I recently asked a similar question. Most people start introducing solids as baby approaches 6 months old. First foods are about introducing flavours and textures, not nutrition. The rule to remember is that 'food before one is just for fun'. I puree my own, starting with fruit and veg. After 6 months I introduce dairy - like cheese in purees and baby yogurts. Then comes meat and wheat. I always leave citrus, cow's milk and nuts until after age one though.

At first it's about learning to push it around their mouth with their tongue. Later they'll want to feel it in their fingers and play with it. Lastly they learn to feed themselves with finger foods. All important, yet messy, stages to go through!

It's also handy to remember that bananas, carrots, strawberries and tomatoes stain everything they touch, lol.

I have been reading that a lot of the cereals are not recommended anymore and to go straight to fruits/vegetables? Anyone else doing this? My daughter is almost 4 months old and I think I am going to wait til she is closer to 6 months before starting solids and going straight to real foods instead of cereals.

The AAP still recommends cereals. I'm not sure who is saying they're not recommended anymore.

Rice cereal is often advised as the first food because it is easy to digest and easy to make watery to work up to thicker purées. However cereals do have a place because they provide a lot of iron that is needed for brain development. My dad is a pediatrician and, with both of my boys, has hounded me about cereals because there are some theories going around the pediatric community about lack of iron in the early diet and ADD/ADHD. (Baby oatmeal has the same amount of iron, too, so it's not just rice cereal.)

The whole thing about rice cereal is related to arsenic levels in rice products. I'm not sure why other non-rice-based baby cereals got lumped in.

It's totally fine to skip rice cereal if it's not for you and your baby, but there are other worthwhile cereals out there, and you need to make sure your baby is getting the iron (as well as other nutrients) he or she needs. If you can get those nutrients without cereals, cool. But as far as I know, and this is coming from three pediatricians (my dad, my BIL, and our local pediatrician), there's no known harm in baby cereal, and it's still highly recommended.

http://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/AAP-Offers-Advice-For-Parents-Concerned-About-Arsenic-in-Food.aspx (The news article it links to on the AAP site notes that no changes in recommendations have been made, but this link notes that it's totally ok to skip rice cereal and use either other cereals, like oatmeal, or puréed fruits/veggies.)

ETA that the AAP is not down with cereals in a bottle or before 4 months.

Also, both the AAP and the WHO advise solids before age one to get appropriate nutrition. (I'm not sure where "food before one is just for fun" came from. I hear it a lot, so I thought it might have been gleaned from WHO guidelines or something, but I can't seem to find anything on it.)

Here is some good reading from the AAP on the need for iron plus solids' place in an infant's diet: http://m.pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2010/10/05/peds.2010-2576.full.pdf

From the WHO:

http://whqlibdoc.who.int/paho/2003/a85622.pdf

I'm not saying continuing to breastfeed is bad (not at all!), but I feel like baby-led weaning can be taken to an extreme where it may not be healthier for the child.

To supplement what I said in my earlier comment, which is outlined in the links here, meat is also a great source of iron (and zinc, for that matter).

To the OP, don't be afraid to feed your baby solids as long as he is ready. If you're not sure just yet, give it a try at 6 months, just a little once a day

Edited for typo

FTM here and kiddo is nearing 10 months. We did the iron levels check at a bit over 9 months as I wanted it and our pediatrician is very conservative and was worried about no rice or other kind of cerial since we did BLW (which she has never heard of before). Iron levels were not sky high, but they were completely in the normal range. Baby has great color and no signs of concern at all. LLL and Kellymom site sources and studies that show no benefit to introducing iron fortified cereals to normally developing infants. Key is normally developing. Now I am not a scientist, a pediatrician, or a nutritionist, but I do believe in rational thought. To my knowledge, purees and rice cereals are a fairly recent development in the period of human evolution. I tend to always err on the side of "don't mess with nature" unless it is necessary. Seems to me babies have been developing great and humans have been prospering for thousands and thousands of years without rice and other cereals. That's all I'll say on the subject. Totally personal opinion and I'm sure there are many who disagree.
Proponents of BLW methods of weaning have also sited research that points out most infants' guts are not properly "closed" until 6 months of age which may lead to higher potential for allergies and other reactions to foods if introduced early. And gut development seems (key word again is "seems") to be linked directly to development of gross and fine motor skills that are required to pick up the food, put it in the mouth, chew, and swallow. Purees and cereals that are spoon-fed tend to by-pass that whole learning process and just deliver the food to the stomach whether the baby is developmentally ready for it or not. The whole gut-not-closed things is what is leading even the pediatric community now to stop pushing the introduction of foods at 4 months up to at least 6 months of age. So there seems to be some concensus on that. However each parent chooses to introduce food (BLW, purees, including cerals, etc.), I think is a very personal choice. As long as the baby is being monitored and is developing well and is offered nutritious foods, I don't see a reason to stress over any of it.

