Introduction of solids

I get happy tears just as I begin writing this post. When I started writing about my pregnancy, labour and then parenting, I never expected people to start suggesting topics and waiting to hear my take on those! There have been at least a handful who have requested this topic and hence on popular demand , here it goes!

This is all about introducing solids to your baby. Before I begin , remember one thing. No one knows your baby better than you!

Let’s get going now. The only source of nutrition for the baby for the 6 months of his/her life is from breast milk. That said, if the mother chooses to supplement it with formula feeds , do not judge or question or reason out with her. To each his own! While I had a similar intention of exclusively breastfeeding my son until he turned 6 months old , the universe had other plans. There was an incident of severe breast abscess and in one line if I have to tell you how it was , LABOUR PAIN WAS NOTHING COMPARED TO THIS and I pray no woman ever goes through it! Every time I see the stitch from the abscess, I get reminded of that horrible week but also feel proud that hasn’t hampered my breastfeeding journey until now (he is 1 year and 1 week old), thanks to my doctor and lactation consultant. So there began me introducing formula feed to my 4 month old under doctor’s advice. So to summarize, to each his own. Don’t poke your nose into others’!

Now let’s dive into what all I offered to S before he turned 1 , what he liked and didn’t like and what my recommendations are! Everything is from my personal experience and I’m no expert in this area. Please make your own judgments while offering something to your child.

1. Under my paediatrician’s advice , I introduced extremely light in consistency carrot puree , ragi porridge and par boiled rice (puzhungarisi) porridge. These were the first 3 foods introduced over a span of 10 days. The thumb rule is to wait for 3 days after introducing a new food to see if the baby’s system is accepting it. By keeping it extremely light , you are giving the baby’s system time to get used to the outside world’s foods , new tastes while enabling easy digestion. Do not burden the system by making the consistency thick. For some that might work – good for them. I stuck to what my doctor said.

2. Begin with offering other foods for 1 or 2 meals a day. Keep it in between breast/formula feeds (BF/FF). For example – BF , puree , BF , Porridge , BF , porridge, BF. This is from waking up till going to bed. Night times are generally only BF/FF as and when the child wakes up.

3. The next set of foods can include vegetables like sweet potato , banana , potato , yellow pumpkin , tomato , peas and fruits like American pear , apple , banana. Puree them preferably using your hand , if not in a mixie without too much water. Make the consistency a little thicker than earlier.

4. By the end of 8th month , you can slowly introduce mashed rice with dhal or even make it in the form of khichdi adding vegetables which suit the baby along with some pepper and jeera for the flavour factor. Do not add salt or sugar until the child turns 1 and even post that, in limited quantity. Salt has a direct impact on the kidneys and even very little of it will burden the teeny tiny bean like kidneys inside them.

5. Post 8 months , you can also start introducing family foods minus salt , sugar and spice to a minimal level.

6. Once the child is able to sit with support , you can start using a booster seat and slowly bring them into the habit of sitting on that during meal times. S would rather play with it than sit on it but I still keep trying and I have a success rate of 40% maybe. Offer bits of foods like boiled vegetables, idli , dosa in a plate when the child is seated. Once their hand to mouth gesture is strengthened , they might gobble down a few pieces. More than 80% of the times , the place will get messy and the child might not have eaten anything. It’s okay. Someday it’ll all fall in place…fall in their mouths and not the floor – HOPEFULLY! Our ratio is 80% not interested , 10% of food is being fed to me and 10% in his mouth! Someday I’ll make it vice versa I hope!

7. Offer the liquids using a cup and spoon. I do use a bottle since it’s less messy and faster. But eventually drew the balance between the two once he was about 10 months old. Go by your convenience!

8. Of course the kid isn’t going to like everything that’s offered. Keep trying. Offer the foods in rotation so that even if they don’t like something today , 4 weeks later they might! BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! It works the other way too! LOL!

9. DO NOT FORCE FEED! I’m someone who’s completely against that. Just imagine someone holding you and stuffing gallons of food down your throat. Won’t you hate it?

