Transition from Exclusive Breastfeeding to Solids – Part 2

The 2nd part of this post is about how the actual transition to solid happened till one year of age and the solids journey beyond that.

To read about the 1st part of this post about the guidelines I used for introducing solids, click on the below link:

Part 1 – Guidelines for introducing solids

Month by Month transition to solids 

First Month of Solids 

Anu started with one meal when she was in her 7th month (6 months old). She began with fresh seasonal fruits (as they are easier to digest) at breakfast time. She had this meal roughly an hour or two after her morning feed. The fruit was either hand smashed (like banana, chikoo, papaya, etc. ) or steamed/slightly cooked and then pureed (e.g., apple, pear, strawberry, etc.).

Around three weeks later I introduced seasonal veggies (spinach, cauliflower, Bottle gourd, pumpkin, fenugreek, etc.). In this month, vegetables were served in the form of veggie soup (steamed or pressure cooked veggies and strained them to make soup). Veggies were seasoned with a small spoon of homemade ghee/butter and/or tempered with a small quantity of roasted Jeera powder and asafoetida.

I did follow “only one new food item at a time for 3 days” mantra to rule out allergies…. followed this rule till Anu was 9 months old.

Meal plan in the first month of solids:

Note: No salt, sugar, chilly, animal milk and hot spices in her food. She continued to breastfeed on demand. 

Second Month of Solids

When Anu was in her 8th month (7 months old), she started having two solid meals in a day. The second one was at lunchtime.

She started having thick consistency porridges in this month. I cooked porridge (mostly made of ragi, Sathumavu or semolina) with water, not milk, and added little palm jaggery (or fruit) and ghee for taste. Next, I introduced grains and pulses. Started with Yellow moong daal and rice. Then gradually added Masoor daal, Green moong daal, Tur daal, etc. to her meals over two months’ time. For initial 2-3 weeks, I used roasted and powdered daal and rice and cooked it like porridge. After that, daal and rice were pressure cooked and coarsely smashed.

She also started having curd in this month. Anu loves curd. She can have it for every single meal.

From this month, I stopped straining her veggies. Instead just cooked them and added to rice or made thick veggie soup. Also gradually started giving fruits in chunky form instead of finely smashing them.

Meal plan in the second month of solids:

Note: No salt, sugar, chilly, animal milk and hot spices in her food. She continued to breastfeed on demand. 

Third month of solids

When Anu was in her 9th month (8 months old), she started having three solid meals in a day. The 3rd meal was at dinnertime.

In this month I introduced her to a variety of food like mix veg daliya, roti, various types of parathas (with or without stuffing). She also started eating slightly heavy to digest legumes like chickpeas, Black-eyed peas, Brown chana, etc.. Legumes were well cooked and flavoured with cumin or few other mild spices.

I tried to introduce an evening snack as her 4th meal, but Anu preferred breast milk instead.

Meal plan in the third month of solids:

Note: No salt, sugar, chilly, animal milk and hot spices in her food. She continued to breastfeed on demand. 

Fourth month of solids

When Anu was in her 10th month (9 months old), she showed great interest in eating roti/parathas as well as daal, rice, and veggies. She wanted to eat what she saw on our plate. We encouraged that. Her food was still prepared separately without salt and chili till 1 year of age. She started having (well-cooked) egg yolk and paneer as well. I started adding a little bit of homemade dry fruit powder to her porridge and soup.

She showed interest in taking a snack in the evening. Evening snack would be mostly a fruit or small chila or dosa, kurmura, etc..

Meal plan in the fourth month of solids:

Note: No salt, sugar, chilly, animal milk and hot spices in her food. She continued to breastfeed on demand. 

Fifth and Sixth month of solids

She continued with three major meals and one snack. Also no significant additions to her menu either. She did have summer fruits like mango, muskmelon, watermelon, etc.. And in her 12th month, Anu started having Chicken and fish.

By the time she was 10 months old, she was keen to pick up food from her plate and feed herself (a lot of mess but fun to watch her eat on her own).

Note: No salt, sugar, chilly, animal milk and hot spices in her food. She continued to breastfeed on demand. 

Solids beyond 1 year

After Anu turned 1, we gradually added salt and spices to her food. She still rarely has sugar :-). By the time she turned 15 months old, Anu had the same food that was cooked for rest of us at home (well on most days 🙂).

Anu has cow’s milk after turning one year old. She still breastfeeds (though she is weaned off her night feeds).

I have rarely given her formula. Gave it the first time when she developed temporary lactose intolerance after a stomach infection (when Anu was around 9 months old). I had to stop all sources of lactose in her diet including breastmilk and give low-lactose formula instead. On another occasion, when we suspected a stomach infection (but it was not) we temporarily switched her to a low-lac formula for few days as a precautionary measure.

Solids and breast milk

From 7th-9th month of age at least 75% of Anu’s food intake still came from breast milk and rest came from solids. From the 10th-12th month of age, around 50% of her food intake came from breast milk and remaining came from solids. So her transition from breastmilk to solids was somewhat gradual.

She had her solids meal only after 2-3 hours of having breast milk. Till she turned one year old, she had breast milk at least once between any two major meals. So in a way, with each new solids meal added, she dropped one breastfeed (many parents prefer not to cut an entire feed instead just give breast milk 30-60 mins before solids meal ….. at least for initial 2-3 months of starting solids).

Utensils and dining set

Till Anu turned 1 year old, I kept a separate set of steel utensils for cooking Anu’s food (a small pressure cooker, mixer pot, peeler, knife, strainer and a cooking pot). Separate cookware for Anu ensured maid took ‘right’ care while cleaning them (maid hurriedly cleans the regular ones :-P).

When Anu started solids, I spent a lot of time, unsuccessfully, to find ‘ideal’ food-grade stainless steel baby dining set. Its hard to find a food grade, stainless steel baby dining set in India! Glass is also considered food safe, so I settled for glass dishes, bowls and small steel spoons for dining (separate dining set for Anu). Once Anu showed interest in eating by self, she had food in same stainless steel dining set that we use (she loves testing gravity by dropping things from her high chair, so glassware went hiding during meal time :-)).

After Anu turned one year old, we stopped having a separate set of cookware or dining set for her. Luckily, I had bought just 1-2 new items and picked her set from our existing utensils and dining set.

Self Feeding

I encouraged Anu to self-feed since she was around 7.5 months old, but with little success initially.  I would offer her small pieces around 1 cm length (cut fruit, roti, paratha, etc.). Initially, she could not pick up those pieces and showed little interest in self-feeding. Only when her pincer grasp was developed (around 10 months), she could pick up small pieces of food items and showed interest in eating by self. So in hindsight (and after becoming more aware of Baby Led Weaning), I realised I should have given her medium size pieces (0.5-1 inch in length) or chunks of food items until she had developed pincer grasp.

I always encourage her to eat all types of food with hand (and on few occasions with a spoon). On some days she finishes a whole meal on her own, while on some days she wants to be fed. But overall she enjoys eating on her own, and that has made eating a pleasurable and stress-free activity.

Next

To read about the last part of this post about the key Learnings (from Anu’s solids journey so far) and adaptations (we did to make meals fuss free and stress free), click the link below:

Part 3 – Key Learnings and adaptations for fuss free mealtime