Around the middle of the first year, many families think about offering solid foods to their breastfeeding baby. There is a lot of useful information on the topic of complementary feeding. This week on the blog, New Beginnings has collected several reliable resources and perspectives on beginning solids with a nursling, including how to get started while continuing to nurse!

For personal human milk feeding support, please reach out to a La Leche League USA Leader near you or find support virtually. You can find a Leader or Group near you and meetings online here.

The Art of Breastfeeding (9th edition) shares some helpful tips on the topic of starting solids with your baby.

“Your baby can join the mealtime fun even if he’s not quite ready to eat yet. Beginning whenever he can sit on his own, he can sit in his own chair next to you, or on your lap. Give him a spoon, maybe some water in a sippy cup, and let him play Dinnertime. Is your baby reaching for the food on your plate? Put some baby-suitable food in front of him and see what he does. Babies who aren’t ready for solids may play with food, even taste it, but they won’t get serious about eating it. The day will arrive when the food makes it into his mouth and down the hatch. You don’t have to control the amount. Your baby will take care of that, just as he does when he nurses.” (p. 340)

A whole chapter of practical information about starting solids is included in the new edition of The Art of Breastfeeding, published in 2024 by La Leche League International. You can find copies anywhere books are sold.

La Leche League USA and New Beginnings have often featured  supportive information about starting solids with a nursing baby. Check out some of them here:

• A helpful guide about Starting Solids (which is available in Spanish here) on the La Leche League USA website covers many aspects of providing complementary foods to your baby. Some of the topics covered in that article include:
  • World Health Organization and American Association of Pediatrics guidelines on when to start solids
  • Signs that your baby may be ready to begin solid foods
  • Getting started with solids
  • Suggestions of first foods for babies, offering water, and more!
• An article on the blog, Facing Criticism About Starting Solids: When Is Baby Ready And How To Respond, shares some tips from breastfeeding families on managing comments from others about when or how your family introduces solids.
• Wondering about baby-led weaning? This article, A Conversation with Teresa Pitman, Author of Baby-Led Weaning: The (Not-So) Revolutionary Way to Start Solids and Make a Happy Eater, shares excellent information on this topic.
• Plus, you can always find tasty recipes from La Leche League cookbooks and families here. Many of these recipes can be adapted for young eaters!

Editor’s note: Did you enjoy this article? We are hoping to include more Resource Roundup content to the blog in the future, compiling tips from our Facebook page, excerpts from LLL books, and connections to related stories from New Beginnings past. If you have a topic you’d like to see covered during this series, please let us know.

Share your stories with Kylie at [email protected]

Supporting Breastfeeding Families–Today, Tomorrow, Always

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