10. Babies will eat what they require to maintain their energy and nutrition levels. An excellent word of advice from my paediatrician was ‘do not worry about the quantity of food he intakes. For example, if he eats 4 spoons of rice , make it 3 spoons and add mashes vegetables , ghee or curd to it. This maintains the quantity but increases the caloric value’. GOLDEN WORDS!!

11. Continue to breastfeed even after introducing solid foods. Even if they reject the latter, the former would give them all the nutrition that they need. Cow’s milk isn’t recommended until the age of 1 since the proteins found in them might affect the kidneys.

12. Keep introducing new foods and new textures. Also , if a child likes something in month 7, it doesn’t mean he’ll still like it in month 11. Tastes and preferences keep varying. Again , been there done that!

13. There is a wonderful support group on Facebook which promotes baby led weaning . Join that and get your queries addressed by fellow mommas. The group goes by the name ‘Traditional Weaning – Introduction of Solids’.

14. S is a picky eater and is definitely not a foodie. He is not fascinated by the idea of food as much as he is fascinated with a colorful ball or some groovy tune or a bright interactive book! I try to keep 2 meals as primary energy/nutrition givers (eg. Ragi, puzhungarisi, etc) so that even if he doesn’t eat the others properly, his body won’t be deprived of nutrition and energy. Through the night, I feed him on demand.

15. Do not compare your baby’s eating habits to others.

Now some recommendations-

1. Foods we introduced before he turned 1 – few he liked , few he didn’t. There are some which he liked then and which he doesn’t now. Try and see which works for your child.

Rice , dhal , freshly homemade curd , roti , paneer , rasam , mashed potato , toasted bread with butter , paneer cubed sauteed in ghee , idli , dosa , orange juice and other vegetables and fruits mentioned earlier.

As for porridge mixes , I use a combination of home made and store bought mixes. By homemade , I mean mom-made. She prepares them once in a couple of months and sends it over to us. She prepares ragi mix , par boiled rice (puzhungarisi) mix and almond powder at home.

Store recommendations –

1. Par boiled rice (puzhungarisi) porridge mix – The ones sold at the Public health center in Chennai are most recommended. Until the lockdown began , I was using that. Now we prepare it at home since we hadn’t stocked up enough and courier services had shut.

2. My little moppet – a store based in Tamilnadu which sells porridge mixes and other foods specially for kids. I have personally tried about 5 of their products and absolutely vouch for the quality! Dry dates powder , banana powder, sathumaavu mix are few that I have been using for S.

3. Ragi and banana powder from the brand Double Horse is also good and can be purchased from Amazon.

4. Early foods is another brand whose biscuits we have tried and which was found to be good.

5. If you are planning to introduce nuts and dry fruit mixes or balls to your baby’s food , make sure to introduce each nut separately and then make a mix. This will help rule out allergic reactions. The dry fruits found on big basket from their in house brand ‘BB Royal’ or ‘BB popular’ are very good.

6. The booster chair is from Baby Hug brand available on Firstcry.com

My experience in the baby feeding domain has been quite adventurous. It began with S liking many foods and then becoming a very picky eater. He eats when he really wants to with minimal effort from my end. All other times , it’s a war (a peaceful one though because I believe in the concept of not forcing and not losing my cool on the tiny one). I never force him to eat anything. I do have days when voices in my head scream with the million dollar question of when will he get into a structured eating pattern and start liking the whole concept of food but then there’s another voice which laughs and says I was a difficult kid too in the food space! So I just brush it off and say a silent prayer in the hope that it’ll all fall in place soon!

A close friend once told me that the survival instinct in kids is extremely high and that’s why they adapt to breastfeeding so quickly. This applies for solids too. They’ll make sure to eat what they need to replenish their energy levels. So fret not , the day will come soon when the kid will ask and eat something that they want and like. BABY LED WEANING IS THE BEST!

A final reminder before I end – NO ONE KNOWS YOUR BABY BETTER THAN YOU. Keep that in mind and keep going! Happy parenting 🙂