I'm curious as to the ADD / ADHD linked to iron levels. Logically this does not jive for me. Iron in mother's milk is much easier absorbed by the baby than any other form of iron. In fact, the levels of iron absorbed from iron fortified cereals are incredibly small in comparison. Iron fortified cereals are a fairly recent development in human evolution. And ADD / ADHD is diagnosed far more frequently than ever before. So if anything, we should be seeing less of it over the last few decades. Have your father and brother explored this any further? I'm very interested to hear their thoughts.

Edited: We started providing pre-loaded spoons with millet, barley, buckwheat and other nutritious grains within the last month just because he is now completely able to chew things and never gags. And he clearly likes vegetables and fruit, so we have been exploring with pretty much all foods at this point. Baby only started consuming really sizeable quantities of food within the last month and we started offering foods like avocado, cucumber, tomatoes, bananas and other softer foods a week before he turned 6 months. But again to stress....not pushing BLW on anyone, just sharing personal experience. It was scary at times because of all the pressures to do purees and cereals for iron. And who knows, maybe 20 years from now I'll find out that we did the absolutely wrong thing. But as long as the baby is thriving on nutritious options of food, how bad can it really be?

Hi, Mother of two here (2.5yrs and 7months) and not an expert by any means.

I'm currently breastfeeding our daughter who is 7months and we introduced some solids (puree's) around 6months. We skipped cereal with both kids, because from what I've read and what our Pedi said, they provide little nutritional value. But with most things, there's always several different opinions. I'm not opposed to cereal and I believe daycare still gave them some, which it totally fine with me. As long as baby is happy, gaining weight appropriately and hitting milestones.

I should have clarified.. Paleo Moms, Weston Price, etc are places that say do not give cereal and there is no need for it. Very few cultures start with cereal so I was curious how many moms use cereal and at what age

Oh, gotcha. That makes sense

For the record, I started with rice cereal and quickly moved on to veggies, then fruits. Now I mix fruit, veggies, yogurt, meat, etc, with baby oatmeal. (My son is 10 months old.) I did the same with my now 3-year-old when he was a baby, too.

As far as iron in breastmilk, this is from the WHO link above:

"Breast milk can make a substantial contribution to the total nutrient intake of children between 6 and 24 months of age, particularly for protein and many of the vitamins. However, breast milk is relatively low in several minerals such as iron and zinc, even after accounting for bioavailability. At 9-11 months of age, for example, the proportion of the Recommended Nutrient Intake that needs to be supplied by complementary foods is 97% for iron, 86% for zinc, 81% for phosphorus, 76% for magnesium, 73% for sodium and 72% for calcium"

Edited for clarity

Awesome! thanks for the info. That would make sense. I think what I have read siting bioavailability and such talked more about up to 6 months of age and perhaps a little longer. It's very interesting to see the actual numbers you sited above. Thanks again!

An no, I don't think cereals are pointless, even including rice cereal

Yeah, I think it's at six months when it starts to decline and then 9 when supplemental iron is really necessary.

I also didn't mean to derail this into a whole big baby cereal thing! I get bogged down in numbers sometimes. You'd think I work for Getber or something (I swear, I don't)!

My daughter was 2 months premature and here's what the doc said to us: starting solids at 4 months is a good idea but we needed to wait until she was 6 months old (at 4 months adjusted age). Mashed sweet potato was the first food, avocado next. I followed the timelines available in baby cookbooks like Baby Superfood and Wholesome Baby Food http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/index.htm#.UJgOGWFXdt4 (a GREAT website) We did do rice cereal, but it was just so that we could add to the variety of tastes that we were giving her. After just a few meals with the cereal, I started adding spices to change the taste (mostly cinnamon and sometimes nutmeg). Just make sure to wait the appropriate amount of time before introducing a new food. Also ditto to everyone else who said this: at that age, solids are just for fun. They will let you know when they are ready for more.