Has your little one just started solids
and you're finding it tricky to know exactly where to start?
You're not alone.
I talk to customers about this sort of thing every day
in the "Nutrition Village",
because there's so much information out there
on the internet
and so much conflicting information often from
family and friends about what and how,
and when to start solids,
it can feel like a little bit of a minefield.
So stick around because today I'm going to try
and answer some of those really burning questions
that people have about starting solids.
Hi guys, I'm Tara, I'm the dietician at "Little Ones".
And today I'm going to go through some of the really burning
questions that I often get asked about starting solids
with little ones.
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Okay.
So first up we have, what is the best age to start solids?
So the usual recommendation, it does differ per country,
but the usual recommendation is at around six months
and not before four months.
So around six months, around 26 weeks
is the usual recommendation.
That is because we want at around six months,
little ones start to run out of their iron stores
that they have left over from pregnancy.
So it's really important to start getting some iron
in there.
And it also starts to become a window,
that's quite important for little ones
to be introducing new textures and flavors
and things like that between six and 12 months,
that's an important window there.
So we want to start introducing those there
so that little ones can get used
to those textures while they're still sort of willing
to do that and flavors.
And then not before four months.
So before four months,
the research suggests that it can be not best
for a little one's gastrointestinal tract
to be starting solids before then.
And also up until six months,
a little one will be getting everything that
they need, complete nutrition from their milk feeds.
So from either their breastfeeds, formula feeds,
or if you're mixed feeding,
they'll be receiving a hundred percent of the nutrition
needs from those milk feeds.
So how do I know if my baby is ready for solids?
So there are a few signs of readiness for solids,
but the most important sign of readiness for solids is
having that really, really good solid head and neck control.
So when we're starting solids,
we're going to be swallowing foods
and it can be a risk for choking because it's something new
the little ones are doing
and they need to be quite focused on getting the food,
pushing the food from the front to the back of their mouth
and swallowing those foods well.
And if they don't have that good head and neck control,
it can be difficult for them to be focusing
on doing that well.
So that would be the number one.
So we often hear,
signs of readiness and they're usually given a list,
but we do want to focus on that one being a really,
really important sign of readiness for solids.
And there are other important signs as well,
like babies opening their mouth for the spoon,
reaching out and being interested in the foods
that you're eating.
They are all really good signs as well.
And when you put food into their mouth,
that they're moving it to the back of their throat
with their tongue and swallowing that food.
They're also really, really important signs
but that good head and neck control is what we really want
to be focusing on.
Making sure that baby can sit up quite really,
really well supported
or ideally if they can sit up completely unsupported.
So what should be my baby's first foods?
This is probably the most common question I get.
What the foods should actually be?
And there are some foods of focus.
There's no rules,
but there will be some areas of focus
that I usually want my clients and customers to focus on.
So they would be things like iron rich foods,
because little ones start to run out of those stores of iron
that they got from their mom during pregnancy,
they start to need a source of iron
because breast milk and formula don't have enough iron
in them to support the growing needs of a baby
from that age.
So what we need to do is make sure that we're including
those iron rich foods in first foods.
So there's two types of iron there's heme iron
and non-heme iron.
Heme iron is the iron found in meat.
And that has been converted already into the kind of iron
that we use in our blood.
And then there's non-heme iron and that comes from plants.
It's just as good.
It hasn't been converted into the iron that we need already.
So just to make that a little bit more clear.
So the heme iron sources are things like meat, chicken,
fish, turkey, pork, things like that contain heme iron,
those animal sources of iron.
And then we have non-heme iron.
So things like tofu, green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds.
Those are your sources of non-heme iron.
So we do want to focus on iron rich foods.
We lose quite a bit of that when we are converting it over.
So what we want to do with those non-heme iron,
those plant sources of iron is make sure that we're having
some vitamin C along with them,
because that can help in increasing the amount
that we end up absorbing.
The next thing I would suggest is focusing
on energy dense foods.
So if your baby has already started solids,
you would know
that they often only eat a really small amount,
which is totally fine because they have very small tummies
but they are growing really quickly.
So we do want to make sure they're getting a bit of bang
for their buck, with their nutrition.
So introducing energy dense foods,
these foods have a really high amount of energy per gram,
compared to other foods.
Introducing those can help to make sure
that your baby is getting that energy
and to help with their growth support, their growth.
That would be things like starchy vegetables,
are good energy dense foods.
So things like potatoes,
sweet potato and corn, bread is an energy dense food.
Just making sure your baby's ready for that texture though,
is important things like again, nuts and seeds.
And again, textually,
it's important to make sure that they're very,
very finely ground.
Things like full fat dairy products, these are all
and it's some examples of energy dense foods
that can help support that growth in our little ones.
And finally we have fruits and vegetables.
So these would be other foods in focus that I would suggest
to people that are starting solids with their babies,
just because we do have that critical window
that I was talking about before between six and 12 months,
where little ones will be more interested
in taking on those new flavors and textures.
And so we want to capitalize on that window.
So making sure that they are being introduced
to those bitter flavors of vegetables specifically,
just because they can be a trickier one once a little one,
once 12 months to start introducing them,
because they're not as receptive
to those sort of more bitter flavors of vegetables.
Okay, so what about allergen foods?
So the common allergens, it's really,
really important to introduce these at around six months,
but not before four months, again.
So at around the same time that you're starting solids
with your little one, introducing those common allergens,
as well as the research is starting
to show that introducing
the common allergens earlier than we used to introduce them,
which was often waiting until after 12 months.
So earlier being at around six months
and not before four months can actually help
to decrease a little one's risk of
developing an allergy later on in life.
And once we've introduced those common allergens,
we want to continue to introduce those foods
a couple of times a week,
at least once they've been introduced,
cause that's also can be protective in your little one,
not developing an allergy later on.
So what is the priority?
Is the priority milk feeds or is it solids?
So from zero to 12 months,
the priority nutrition is definitely milk feeds.
So your breastfeeds, your formula feeds,
or both if you're mix feeding.
This is the priority nutrition 100%,
especially until six months.
And then it's still the priority from six to 12,
but solids do become important at six months.
So that age old saying, you know,
"Food before one is just for fun."
That's not true.
We do, as I've mentioned before,
we do know that they're the ones need that support
from nutrition
to meet their needs of iron and other nutrients,
as well as but specifically iron.
And so we do want to also be making sure
that our little ones are starting those solids
at around six months.
So another question that I get all the time
is what kind of high chair is ideal?
So there is no specific brand that I would recommend,
but I would suggest making sure that your little one
has a high chair that is fully supporting
their back and neck.
So keeping them fully supported upright.
So they're really comfortable, but really,
really sitting well and straight,
looking straight ahead and comfortable in their high chair.
If you've already bought a high chair
that doesn't have that complete back support,
if you're feeling your little one
is not supported completely upright,
rolling up some towels and putting them behind your baby
or some small sort of hand towels,
just to make sure that they're really, really supported
is really important, just so that they have that real,
really, really strong support behind their back.
And then secondly,
what is also really important
and a lot of people don't know this,
is making sure that there's a foot rest
on the high chair,
that babies can lean, rest their feet flat against.
If you can imagine as an adult going out to eat dinner
and sitting on a tall bar stool
that doesn't have any foot support
and how tiring that can be.
And we're used to eating,
we're not learning a new skill.
So thinking about that
and that's what it might feel like for a little one,
if they don't have that foot support
to help them really balance and that also
helps to keep their posture really
straight for that strong head and neck support as well.
So if you, again,
if you've bought a high chair
that doesn't have a foot support, it's totally fine.
Just make sure that you try
and make sure you makeshift something,
I have seen so many awesome things
in my time as a dietician, working with kids,
some people will tape things,
use lots and lots of sticky tape
or sellotape to try
tape something onto their high chair that,
the little one's feet,
can be supported by
or people have cut amazing things out of wood
that slot into the high chair or putting stools underneath
that reach the little one's feet.
The little one's feet aren't super heavy.
So using something like sellotape,
isn't the worst idea, you can do that
and it's easy to remove, but whatever you do,
just try and make sure that they do have something
that they can rest their feet on.
And that it's growing with the child,
so that if their feet start to become a bit long for it,
then moving a little bit further down as they grow.
Okay, so finally, the question,
when should I introduce utensils?
I personally believe that utensils should be introduced
at around the same time as starting solids.
And by that, I mean, offering a baby,
a spoon to self feed with when you can,
sometimes it can be hard, you're in a rush
and you want to be feeding baby yourself with the spoon,
and that's totally understandable, but where you can,
if you can grab two spoons is,
what I always recommend load one up with the food
for the baby,
smearing the food on there and offering that to the baby.
And then when they finish that one swapping
with a newly preloaded spoon
and continuously swapping throughout the meal
so that they can self feed,
I think is a fantastic thing to start doing.
As soon as you can sort of around that six month mark,
the earlier the better when starting those new skills.
Okay, thanks so much for listening today
to the what, how and when of starting solids.
If you have any more questions,
please feel free to drop them in the comments below
and I'll get through those questions throughout the week.
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and thanks so much for your question.