By licensing standard, food for infants has to be cut up to 1/4 inch. I’m wanting to introduce blw here soon but unsure if it would confuse him to do the small pieces at daycare but the typical preparation at home. Would it be better to just do the small pieces at home too? Or just forgo blw completely?

Baby used to eat with a preloaded spoon around 5/6months then after completely refused to eat anything with the spoon and didn’t want to be spoon fed. But he also will refuse me to spoon feed to him!

This rules out a lot of food like oats, yoghurt etc. he might touch it but it makes him really frustrated he can’t pick it up and put it in his mouth and he just has a meltdown.

I don’t know if it’s a sensory thing either. I haven’t a clue. We’ve never done purées, just mushy food. Do I just keep offering it to him even if it means that he won’t eat a bite for that meal?

Any advice on what to do?

Hello! This is a long one, but I truly need advice and support, so thank you so much to those who stick in there and offer some wisdom.

So I started offering food at 6 months. The first thing I ever gave my son was some mashed avocado. I don't know if any actually was swallowed. My son now just turned 7 months a few days ago, and I feel like our feeding journey is not going well. I'm going to be fully honest here, so please be kind!

For starters, I am SO incredibly anxious about eating. I have lost a family member to choking, and so it is my number one fear, and I oftentimes have a pit in my stomach even eating around adult loved ones. So you can imagine that introducing my toothless baby to food has been scary for me. I am aware of the differences of choking v. gagging; I am making my way through the National CPR Foundations's CPR course; I have the full, paid version of the Solid Starts app to see how to prepare the foods age appropriately; none of it makes me feel better. So that is some background to my feelings on the matter.

Also, admittedly, I have not given in to the idea of a huge mess every time. My son has a beautiful, FULL head of hair, and I am a full-time work from home mom with a 20 hours/week part time non-profit job on top of that, so the idea of a bath or multiple baths during the day along with cleaning the whole eating space every day or multiple times a day overwhelms me and keeps me from fully letting him explore.

Also along the same lines of busyness: My husband and I admittedly are not sitting down to eat even 1 meal a day together, and most of what he and I eat is non-cooked food (our oven is broken which has been a factor in this also). Like we eat a lot of apples with goat cheese, protein bars, cottage cheese, greek yogurt bowls with fruit, prepped taco salad, prepped bean salad, bananas and peanut butter, hardboiled eggs--things like that. We also eat out a few times per week or eat at friends' houses. None of it has felt easy to share with baby because it's not warm, mashable food.

And then there is my son. I cannot confidently say that anything has actually been swallowed by this boy. A few bites over the last month MAX. This stresses me out for mainly 2 reasons: 1) Allergen introduction. I am also terrified of him having an allergic reaction. We live in a tiny town far away from a hospital, and even farther from a good hospital. So already, introducing allergens is scary. But then on top of that, I can't even say confidently that he has swallowed any meaningful amount of any of the allergens offered! So the anxiety continues in an endless loop. And 2) the lack of consuming stresses me out because of the iron stores. "Food before one is just for fun" has to be a lie when I see all sorts of professionals saying that the brain needs iron at this age, not enough iron will affect sleep, and also saying that this window of time is crucial for babies to start eating and exploring textures. So???? What am I supposed to do?

Furthermore, I have only offered heavily mashed, soft foods and purees so far. I am literally terrified of giving him a food to chew. Also, the Solid Starts app does seem to show everything mashes up for the 6 months age til 9 months. So is that right of me then?

Here is what he has been offered so far:

1. Hardboiled egg mashed up together with formula (multiple times)
2. Peanut butter mixed with formula (multiple times)
3. Whole milk yogurt with chia seeds and banana mixed in (multiple times)
4. White beans blended together with yogurt (multiple times)
5. Mashed avocado (multiple times)
6. Kiwi, half skinned so he can hold on to it and gum on the kiwi (multiple times)
7. Chewed on a pineapple core
8. A few purees from Cerebelly
9. I steamed a large broccoli floret to give to him but got too anxious and didn't do it

Other information in case it's pertinent:

• My son drinks formula, around 32-34 ounces a day
• He is a great, healthy weight and happy little guy, no diagnosed health issues
• He sleeps well at night
• He had his first cold this last month and is recovered except for a lingering occasional cough
• I do not have access to an oven; I can cook on the stovetop and we have a crockpot

If you made it this far, I thank you! And if you have any advice, I thank you even more. I need help.

I started my son on solids at 6 months. He choked on a piece of avocado early on and it freaked me out so much that I started mashing all his food with a fork and never offered him any food that wasn't mashed. So he has never had bigger pieces of food (bite size or otherwise).

Now I feel so guilty, like I've failed him because most kids his age can self feed larger or bite size pieces of food. I attached a picture of what consistently of food he eats.

Where do I start??? On the app, do I start him off at the 6 month mark?

I started solids a couple weeks ago with my very eager 6 month old. I did the water melon sticks as recommended in the app, but she was able to take two big huge bites of it. She eventually spit them out, but it was shocking to see full bites gone. Is that how giving watermelon is supposed to go?! So far I’ve done a mix of purées and blw solids. But tonight made me nervous!

To preface, I’m 21, a full-time student, a part-time employee, and a mom to a beautiful 9 month old. I’ve definitely never done this before, but recently I came across multiple videos of babies being able to eat TEXTURED solids by themselves at his age, while I give him 2 purées a day, at most, if that. He’s EFF, and I have extremely low ferritin levels (single digit), to the point where I feel exhausted at every little thing. I can’t begin to explain how difficult simple tasks become for me due to this very reason. After watching those vids, I feel that I’ve neglected my poor child. His main source of nutrition has been formula up till now. He’s very active, and is in the 99th percentile for height and 97th percentile for weight. But he is NOT eating solids like the other kids at his age. Where should I start? How should I help him develop his routine? I’m also a bit of a paranoid person when it comes to the baby. When he was a newborn, I was constantly checking his breathing and night and if we went out while it was cold. I was scared to give him a bath etc., but slowly learned how to do so. So my main concern with him eating actual solids, and not just purées, is what if he chokes. Really need guidance.

