Saturday, May 8, 2010

Solids

Before his birth, I researched breastfeeding and set a goal to exclusively breastfeed Nolan for the first 6 months. It isn't always easy to BF nor was it comfortable and pain free at first. In addition there are painful ailments such as thrush and blisters that we had to work through! Nolan spent the first two months eating about every 2 hours round the clock. Then he slowed to every 2-3 hours during the day and 5-6 at night. At  4 months of age he went back to 2 hours during the day and only 3-4 hours at night. It's a lot of work!

Now that we made it to 6 months, we plan to continue breastfeeding as the main source of nutrition for the first year. Nolan will be allowed to wean at his own pace (WHO recommends BF for 2 years minimum!). Solids for the first year are only for practice and not for nutrition and calorie count. There is lots of research out there on when is the right time to start solids but it seems like nowadays everyone is rushing to get going. I have to admit its fun to feed your baby for the first time but their little bellies just aren't made to have anything except breastmilk for quite some time.

Lots of agencies (WHO, AAP, etc.) all recommend that babies be fed only breastmilk (formula as a second) for the first 6 months of life. Recently pediatricians and parents have been turning that 6 months into 4-6 months without actual science to back it up. Our pediatrician recommends breastfeeding only for 6 months then slowly introducing solids for practice. I was pretty determined to ignore the pressure to feed him anything except breastmilk and we succeeded!

Nolan made it to 6 months and 2 weeks before we introduced solids. I grew a 14+lb baby all from me. I know it's been done since the beginning of time but I really find it amazing!!

Yesterday he got his first meal which was prunes. We did not do cereal of any sort due to the low amount of protein it contains. We chose prunes because he does not frequently poo and solids can cause constipation. They are first so that if he became constipated later due to another food item he would be able to have the prunes to help.  He'll have prunes for four days then we'll introduce his next vegetable if all goes well.

Mess and all, Nol did great!! He did keep trying to suck his thumb after every couple bites. I think if his thumb could feed him he'd be in heaven!

No comments:

Post a Comment