first food not cereal?

[Anna & Baby Caleb's Mommy]

i haven't started lo on solids yet and plan to put off until 5 mo. or so...but i've heard so many diff. things..i have ten year old and ten years ago things were different...new research, etc....well, i read that first food does not necessarily have to be cereal.  especially if lo is receiving iron thru formula.  i think vegg. first is good idea so to avoid sweet tooth and resistance to veggies, etc.  but still unsure what to do when time comes...rice cereal just sounds silly..iron lo doesn't need, empty calories, heavy on tummie, constipating...anybody have input?

[RachelC]

You can start with avacado, banana, sweet potato and I would recommend holding off until 6 months.

[*Natasha*]

I agree with the pp try and hold off for another month on the solids if you can.

[Missy Lou]

I started with pears because that's what tracy suggested.  LO has a sensitive tummy but didn't have problems with pears.  she also didn't boycott veggies.  her first veggies was acorn squash and then zucchini. 

she hated sweet potatoes.  loved green beans and avocados but both hurt her tummy.  so this morning we tried peas.  we'll see how those go.  i'm going to try pumpkin next. 

since solids are really given at 6 months to just start baby experimenting with food, there's really no reason to give it sooner.  so i agree, i'd just wait.  at least for a few more weeks.
melissa

[Nee]

I agree you should wait to give fruits and veggies till  6 months.  I started with cereals when LO was 4 months and she did not tolerate it well and became very sick throwing up everywere so I waited until she was one week shy of 6 months

Nee.

[rosie and joe's mummy]

rosie had baby rice first off and after a few days we went onto veggies and fruit purees.

the benefits of wating til 6 months are enormous:

all the allergy stuff - they're less likely by far to have asthma or eczema or any other allergic disease

they don't have the tongue thrist reflex anymore which means that they just swallow what you put in there, no scraping it off their faces and trying to get it in before they can spit it out (well at least until they decide to spit it out because they don't want whatever it is! - which rosie does a lot of at the moment)

you can introduce lots of new foods fairly quickly. because the gastric lining is closed and it's not sensitised from early weaning you do not have to try a new food every 4/5 days, you can introduce new foods every day. if your baby has been weaned earlier than 6 months reactions are far more likely.