Our First Experience with Solids

Up until this point, Aria’s diet consisted of just breastmilk. When I first gave birth, I needed to supplement a little bit with formula, but this only lasted 10 days until my milk fully came in. She hasn’t had any formula since that point (not shaming anyone who gives their baby formula - fed is always best in my book). I breastfeed for most of the day but we always give Aria a bottle in the morning since I wake up pretty engorged and it can cause her to choke. So, I pump first thing in the morning and Aria has a bottle. We add Vitamin D drops to her bottle per the doctor’s suggestion as well. I also pump right before I go to bed just to make sure I’m empty before I head off to sleep.

At our four month doctor’s appointment for Aria, we were given instructions on how to introduce babies to solids. The first step was giving Aria organic oat cereal mixed with breastmilk since the cereal has iron, which is good for her diet. We started with 1 teaspoon once a day mixed with around 2.5 tablespoons of breastmilk - slowly upping the amount we gave her over time until we reached 1 tablespoon. She was so excited about eating - opening her mouth wide and even trying to help us with the spoon. She had experienced some gas, but nothing out of this world and her stool changed a bit.

Once we felt comfortable with how she was processing the cereal, we decided to start with sweet potato. She was 5 months and 1 week old. She LOVED it, but unfortunately, experienced a ton of gas to the point that she would wake up screaming at night several times. She also seemed much fussier during the day. That experience paired with a 6 month sleep regression (or so we assume; she had her 4 month sleep regression a bit early) caused us to give her a break for a few days. We have now started re-introducing the oat cereal and will build back up to the sweet potato. We had only given her 1 tbsp of sweet potato but that seemed to be too much. I think I will start with a teaspoon again! We gave her gas drops (which helped a bit), did tons of tummy rubs and leg exercises, and everything else we could find/read about (while consulting our pediatrician) but it felt like stopping for a few days was the best solution for us. Both the oat cereal and sweet potato have tons of fiber and it was just too much for Aria at this point. I’ve learned that listening to my baby is best.

We shared a video of how we made the sweet potato puree earlier. There are also some helpful items to start your own baby’s solids journey tagged in our Amazon store.

We will continue to share our own experiences with solids and hope it goes more smoothly next time!