0:10 - When do I introduce solid foods to my baby
0:53 - Indications that your baby is actually ready for solid foods
1:36 - What exactly do we start to introduce our babies with
2:48 - Once we move on from the baby food
3:30 - Once you've moved from mashed
Hi folks, my name is Harper Jones with Bow-Tiger, and you're watching Saturdays with Harper. Today I wanted to talk to you guys about introducing solid foods to your baby. Now typically the first question that is asked, is, "When do I introduce solid foods to my baby?" And the answer to that question is actually around 4-6 months old. But there is a lot that actually goes into the specific time that you'll want to start introducing it.
Now first let me say at four to six months old, we do introduce food to our baby, but we do not stop giving them breast milk or formula. We actually continue the breast milk or formula feeding up to one-year-old. And this is to make sure that they get all of the vitamins, all of the nutrients that they're needing to receive each day while being introduced to foods as well.
Okay, so another thing that goes into when should I start to introduce foods to my baby is you also need to look for different indications that your baby is actually ready for solid foods. Head control is one, being able to sit up is another, there's another issue where babies because of the way they actually breastfeed or feed from a bottle, they'll actually use their tongue quite a bit in a pushing motion. We want to see our baby sort of regressing from using their tongue that way, and we also want to see that our baby is starting to use a chewing motion with things. That means that they'll be able to understand how to chew, how to eat, and how to start enjoying more foods.
Okay, so what exactly do we start to introduce our babies with? Okay, there's no scientific evidence on the next thing I'm about to tell you, but it is kind of just preference. I definitely did it with my daughter as I felt that it was the easiest thing to introduce to a baby to new food. And that was rice cereal. And what you actually do with the cereal is you put it in with breast milk or formula, and you almost want to make it a semi-liquid, and it's just a couple teaspoons they get each day when you first start out. You want to make sure that you've actually already fed your baby a bottle, or they've already breastfed, and then you want to try to introduce a couple teaspoons just so they can start to get the hang of actually eating.
Now if you don't want to start with that, you can of course move on and start with the pureed foods if you'd like. The best ones to start with would definitely be things like sweet potatoes, there's squash, any green vegetables, peas. You can do fruits like bananas, applesauce, but everything does have to be in a pureed form, in a baby food format.
Okay, now once we move on from the baby food, we can actually start with mashed food. This is a little bit thicker than pureed food, and again you can do bananas, the vegetables. You can also start to introduce different proteins. They actually have different meats that come in the mashed version. Your baby may or may not like some of these things, and don't push it at all. Just sort of try to introduce something every three days. The three-day gap actually allows you to see if your baby is allergic or not to this food, and then try to introduce something new. As I said, if the baby doesn't like it, don't push the baby to be eating it. You can always again try it a later date and see what they think.
Now once you've moved from mashed, you actually go onto finger foods, which are lots of fun. Make sure to not put too much out at one time. You don't want your baby to be overwhelmed, and you also want to make sure that they don't try to sort of stuff their mouth with the finger foods because we want to prevent choking. So to do that you can actually provide each piece to the baby until they get the hang of eating.
Another thing that you want to think about when you're getting ready or preparing your baby to eat solid foods is to make sure you have the proper tools. You want to have a high chair, you want to have a splat mat because a lot is going to wind up on the floor. You want to make sure that you do have a plastic spoon, as this is what you need to feed our babies with. And also a bib to keep that baby nice and clean.
So I hope that was a nice little overview of introducing your baby to solid foods. Again, my name is Harper Jones on Bow-Tiger, and if you're watching this video on YouTube or Facebook, be sure to also check out our blog on bow-tiger.com. Thanks.
