"Solid" Suggestions?

Parentberries
1

[name_f]My[/name_f] little guy will be 5 months on [name_u]August[/name_u] 3rd. He is EBF, and I’m so excited to start solids! I plan to talk to his pedi about the ‘when’- I’m guessing end of [name_u]August[/name_u].

I have a few questions though!

Anyone have preferences of gear? I have a baby bullet and plan to make my own food. Other than that I need suggestions- spoons, bowls, placemat, bibs? There are so many fun products to choose from, but I want something aesthetically pleasing and practical as well!

Also I’m getting mixed reviews on weather or not to introduce sippy cup. Some say skip it all together, and I heard it can cause dental issues? But it seems rather necessary to start with. Anyone have cup suggestions?

Also what foods did you start with, so you buy organic (if you make your own) etc?

Any info is helpful! :slight_smile:

2

I’m glad we did sippy cup. No dental issues and way less messes.

3

Ditto on the sippy. Our daughter is almost 4 and will still use one sometimes, depending on the situation. If she’s sitting on the couch or riding in the car, definitely using a sippy. She has absolutely no dental issues.

We used all store bought baby food, and her first was bananas. She was 4 months when she tried them the first time.

4

There is not one right way to do it. It depends on what works your your family and baby. I can’t imagine not using sippy cups, they don’t have the coordination to deal with real cups for awhile and they like to throw things, but I’m sure it works fine for a few kids. For now your little one doesn’t really need extra liquids anyway, right now it’s all just learning and experimenting. [name_f]My[/name_f] main advice I guess would be to try to be relaxed about it and don’t stress about following any particular way of introducing solids and just go with what works for you. I used the suction cup bowls, but those seem to always loose suction after the many washings so I just got in the habit of catching them before they made a big mess. I was planning on doing baby-led weaning but I ended up using purees (I used pre-made which are just fine and not that much different from making your own despite people talking them down) because my kids took awhile to be ready for chunks and chewing. Although the very first thing I started with was baby cereal. I did give them the spoons right away though, instead of just spoon feeding them and that worked fine, my kids were pretty dexterous for their age though, and I had to do the scooping but they managed getting the spoon to their mouth right away pretty much… but solids weren’t their main source of nutrition for awhile and we didn’t start solids till around 6 months. We used cloth bibs for the purees and got the Easi-[name_m]Roll[/name_m] bibs for when they started finger foods, it works pretty well to catch the food but a great deal of it ended up in the high chair anyway…and on the floor so make sure there is a large space on the floor that is easy to clean up. We got high chairs that are a pain to clean, so I wouldn’t recommend them but the nice thing is that the height is adjustable so it can be used to them to sit at the table when they are older.

5

We just gave our little guy the same food we were eating anyway. We started at six months. I think avocado was the first thing we gave him, then sweet potato. We never did baby cereal, though I did give him regular oatmeal or grits when we were having it. We would sometimes mash things with a fork, but we never bothered blending anything.

This is how both sets of our parents did it, but as it turns out, this is an actual thing. It’s called [name_u]Baby[/name_u] Led Weaning. I love it b.c it was so much less work. He loved feeding himself and I loved not having to hover over him with a spoon.

The baby I watch eats pre-made purees, and to me, this is really a lot more work and just as much mess. There is, of course, nothing wrong with spoon feeding babies purees, do what works for you!

Our son eats and enjoys pretty everything we eat now. I can’t say that this is why, not having done things the other way, but I do think that feeding him everything we eat from the beginning helped with this.

We also never bothered with baby dishes. We gave him regular bowls and plates and things from the beginning. In two years of having food on breakable dishes, he has thrown one cup. It broke and I cleaned it up and it seemed to make a big enough impression that he has never thrown another. I did not yell at him about it or anything, but I guess once was enough. He is not a calm or cautious child, either. There is nothing wrong with baby dishes, I just didn’t really have room for a set of plastic everything in the cupboards.

We tried to skip the sippie cup. He could drink out of an open cup without assistance by 18 months, but we still do sippie cups b.c he will just dump out the liquid or stick his hand in the cup or dip his food in it… Ugh. We do give him an open cup at mealtimes so that he can practice.

The straw-type cups are supposed to be best for speech development and teeth, but he might not be able to use those right off. It takes some time for the baby to figure out how to use a cup, so you may want to start with the type that are closer to bottles, with the silicone spout.

For bibs, we loved these long sleeve bibs that tie in there back. We got them on amazon, I think ours are Bummis brand, but there are lots of different manufacturers for these. We started with those silicone bibs with the catcher pocket in the front, but he quickly figured out how to dump the pocket out, which made it sort of pointless. If it is warm enough though, I am a big fan of stripping the baby down to his diaper for mealtime.

I [name_u]LOVE[/name_u] the really simple $25 ikea high chair. There are no crevices for food to get stuck and you can hose that thing down. Babies can get high chairs unbelievably gross, so I would avoid anything with fabric or padding.

6

Didn’t know this was a thing. Cool!

7

Avocado and banana.

On the sippy cups…make sure you get ones where they don’t have to suck to get the liquid. And don’t give too much juice. People are often surprised at how little juice a child should have. An adult should only have 4 ounces a day-total! I never give any juice to my babies. Too much sugar for the teeth. It is very hard to find sippy cups that do not require sucking to make it work.