How Do You Know If Your Baby Is Ready For Solid Foods and What to Start With

How Do You Know If Your Baby Is Ready For Solid Foods and What to Start With

Introducing solid foods to your growing baby’s diet is a huge milestone for both you as a parent, and your child. Up until now, meal preparation and consideration has been fairly straightforward. The options were limited to breastmilk or formula. 

Now, the idea of introducing solid foods to your baby’s diet can be a daunting task because of conflicting information and the fear of developing severe food reactions or allergies. 

In fact, food allergies are one of the most common types of allergies among babies and they first appear when introducing your child to solids. The most common food allergens are sugar, wheat, chocolate, lactose, peanut, milk, eggs, and strawberries. The allergic reactions vary according to the allergen. For example, strawberry allergy in babies causes itchy skin and dizziness, while sugar allergy symptoms are headache, runny nose, and cramping.

Being armed with solid information on how to best introduce solids to your baby’s diet will alleviate some of the worry and concern and will hopefully allow the transition to be smooth and rewarding.

How Do You Know If Your Baby Is Ready For Solid Foods?

There are several milestone markers that you will start to notice that indicate that your baby is ready to start introducing solid foods in their diet.

Most often these milestones begin to present themselves when the child is around six months of age, however every child will be slightly different.

It is crucially important that your baby can hold his/her own head up and can sit upright in a highchair before ever considering the option of solid foods. 

They will also need to have developed the ability to move their tongue in a way that would allow them to move the food to the back of their mouth and swallow. 

Finally, you may have noticed that your baby takes interest in what you are eating and reaches out to touch or smell your food.

Once you feel that your baby has reached all of these milestones, it is time to think about what solid food to feed your child first.

My Doctor Is Recommending That I Start My Baby Off With Rice Cereal (Pablum). Is That Really The Best Option?

Let’s think for a moment about the most vitamin and nutrient dense food groups.

Do processed grains come to mind? No, of course they don’t.
So then what food group should we be looking to? Fruits and vegetables, of course!

One of the simplest and most nutrient dense options to introduce as a first food is avocado. It requires no preparation whatsoever. Just cut it open, remove the pit, mash up the flesh (much like you would mash a banana) and serve. It can also be easily mixed with a bit of breast milk or formula to change the consistency and make it easier for your baby to consume.

Solid Food Quick Tips

  • Introduce one food at a time with a couple of days in between foods to watch for potential food reactions and to allow your baby’s palette to develop.
  • Hold off on introducing sweet fruits and vegetables until your baby has developed a palette for the more bland fruits and vegetables.
  • Keep a food diary for the first month to record likes, dislikes, reactions, etc so you have a record to look back on.
  • Be patient. This is a learning curve for both you and your baby. If your baby loses interest don’t force the issue. Maintain your regular breastfeeding/formula schedule and slowly introduce solid foods as a supplement to their diet.
  • Take the stress out of meal times. The attitude you have during feeding times will stick with your baby for life, so maintain a positive approach and don’t get frustrated.

Have you ever been angry at your kids for ’swooshing’?

Coconut Oil Pulling

What if you discovered swooshing could keep cavities and plaque away, clean out bacterial infections, as well as reduce fungal overgrowth too….and may even improve their memory, and overall health… ?

Would you let them swoosh now?

“What is swooshing? “ you ask?

Swooshing is my daughter’s word for ‘oil pulling’. Oil what? Do you remember frothing soda pop, chocolate milk, or kool-aid through your teeth as a kid, or continually playing at running water thru your teeth after brushing them as a kid? I would get in trouble for playing with my food or dawdling at the morning bathroom sink. But children instinctively do what is healthy for them, whether we know it or not.

Oil pulling is an ancient Ayurvedic remedy for oral health and detoxification. It involves the use of pure oils (I use a teaspoon of coconut oil) as an agent for pulling harmful bacteria, fungus, and other organisms out of the mouth, teeth, gums and even throat and sinuses.

The most effective oil pulling is done by swishing the oil around the mouth for approximately 10-15 minutes and then spitting it out into the garbage or toilet. (Coconut oil will plug your sink drains). Do NOT swallow the oil you have been “swooshing!”

The oil mixes with the saliva, turning it into a thin, white liquid. Lipids in the oils begin to pull out toxins from the saliva. As the oil is swished around the mouth, teeth, gums and tongue, the oil continues to absorb toxins, and usually ends up turning thick and viscous and white. Once the oil has reached this consistency, it is spit out before the toxins are reabsorbed. Then brush your teeth and tongue with your favourite natural minty toothpaste.

You will probably have to build your jaw muscles up to 5 minutes, then increase to 10, until you can manage 15 minutes as you walk around the house styling your hair, making coffee etc. This makes for a quiet morning… it also makes the pain receptors in your jaw (12,000 of them) recalibrate and go from snail mail communication in your body to zipline! Pain in the body is reduced and body starts the healing process!

My dental hygienist can’t believe the healthy condition of my family’s mouths. Swooshing removes cavities, plaque and scale over time…reduces candida infections and thrush too.

 Other possible benefits of oil pulling for oral health include:

• Overall strengthening of the teeth and gums and jaws
• Prevention of diseases of the gums and mouth, such as cavities and gingivitis
• Prevention for bad breath
• Potential holistic remedy for bleeding gums
• Prevention of dryness of the lips, mouth and throat
• Possible holistic treatment for TMJ and general soreness in the jaw area
• Migraine headache relief, accelerates healing from concussions
• Correcting hormone imbalances
• Reducing inflammation of arthritis
• May help with gastro-enteritis
• Aids in the reduction of eczema
• May reduce symptoms of bronchitis
• Helps support normal kidney function
• May help reduce sinus congestion
• Some people report improved vision
• Helps reduce insomnia
• Reduced hangover after alcohol consumption
• Aids in reducing pain
• Reduces the symptoms of allergies
• Helps detoxify the body of harmful metals and organisms

So maybe we should rethink yelling at our kids and and join them as we all play with swooshing

__________________________________

Blog by Guest Author:

01Jessy headshotJessy Morrison

Jessy Morison  has tremendous success in helping those to whom doctors have given no hope of recovery at all to Reclaim their Life, Refresh their Mind, Reclaim their Body, and Renew their Spirit.
A Reiki Master Teacher, BodyTalk & EFT Practitioner, Soul Genesis Facilitator, Founding Member of the Ontario BodyTalk Assoc., and Founding Member of The Whole Life Learning Collective, and Transformational Tuesdays, Jessy is also a  contributing author to “The Joy of an Ex”, Women With Vision Magazine, and Another View Magazine.

You can contact her at
[email protected]
705-241-8680
www.jessymorrison.ca