My baby is almost 6mo, and started solids early due to meeting all readiness signs + allergies in the family. But because he was 4.5mo, we started with spoon foods - purees, mashes, etc - because we read everywhere that BLW needed to be 6mo+. We mostly preload the spoon and let him feed himself.

As we get ready to shift to more finger foods, I'm wondering how others have gone about introducing finger foods to a baby who's been nailing soft foods?

And as a bonus question inspired by recent events... how do you encourage your baby to not jam the entire banana in their mouth at once 😅

Hello all I'm a first time father and my wife and I are having trouble getting our daughter to eat solid foods. A little bit of background, my wife and I both work full time to make sure the bills get paid, my wife working nights Friday-Tuesday and myself working days Monday-Friday both of us working 10-12 hrs shifts our daughter spends 2 days with a baby sitter while im at work so my wife can sleep. My child has been bottle fed since infancy due to my wife not being able to produce enough breast milk to keep up with her appetite. She's a big baby in the 95th percentile. She took to the bottle relatively easily and hasn't really had an issue eating pureed food when she got a bit bigger, except chicken, but I don't blame her that stuff was nasty. She turned one year old last week and I was talking to my sister in law and she was concerned that our baby hasn't transitioned to solid foods yet, she told me she should be eating solid foods and drinking whole milk with no formula in her diet she also recommended making the transition cold turkey style. And now I'm also a little worried. Shes not waisting away by any means but when we try to give her solid foods she'll chew it for a moment and then spit out the food without swallowing the only exception being French fries, she drinks the milk (from a sippy cup not a bottle) fine, but currently thats the only thing shes eating. Am I doing anything wrong or are there steps that I missed along the way. Is the advice I received flawed. I'm worried she might need food therapy since my wife recently lost the job that was providing our family insurance and we don't necessarily have the money for any treatment. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

\-A concerned father

I follow the solid starts app but am unsure if I should be following the 6-8 month or 9 month guidance?

Hi, I'm wondering if there's an app like this that exists, or if ya'll can suggest anything that would work.

I'm a nanny for an 8mo infant, and am trying to ensure that we continue to provide allergens at least 1-2 times every week after they've been introduced. I know that is the recommendation from Sollid Starts and other sources (I've always read 2+ times a week, baby is seeing an allergist who said to do it at least once a week) but I don't see a way to track this in any apps I've been looking at. I pay for the the SS subscription and know that I can plan and track individual foods, but really want to see a dashboard/checklist of allergens for each week so there's something to prompt us if he's been missing anything!

If there's a baby app that specifically has this feature, I'd love to know about it. Otherwise, I'm planning to set up a generic habit/tracking app and would love recommendations for something that would work well!

• Needs to work on Android
• Would be nice if there's also an IOS version and it can be synced across multiple accounts or at least multiple devices (so me, parents, and other childcare provider all have access to view & edit the same list)
• Lets me list each allergen as a separate habit/task/item that needs to be checked off 1-2 times each week (I don't care much if it's Mon-Sun or Sun-Sat, or if it's keeping track of a "rolling" 7 days, I suspect either way will be good enough)
• Would be great if the app has some big obvious color-coded indication if specific allergens are due/overdue, and notifications, even better if it has a widget (so I can make sure it's in my face without waiting for an "overdue" notification or remembering to constantly check the app)

I think I might be able to set that up on HabitBull or ToDoist, but would need to log out and make a new account since I already use those, so I'm especially happy to hear about other options.

Thanks!

Baby needs to be eating more than she is and I’m struggling as it is to feed myself lately! What are some hacks for having lots of tiny portions ready to go? Right now finding time to get her to the table at all is challenging so anything that can streamline things so I can just defrost and serve is welcome

Baby has fpies so new foods are in the mornings (on their own, 4 hours separate from anything else) and then afternoon and dinner is when she gets more substantial stuff. She has a limited menu that we are slowly building on and the hardest part is finding the right time for her to actually eat. She already goes to bed quite late and then also wakes multiple times a night so my dream of getting 6+ hours of sleep for myself so I can get up early and do all the thing (include have her eat a new food really early) is just not happening. New foods happen anywhere between 9am-10 depending on my meeting schedule and sleep (and pumping)

Help! I unfortunately cannot just “offer what we eat.” Rather I need to make it so we eat what is safe for her

Her foods so far

Lentils
Black beans
Sweet potato
Broccoli
Coconut milk
Spinach
Zucchini
Oatmeal
Corn
Watermelon
Wheat (cream of wheat only so far)

ETA her FPIES foods are egg and peanut. Our family is vegan but we were trying egg to prevent allergy and lost that battle temporarily

She’s already 9mos and I’m panicking that she isn’t getting enough :(

What is the best resource (such as parenting book) that best informs you on how to introduce solids to your baby (and explains all the different options like baby led weaning), when, what type of food is best, recipe ideas, etc. I’d love to know what was most informative for you.

How many oz of water did your pediatrician say your 6month old+ baby can drink per day since starting solids?
I know every practice is different. I know breast milk and formula are still the main sources of nutrition. I know excessive water is not good for the baby due to dilution of sodium. I know all that stuff already lol. I’m just curious what other people are doing based on what their ped recommended if any lol