Any time before their first birthday is okay, until unless your doctor is concerned.

Making a routine of singing a favorite lullaby and or giving a bottle at the time will help. Maintaining a routine of dinner, bath time, reading or singing to them always helps to put them to sleep at night.

Routine is the keyword to follow for babies to be comfortable.

The pain of childbirth may have benefits who opt for painkilling epidurals.

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He or she may not be ready to eat certain foods till the first year.
Those foods include:

Honey

Doctors advice not to give honey to babies less than 12 months of age.Honey can have spores of clostridium botulinum ,which when digested can make babies sick by a toxin that causes botulism.therefore it’s safe not to give honey and foods containing honey to small babies.

Cow’s Milk

Breast-milk or formula is best recommended for the baby and substituting cow’s milk is not good ,since they don’t give enough recommended nutrition for the babies first years and also babies may cause allergic reaction to other milks such as cow’s milk, goat milk or soy milk.

Nuts

Hard foods such as nuts,popcorn,raisin,candies,chuncks of fruits and vegetables may be achoking hazard to the baby ,also nuts may cause allergic reation.

Egg Whites

Egg whites are consider allery foods for babies.If needed egg yolk can be fed after 7 or 8 months. It is safe to avoid eggs untill 1 year.

It is also safe to avoid other foods like fish,peanut butter, marshmallows,wheat ,chocolateetc.,It is also good to limit to 4-6 ounces of jucie per day ,that too after the baby is 6 months old.

The best thing to do is talk to your doctor about what and how to give too.
Even though the baby is started on solids it is really important that feeding breast-milk or formula is comes first during the first year.

There are a few simple things to know and make sure what to do when starting on solids.

• First, expect to be messy
• It is always good to be slow when feeding the babies. Give your baby very small amount of food when you start, since he should practice to use his tongue to swallow the food.
• We should remember that the babies tummies are really tiny.Even a spoon full of food can make them full.
• Also expect changes in color and consistency of babies stools.
• Look for allergic reactions, such as rash, fussiness, runny nose,upset tummy etc., when introducing each new food.

Doctors always make sure to start with rice cereal which will be easier for the babies to digest. Though breast-feeding I pumped little breast-milk everyday to mix with the rice cereal when i first started solids for my son. It is good to give it in a watery consistency. Since it has breast-milk it will be easier for the babies to like it and get used to.

Make sure to introduce just one new food a week, so that there will be enough time to know how the baby likes that food and to know whether it is allergic to the baby.

Also whenever you start with a new food,  give in the morning, so that if the baby is allergic to the food we will be able to know before the end of the day.

When we give the baby a new food and some how he doesn’t like it or is allergic to it, stop giving that food and wait at least a week to give him any other new food.

I remember, I started with rice cereal and breast-milk in the mornings alone for the first whole week when he was four months old and the next 10 days i gave him twice a day in the morning and in the evening.

After that we can start with vegetables and then fruits.In case of vegetables my doctor said it is good to start with yellow or orange veggies like carrot, sweet potato, squash etc.,

In case of fruits,most of them start with apples and continue with pears , banana, prunes etc.,

Expect constipated stools, specially with rice cereal and apples.

When i start with these things i keep on going.But i guess these are the basic things moms should know about when they start giving solids to their babies.Also it is important to make sure not give the foods that should be kept away in the first year.

    We can make an early start with the solids as early as 4 months.But the current recommendation is the breast-milk or formula should be the main nutrition for the babies till 6 months.It is good to introduce solids any time between 4 months and 6 months.
Things to look ,if the baby is ready for solids are
   

• Your baby should be  able to sit well and upright when supported ,so that he will be able to swallow the food.
• Baby needs to be able to control his head.
• Good weight gain and growing appetite -the baby may seem to be hungry even with eight or nine feedins of breast-milk or formula.
• The baby will be curious in looking into your plate when you are eating.

    I remember with my son,i use to tell my mom that i feel like breast-feeding him the whole day,as his appetite was growing so much.And he will be always lookin at my mouth whenever i am having my meal or snack and trying to grab it.

When i thought of giving solid food to my son my doctor told me i could sart giving him solid food after 4 months if i want to.But still breast-milk or formula should be his main food till he is atleast 6 months old.as the doctor instruction i started giving my son rice cereal liquified with breast-milk just in the mornings for about too weeks.

    After 2 weeks,i started giving him in the evening too.In my place i remember people telling it is good to introduce variety of foods between 4 months and 1 year old.Also it is really important avoid foods which are not good to give before 1 year like egg,nuts,honey etc.,And also it is very important to look for if the baby is allergic to any new foods introduced.

Supplementing breast milk at least once a day for the baby can be very good and helpful. With my son i know i gave him formula once a day after two months.after talking with my doctor, I started him on formula(a particular brand) ,he fussed and cried not to take a bottle for three days.So I stopped for two days and gave him another brand of baby formula after a little fussing he was happy to drink it.That’s when one my friend told me that sometimes the babies just don’t like the taste of some formula.It is different with each and every baby.

Some mothers start with feeding formula once a day even from the first day. May be giving formula in this way early really has so many advantages:one,it gives the mother some time for her own,when some one can give the bottle and two,the babies get used to both formula too and the bottle too. May be it is best to give a bottle to the baby at least after a month or two when the baby is well get used to breast-feeding. In some cases when the baby is get used to a bottle in the first few days following birth, he or she may not want to breast feed.

When I wanted to only breast-feed my son for the first few months,but didn’t get any breast milk for the first 3 to 4 days.

The doctor doesn’t want to give a bottle, so what they did ways strap a ready to use formula bottle to my dress near the shoulder with a very thin tube coming to from it and tapped to my breast so that the baby can suck it together with the nipple, just like breast-feeding. In some cases when the babies are given a bottle in this situation for the first 4 days ,may not want to breast-feed at all. So it is better to give a bottle after they get used to the breast-feeding.

But supplementing formula-feeding once a day sure has it’s help,like it won’t be hard to give a bottle or formula to a baby when it is needed in the later months,when the mom doesn’t have enough milk to breast-feed.In CASE OF some stay at home moms i have seen them struggle to give a bottle or formula after only breast-feeding them for 8 or 9 months.also giving a bottle once a day from the early months can be helpful in not having a hard time weaning the babies.

Surely, there won’t be any mom who doesn’t want to have a little more sleep in the morning when the dad or some one else who takes care can give a bottle to the baby one time that day.

1. Cow’s milk formulas.
2. Soy-based formulas.
3. Protein hydrolysate formulas.