4/15/2008

Starting solids... the path to success.. or not?

The most important thing to remember is that solids, as intimidating and amazing as it seems, might end up just being a lick or two of your painstakingly mixed cereal, and then a closed mouth, a tossed spoon or a gag. Or, it could be (like my first son) a shoveling-in-of-everything at 5months old never looking back (and still drinking regular, timely bottles and sleeping through the night.
As you'll hear, solids are an experiment, a new experience, but not meant to replace milk, or take the place of a bottle. We always gave bottles at the same times, and then in between offered the rice cereal, quickly moving on to other purees and logging them just in case.
With our twins (since we were 'experienced parents',) we were more casual, offering solids when the babies seemed happy and content to 'play' and learn from it, rather than as a 'meal' or timed schedule.
I think you will be able to stick to your bottle/milk schedule and toss the solid experience in when you are all ready for it. If you try to force it, or schedule it, you might end up with unhappy group all around.
Some of the most important things we thought helped were to let the babies play with the spoons, bowls, food even at that very early, and very messy, age. Sometimes a hand in the food and then in the mouth might prompt curiousity, leading to letting you feed them the next time, if they are reluctant.
We used a bumbo seat on the floor on towels at first and let it be part of playtime for one of our reluctant twins.
The other skipped the whole pureed food rice cereal stage and went right to smooshy bananas shoveled in by hand...
Again, this is just my experiences, not any real advice. I wish you stress-free success and hope you'll share your stories!