EBF??

[shannona626]

I do not have a baby yet, but I plan on Ebf'ing for as long as possible. When do I have to start introducing other foods into the babies diet besides breastmilk?

[naturalbirthmama]

congrats on being so proactive in learning all you can before baby is here. lll is a great resource for meeting other bf moms and learning as much as you can now. they recommend as well as the aap that for the first 6 months atleast that bm be the only food your baby needs. sometime around the middle of the first year you can introduce foods like avocados and bananas. i have a varied experience. my 1st we introduced solids at 6 months but she wasn't interested till 7 months. our son wasn't interested until a year. and paisley has been scarfing down food since 5 months. dr. sears books are great as well. i questioned my decision to give paisley solids that early but after conferring w/ his baby book i realized she was ready sooner. (iirc his checklist is sitting on their own, no tongue thrust reflex, ... forgot the others). hth!

[Calideedle]

You dont have to until a year.

[sarahpotter]

I did not introduce solids to my ds until 10months and that was because I became pregnant and my supply went down.
I started with oatmeal baby cereal and now he is 14mo. and still eats oatmeal baby cereal, and other baby cereals for variety, for breakfast and pretty much what we eat for lunch and dinner.
He did not get anything but breastmilk to drink until 12 months.
Now he mostly gets breastmilk and water to drink, but we have added rice milk to drink at dinner time.
Some people thought it was strange my baby didn't get anything but breastmilk until 10 months, but his doctor said that's all he needs til 12 months.
Some people think it's strange to still be breastfeeding my 14mo old especially since I'm pregnant, but breastmilk is so good for our babies!! And our doctors say it's just fine!
Happy milking!!!!

[starryeyedgyal]

With my dd I introduced rice cereal at her pedi's suggestion at 6 months. But she didn't want to have anything to do with it!!! I slowly introduced some other solids after that and she came to like carrots and butternut squash on occasion. She preferred breastmilk most of all so she didn't really eat solids regularly until she was after a year old. hth

[rjruiz_415]

bm is all baby needs for the first 12-18 months. After that is when food should be for nutrition- before then its realy just for experimentation. dd is 14 months old, and she eats whatever we eat, but her diet is still about 80ish percent breastmilk

[frogandtoad]

NBC also recently had some recommendations for fighting childhood obesity - and get this - it is now recommend to exclusive breastfeed for *at least* the first six months.

[shannona626]

Thank you so much ladies!!! That really helps me!! I was hoping that I could exclusively breastfeed up to a year! Yippee..this is good news!

[debmom2boyz]

I think that there seems to be so much "starting solids" yet from others that makes us think we are doing something wrong.

I remember the ped. at at 3 MONTH appt. asked if the baby was on solids. I'm like...idiot...didn't you just ask if he was breastfeed or formula and I answered Breast....duh!

We started at 6 months...but we are not consistent with it. We still puree his food....changing the consistency...

We're going on bf for a year (2 more weeks).

??? for you....are you buying your diapers now? I see that you are ttc, the best thing for me was to get knowledge ahead of time on the BF...and get a list of people to call. With my first I was all about breastfeeding only. We didn't even own a bottle! Well the first night home.....not a success...dh had to run to the store at midnight to get formula and bottles... I didn't have a support system (dh but he was just as clueless as me and just wanted me to stop crying and the baby). This time....I had bottles and I already made the decision if I could only do it part-time.....it was better than not at all. We had issues with latching...but I was able to get to a lactation consultant and it has been great!

[mommy21princess]

Well I was also a weird one that did all my research (still do) and found that they don't need anything other than bm until after a year. We did start SLOWLY at 6 months, I'm talking daddy fed her like a tablespoon every couple of days only to quiet all the questions up until a year. The first year of life solids should only be PRACTICE not nutrition.

As for bottles, I disagree with what the above pp said heres why: Fist of all when you're going on a diet do you keep sweets around? When you're trying to stop smoking do you keep cigarrarts around? (Okay so I can't spell sorry. ) Anyway my point is, if you have formula and a baby bottle chances are MUCH higher that you're going to allow yourself to give in to them when the going gets tuff. sure bfing is hard especially in the beginning but if you add formula and bottles to the mix your BOUND to eventually NOT bf and be sucked into the formula world.

All that to say, I'm not totally against Formual or bottles I hope I don't offend anyone, we all have reasons we do what we have too, but if you have that temptation chances are you won't succeed unless you have LOTS of help.

That brings me to you really need support. Get all the information you can about bfing. Don't take everything EVERYONE says as the true way to do things, Find information on your own. The LLL is a GREAT source as well as www.kellymom.com. These are two VERY highly suggested sources to pull info from as they are backed with researched information. You can't always listen to your doctors either as many of them haven't really learned anything about bfing during they're years at school.

Good luck momma, it sounds like you're going to do a WONDERFUL job for your baby!!

BTW: I'm still nursing my 27 month old but she's gradually weaning herself (partly due to my pregnancy I think and mostly due to her not needing/wanting it, she's never been too attached!)