Anyone breastfeed exclusively for the 1st year?

[bessiemae]

I did it with my first son and I can not remember with my second at what point he started eating solid food. I wanted to be very careful as both my husband and I had milk allergies as infants. I attempted to introduce the rice cereal at 6 mo. but he was not at all interested until he was a year old. He quickly progressed to whatever we were eating, but I did puree it.
The second one skipped through all of that. The first thing that he ate was a slice of pepperoni that he grabbed off a pizza! He did not have any problems, so I figured if he could eat that I was not going to worry.
Neither had issues eating when they started and do not have "food issues" now. They were also very healthy and had no growth or weight problems. They are 21 and 24 yrs old.

[TheWoman]

In my experience the baby will let you know when they are ready for real food. They will be interested when you are eating and demand some. If they are just interested in the shiny silverware a spoon to play with will satisfy them, but if that isn't enough it is time for real food. For some kids this happens really early, for others it doesn't happen until a year or later. Most are somewhere in between.

I don't think it is the waiting to introduce solids that cause issues with textures. For me it was the other way around. The one with issues just wouldn't eat the solid food so she was still 90% breastfed at a year. She wouldn't even taste her birthday cake. Now at 15 months she has finally decided that she will eat food from a spoon! Yea! The strange thing is that she hardly eats anything but can down a whole slice of pizza.

[Sculpture Widow]

DS #1 exclusively breastfed for a year. He WOULD not eat anything. He just didn't care and was not interested. Anytime I tried to "force" (not truly force, but heavily coax) him to try something, he would throw up.
I finally just gave up.
The dude was 27 lbs at 12 months. NO KIDDING! folks would ask me "what's is that chunks favorite food?" and i'd say, "me"!!! boy, then never expected that answer.
My DS #1 was the healthiest kid I knew....he was sick ONCE in his first year, and only for 24 hours.

Follow your heart. You are mommy and you know best. Do what feels right. If your child is gaining and healthy, peeing and pooping, everything in OKAY!!! If she seems satisfied, she probably is!

Do not let other people pressure you into something that is uncomfortable for you. I let family do that do me, and it only ended up badly (for baby and I would feed like a terrible mom afterwards).

The only thing, is that if your baby IS acting like she's interested (at the right time for the appropriate food), then it's worth offering. My DS #2, wanted to eat what everyone else was eating as soon as he could sit up!! Every kid's an individual.

Good Luck!!

[christinamikayla]

Originally Posted by Sculpture Widow DS #1 exclusively breastfed for a year. He WOULD not eat anything. He just didn't care and was not interested. Anytime I tried to "force" (not truly force, but heavily coax) him to try something, he would throw up. I finally just gave up. The dude was 27 lbs at 12 months. NO KIDDING! folks would ask me "what's is that chunks favorite food?" and i'd say, "me"!!! boy, then never expected that answer. My DS #1 was the healthiest kid I knew....he was sick ONCE in his first year, and only for 24 hours. Follow your heart. You are mommy and you know best. Do what feels right. If your child is gaining and healthy, peeing and pooping, everything in OKAY!!! If she seems satisfied, she probably is! Do not let other people pressure you into something that is uncomfortable for you. I let family do that do me, and it only ended up badly (for baby and I would feed like a terrible mom afterwards). The only thing, is that if your baby IS acting like she's interested (at the right time for the appropriate food), then it's worth offering. My DS #2, wanted to eat what everyone else was eating as soon as he could sit up!! Every kid's an individual. Good Luck!!

Oh boy that is a big kid...LOL Was he BF more often towards the end of the first year? Mine goes in spurts..sometimes 2 hours sometimes 5.

[redemption_song]

My daughter was 8 months when we first tried and almost a year before she would really eat any solid food. To be honest, it was exhausting to nurse her as much as she needed to be nursed. I weaned (cold turkey, I was desperate) at 15 months and she eats normally now :smile

[hholder]

I did

[bonniebabies]

I wanted to wait until 6 months but my daughter was so hungry she was pulling on me at 4 months and we had to start then. She went from being a fussy baby to being content, she was just hungry. Babies will show signs of wanting food like looking/grabbing. I'd go by what baby wants rather than an arbitrary number. Every child is different.

[judymd]

I exclusively BF for 6 months and then introduced foods when DD showed more interest in food than BM. She's go back and forth, sometimes it was all about the BM, sometimes, she only wanted food.

No idea how I did it, but DD BF until she was 2. Then I cut her off to try for #2.

[Sculpture Widow]

Originally Posted by christinamikayla Oh boy that is a big kid...LOL Was he BF more often towards the end of the first year? Mine goes in spurts..sometimes 2 hours sometimes 5.

What's even funnier.....he's now 4 yrs-old he is the SKINNIEST boy ever.

To be honest I cannot tell you how much he was nursed....I don't remember, whenever he wanted, but mostly at home. I was not one of those moms with my boob hanging out all of the time. I have in a journal that around 12 months, he started eating some frozen blueberries and a handful of cherrios, but nothing of substance. He wouldn't even eat his ice cream birthday cake.

At age 2, he was only 28 lbs -- gained only 1 pound in a year. When he started to become active, he began to stretch up, and up, and up......

Now at 4, he's the tallest kid in his class, and wears a boys 5 or 6. But SO skinny, I have to get the pants with the adjustable waist and cinch those puppies in tight!!!

[mnnice]

DS1 was pretty close to exclusively breastfeed the first year. I introduced cereal at 5 months and he showed no interest. I tried cereal again at 6 months still no interest. I tried a pureed veggie a week or two later still no interest. Finially, at about 9 months he started to eat a few solids (usually we tried to have a veggie at supper we left plain for him) He ate a lot of overcooked carrots and brocilli.

He would never eat anything with a pureed texture and preferred nursing to just about everything else. He also didn't like anything cold for a long time. MIL couldn't believe at 15 months or so that he didn't like ice cream and he ignored is cake on his first birthday.

At seven he is a very unrestrictive eater and likes just about everything. He also good about eating stuff the he's less that thrilled about (I don't make my kids eat anything, but I don't offer up a short order menu of alternatives either)