How to Begin Solids From A First Time Mama
Starting solids has been on my mind since M was about 4 months old! She started sitting up with minimal support and would sit in her highchair while we ate meals and seemed interested! There is so much information out there regarding how to start solids, when to start solids, purees vs solids, and so much more that it can be overwhelming. I’m here to break it down for you! (Some of these items below will be great to have on your baby registry for those of you pregnant mamas!)
Most Useful Items so Far
This was the first straw cup we tried and M was able to figure out how to get water up the straw after a few tries. I like that this one has handles for her and the straw comes apart so it’s somewhat easy to clean. I only put water in this though because I worry about milk getting stuck in the straw and not being able to clean it well enough. This straw cup doesn’t leak when it’s thrown on the floor [which has been tested over and over again].
This is the other straw cup we use. She can throw it on the floor and it doesn’t leak. Like the oxo tot this one has handles which make it easy for her to hold and it comes with a brush so it’s easy to clean the straw.
We recently got this one and have only used it a few times, but there is no valve in the straw so I’ve put milk in it since it’s easy to clean the straw. This cup would definitely leak if she threw it on the floor. She hasn’t been able to test this though because we usually help her hold it. I love this cup because it transitions from a beginner training straw cup, to an advanced straw cup, to an open cup!
Includes 2 tiny spoons, 1 tiny cup, and 1 tiny bowl- This set is awesome for starting solids because it really has almost everything you need! We love these straws because they are easy to put a little bit of mashed food on the spoon and we hold the spoon for M to grab and put in her mouth. She actually won’t let you put the spoon in her mouth, but wants to take the spoon and do it herself. I will also load the spoon with food and place it in front of her to put in her mouth on her own. The bowl is the perfect size for serving a good amount of food at this age (6 months). It’s recommended to work on using an open cup when starting solids and this tiny cup is the perfect size for their tiny mouths.
This is a great plate for serving different foods at once.
This is my number one recommendations to any mama starting out on their solid starts journey. These spoons are great for starting out with mashed foods or baby cereal. You load the spoons and baby can use the spoon as a teether and get the food out of the crevices while doing so!
This was recommended to us by our pediatrician. We’ve used it a few times, I can’t say it’s the best tool, but it does the job. You can put cooked food in it and get a thick puree to serve.
This was one of our most frequently used items when we started out. I felt confident putting whole food in the feeder and allowing her to suck on it without getting any big pieces and choking. This is another product to use when starting out for those nervous mama’s and dada’s like myself and husband.
Best Resources
My number one recommendation is to follow @solidstarts on instagram and check out their website. This has been my number one resource since before I even began solids with M. Jenny, the founder, shares her story on how she began @solidstarts and gives such great tips on how to start solids.
Free First Foods Database– This is where you can type in any food and see what age is appropriate to start that food and how to properly serve it.
Guides– There are so many helpful guides that Jenny has available for purchase and we bought a few before purchasing the All Access Pass which we have found to be an amazing resource!
** I have to share a quick story with you about @solidstarts. I found that I was so invested in @solidstarts that I got extremely discouraged when M didn’t like the first meal I made her (oatmeal). Solids Starts is always showing how to properly serve food for babies at different stages so I would always see children eating so well and when M wanted nothing to do with solids I was worried. I had to remind myself that all children are different and some kids will take to new foods right away and others will not [M being one of them]. We took a break and I tried again a couple weeks later and I started with some baby oatmeal that I mixed with her formula rather than jumping into something like oatmeal which has a very different texture than what she’s used to. This is my reminder not to compare your child to another child! I found starting solids hard in the beginning because I never saw any kids rejecting solids on @solidstarts, but I would still recommend @solidstarts over and over again because it is so helpful when figuring out how to properly serve food to your baby. **
Other Starting Solids Accounts to Follow:
How We Introduced Solids
I was really excited to start solids with M since I felt I had learned quite a bit about how to begin, all from instagram, mainly from @solidstarts instagram account and website. Little did I know not all babies “take” to starting solids the same and some might need a slower transition. We began our food adventure the weekend following M turning 6 months old. I had bought the all access pass from @solidstarts which included a guide for the first 100 days of starting solids. This guide included daily meal plans so I figured day 1 I’d start with day 1 meal plans. That included oatmeal for the first meal and that did NOT go well. We put the oatmeal in her bowl with a pre-loaded spoon and M showed no interest at all. We tried to bring some to her mouth to try and that quickly turned into tears. That right there was our first lesson, do not force them to try ANYTHING. We decided we needed to rethink our plan and try again in a week or so.
We thought since she’s only ever had breastmilk, formula, and prune juice that maybe the texture of oatmeal was too much of a different texture for being her first food. I walked the baby aisle at the grocery store and found HappyBaby Oatmeal Baby Cereal. I had heard of this brand so I bought a bag to try. You can make it as thin or thick as you like so for the first time I made the oatmeal cereal very thin and gradually made it thicker. We would add in things like applesauce, peanut butter, pumpkin seed butter and I felt like we were off to the races!
From there I started looking at our Solid Starts Guide to First 100 Days of Solids and I would make one or two “meals” a week. I started out with just serving one type of food like yogurt or strawberries. At 7.5 months I started making her more complete meals like a piece of steak, stewed mango, and steamed sweet potato. Some meals involve using a spoon and some involve only hands. I’m not putting too much pressure on myself to make sure she has two or even three meals a days yet since her main source of nutrition right now is formula. I’m trying to expose her to as many food profiles as possible and learn the mechanics of eating. At almost 8 months old we have tried 40 new foods so far!
We are also working on drinking from an open cup and straw cup. I will serve her water in her ezpz tiny cup and I will hold the cup for her while she drinks. Most of the water ends up on her shirt, but we are working on this skill! We also use her ezpz straw cup, oxo tot straw cup, and munchkin weighted straw cup to practice sucking from a straw. She has almost got this skill down!
This is not to say we don’t have days where M refuses the food we make for her. One day she loves the steak and the next day she won’t touch it. I won’t serve her that food for a little while and then try it again in a few weeks. We’ve been trying to introduce allergens and we’ve successfully been able to get M to eat peanut butter, yogurt, and tahini, but every time we’ve made M eggs she won’t eat it. She’ll play with in her hand until it’s broken into many pieces, but had yet to put any in her mouth. We are going to keep trying new foods, but just know that not every day is going to be a success story!
Other ways we are introducing food is using the Boon pulp silicone feeder. This self feeder gives her the ability to feed herself a bunch of new foods, whether they are too small or more of a choking risk. She’s tried a handful of foods for the first time in this self feeder.
Snacks We Are Loving Right Now
Puffworks Baby Peanut Butter Puffs
These are great for introducing peanut butter as an allergen or just as a snack. They dissolve very quickly so we feel confident giving her a whole puff to work on. M LOVES these and I love them because they are corn based and not rice based. I can’t wait until she’s a little older so she can try the other flavors they offer.
I just discovered these and just like the puffs they are corn based so that’s a win in my book! We love the O’s and how well they dissolve in M’s mouth. They definitely take a little more time to dissolve than the puff works puffs, but she’s able to work on a whole O without choking.
Hopefully this was helpful for any of you on the starting solids journey or those that have yet to begin. Leave any comments or questions you may have below about starting solids below!