You’ve checked out all the signs for readiness and your feeding area is welcoming and safe. It’s time for your baby’s very first “solid” food meal! Here are some tips to make sure that your baby’s very first meal is a success.
The best time to give your baby her very first meal is in the morning or early afternoon.
- Give the first meal when your baby is not too hungry. A too-hungry baby urgently wanting to eat may become frustrated during this new unfamiliar eating method.
- Feed first meal after he has had a partial breast or bottle feeding. Give him half a feeding, then introduce his first solid food, and then finish the feeding.
- The temperature of your baby’s food should be moderately warm.
- The first meal will be very little food, no more than a teaspoon or two.
- The consistency of the first solid food will not be solid, it will be much more liquid than solid.
- When ready and comfortable, place a pea-sized amount of the liquidy food on the spoon, place the spoon lightly on your baby’s lower lip and slip it gently into his mouth, so that it is on the top of his tongue. Let him suck the food off the lower spoon. If he doesn’t suck, then tip the spoon so that the food pours slowly into his mouth.
- Whatever happens, smile and say, “Mmmm!!!”
- Watch for signs that you should end the meal, when the food is gone or when she turns her head away and closes her little mouth when she sees the spoon coming.
Check out his cute You Tube video of a baby’s first meal. Watch how the Mom incorporates many of tips described above.