly-clenched lips. These mothers continued to offer a variety of solids to their little ones, but the babies would turn away and refuse. One mother reported trying to push food into her child and her child getting violently ill afterward and vomiting for hours.

If this happens to you and your baby, what do you do? Do you keep pushing, or do you wait and see? Should you try to trick Baby into eating? Can any harm come from spooning food into an unwilling baby? Can any harm come from not spooning food into an unwilling baby? What's a parent to do?

Want to see more?

• Who's the Boss: Eliminating Mealtime Struggles
• Baby's First Solids
• Tips for Making Your Own Baby Food
• Breastfeeding and Other Foods
• Talk about it!