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Is Your Baby Ready for Solid Food?

Parents are often very excited about introducing solid food for their babies. This milestone is definitely a lot of fun, but also a lot of worry! The most important thing to keep in mind is that your baby will have plenty of years of food experiences, so there is no need to rush things!



Basically it is typically between the age of 4 and 6 months that you can introduce solid food for your baby; and your baby himself will give you clear signs when he’ll be exactly ready for this change! These signs will include:



-          The ability of your baby to sit upright and hold his head unassisted, in order to be able to swallow well.

-          The loss of the tongue-thrust reflex that’s present in all babies and makes them push the food back out.

-          A significant weight gain that is basically the double of their birth weight.

-          The growing of appetite since your baby will seem hungry even with eight to ten feedings of milk a day.



When your baby shows you all these signs, you can start giving him solid food, but keep in mind that it’s recommended to skip the boxed cereal and start out with avocados, bananas or pears! And remember that you should not introduce to your baby more than one food at a time. When you give your baby a new food, wait about 2 to 3 days minimum before starting a new one. And after few months of starting solid food, you should offer your baby a variety of foods each day including:



·            Breast milk and/or formula

·            Meats

·            Cereal

·            Vegetables

·            Fruits

·            Eggs

·            Fish



Sometimes babies refuse variety of foods. Keep them away from their diet for sometime and reintroduce them again. Babies taste change with age. You would be surprised to see that your baby starts to like some foods which he hated before and dislike the one he use to love.

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