[Adispatcher]

I just want to get opinions here... my baby is 3 months old... he drinks 4 oz formula every three hours, and starting the past few days we have been adding a teaspoon of rice cereal w/each bottle because he spits up otherwise, it makes it a bit thicker. He drinks a tablespoon of oatmeal w/his formula ONCE, the night time bottle before bed, 9pm & sleeps until 6 or 7am the next morning usually. We got a jar of baby food from a relative in a goody bag for him, I got curious today, opened it & dabbed my finger in it & fed it to the baby & he loooooved it. (squash btw). So I dabbed my finger in it a few more times & he continued taking it frm off my finger loving it! I then fed him his bottle. When is it okay to start baby food? I would rather do veggies at first.

[justcurious55]

You really need to discuss this with your child's pediatrician. Usually it's not recommended to start feeding baby's any solid foods before certain ages because 1) they're systems aren't ready for them and 2) they can have allergy problems if they have certain foods too early.

Here's a helpful website: Starting Solids Guide for Infants
But it's really important that you talk to your pediatrician before you give anymore solid foods.

[Adispatcher]

Okay. Thank you.

[DoulaLC]

The current recommendation is to wait closer to 6 months. There are times when a thickening formula is used, but this should only be under the doctor's direction. Most spitting up is perfectly normal and more of an issue for parents than for baby. Unless he were losing weight due to the amount and frequency of spitting up, there usually is not a concern.

Babies will eat baby foods early on, and enjoy them, but as justcurious mentioned, their systems are not yet ready to really deal with them properly.

Try not to be in a rush to get baby onto solids... the formula will be his main source of nutrition for the first year and solids will be a gradual compliment to his milk more so later in the second half of the first year.

[J_9]

Just to add to what Doula has said, the reason to wait on baby food is that your baby's digestive system is not yet ready to handle foods and can lead to allergy problems later in life.

[Adispatcher]

Okay. Thank you for your input. I won't give him baby food then. I read about it not being good for their digestive system until later on & how they're more prone to have allergies from the baby food if you give it to them too early. Thanks so much

[LearningAsIGo]

Glad to hear you're going to wait. :)

We gave my daughter a slow introductions to jarred #1 stage foods at 7 months. We quickly learned that anything with a acidic preservative (like citric acid) gave her a rash. She could only eat squash, green beans, etc. that only listed water as the second ingredient in the jar.

She couldn't tolerate acids until 10.5 months old.