Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Starting Solids

We started feeding Jacob solids last week per the advice of our doctor. The hope is that the solid food will help his GERD and also will keep him from spitting up as much. So far, as a whole, I haven't really seen a difference in the spitting up, but I am hopeful that it will get better as his tummy adjusts to this new addition.

Like most babies, Jacob is eating rice cereal to start. I was hesitant to start him on solids knowing how messy and time consuming it can be (compared to breastfeeding). Also, I have heard and read many mom's opinions about not starting solids too soon. Most say you should wait until 6 months and Jacob is not even 5 months old right now. I certainly don't want to do anything that is not good for him!

Now, after a week of feeding him cereal once per day, I think I made the right decision. He is doing really good and seems to really enjoy eating! [Note: this does not suprise me since he is my son and I love to eat!] He eats really well from the spoon and he seems to like the cereal when it is thicker rather than runny. (The first few days, I mixed a lot of breastmilk in so that it was more liquidy. Now it is a more of a thick consistency and he is able to eat it a lot easier.)

I feed him the cereal during his late-afternoon feeding, usually around 3pm. Up until today, I was giving him the cereal first (about a tablespoon mixed with breastmilk) and then breastfeeding him. Today, I decided to do it the other way around and I think it worked better. He didn't spit up as much after eating and I think the heaviness of the cereal really did help to keep everything down, as the doctor said it would.

I haven't really decided what I am going to do about introducing other things - like fruits and veggies - into Jacob's diet. I am leaning towards waiting another month or so and just increasing his cereal to two or three times per day. I am not sure if that is a good idea or not (I have never done this before and really am just wingin' it!!) so we shall see.

For now, here is a little clip of Jacob's cereal eating from yesterday. (Please excuse the loud banging noise from me putting the bowl back on the table repeatedly. I didn't realize how loud it really was!)

Enjoy!

2 comments:

Kristen said...

Oh my goodness! I just want to squish those cheeks! :-) So funny - it looked like he couldn't decide what he wanted to eat more: yummy rice cereal or delicious Jacob fingers! :-)

Penny said...

Too cute. Our babies are getting so big.
I may have to start doing the bottle first and then doing the cereal at the end. We had been doing 1/2 bottle, cereal then 1/2 bottle. I agree with you and the winging it. Try it when you want and if it doesn't go well then stop and try again later. JT (my oldest) started food young because according to his doc "he is hungry". Milk wasn't cutting it for him. Luckily, he did well with the food. Good Luck!