When Did You Start Feeding Your Baby Cereal???

You can start anytime from 4 months , I started mine around 5 1/2 months and after a couple of weeks , once they were used to taking it from a spoon and used to the texture of something other than milk I then introduced fruits/veggies. The thing to remember is not to introduce too many different foods at once , let him/her get used to a food before trying another , that way it will be easier to spot any allergies and find out what they do/do not like.

Cereal at 4 months. Veggies and fruits at 6 months.

my son is almost 6mths old and my doc told me to start cereal with him at 4mths and fruits and veg at about 6mths. i tried him on fruits and veg about 5mths as long as he does alright with them i would start about 4mths with cereal and 5 or 6mths with the other!!

We delayed the start of any solids until between 6-12m with our babies and started gradually as they showed more interest in what we were eating. We never did cereal but started ours on avacado. We introduced other whole foods, ie avacado, banana, sweet potato, green beans, etc in a timely fashion. It made things extremely easy, never had to purchase jarred foods(I couldn't feed my babies what I wouldn't eat myself).

You might find this book helpful as you determine when and what to start feeding your baby. http://www.superbabyfood.com/

J.

We started at four months because my son was nursing SO MUCH. He was drinking approx 50+ ounces of breast milk a day and that's just CRAZY. And we didn't wait long (just until he seemed to have the idea of eating a semi solid substance down) to start giving him fruits and other things.

Each one of mine was different... my 6 yr old was about 7 mo, my 4 1/2 yr old was about 6 mo, and my 2 1/2 year old was only 3 1/2 or 4 mo old. They all were a little different in gaining weight & showing signs of being ready to eat.

Things to watch for are... 1) are they able to hold up their head without support 2) have they doubled their birth weight 3) are they showing interest in what you are doing when you eat - opening mouth when you do, trying to grab food when you are eating, moving mouth like they are chewing when you are chewing 4) are they 6 mo of age... as long as they show multiple signs they are ready to start eating cereal & baby food.

When you do see the signs & choose to start giving them food & cereal - understand that eating from a spoon is a new skill that will take time to master. It might not be easy to begin with, but with practice they will get better. Try not to feed them when they are super hungry or they will not even try. Also, only try one new thing every 3-5 days... this spacing of new things is to watch for allergic reactions to foods and do the single item foods before you try them on the multiple ingrediant foods. Oh, and when you first start make the cereal super runny (I mixed w/ formula or breastmilk) that way it is easier for the baby to eat it - since the texture is a bit different & will seem weird to them.

The guidelines used to be to start at 4 months, but now pediatricians are saying to wait until 6 months. But they're also saying that it doesn't matter which food you start with. You can skip the cereals and start with veggies, or even meats if you want to!
My son is almost 4 months old, and if he follows the pattern set by his two older brothers, he will become absolutely ravenous any day now. My boys started off eating 3 jars of baby food! That's not the norm, but I talked about it with my pediatrician, and he said it's okay to start him at 4 months. He said the recommendation to wait until 6 months is prompted by problems with infant obesity, but he said that's obviously not a problem with my baby or his brothers, so he gave me the go-ahead.
If you get onto some parenting websites like BabyCenter or American Baby, you can find all sorts of age-appropriate information. You can/should also talk to you pediatrician at your baby's next visit.