Introducing solids for your baby can be a worrying task. You also may feel like, not only a production cow, but a food processing plant, once you start to puree foods into many ice cube containers for freezing. Don't dispair, the beginning and the journey is not as daunting as it may seem. A few signs to look for if baby is ready is your instinct to do with baby's hunger and if it's out of the ordinary, secondly if baby is showing mouthing signs.

From my experience with my son, Codi I could tell that he was not satisfied enough with breast milk and forumla top ups at around 19 weeks. I wasn't ready to encourage my milk supply to increase production as I knew that was a very tedious task. I had been topping up with formula at 2 months, as he was very hungry. Prior to this I had major issues with latching on and mastitis in the very early weeks, but I made sure he got my breast milk, whether from me or a bottle.

So to cut the long story short, I introduced solids when my son was 19 weeks. I went to my doctor to make sure I could start solids and was advised that the minimum age for introducing solids was 19 weeks.

Symptoms
How I could tell that my baby was ready? I found that my breast milk and the formula top up was not enough to satisfy him, as I mentioned before and this was greatly affecting his sleeping patterns. This pattern also occured when I went straight to formula. As a side note, I should have also stayed on the breast milk but only realized later, that the mini pill was affecting the taste of my milk supply (I know for next time, no mini pill), Codi only wanted formula and was still hungry. So my little man, was waking up every 2 hours a night at 17-19 weeks (I was a very grumpy zombie), especially when his usual routine had been from 7-3am, feed then 3:30am - 6am (since he was 3 months old!). As you can appreciate I was beside myself and motivated to do something.

So I was extremely relieved to be able to start solids. Here was my process below...

3 week steps
1. I introduced baby rice cereal for week 1
2. Puree potato for week 2
3. Puree pumpkin for week 3, whilst introducing puree pear at another meal.

Continuing the process
Slowly introducing one new vegetable or fruit at one meal a day to make sure I could single out which foods did not agree with him. My advice is that this is very important. In my experience carrot was one food that my son could not stomach. He also did not like banana or apple (only later mashed mixed with greek yoghurt). I introduced the fruit later on at 6 months and carrot still to this day only mixed in casseroles/dishes, (carrot is too strong for him by itself). I was able to introduce a variety of vegetables and fruit which my son happily gobbled up, (he now eats a whole sliced orange like he is at the half time mark in a game of soccer!).

I tried every food imgained mentally recording what foods where a hit, even though I myself  was a fussy eater and would only eat a few of them. Apparently offering a wide variety of tastes sets them up in good stead for the future. I was a jar baby, from the 70's up bringing (bless my mom), so maybe that's why I'm very fussy??

Foods to try
Food such as; papaya, mango, cauliflower, broccoli, leek, cabbage, baby zucchini (courgette). From 6 months on I used a great baby recipe book that takes you through the stages and offers how much babies, for example; should be consuming of milk/dairy foods a day. I also found that some books can add a little more adventurous ingredients for example from 9-12months like egg which may not work for you. Ie. I only introduced egg yolk till my son was 12 months (due to my husband having minor seafood and skin allergies). I was also very cautious not to introduce breads, pasta, or chicken until 6 months, taking it slowly.

Eventually I felt comfortable making up meat I minced myself, (some pre-made ground meat has preservatives that may trigger allergies). Bought mince meat can generally not be as fresh and I found my son turned his nose up at it, the one time I tried. So in short you don't need to take any recipe book to the letter, my advice is to use it as a great resource for ideas, mixed in with your women's intution.

From 6 months onwards, I found fresh salmon to be a great hit. At 10 months old to 12 months, I progressed from puree to finely chopped, to mashed and finger food, introducing tuna, cheese, rice, small amounts of full fat milk in cooking and breakfast muesli. I find now I can use canned diced tomatoes to add some flavour and additional nutrients (I check the label of the tinned tomatoes for just pure tomatoes no preservatives or salt). Form 12 months onwards, greek yoghurt was a great base to mix a lot of fruit with for desert and meat dishes with potato or rice.

To conclude
Short tips; - introduce food item one at a time, then as you mix foods add a new food to the mix, it will be easier to narrow any reactions down. Re-introduce foods that baby didn't like later on in smaller amounts. Increase the amount of table spoons of food, go with your instincts. Make eating a fun and exciting activity, like play time and don't make a fuss if baby turns up their nose, they often forget the next day or week later, so plenty of opportunity to try again. Freezing helps with food preparation, check the labels for the purest ingredients, if reheating make sure its piping hot and let it cool down for baby.

From the books I read and from a child specialist, they advised me to only give a few tablespoons over many weeks, but my son gobbled up bowls full after one week and his has always been in the 60th percentile, even going straight to breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, desert since he was 5 months old. So in my experience expert advice didn't work here for me. 

After a week I found my son started to sleep better and eventually from 5 months onwards till 10 months he was sleeping through from 7-7 and from 15 months onwards 7-7:30 sometimes 8/8:30am. Now eating with us at the table and eating the same food as we do. His Uncle Damon and Poppa calls him Henry the 8th for his ability to eat like the king, hehe.


*Note: Baby book I found quiet useful: Annabell's Karmel's Complete Baby Toddler Cook book.