I can’t believe enough time has flown by that we have a full on solids-eating babe! The last few months have been such a whirlwind and we’re overdue for an update on Sophia’s feeding journey and next steps into the world of real food! If you want to skip all the fluff, I have a few bullet points at the bottom that are my major takeaways around starting solids from one non-dietitian, non-medical mom to another.

Sophia’s feeding experience is a complete 180 from Layla’s except for one thing: the girls both love to eat! It has been such a relief that breastfeeding has been much more successful this go around and with exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months Sophia grew like a weed, hitting her milestones and is such a happy baby – us and her pediatrician couldn’t be more pleased! As we’re nearing the one year mark, I’m still nursing about 3-4 times a day and while I can see a pretty good pattern for her feeding/sleeping developing, she’s still totally in charge and just lets me know when she’s hungry. I’ll typically feed her after she wakes up in the morning, after she wakes up from her nap(s) and again before bedtime. She doesn’t eat during the night and will be in bed for 10-11 hours (and is still usually good for a little wake up around midnight where we usually still help her back to sleep)

I’ll speak more to Layla’s breastfeeding journey another time but the cliff notes are: I didn’t produce nearly enough milk and had some mastitis setbacks that killed my supply – she was losing weight and struggling with sleep. I wanted to breastfeed so badly and tried to push forward, but my body shut the milk bar down on its own so we switched to formula. The relief I felt after seeing her gaining weight and the release of the mental load of not being able to provide enough was short lived as the 2022 formula shortage began (IYKYK! Any mama with a formula fed baby at this time will never forget) so we kept up with formula but also hit solids hard around 4-5 months. She loved it and was back on track with her weight gain but it was really hard on her digestive system so we had to refocus and find a better balance.

Knowing this isn’t our first go around on solids and with a little more confidence in breastfeeding, what’s the plan? While we really like the idea of Baby Led Weaning and getting both girls involved in the family meals right off the jump, we also chose to spend the first week or two introducing foods that were easily mashable (think sweet potato, peas, carrots, banana, avocado). Purees can be really convenient – and as long as I have the mental space I’ll DIY them – but taking this baby step into solids also made the transition feel less daunting for me as a parent as far as needing to make sure everyone had something to eat at mealtimes with this new added hyper fixation on variety and nutrition. I love a good meal routine/rut for myself, but don’t want to cause burnout on any one food for everyone else.

We have done the “101 foods before one year old” with both girls and have found it to be really helpful. Again, going into solids the variety is what was intimidating for me, so this gave me a good list of ideas to mix things up and is also satisfying as heck to check off or add new items to the list! I’ve been really happy to say that a majority of our dinners already had at least one or more elements for Sophia to eat, which made me feel good about the overall family nutrition. Our family has no known food allergies or skin conditions like eczema, so we did get the okay from our pediatrician to also introduce “the big 8” (or 9? or 10? I can’t even keep up anymore) common food allergens, which we have done in the mornings, and in more frequent but smaller amounts, so we can keep an eye out for any potential reactions. Definitely check with your pediatrician and your comfy level as well.

With Layla, it was easier to start solids off once a day in the mornings, but with Sophia it felt more natural to have that daily meal in the evening when we were having dinner (again, except for common allergens). This could be my being more conscious of the fact that we get more variety at dinner, or because in the mornings I’m trying to get us out the door for the day and dinner doesn’t feel so rushed. Now that we’re a little further along, we’re consistently having 3 solid meals a day and offering as many elements from my plate as she wants. By around 9 months we had checked off 90 foods, with her only iffy food being bananas, and at that point we really stopped tracking/counting since the purpose was more for me to stay mindful of providing variety! I enjoy seeing her and Layla play off of each other, Layla wanting to be the good role model for her little sister, and Sophia’s no holds barred attitude about new foods keeps Layla adventurous and trying a wide variety too!

Now let’s back up for a second, because I have a few things that are too important not to say regarding my personal thoughts/tips and safety:

• we did NOT start solids just because Sophia hit 6 months. We really focused on several elements of readiness aside from age before we got started:
  • She had good head/neck/trunk control and could hold her head steady and was comfortable in a seated position (coupled with a good/supportive high chair to keep her straight up)
  • She was interested in food – we brought her to the table and she loved to watch us eat and was reaching for our food
  • She could pick things up and bring them to her own mouth easily. Obviously there’s a learning curve with eating and learning to use utensils, but at the base of this skill is the idea that babies are less likely to choke when they are in control of what, how much, and how fast food is going into their mouth
• To help make the connection between bringing things to her mouth and utensils, we introduced a set of silicone spoons, linked here, very early on as teether toys. without food and then used them at the high chair when we started foods.

• KNOW THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GAGGING AND CHOKING! Let’s be really honest, gagging sucks and can feel scary. I’d encourage anyone to get infant/child CPR certified or at least try and find some good informational videos online so you know the differences, when to intervene, and what to do in advance of any gagging/choking encounters. Here is a web link with key differences and videos – they can be hard to watch as they show real gagging, but are helpful
• Don’t forget that your baby is not a robot. That means that they may not feel hungry at the same time every day, eat the same amount at every meal, etc. and it’s important for us to recognize this as a time of learning an exploration and not forcing anything.

And there we have it! Sophia has been an eating machine and is growing right on track! Of course it’s always intimidating at first to add another baby to the mental load of “I need to think of three nutritious meals every day for the rest of forever?” but we have a lot of fun with it too. With her first birthday only a few weeks away, I can’t wait to make her first little cake!