Introduction to Solids
Starting solids can be fun, stressful and all things in between but it’s a necessary skill to develop. If you have a support system, lean on them for tips but if not, you can always reach out to us! We’re happy to share more in detail what worked and didn’t work for the three of us!
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Meesh
I was super excited to start our food journey with Thea. But like any new mom who has read conflicting information on the internet, I felt very lost and overwhelmed. Before I started with anything, I wanted to get the allergens mostly out of the way. I found Ready Set Food via an Instagram ad and was intruigued. After some research I decided it’s an easy way to get the major allergens taken care of. If you’re unfamiliar, you can check out their website, but basically it’s allergens in powder form that you put in baby's milk. It starts off with a little then over 3 days to the full amount. After about 2 weeks, I was ready to start purees with no signs of any allergies! Thea was a solid sitter, so we started purees at 4 months! I would do a little bit of infant oatmeal or rice cereal and some pureed veggie or fruits and I think I started with banana and then peas (lol, why peas?!). I tried for about 3 weeks to make my own purees but honestly, they didn't taste great so I didn't blame her for not liking most of it haha. My husband was very nervous about her potentially choking so he asked me to take the lead on food, which I was fine with! I’m not a great cook in general and making my own purees was actually a lot of work. I opted to spend a little money and get purees from Little Spoon. In her early food days she would only eat about ½ a container so a pack of 14 would last me weeks- very cost effective! They had different textures and flavor profiles I would have never thought of. I’m very happy I chose them!
Once she hit 6 months old we started real solids. She was doing great figuring out foods and my husband was seeing her excel in eating and getting more comfortable. Choking is a real fear for any parent and prior to real foods we took an online CPR class and asked our close families to watch a video online so they could be aware if they need to do it. Thankfully we haven't had to do CRP. I highly recommend watching videos of babies gagging so you know the different between learning to eat and actually choking. Your heart is going to stop when they gag, but it’s important to let them figure it out and trust them through the process.
We introduced spoons and straws around 7 months and she caught on super quick and we started forks around 10 months. When it comes to favorite foods… depends on the day! Some days she’ll only eat cheese, raspberries and black olives, other days she’ll eat exactly what we’re eating. I try not to sweat it but some days I do, some days I don’t.
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Grace
We started solids towards the end of month 5. Parker was sitting up pretty well by herself and was very, very interested in food. The first food she tried was avocado followed by banana, carrot and sweet potato. These were all mashed up or pureed and she was not a fan. She always looked like she was being poisoned when she was eating it. It’s so funny how a different texture has that effect on them.
I was very nervous she would have an allergic reaction to literally anything (hi postpartum anxiety) even though Cody and I have no family history of food allergies. I wasn’t really worried about choking yet though because she was only eating purees or mashed up soft stuff. I got the Solid Starts app and I highly recommend it to everyone! It’s great for tracking new foods and gives you tips on how to prepare foods for different ages which is super helpful. We didn’t really do baby led weaning, we are kind of just winging it and doing our best. To save time and to keep me sane, we did a Little Spoon subscription for quite a while. It was great because they have really unique flavor combinations I would have never thought of on my own. Now that we’ve graduated from purees and are eating more kinds of foods, Parker realized she likes to shove food in her mouth as fast as possible. This has caused me to have a lot of anxiety around eating and it really isn’t fun for me, which is a bummer because Parker LOVES any kind of food she can get her hands on. It is pretty cool to see her being so adventurous with eating. She really hasn’t rejected a food ever (besides when she first started purees and was getting used to a texture different than milk). Most days she does great with eating, but occasionally there will be something that happens that makes me nervous and sets me back and makes me feel uncomfortable with it again. It’s hard, but it’s something that you have to push through (at your own pace of course) and teach them how to eat. Sometimes I feel “behind” because I see what other people are feeding their babies that are the same age as Parker and I’m just not comfortable with certain things yet, but then I tell myself my baby is eating and she is healthy and happy, so why should I compare us to others? We are doing just fine! Her favorite food is everything. She really likes literally everything. She does get pretty pumped when she sees me cutting up a banana though, so I guess I could say that is her favorite.
We have a cute little plate and utensil set from oatmilk baby that works great for us! And of course we have a silicone bib that catches food she drops so she can dig around in there and grab pieces she was saving for later. Some great resources on Instagram I like are @solidstarts, @mylittleeater, @babyledweanteam and @feedinglittles. They are great for feeding tips and food ideas. If you struggle with meal time like me, hang in there! We just need to keep doing our best.
Mon
We started solids a little after 6 months.Starting solids was stressful. I felt like I had just figured out breastfeeding and now it was time to add something new to the mix. I followed the solid starts first 100 days program and then simplified it for our family (some of the recipes were way too intricate). I loved it because I didn’t have to think about what allergens to introduce, or what food texture to do next, or how to serve each food at each age. I also love that the program was started by a twin mom and fully research backed.
Having this program gave me a lot of the resources to successfully start solids but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have anxiety over the whole thing. The gagging is fucking intense. It looks like choking and my heart dropped every time it happened. I would say for the first 4/5 months of solids I was really anxious about the whole ordeal. We started off with only one meal for about 2 months so I could do it while my husband was there. Even now when the boys gag or cough on something I still freeze. I know I react because then they’ll repeat whatever they just did and laugh, clearly looking for another reaction. I don’t know how people poker face when their child is gagging or coughing. It's definitely not a skill I have. I will say it does get easier though, and by one year I was really impressed by how far we had all come. Their favorite foods now consist of noodles,sweet potatoes, soups(they love to scoop and slurp), and all the fruits. They eat what we eat and I don’t stress if they don’t eat a lot because I know their appetite fluctuates.
Some food items I love:
