Getting your baby onto solid foods can be a difficult process. We’ve got Doctor’s answers to the key questions to help make it easier.
When should you start thinking about moving your baby onto solid foods?
There’s no real black and white answer to that. Babies and mothers need to make their own decision. Doctors talk about baby-lead weaning and mother-lead weaning. Many babies will start to refuse breast milk and decide they need the added sustenance of solids
In general terms, babies can cope with solids after about 6 months, so most mothers will be introducing solids about then. It’s not unusual to breast & bottle feed through to 2 years.
Is it more difficult to take a baby from breast to solids or from bottle to solids?
A lot of women will actually transition from breast to bottle and then onto solids. However, some babies may just not like bottles and will end up spending a lot more time on the breast before weaning.
What are some things women can do to make the process easier?
The biggest thing is to try and have a plan and try and wean slowly. Then it becomes a nice slow transition for the baby in getting use to dropping a breast feed for a solid feed – for example, you might start with dropping one feed per week so that the weaning process is stretched out over weeks.
If you’re still breast feeding at two years, then wean might take a little longer – maybe months to get that child into a new routine.
Is a there a time when a baby should no longer be breast or bottle fed?
It’s such a personal thing – there are even women who cannot breast feed because they cannot make enough milk. As long as the baby is getting the nutrition and the protective elements supplied from good nutrition the baby will develop well.
Of course, a great advantage of breast milk is the anti-bacterial elements that strengthen a baby’s immunity.