welcome back to amazing milestones today we pick up from our last episode on feeding problems and jump the head to feeding solids very important but really very interesting because when you think of it when your baby hits this milestone and all of a sudden is able to grasp small objects in his hand and understand how to bring them to his mouth well there is a whole new world of flavors and textures and shapes that is about to open up for him but does this new skill necessarily mean that his system is ready for solid food and if so how did he make that transition while maintaining balanced nutrition I have no idea but I do know someone who does know and we're gonna go meet him his name is dr. de Costa and he is going to tell us how and when to transition to solid food hello dr. DeCosta honey Tara congratulations thank you very much hey how do you feel I feel great actually I'm really do you have any burning questions for me haha thank you I actually was really looking forward to talking to you today about this subject um so let me start when can I start giving solids to my baby well listen this is one of the Bane's of the existence of most parents because they're so anxious about where to start these solid foods and when B evidence has shown us that somewhere between four and six months is the best time to start prior to that the baby's swallowing mechanisms are not developed motor skills are not at the level where they can sit straight set up on their own their head is usually a little floppy and they can't really grasp objects easily to help themselves or push away from foods they don't like so that's probably the best time furthermore somewhere around four months of ages when your iron stores start to deplete a little bit so one would want to start iron rich foods if a mother is formula feeding then you want to have an iron rich formula which most of them are now and what food should I start with when I have this nice little mnemonic that I use that parents find really useful it's called CV fm like a radio station CVF M thank you remember that happen if you want to start and progress up start with the cereals and then you move on to the veggies the fruits and the meats mm-hm and are there foods that are considered bad that I should avoid that's a really good question there are two parts to the subject there's one that includes allergies and there's one that includes mechanical danger we have to be very careful on the mechanical side that we don't have a lot of food so it's skin on them grapes whole nuts we don't want to have little carrots cauliflower things that can choke the baby okay second part of it is the allergic part of it what foods do we avoid that's the other part to your question there's been a lot of information about starting kids on foods that are void of nuts shellfish peanuts various types of dairy products cows protein till one or two or three years we don't have the evidence anymore to say that one should avoid them except in families that have a highly allergic risk and when I start introducing solids into my baby's diet can I expect my baby to sleep more at night well chances are that your baby will sleep better once they have a little more regularity to the way their food is going in so it's more likely that after four to six months your baby will probably sleep better at nights and they don't really have to feed at night either under four months people have tried solids thinking that they're gonna sleep better at night that's where you're gonna be in the next four months there's no evidence to suggest that works and like I mentioned earlier it may be damaging to the baby to start under four months understood lastly do you think I should prepare my own baby food or buy jarred baby food listen mothers have asked me that question all the time because they want to be natural they want to be in control of what's going into their baby and in that context with certain considerations you're probably well advised to do what you prefer to do which is to make your own purees cereals of course can come ready-made and you can use that but you can actually mince down and puree your veggies fruits and meats it gives you more control over what you're putting in it's more labor-intensive you can maybe bond with your husband once a month and puree the insight ice cube containers with the girls he can take a cube root two out for the baby however for convenience sometimes you might want to have some of the other things you might want to have store-bought things pick the ones that are lowest in sugar lowest in saltiness because the baby tends to acclimatize to those that won't want your own fruit afterwards and it can be a risk for later in terms of other health issues I think it's a choice that you make and I have a feeling that you might want to do the first thing because I know you're worried thank you doctor to custard I was a wealth of information I really appreciate it very welcome have fun this pregnancy thank you lots of good information and tips on the transition to solid food today's episode was all about what your baby should eat next time we are going to be talking about what you should eat during pregnancy for a healthy and happy baby until then I am Tara and this is amazing milestones