Introducing purée's to breastfeed babies?

[princessKmN]

I read that it is best to start to introduce purèe's to babies between 4 and 6 months. I would not feed him a purèe'd food every day maybe every three days or every week just so that he can get the concept of chewing down.

 

[MommyLife]

First stage foods are so mushy there is nothing to chew down on. You make the food watery or 'milky' thats the mush has no real consistency. This is practicing the spoon, not chewing. You could do this every day, as he wont be getting enough to make him too full for milk. Chewing is something he will learn later. By the way, inteoducing solids is the same for breastfeed or bottle feed babies. Its a whole new learning experience.

 

[nancy]

Honestly I didn't start 'solids' until my son was 10 months old. There was no reason to until then. Even then for about two months he only had rice cereal/oat cereal mixed with breastmilk. At first it was so runny it was almost a milky consistency. Then I slowly made it thicker. He finally got used to the cereal but didn't like much else. When I introduced a new food for a while, I mixed it with the cereal and breastmilk to slowly get him used to the flavor and then just weaned him off of adding the cereal. (I started with bananas and sweet potatoes)

Chewing isn't really a 'learned' sport, meaning it is not something they need to practice for a long long time. If you feed them food before they are ready that isn't helping them learn to chew, that is just making a choking hazard. When they are ready, able to hold head up really well, shows interest in food, grabs at food on your plate, tries to chew on hands while at table with you eating, then is a good time to introduce food (starting with pureed food and moving to finger foods (cheerios and peas etc) and then table food.

I know people think it is weird that I waited until 10 months to feed my son food, but I originally planned to wait until a year and then reassessed my plan and started him a little early. He is extremely healthy. In the beginning the food is just a supplement anyway, the milk is his main source of nutrition and calories (until a year).

My sister in law started trying to feed her daughter baby food at 4 months. The baby wasn't ready, that is just what she did because the doctor said she 'could' start then. She then spent the next few months desperately trying to get her to eat food. It wasn't until she was 11 months that she showed any interest in food and started eating. Think of all the wasted time, food, money and frustration she had in those 6 months trying to get her to eat.......

 

[hot lips]

My son is five months old a nd I've started to introduce a little food here and there. I still breastfeed. I juust give him for fun and he loves it.
The breastfeeding nazis here are going to tell you otherwise but if you see that he's ready for it then by all means go for it.

My son is leaning over and grabbing stuff from my plate, he's sitting up etc and whenever I give him anything he doesn't get upset by it.
Each child is different however. I know what mine is capable of.